Black Bloc Serenade

A couple years ago, some friends and I were in a local punk band called Black Bloc Serenade. The band was me on guitar, my brother Colin on drums, our friend Scott on bass, and our friend Dan doing guitar and vocals. Our sound ended up being somewhere halfway between early 80's Hardcore-Punk (Minor Threat, Black Flag, MDC, Dead Kennedys, Government Issue and D.O.A.) and early 80's UK Anarcho-Punk (Crass, [SUB][HUM][ANS], Flux of Pink Indians, Conflict), probably because at the time, that was just about all the 4 of us were listening to. We actually didn't get the name Black Bloc Serenade until right before our first show, litterally, right before. Up until then we were called No Release, a name taken from an Epitaph Records DVD called Release. We just added "No" to the name 'cause we thought it sounded cool. We'd later chance the name after one of our friends, Dirty Jay got No Release mixed up with No Remorse, which was the last thing we wanted, but that'll come up later.

I think the first time we ever played infront of a crowd was sometime in late November, at a show in a house on Glen Road, Kitchener. This was both the first house-show for Colin, Scott and I, and also one of the sketchiest house shows we've ever been to (the other one was a New Years show at the same house). I'm not going to go into any detail, but needless to say, we all stayed pretty close to the people we knew, and didn't talk to anyone we didn't know.

I think the show was set up by our friend Christine, who had to move the show to the house, from the Kickboxing club it was originally booked at, I'm not exactly sure why.

From what I remember, the bands at the show were The Decay, The Filthy, Lemuria, maybe on other, and Broadcast Zero. Earlier in the night, we'd been talking to Phil from Broadcast Zero about how we had just started a punk band, and had been practicing a D.O.A./Subhumans (Canada) cover. At the end of their set, Phil leaned over to the microphone and said "I now introduce: Jew D.O.A." (Dan is Jewish). So, we took their instruments and played possibly one of the worst renditions of Behind the Smile ever played. Incase you haven't heard the song, here's a video for it:



Either way, it was still a lot of fun, but we decided that we should spend some more time practicing before playing again.

The next time we played live was another sort of "surprise", both to the audience and us. A band from Waterloo called Yakiniku Warfare (http://www.myspace.com/yakinikuwarfare), who we had become good friends with, had the opportunity to play with the band Fucked Up at the Punk-A-Low, a punk house in Guelph. Black Bloc Serenade and Yakiniku Warfare had done a few ‘split-practices’ with eachother, where basically we would play our set, they’d play their set, and we’d each give eachother constructive criticisms, then go out for food. Everyone in Yakiniku Warfare loved our song Attack Dogs, since it was so fast/short, and in the chorus, there’s a line that just goes “Whooaaa Attack Dogs!” which was fun to sing along. Anyway, about halfway through Yakiniku Warfare’s set Mike, their drummer, leans over to the microphone and says, “This next song’s going to be played by our friends, No Release”. So, we played the song, once again with someone else’s gear, in a fairly small basement, completely packed with kids who had come to see Fucked Up. About 45 seconds later we were done, Yakiniku Warfare finished their set and The Decay took the floor. The rest of the show went really well, but to my disappointment, Fucked Up didn’t get there until after The Decay, so they didn’t get to hear our song. When I think about it, they didn’t get to hear Yakiniku covering Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown, which Fucked Up would cover later in that night. I think the same thing happened when Yakiniku Warfare opened for Vicious Cycle in Guelph that March, both bands playing Nervous Breakdown.

Black Bloc Serenade's first official show was on March 30, 2007, at the Punk-A-Low. The show was a benefit for the residents of the Danish squat/venue Undomshuset (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungdomshuset). I think the bands were a Skarpretter coverband (http://www.myspace.com/skarpretter), us, U-Lock Terror, Kildren and Knifehammer. Along with our D.O.A. cover, we also did a cover of Who The Hell Do You Think You Are, from one of my favorite movies Hard Core Logo, with me "singing".



Not only was that our first show, it was also the show where we got our name. At the Fucked Up show, our friend Dirty Jay came up to us after Yakiniku Warfare's set and said "Hey, you guys were pretty good. What're you called again, No Remorse?" In case you don't know, No Remorse were a British Neo-Nazi/White Power band in the late 80's/early 90's. After that, we scrapped the name No Release, because we didn't ever want anyone else to make that mistake ever again. So, for the almost 3 months from that show until our first show, we were nameless. Litterally minutes before the show started, we were talking with Marc, the singer from U-Lock Terror. We mentioned that we didn't have a name for our band, so he told us about a song by the Danish band Skarpretter, who had a song called Dance Of Descruction. A line in the chorus went "Black bloc serenade, cut you like a razor blade". Colin, Scott and I though it sounded cool and Dan liked it for the political meaning, since we were somewhat of a politically oriented band. So there we were: Black Bloc Serenade. Thanks a lot to Marc and U-Lock Terror for giving us that name, and thanks to Skarpretter for writing that song, which we would later cover.

We'd play the Punk-A-Low a number of times in our short existance. We also played two shows at a house on Dixon Street, Kitchener. On our second time playing in that basement, it was the first time we'd ever come close to headlining a show. If I remember correctly, the show was Breadcat, Barbarian Electric, Yakiniku Warfare, NecroCarcass, Black Bloc Serenade and Broadcast Zero. Aside from that horrible first time playing, we did another show with Broacast Zero.

On Friday May 18, 2007, the Saint Catherines, from Montreal were playing at the Schwaben Club for the venue's "last show". At the previous show, some kid spraypainted the bathroom of the venue (which doubles as a banquet hall), and the staff at the club had told promoters in the city that the Saint Catherines show would be the last show to be put on there. Luckily, this wasn't true, and we've been able to enjoy the venue with minor problems ever since, but it still angers me every time some dipshit pulls a stunt like tagging a bathroom or breaking tables or windows. Anyway, Phil put together a sort of afterparty for the show, to be held at their jam hall way down the street. The plan was that after the Schwaben show, people, everyone from the show would stagger over to the jam hall, party and watch us and Broadcast Zero play.

We also played two shows at the Sweatlodge, another punk house in Kitchener. If you don't know about the house, read the post before this one, where I wrote a brief history of the house. One of the shows was with our friends Yakiniku Warfare, several others who's names escape me at the moment, and I Refuse, and awesome hardcore band from Ottawa. They sound a lot like Snapcase, which is awesome, great guys too.

In the almost year we were around for, we only played one show in a "proper" venue. Near the end of the summer in 2007, we were offered to play at a bar called Copper's Lounge. The show was a benefit for Fair-Trade Banana Awareness. Yup. It was one of the strangest shows I've ever played or attended. Basically the show was set up with jazz bands playing during the daytime, then the "heavier" bands playing in the evening. The "heavier" bands being us and our friends Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (http://www.myspace.com/mockingbirdwishmeluckmusic). Dan, Scott, Colin and I arrived at the venue around 7:00, and were greeted at the door by a 40-ish-year-old woman who asks us "Oh, are you the Mockingbirds?". The show was strange for several reasons. First off, it was a benefit show for Fair-Trade Banana Awareness. Secondly, we arrive at the venue, which is apparently known for being a fairly rough bar, to find it packed with nice-looking families eating french fries with their kids, while watching a 3-piece band playing celtic tunes for about two hours. After the celtic band finishes, we begin setting up while the guy putting on the show does a bit of a speech about fair-trade bananas. At the end of the speech, he says to the audeince, "This next band is called Black Bloc Serenade. I hear they're quite good", and we begin playing. At the time, I had a bit of stage fright, which I combatted by not looking at the audience while playing. For most of our shows, I spent the time either staring at the body of my guitar or the neck of the guitar. Before we started playing, the place was packed full of those nice-looking families I mentioned before, along with our friends from Mockingbird, Yakiniku Warfare, and assorted friends who'd come to see us. About halfway through our set, I looked up to see that the entire place had cleared out, except for the maybe 10-15 people who came to see us, and two guys drinking alone at the back of the bar. In about 10 minutes, we had cleared out a jam-packed bar, something I like to take pride in. Maybe it had something to do with Dan saying "Hello, we're Black Bloc Serenade, we're playing loud music" during a quiter part of our first song. Anyway, we finish and Mockingbird Wish Me Luck played an awesome set. Somewhere, I've got a video from that night that has all of our set, and most of Mockingbird's set, which I'll upload one of these days.

When we first started Black Bloc Serenade, we knew it wouldn't last very long, as Dan was planning a long trip to Israel after he graduated High School, and it just wouldn't feel right playing without such an important member of the band. Dan added so much to that band, which neither Colin, Scott or I could have done. He introduced all of us to some awesome bands, and wrote some great songs. So as it was, Black Bloc Serenade would have our last show at the Sweatlodge on October 10th, 2007.

Phil from Broadcast Zero had set up a show at the Sweatlodge, and when he heard that Dan was leaving for Israel soon after that date, and we were breaking up, he quickly added us to the bill, which was great since we hadn't put any thought into what we would do for a last show. The show went Dead City Citizens, Hard Charger, Black Bloc Serenade, Subsistance (An awesome Montreal punk/hardcore band) and Broadcast Zero. The show went great, though not many people showed up, since it was a Wednesday night, and most people we knew had school the next day. That being said, just about all of our closest friends came to the show, and a our friend Bill from the Punk-A-Low even biked from Guelph to Kitchener in the cold October rain. Bill also brough a small digital recorder, which he taped to the back wall of the Sweatlodge music room and recorded our final set. On the recording, you can even hear him peeling the tape off the recorder, while we argued amongst ourselves and Sam and Christine from Yakiniku Warfare about whether or not we should play Nervous Breakdown as a final song.
In that short time we were around for, we played with Yakiniku Warfare, U-Lock Terror, Kildren, Knifehammer, Barbarian Electric, Broadcast Zero, Breadcat, Necrocarcass, Revenge (K-W), Team.Rocket, The Derailers, This Ship Will Burn, I Refuse, Fathers Day, Mockingbird Wish Me Luck, A Good Story, Dead City Citizens, Hard Charger and Subsistance.

After about a year and a half, I've finally gotten off my ass and uploaded the entire recording of Black Bloc Serenade: Live And Low Quality At The Sweatlodge (October 10, 2007). And here it is:

http://rapidshare.com/files/240768855/Live_And_Low_Quality_At_The_Sweatlodge__October_10__2007_.rar

The album there is in AAC/M4A/iTunes audio format. If you can't listen to that format, post a comment, and I'll upload the album as mp3's.

We also had a Myspace as well, which had a few pictures from our first and last shows, as well as pictures from our first show at 99 Dixon.

So there it is, an (almost) complete history of Black Bloc Serenade. Thanks to all the band we played with, and everyone who stuck around for our shows/showed up early so you wouldn't miss us playing first on half the shows we did. Thanks especially to Bill and the Punk-A-Low for having us play so many shows there, thanks to Marc for giving us our name, thanks to the Sweatlodge for the shows there and for giving us a venue for our last show, and thanks especially to the guys and girls in Yakiniku Warfare, for all the split practices, the shows we played together and all the great times in between.

Also, I have absolutely no idea why that D.O.A. video shows up 3 times in this post. I only put up the link once. Oh, the internet.

The End Of An Era

Last night, May 24, we saw the end of the great Kitchener Punk-House, The Sweatlodge. Started by Jesse Robertson, Cory Kobbert, Hugh (Sorry, I don't know your last name) and Kristin (Sorry, I don't know your last name either) in the summer of 2007, the house was a home to many others, including 2 Germans and some of my good friends Sam and Adam.

The house was located in downtown Kitchener, very close to what was considered the "sketchy" area of town, apparently only a few blocks from a handful of crack houses. Despite this, it never stopped kids from packing the house on a weekly or monthly basis. The house held a strict "No Drugs, No Booze, No Bullshit" policy, which helped avoid numerous police visits. It also helped a lot of people to see that you can have the time of your life watching great bands, sober. That might seem like a given to a lot of people, but there's a fair share of people who's only reason to go to a show is to get drunk and break stuff. They also kept nearly every show to $5/PWYC (Pay What You Can), and made a point to pay touring bands every time they played. On many occasions, there would be vegan food prepared for bands and guests. On more than a handful of nights, I'd be at my house trying to cook up a giant pot's worth of food for the show, and having to rush so that I'd be able to get down there before the show started.

In case you're curious about the name, it was given to the house after the first show there, in the summer of '07. You see, the basement is barely 6 feet high, which would be alright for short people watching indie bands, but not great for people to dance to punk bands to. So, they held the shows in the house's Master Bedroom. In an attempt to soundproof the room, the one window in the room was filled with soundproofing material and sealed off. Needless to say, the room got hot, especially in the summer. There were at least a dozen times when the first band had just finished playing, and there was already condensation dripping down the walls. So anyway, after the first show, I think it was Erik from The Decay made a comment that "It's like a sweatlodge in here", and at that moment, the house had it's name. One time, after the Brutal Knights finished, I was walking down the stairs, eager for a breath of fresh, February air to cool myself down, and ended up falling down the stairs because they were so soaked with condensation. The thing was, no matter how hot the house room got, no matter how drenched in your own (and other people's) sweat, you always wanted to stay until the last band was finished playing.

The first show at the Sweatlodge was held on June 9th, 2007, where the bands U-Lock Terror, The Derailers, The Decay, A Good Story and Elsa Jayne played. In that near 2-year period, many bands played, including (in no particular order) Mockingbird Wish Me Luck, Broadcast Zero, Hard Charger, Dead City Citizens, Subsistance, Black Bloc Serenade (My first band), Bomb The Music Industry!(Played their first show in Canada at this house), Yakiniku Warfare (our good friends), Empty Hands (Yakiniku Warfare + Black Bloc Serenade + About To Snap), Confustion Bolts! (Pop-punk amazingness, thanks to Adam), Second Guess (My second band), Titan, RAH, Eating Glass, Vatican Chainsaw Massacre, Black Ships, Fathers Day (an awesome hardcore band, thanks to Cory), Breadcat, Life In Vacuum, A Good Story (Adam's folk-punk band), The Decay, The Rebel Spell, The Fallout, White York, Orphan Choir, Red Inside, The Proof, Spy Machine Sixteen, Lemuria, Summer of '92, What Seas What Shores, Barbarian Electric, Dead Dogs, Reprobates, Brutal Knights, Cursed (played their last show in North America before breaking up in Europe), Newberry Vs. Newberry, The Music Box, Elsa Jayne, Wayfarer, Hinindar, The Derailers, U-Lock Terror, Fairy Boy, Aspirations and Demos. I'm probably forgetting a few, but just by the size of that list, you can see how many great people and bands passed through the house.

The final show was held on Sunday May 24, 2009 with the bands Despite All This, Wayfarer, Adam CZ, Jesse Robertson, Empty Hands, The Decay and Mark It Zero playing. I was amazed by the number of people who came out for this show. Nearly everyone who lived in Kitchener-Waterloo who'd gone do more than 5 shows was there, all of our closest friends showed up, a handfull of kids from Guelph biked from Guelph to Kitchener, bringing with them a couple kids from Winnipeg who'd come down to visit and Adam ventured back from Winnipeg, where he's been living since this winter. It was one of the happiest times we'd ever had at that house, and we're all going to miss it when it's gone.

The Sweatlodge did so much for the Kitchener-Waterloo punk/hardcore scene. In recent years, we'd had numerous venues closed down due to the antics of (seriously) dumb fucking kids who have no respect for the people and buildings around them. Without this house, more than half of the bands in that giant list above would not have played in Kitchener, and so many of our local bands would have no place to play, I think The Decay and Empty Hands played there more than anyone else. We also counted and my brother played there more than any other individual, between Black Bloc Serenade, Demos, Empty Hands and Mark It Zero he played a total of 15 times.

I just want to thank everybody who made that house what it was in the 2 years that it was active for: Jesse, Cory, Adam, Hugh, Kristin, Chris, Josclyn, Sam, Christine, Colin, Mike, Branco (for all the poster artwork), Kyle, Steve, Steve the Ginger, Tyler Savage, Erik, the Bens, Jordan, Dan, Scott, Bill and all the Guelph kids, Blar, Cam, Dave, Kay, The Commotion House Kids who were inspired by the Sweatlodge, everyone who went there and had a great time, all I can say is THANK YOU SO MUCH! I had some of the best times of my life at that house because of all you.

Weekend fun in Montreal

Yeah, so I finally got bored enough with the boatloads of free time I have to finally start writin' shit on 'ere.

So anyway, I just spent the past weekend in Montreal, Quebec. I took the train with my friend Jesse, who was surprised to find that I'd gotten us first-class tickets from Toronto to Montreal. So, in addition to great amounts of leg-room and 'free' food ('free' meaning 'included in the price of the ticket'), we also had access to the Panorama Lounge at Union Station in Toronto, and the station in Montreal. The lounge was alright. There was lots of free juice and coffee, which we each took our fair share of. We both found it so strange that two dirty punks would ever get access to the lounge that we both got pictures of each other reading the Financial Post.

About five-and-a-bit hours later, we got into Montreal. After a good walk, and a falafel stop, we got to our friend Dan's apartment. We hung out for a bit before heading out to a bar called Les Katacombes to see my friend's band, The Rotten (http://www.myspace.com/therotten) (I'm not good with this linking shit, so bear with me) opening for the almighty SNFU.

The Rotten had just gotten into town right at 8:00, when the doors opened at the show, after driving for 8 hours. They didn't play their greatest, but it's always fun to see them. The next 3 bands, I didn't care for all that much. There was one band who played poorly done 80's style hardcore for way too long, a NY-style hardcore band, made up of 4 skinheads and another guy, and a fairly well known Montreal hardcore band called Ab Irato. Then there was SNFU. This was the second time I'd seen them, and they are quickly becoming my favorite band to see live. If you don't know them, and you really really really should, especially if you're into Canadian punk at all, they've been around since 1982 and play sort of skate-style punk with strange, witty, creative lyrics. Their singer, Mr. Chi Pig is by far one of the greatest and strangest people I have ever met. He's this almost 50-year-old half-Chineese guy with a long beard and long hair, both bleached white, so he kinda looks like a cracked-out half-chineese Gandalf. His stage presence is incredible. He gets up in everyone's faces and pulls strange poses, only stopping to make hilarious remarks to the audience between songs. Some good ones I can remember were "I put the 'poo' in poutine" and "Who the fuck are you? You're not Capitain Kirk! This is my fuckin' starship!" On stage, the guy's got more energy than most bands I see who are fronted by guys half his age. Anyway, they absolutly ruled the night, and after singing along for the entire show (and into the mic for about a third of the show), Chi Pig came over and gave me a big, sweaty hug, and a pack of free buttons. Seriously, if you don't know them, you are really missing out. Oh yeah, I also met the singer from the great Canadian punk rock band the Ripcordz. The thing was, I didn't realize it until the train ride home. I was talkin' to the guy after the second band's set (their name escapes me, probably for a good reason), and I knew I'd seen his face somewhere before. The next day, I picked up a Ripcordz cd from Sound Centeral, a cool punk record store, but hadn't bothered to look at the booklette until the train ride home when I realized 'Oh shit! That's the guy I was talking to the other night".

Anyway, the next day, we went to go check out the Montreal Anarchist book fair. It was really cool, lots of interesting people. It was held in this public school with the ‘book’ area being held in the gymnasium area. It got kinda shitty after a while when it started raining, and there ended up being a couple hundred people packed into this gym, but aside from that, it was really fun. After the fair, we headed down to our friend Blar’s place, which is a loft in a building that used to just be a huge warehouse. There, we met the guys and girls from the bands Mutiny and Leper, some awesome crust bands from Victoria, BC (http://www.myspace.com/mutinycreepcore, http://www.myspace.com/lepercreepcore). Later in the night, we went outside to find a bunch of punks gathered around a bonfire in the parking lot, singing folk-punk songs, which lasted until far later than we stayed.

On Sunday, we went back to the book fair to check out some of the seminars/lectures going on. We caught about half of a lecture on squatting before leaving. We hung out at a punk house down the street before heading over to a show at a place called Squalor. Basically, there’s a pawnshop on the street, with apartments above it. You walk through the hallway beside the apartments, down a set of stairs and there’s this big empty room, where they hold punk shows. First on was this great punk band from Montreal called Preying Hands (http://www.myspace.com/preyinghands), who absolutely rule. A few of the members were in a crust/punk band called Ballast not too long ago, who are also worth checking out. The next band, Kanadian Tire Fire, from Guelph were pretty sweet too. A couple of the members from that band played in a crust band called U-Lock Terror, now defunct. Mutiny played next, playing a mix of crust and grindcore, done really well. They did a cover of the song ‘If I Had A Rocked Launcher’ by Bruce Cockburn, a Canadian folk singer/songwriter. If you know the song, try and imagine a grindcore version, I bet you can’t. If you don’t know it, look it up. Try Youtube or somethin’. Ah, fuckit, I’ll do it for you: Needless to say, it was awesome. Next on were Leper, the other crust band from BC. They were awesome as well. Really good sort of Amebix style crust (but a lot faster), with some cool ska/reggae breakdowns. There was another band who played after called Southern Gale, but by then I was too tired to stay standing. I went out into the hallway to sit down. There was a girl sitting in front of me who had somehow had the sole of her boot torn apart from the rest of the boot. She asked if I had anything to try and sew the boot together with, but I didn’t. I looked around and found the wire from the top of a wine bottle, and using that and a Rotten button, we managed to wire the boot back together, afterwards she told me I was like a Punk Rock MacGuyver, which I think is a great compliment. We biked back to Dan’s house, getting back at about 2:30.

The way home was really uneventful. It was kind of entertaining, sitting in the Panorama Lounge again, but this time, we were way dirtier and smellier punks than we were on the way there. At the show the night before, I’d left my backpack on the floor, and it ended up getting soaked in homebrew. I had a great weekend though. Montreal is always a great place to visit, there’s always something going on, whether it be awesome punk shows, or just hanging out with great people.

Holy crap that was a long post. Ah well, it helped kill a bit of time.