Quickslants: Lots of Insurance, Subs-tacular, Tributes, Electric Shadows Anniversary and more

After a few weeks of balls-to-the-wall type of shows, we got a nice chilled weekend to recharge the batteries before facing another onslaught for weeks! and that’s why you’re getting minislants folks! Let’s get to it:

Thursday April 12

Rock Tigers Rolling Bolling @ 2 Kolegas
Chances are this is not gonna happen as I’m writing this a few hours before the gig and it’s hard to get official confirmation. Worse case scenario is that you’ll be in the drive-in listening to Rolling Bolling. If by miracle the tigers show up, then you’ll get Kimchibilly aka rockabilly made in Korea. I heard a few things online and loved the energy! Here’s hoping! Tigers won’t be there!

Li Jianbin @ Jianghu
You might remember him from the band “Dong Fang Hong” or Low Wormwood’s 2009 tour, Lao Li is one of those Lanzhou multi-instrumentalists with a sharp guitar, yellow river flavor and folk credit. He’s releasing his new album, Moonlight Through Flowers, with an intimate performance over at Jianghu. It could and should be enjoyable. He reminds me a lot of Dong Zi.

Friday April 13

Rock Night @ Yugong Yishan
Amazing Insurance Salesmen, Wu & Side Effects, Devils at the Crossroad and Dwaas are on hand to deliver a big rock night for those of you that get there. There’s some pretty good raw talent on there folks and it will be loud.. that is if Yugong’s sound holds up. Dwaas is the unknown on there because from what i heard, they’re more post rock than anything else so your mileage might vary

Saturday April 14

Electric Shadows Anniversary @ The Bookworm
A good way to get your saturday started is to head over to the bookworm and help celebrate Electric Shadow’s 3rd year anniversary. These cats are doing some really cool stuff for the indie movie community in town and should be commended for it. I saw some of their stuff during the BILF and came out beyond impressed. Fun film games, mini-screenings, music and drink specials all night.. Free, starts at 8:00 pm

Monsters Rock @ 2 Kolegas:
SUBS, Steely Heart, Amazing Insurance Salesmen and perenial openers, Candy Monster are all on hand for a punchy evening. I haven’t seen SUBS in a few months and they’re always awesome, especially at 2 Kolegas. That place/scene suits their sound like no other in town and they’ve never disappointed there. Steely Heart has been low key lately and i missed their album release so I’m anxious to check out the new sound. AIS seems to be on a mission to make up for lost time with gigs almost every week… Let’s hope they don’t burn out. There’s really no other place one should be other than maybe

The Beijing Beatles @ Temple:
these evenings are becoming legendary for a good reason. The guys are tight, the place is fun, everyone knows the songs and it’s just one hell of a down to earth good time. Expect them to be howling at the moon all night long baby with the customary 3 sets! Love it baby

special mention for a Guns n Roses tribute at Yugong Yishan with Jacky Danny, Los Crasher, Kick Ass and 16mn which could be fun.

Sunday April 15th

Manafest @ Mao Live
Canadian Rapper/hiphopper with plenty of street cred stops by Mao Live for what should be one hell of a performance. He’s on the heavier side of things with a lot of P.O.D / Linkin Park type of sounds that are sure to be a hit with the Mao crowds. This could be a sleeper hit.

As usual, there’s a lot more gigs taking place all weekend but being the jaded son-of-a-gun that i am, none of them seems really a “must-see”. At this point, SUBS/Steely Heart/AIS is the clear winner of the night. Ruby would want me to give post rock some love so here you are warned, there are plenty of post-rock shows in town during the weekend. The Gig Guide should help you find them