Saturday, Aug. 29 in Ottawa played host to a four-act post-rock show at The Avant-Garde bar on 135 Besserer Street. The show opened with the Ottawa-based duo Soul Kisser, who were responsible for organizing the show.
Their performance was a lovely, low-key post-rock show consisting of twinkling keyboards and guitar with heavy usage of effects pedals and tremolo. The effect was an interesting melodic experience, although slightly hampered by a few technical issues. The duo are both clearly very big fans of the post-rock and experimental rock genres, and as a result put on a performance where you could tell they were seriously enjoying themselves.
Following Soul Kisser were two Montreal based post-rock bands, Appalaches and Atsuko Chiba. Appalaches are a group that pride themselves on their ability to play their music insanely loud. I talked with the band after their show and they told me that at a show in Montreal they once hit 117 decibals, about the same level as a jet engine.
I definitely was not prepared for this show—I noticed just as they were about to play that everyone in the audience was putting in ear plugs. I didn’t have any, and I really wish I did. The music itself was a brilliant, progressive wall-of-noise experience, but I found myself completely dazed after their performance just from the sheer volume in such a small venue.
Luckily for me, Richard Dea of Modern Dinosaurs, another local group, gave me a pair of his extra ear plugs for Atsuko Chiba’s and their own show.
Atsuko Chiba, again from Montreal, played a more diverse show that delved into multiple variations of the post-rock genre. Their show was unique amongst the others because they were the only ones who included a vocal performance. Their show, while perhaps not as loud as Appalaches, was equally dazzling. It was passionate, aggressive music that you could feel to your bones. I was absolutely blown away.
Finally was Modern Dinosaurs, consisting of Richard Dea and Eric Glockner of Ottawa. Their sound is a more low-key, atmospheric post-rock involving slow, steady drumming by Dea and meticulous guitar work by Glockner. It was an excellent performance and it really worked to show the audience how the genre can be used to express emotions even without the use of lyrics—these guys really feel the music they’re playing.
The whole night worked as a completely eye-opening experience about the local post-rock scene within Ottawa. I spoke with both Modern Dinosaurs and Soul Kisser after the show about the local Post-Rock scene and both gave detailed accounts of the positives and negatives of being a part of a somewhat niche music scene.
According to Glockner of Modern Dinosaurs, the Ottawa music scene is heavily segregated, and “the Ottawa music scene has changed a lot,” evolving from an emo and pop-punk scene to either metal or indie folk scene.
“Basically you have two extremes,” Glockner told me. “You have your indie folk and you have your hardcore metal. Anything in between is basically a tag-along.”
Both groups spoke extremely highly of the work The Avant-Garde puts into expanding the music scene.
According to Adriana of Soul Kisser, a lot of venues require the band to guarantee a specific number of audience members, which is incredibly difficult within a niche genre of the likes of post-rock. The Avant-Garde, however, is a considerably more accommodating venue, since “all you have to do is call, and if there’s a slot available they always book you,” she told me.
Adriana runs the Ottawa Post-Rock Facebook page, working to try and make the scene more known across the city.
“There’s so many post-rock bands around Ottawa,” she told me.
The Avant-Garde venue is, according to Modern Dinosaurs, perhaps the best place to witness the expanding post-rock scene.
“This is a great venue. It’s smaller but it’s what is accessible to a lot of emerging artists. There’s not a lot of venues where it’s easily accessible.”
The post-rock scene in Ottawa is one of immense talent and passion, but unfortunately the handling of live shows in Ottawa seems to be heavily lacking.
“People are just generally flaky,” Glockner told me.
With bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor selling out shows in Ottawa, there is an obvious interest in post-rock within the city. If the different venues could perhaps be more accommodating or if the different genres present throughout Ottawa could work together, the local scene could explode into popularity.
“Whether it’s post-rock, or indie rock or whatever, there’s tons of shows going on,” Dea told me, while Glockner said, “It doesn’t have to be one specific genre. If you’re looking for a tight-knit community, that’s what if should be. Good people, good bands. We should be promoting each other.”
If you’re new to Ottawa and have even a slight interest in post-rock, bands like Modern Dinosaurs and Soul Kisser are absolutely worth checking out, and The Avant-Garde is an incredible venue to do so.
