Fine Arts at George’s

Fine Arts party delivers the punk-rock goods.

Those willing to brave the terrible weather and extraordinarily long walk (at least by Sackville standards) got to indulge in a sweet Halloween treat at George’s Roadhouse. Kappa Chow, Best Fiends, and the Famines put together a garage-rock spectacle for the Fine Arts Society’s Halloween extravaganza. The bar was filled with the standard assortment of pop culture icons and their devilish counterbalance, while the stage was occupied with a less traditional holiday manifestation.

In front of a shifting, whirling kaleidoscope of colours that served as the backdrop to their musical exhibit, Kappa Chow delivered another great display of their unique punk music, that left no option but to dance along to the music. Their psychedelic set and the costumes of their onlookers produced a surreal environment of moving bodies and seventies and nineties-inspired punk. As the band’s set approached its conclusion, they ventured into the territory of noise music with a feedback-loop infused guitar solo that showed traces of progressive trends in the band’s sound. The band had their much-anticipated new cassette in tow, meaning that Kappa Chow is now available for those willing to spend five dollars  on these Sackville upstarts.

Best Fiends, the band with the perfect name for the circumstances, kept the ball rolling with their own brand of punk. With a mummy on lead guitar and vocals, these former ‘Sackvillains’ maintained the psychedelic punk trend of the night. Their music is reminiscent of California beach-rock, which has now become hugely influenced by punk, and an easily placed East Coast-indie influence. Their rolling, relentless pace and heavy distortion often gave way to light psych-rock flourishes.

The Famines, hailing from Montreal and Edmonton, put on an upbeat, energetic spectacle with driving beats  and an impressive  amount of stage presence. As the members jumped from mic to mic, guitar riffs rolled out with a steady punk beat from the drum serving as their foundation. With no unnecessary parts, the duo went back to the basics and gained an unusual coherency in the process. They clearly put a high level of effort into their musical compositions and the result was a tightly woven, neat whole, which was punk through and through. However, they often fell victim to repetition as they moved from song to song, and were unable to maintain a distinct boundary between each song. The addition of a bassist might have allowed the band to vary their sound.

Despite the weather, trek, and a hint of repetitiveness, the festivities at George’s Roadhouse were a satisfying way to spend the holiday and relax after a ransack of the town’s candy supply.

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