It was punk rock night at the Slice, March 30 with a rooster of excellent bands.
While I only caught the end of openers the Lad Mags, the Edmonton based band were playing a solid set of somewhat laid back, female powered power pop, which featured some solid keyboard playing.
While I was mostly there to see Durban Poison, I was especially impressed with a spooktacular set of spook rock/ garage rock from Calgary band the Slabs, featuring former Lethbridgian Martine Menard on bass. They followed a rocking set of surf/ garage rock from Fist City, who are a tough act to follow, but they embraced the challenge.
They played a spooky set of original music equally inspired by Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, the Misfits, garage rock and assorted B.A. Johnston style weirdness.
The charismatic frontman wore a skin mask and jumped all over the stage and into the excited audience.
Menard stood on the steps of the stage, with the set list pinned to the back of her jean jacket, though they didn’t seem to need to look at it. They keyboardist stood in the shadows playing eerie organ riffs, while the lead singer and guitarist leaped around the stage together. By the end of their set , they had most of the audience dancing on stage with them.
The crowd was well warmed up and clapping and cheering along by the time Victoria based Durban Poison took the stage.
They played catchy classic three chord punk rock with lots of energy and a whole whack of new songs.
Frontwoman Matty Corvette, who is originally from High River shouted “It’s good to be back,” but didn’t say much else as she and her solid band took the crowd back to the ’70s.
They wound down a hyperactive set with “Maui” from their CD “Lost In Space.”
