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.
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