The good folks at Blues Skies Turn Black gave us the first edition of Ciel Noir, which presumably was named with the help of l’Office de la Langue Francaise. It was held on Easter Sunday, just in case Jesus was resurrected again and wanted to kick out some jams. It’s an interesting concept for a mini festival: have the headliners come out and play at regular concert hours, but then keep the show going with some showcase acts til the wee hours of the morning. Thank Jesus for the long weekend… literally.
The beginning of the show was all about slowcore. If you’re not familiar with the genre, it poses the listener the question “what if we pumped Radiohead full of codeine in the middle of a Thom Yorke existential crisis?” So it was fitting that Codeine was up first. The packed house of Gen Z’s swayed along in what I’ll call a wobble pit, if you look at the heads, it looks like gentle waves undulating on a sea of hair and Ciele hats.
The band wasn’t much for crowd interaction, only stopping to acknowledge that it had been 30 years since they had last played our fair city opening for indie pioneers Pavement. Clearly, there were some fans who’d waited a long time to see them, but most of the crowd wasn’t even born back then.
Up next was Duster, the main attraction for the night. You could tell the crowd was excited because they packed in tighter. The band came out to applause and played mostly from their 1998 debut, Stratosphere, which again was ironic since most of the crowd weren’t born, but they loved it.
If you’re unaware of how this happened, Duster got a new following when their music blew up on TikTok. People speeded it up and even slowed it down until it had the bpm of a dying slug’s heart. Thankfully, all the music was played at regular speed.
Again, not heavy on the crowd interaction, it was a very tame and self-reflective crowd. After their set, we lost a good portion of the crowd, it was late and public transport was closing, but the music kept on.
We had local spanish electro pop duo Pelada come on stage and completely change the vibe It was the sharpest shift I’ve seen in a long time. Some who stayed out of curiosity were shocked, but those in the know started a rave to the high-energy set. If you were just discovering them and digging it, though, your timing was terrible as the band announced that they had broken up, and this would likely be one of their last shows.
Next up was probably the most intriguing act of the night, Model/Actriz. The New York genre benders hit the stage with high energy that was equal parts weird, horny and glammy. It was like if David Bowie had grown up at CBGB’s in the 80s. Even though the crowd was thinning, the energy levels were staying high.
Our sendoff was with dance-pop outfit the Snow Strippers. Although not usually my genre, I had done my homework before the show and ended up adding a few of these infectious earworms to some playlists; it reminds me of the digital hardcore bands of the late 90s minus the aggression and politics.
So I was excited to see what their live show was like and was left frankly disappointed. They aren’t really singing their songs more than acting like hypemen to their tracks while they play and giving fans lots of poses to throw on Instagram. It was weird and disappointing. There’s so much more they could do to translate this into a live act; go watch some Atari Teenage Riot performances and get inspired, but maybe I’m just an old man shaking my fist at the sky.
All in all, it was a fun, eclectic night. I like the format of let’s throw an after-hours party after a rock show. It’s fun, just next time, not on Sunday; some of us have to show up to work in the morning!
Review – Richard Brunette
Photos – Alex Distaulo
