Hello friends, foes, and love interests,
It has been an overwhelming month in terms of music, for both releases and festivals. I've already been to two festivals this month, with plans to go to at least two more before August comes.
In music, it’s hard not to talk about climate criminal Taylor Swift’s re-release of one of her most spiteful albums, Speak Now. My roommates and I did, in fact, have a listening party for the album. Although I did not organize it, the party definitely played into my newfound attempt to listen to music differently. I've been finding a lot of dissatisfaction in playlists and shuffling my liked songs and have been trying to focus more on playing entire albums straight through. I stopped doing that when I stopped listening to CDs, even though I have a CD player in my car, but starting that practice up again has been really fulfilling for me. I might not get to listen to a bunch of different songs all at once, but I've been truly enjoying the art that I have access to. I have found so much joy in bringing more focus back into the music and content I consume, as opposed to the fast-paced genre switching that is constantly being pushed on me by Spotify and the unfortunate tastemakers who control the TikTok algorithms.
In this blog post, I'm going in-depth on the local music festival Sitting On The Outside, a new poetry book from a local writer, and talk about a recent show at the Dom. Make sure to subscribe to Fan Behaviour to get notified every time I release a new post!
Inside The Outside
On a sweaty summer Saturday, I was walking home to get some work done before my plans to hit up Sitting on the Outside (SOTO), when I coincidentally walked past Charlie skate park, the location of SOTO’s annual outdoor concert. Although the concert was free and I was right there, I decided not to join as my mission to get home and out of the sun was very compelling.
Later that night, I ended up at the surprisingly cool House of TARG. While I don't believe they have air conditioning, they did have fans set up. The fans and the underground nature of the venue really helped keep me from melting.
Doors opened at 9:00 PM, way later than I was expecting, but that did mean there was only a twenty-minute wait before the music started. I spent the first part of my night there sipping a questionable non-alcoholic cocktail (I was not a fan) and eating vegan perogies in an attempt to fuel up before the action started. I am 100% certain that the vegan perogies are the best ones at TARG and I am willing to argue about it in the comments.
At 9:20, punk band Verify hit the stage. Verify is a Montreal-based female-fronted band. They performed quite well and really captured the crowd’s attention. A lot of the bands featured in SOTO weren’t from Ottawa, and I think it's really cool that a relatively local music festival, even if it's half a decade old, is able to have an expansive pull. There were even bands from Vancouver and Baltimore mixed in with Ottawa locals to build out the four-day festival.
The second band on stage was my favourite of the night. They are called Influx, and they travelled from Toronto. And, they have absolutely no social media. I had to go up to the band members after and ask where I could find them online because I was having such a hard time finding anything about them. They do have a Bandcamp and they also gave me a tape of their recorded music. I luckily was able to source a cassette player from my parents and now I feel like my whole world has changed. Before, I would ignore cassettes at shows, but now I might start collecting a few.
Influx is unique because there were more women on stage than men, and in a surprising turn, the only male member of the band was the singer. I don't think I know of any other band that has this gender breakdown in their performers. Aside from their lineup, they absolutely ripped on stage. I was feeling strong emo influences from the punk band and the singer was performing without shoes on, eventually wandering into the crowd in only his socks. They were quite the rowdy group.
Although there were six bands set to play that night, the last one I saw was DOGMA. The first time I saw DOGMA was when they opened for Schedule 1 at the Dom, and I was incredibly impressed with him then. The politically charged female-fronted punk band decorates the stage with hand-painted banners covered in slogans like, “War is oblivion” and “Plant trees not bombs.” The band has been together for six years and really stays true to punk’s roots of radicalizing sounds; every single one of their songs is a call to action.
After DOGMA’s set, I ended up leaving House of TARG to do my duty as chauffeur, but I wasn't disappointed since I was able to see three phenomenal performances. It was especially good for me as I - quite honestly - don't always like punk music, so I was quite nervous going into the festival.
Something that's always fun about punk bands is how little time it takes to get the crowd warmed up. There's no awkward dawdling in the back, there is always someone ready to be front and centre for the first song, dancing and kicking even if no one else is.
Meta-Writing
On a grey summer Sunday, I take my shoes off and sit cross-legged on a bench in Strathcona Park, only to be immediately slapped in the face by the first poem in Salem Page’s first poetry collection, The Third Self. Their opening poem, writer's paradox, is short and quippy like a fortune cookie, but far more brutal. This book opens very clearly chronicling the journey of writers for writers.
Something I love about Salem's writing is that when they use interesting structure for their poems, whether that be large indentations or grammatically incorrect punctuation, it still makes sense. Some writers shape their poems in ways that are very difficult to understand and unlock the meaning of. I like to read interesting, more Avant Guard-ly shaped poems, but I don't want to be confused about what that shape is trying to portray. In Salem's poetry, it is easy to decipher why they put the large indentations where they did, and why they used semi-colons instead of apostrophes.
The Third Self starts with the act of creation, the first section. It feels almost as if you are picking through Salem's personal notes on how to write poetry and the poems are comments or criticism they've received in the past. It's like going through their private analysis of themselves as an artist, both emotionally and technically. Those two perspectives war within the poems, which is specifically highlighted by their poem a note on rhymes.
In their second section, imposter syndrome, there is a poem called I feel like I should have done something by now. I honestly feel like this poem was plucked out of my own head and placed on the page. I have tried to enunciate a thought like this so concisely for years but cannot get away from my metaphors and how foolish I feel trying to articulate that thought, but Salem does it perfectly. I cannot pick a favourite line from this poem to share with you, so I have inserted the entire poem below for you to read. The section of the book feels like breaking into the memories of writing for fun, and the realization that writing to publish and writing for the sake of creating something that will be amazing will never feel as good as just writing because writing feels good.
The last section of the third self brings Salem through to the beginning of the realization that writing must fulfill them and not simply fulfill a requirement or task to be done. This section of the book increases in complexity and metaphors, bringing in more of Salem’s personal style into the work and really demonstrating their third self (as explained in the preface to the book). I am really tempted to say that is their fully formed third self, but I think it's very clear through reading the entire book, and especially the third section, that the third self is something that Salem is still trying to come to terms with and identify within themselves.
Overall, The Third Self was incredibly beautiful, and I would recommend it to any writer or creative who is feeling that their work is getting repetitive or too commoditized. I made a lot of annotations in my personal copy about how the book was helping improve my perspective on my work and reminding me that I am creating art not just something to be consumed on the Internet in return for likes and views.
Shit Rat
On Saturday I went to a punk show, on Sunday morning I sat by the river and read, and Sunday night I headed to the Dom to stare at the sign behind the bar that said, “Our house wine is Jager.” When I laughed and took a picture, the bartender told me that they used to have a sign outside that said "coldest Jager in the city, coldest service in the city" in chalk.
The first band to perform next to the Jager sign was Neon Ghosthouse, a last-minute addition to the bill that brought high energy early in the night. They covered both Sweetness by Jimmy Eat World and Stoked and Broke by FIDLAR, while making sure to plug their upcoming EP Mercy Rule. Make sure to presave the EP and get tickets for their EP release show on August 12th.
Next on the bill was the Ottawa-based trio, Root Cause. This was the first time I was seeing the band and they made sure to come out eccentrically. Their bassist, Alex, had painted feet and the words "SHIT RAT" emblazoned on their guitar. This very same guitar also had a monogrammed parrot on the scratch pad (I don’t care if this is the wrong word, it's the one I use). Root Cause commenced their set as all good bands do, with the Universal Studios theme blasted through their guitar pickup, in order to draw people inside from their smoke break. Armed with cereal box setlists, the band broke into a sick as fuck set. Liam Hall, the band's singer and guitarist has a very gentle and sweet voice that mixes in with the aggressive music in a really cool way. However, that doesn't stop him from ripping out some impressive growly screams during songs.
Finally, it was time for the band that I had missed in Ottawa at least twice, Summer Heights. They had previously played a very similar show with Neon Ghosthouse and Second Harbor at the Dom months ago, but I was not in town and couldn't make it. I was genuinely so upset because I love their music so much.
The band has a female bassist, Mack, who ended up ripping open her finger during her set and yelling, “I'm bleeding for you motherfuckers, you better dance" (the "motherfuckers" might have been part of my imagination but I'm pretty sure it wasn't).
By the end of their set, I realized that I had been so engrossed in their music and the psychedelic guitar pedal effects that I didn't even take a video of any part of their set. The three-piece band is pop punk to their very core, hailing from Toronto. The song that initially pulled me into their music was Pens and Needles, a gentle song about healing and the need for companionship that builds into an aggressive chorus.
The final band, Second Harbor, is a three-piece emo band from Montreal who were able to open the only mosh pit of the night. You can really hear the emo influences in the vocal technique of their singer Xavier, who not only uses the signature emo whine but transitions very well between singing and screaming. They did a phenomenal My Chemical Romance cover that got the crowd really amped.
Overall, it was a quintessential night at the Dom. All four bands really suited the space and seemed to have a lot of fun, regardless of the fact it was a Sunday night.
Podcasts and Puppies
For those of you who are subscribed to Fan Behaviour, you might already know that last month I posted a podcast episode with none other than Keean Davies of Ottawa-based indie-rock group No Hits. We talked and joked the whole episode, touching on subjects like being a recorder prodigy, the NELK boys (still unsure who that is, to be honest), and the satisfaction of being your true self on stage. If you have not listened to it yet you can check out the full podcast here and make sure to subscribe to the “foes” tier to unlock all future podcast episodes, two of which I will be recording this week!
Also, if you're feeling charitable, Fan Behaviour is starting to sell pet bandanas with proceeds going to Rocky Road Rescue. You can check out the full Instagram post here, but essentially there are a bunch of handmade bandanas with the Fan Behaviour flower logo on them selling for $5 apiece. There are sizes for both cats and dogs and all of the proceeds go to an Ottawa-based rescue charity to help fund the medical needs of their new rescues. You can either send me a DM on Instagram or send me an e-mail (fanbehaviourblog@gmail.com) to order one, no matter where you are in the world I will make sure it finds its way to you.
As a bonus, if you order a bandana and send me a picture of your pet dressed in their new merch I will make sure to feature it in a blog post.
Next month’s post is going to be full of interviews, festivals, and more exclusive music stories. Make sure you subscribe to get all of that straight to your inbox the moment it's released.
Talk soon!
E
Tapes Rule
So glad you liked the book!!! would love to pick your brain on your favourite poems from it sometime