Baseball season is here and obviously The Mets are going to win the world series this year… as sure as eggs is eggs, and just like the following suggestions are the best shows to hit up this weekend.
5) Patio, B Boys, Obstacle at Union Pool
This is a record release show for local favourites Patio, who released debut album Essentials on Fire Talk; it’s not often you get trios where you feel like each instrument is getting equal footing but that is definitely the case on this album. Friday 7pm
4) Thou, Emma Ruth Rundle, MJ Guider, White Lighters at Brooklyn Bazaar
NOLA sludge greats Thou had a massively productive 2018, with an excellent album (Magus) and three EPs, one of those (Inconsolable), which saw the band turn into an acoustic slowcore band for eight tracks. This show is billed as being a “quiet set” from Thou, so presumably this excellent release will get the love it deserves. Sunday 8pm
3) YOB, Voivod, Amenra at Warsaw
Doom heavyweights Yob are still touring off the back of their excellent summer 2018 album, Our Raw Heart, and just like their last appearance in this column, they’re touring with an impressive name, Voivod. Pretty sure doom metal and pierogies are a good combination. Thursday 8pm
2) Ex Hex, Moaning at Bowery Ballroom
It’s Real, Ex Hex‘s second record, was just released on Merge Records, and it’s filled with all the riffs and guitar solos (and presumably high-kicks) that made their debut album so great. Good thing too, as the four-and-a-half-year wait between records appears to have been well worth it. The power-trio grace the stage of Bowery Ballroom with LA trio Moaning opening. Thursday 8pm
1) Life in Vacuum, Kal Marks, Dead Tenants, Big Band at Mercury Lounge
Toronto’s Life in Vacuum have been making excellent punky-math-rock for over a decade, and last year they released their best album to date, All You Can Quit. The trio seem to have turned the guitars up to the same level as their fellow Ontarians, METZ. If the headliners weren’t appealing enough, it’s a perfectly curated evening with openers (and hard to google) Big Band, whose debut album Options is well worth a listen, Freedubya favourites Dead Denants and Boston’s Kal Marks complete the bill. Sunday 8pm
