Daughters / Aids Wolf / The Discord of a Forgotten Sketch / The Expectorated Sequence

With about a hundred people in attendance, locals the Expectorated Sequence and the impressive, Locust-influenced Discord Of a Forgotten Sketch opened the evening, showcasing just how far Montreal art-metal has come in the past few years. The show really got moving with Aids Wolf, a band well worth keeping an eye on. With members formerly in the Electric End and Da (awesome) Bloody Gashes, and presently holding down the popular Seripop silkscreen poster gambit, Montreal's Aids Wolf skipped the stage and set up shop in the middle of El Salon. They were marred by technical difficulties for the first few minutes, but once they got going, they left little doubt in anyone's mind that their sludgy sonic trauma was going to be a hard act for any band to follow. Rhode Island's avant-grind deviants Daughters seemed to be preoccupied by other problems. Something was off. Lead singer Lex climbed onto the stage after a few too many drinks, stumbling around and swearing before eventually finding the mic. He looked like he was going to fall into the audience, but as soon as the drummer counted in the first song, he let loose a fury of aggression that held together for the song's 60 seconds. From that point on, he undid his pants and, with an all-too-thick wad of spit hanging off his chin for much of the half-hour set, got it together just long enough to deliver his bits. By the time he took off mid-song, mic and all, to the girl's bathroom, the four other members looked relieved to have the stage to themselves. By set's end, pissed off and tired, Daughters shut off their amps and left the stage, their internal tensions leaving the audience confused and not quite sure if they should ask for more. A perfunctory two-minute encore followed, and then the band disappeared for good. Dysfunction can be mesmerising, but Aids Wolf stole the night.