By Declan Hills
Photos by Aaron Brown Photography
There’s a discernible thread of chaos linking all artistic endeavours - from the wondrous swirls of Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night” to the banging beats of “Von Dutch” off Charli XCX’s wonderful new album, we fireflies are drawn to the glow of messiness. Entropy is fun to indulge in, and many a songsmith or visual savant bask in the chaos of the creative process.
Black Cat BreakOut West DevilDuck Records Showcase
It’s one of the best rooms in Saskatoon. Formerly Vangelis, the rebrand to Black Cat added to the mythos of Broadway & 10th instead of ruining a good thing. Think Godfather Part II vs. the new Joker movie. Okay, I haven’t seen the new Joker movie or the first, this is me trying to be topical and relatable. Is it good? Fire off in the comments. Point being, this is a happy place. And the pizza is free today for the hungry mouths that have descended upon the Toon-sphere for BreakOut West, the annual Canadian state-of-the-industry music conference. It’s dark other than the glow of the pinball machines, stage lights, and smiles from the staff slinging O16’s and G&T’s. Sweet, sweet ‘za is the prelude to three acts performing, courtesy of SaskMusic and DevilDuck Records, the strange and wonderful label based in Hamburg, Germany.
Every act on the bill is a DDR alumnus, but this isn’t a one-genre event. The Saskatchewan-based psych-country giants in Gunner & Smith are up first, and they rip through a set covering their impressive discography. I consider myself to be a bit of an old G&S-head (and can go lyric-for-lyric listening to 2014’s He Once Was A Good Man), but gosh-dang does the fuller, spacier sound they’ve embraced in the last half-decade create a delectable bed for Geoff Smith’s low, half-soothing half-sinister growls and murmurs. It’s a fantastic musical evolution; there’s a point during “The Barrens” where the look in Geoff’s eye might burn a hole through the wall into Odla, the restaurant neighbouring Black Cat. They cap things with a revamped version of “Townes “(which originally appeared on HOWAGM but is featured in 2022’s Hear You In My Head).
Gunner and Smith
Marissa Burwell is up next, and her set blows me away. She has a fantastic backing band with some familiar faces, a wonderful disposition, and the ability to sling indie bedroom guitar lines over hooky, intimate vocals. Great signing out of Regina by Devil Duck – I can’t wait to hear more from her and will be giving her money for art at some point soon.
Marissa Burwell
Closing off the night is Wisent, who hail from both Ireland and Germany. At this point we’ve had psych folk, indie-galore, and a bunch of pizza; it’s post-hardcore time. Wisent is abrasive and enthralling – the bass, guitar, and kit all blast loud and fast as half yelled, half-sang vocals carry throughout the Cat. The frontman is running around the entirety of Black Cat’s impressive floor space. They rip through a captivating 30 minutes like it’s 5, and we all go home.
A wonderfully curated and well-planned night of good art and community.
Wisent
Unnamed basement show the next day that has nothing to do with BreakOut West
Someone puts a hole in the drywall during the first band’s set. People are crowd surfing – there’s only like what, 40 people here? How is this happening? The second band announces that there’s free beer in the fridge – it’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers themed. Someone sets off a firecracker maybe? Someone has a jacket stolen?
A hectic night of chaos, good art, and community.
3. BreakOut West GreenWing Set at Buds
Buds is a fascinating place to see a set – a venue that’s the last of its kind in Saskatoon. I hope it’s here forever. The stage is high and tight like a military haircut, the crowd is rowdy like the extras in Roadhouse, the hotdog guy is outside making sweet street meat, and tonight the band is good. GreenWing straddles the line between messy and polished – dirty guitar tones are mixed with music-theory-major-approved vocal harmonies, and the band jumps around like they’re at the trampoline park (without those weird socks they make you wear). They play the new record, a couple of deep cuts, and call it a night - we all go home.
A hectic and well-planned night of good art and community.
The point of all of this preamble is that there’s no right way to enjoy and make art given that nobody gets hurt. It’s all varying shades of chaos and order; you can sign with a label, go to conferences, make cool friends, and run a smooth ship. Or, you can play in basements filled with garbage and sweat, make friends with the cats in the coat room, and revel in the vape fumes between sets. You can even go to a bar in the middle of the night, break up a fight, and take in some music with the people that you admire.
It’s cool that BreakOut West, SaskMusic, DevilDuck, basement show promoters, and venues like Black Cat and Buds put energy into making the chaos happen. I’m glad that this is a big enough community that we can season our artistic intake to our tolerances for shannigannery and disorder. I hope we continue to foster and create spaces to come together over all this darn racket.
Vikki Minor
Les Shirley
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