Monday, January 10, 2011

The Apocalypse Club.Toronto.Thursday, November 2nd, 1989

The Apocalypse Club.Toronto.Thursday, November 2nd, 1989.

Malhavoc with drum machine/sequencer,James C.- guitar/vocals,and one or two other guitarists.Can't remember for sure if Rob Wright was in the band yet at that point and onstage, or who the other guitarist was. Well, maybe someone will know and leave a comment.

I found the J card from the cassette recording I made of this show, but not the actual tape.
Might as well give a review.

It might have been one I made with the mono walkman. Usually they were okay. Flat sounding, sometimes a little too much bass, but I was heavily into listening to local HC and metal bands' songs at home, over and over again, especially if I didn't have their demo, or all of their songs on a demo or rehearsal tape I could get.

Ok, the set list for Thursday, November 2nd, 1989.
The Apocalypse Club.(on College Street, near Ossington) was --

1.FLOODER (which later became WILLIAM WILSON)
2.FALLING
3.NO RUNNING (aha! They did play it live! I forgot. I always had the nagging feeling I heard it before I ever seen OVERTHROW using it as an intro tape to their live show).
4.TURN
5.S.C.E.X.
6.LOVE SONG
7.THE DARK HALF


Ok, if it was not this show, then it was at The Rivoli Club, where radio dj/Record Peddler cashier/the 4 eyes picked on by Brian Tailor occasionally - Mr. Chris Twomey, played on the video screen that was rented, an Anton Lavey documentary/history, which ended with a "special message" at the end by Lavey himself onscreen.

One or two techno, or industrial bands opened. I want to say DHI or Digital Poodle, but maybe it wasn't either of them.

Malhavoc, prior to their cd The Release, seemed pretty cool at the time.

HC punks, and thrash/black/death metallers, were kind of open to the idea of not having a live drummer, as many probably heard some Skinny Puppy, Ministry, KMFDM, etc by then. (I know for years, I was checking out college radio station CKLN-FM and listening to all sorts of music).

Radio DJ Chris Sheppard also was playing that type of music among some metal like Overkill or punk like Dayglo Abortions on his weekly late night, dance party, video show on CHCH TV.
I remember being angry they played "Here Today, Guano Tomorrow" at the end of one show and the closing credits rolled over the band and they cut off the song! Still, better than MuchMusic that never showed it at all !


.......so Malhavoc's 40 to 45 minute set was pretty cool. Some headbanging riffs, mostly moody, kind of doomy music. They had a video screen on behind them for most or all of their set. James had figured out what images, and movie clips he wanted the audience to see to understand what he meant / was symbolizing in his songs (because he sang weird and we didn't really know what he was saying).

Probably the coolest part I remember still, was something to do with werewolves/Jekyll & Hyde/ conflict inside people. It might have been revisited throughout the whole set, but the first and last songs seem to stand out more when the screen synched up/told the story perfectly with their music.


I remember standing near the one foot stage, and during one song, all three guitars were playing different notes/chords, and it started feeling like the two halves of my brain were grating against each other, and my stomach started churning,and I wanted to shit and have diarrhea at the same time. I had to step away a few feet, from the line of fire of the PA and the guitar amps! I really felt like throwing up and shitting at the same time.

After the show, I asked others and nobody else seemed to know what I was talking about, and thought that I was crazy and making it up. I mentioned it to James C. some days or weeks later, and he started smiling and laughing and saying "That's EXACTLY what I was hoping to do!" He said he got the idea, but wasn't sure if it was possible or something.


Anyways, no idea if anybody else recorded the show on audio cassette, and still kept it. I don't think I copied my tape for anyone before it snapped/twisted or maybe I recorded over it. (I used normal tapes,instead of chrome, mostly back then,and also listened to the live tapes I made more than albums I bought, and would eventually get bored of them, after listening to them a LOT.)

2 comments:

  1. Just posting to say I was at this show. I brought 2 friends with me and neither of them knew what the hell to make of what we were seeing.
    First there was the Zeena Lavay documentary, which seemed pretty weird at a hardcore show (you know, obv. NOT weird due to the Satanic imagery etc but it was a very dry doc). And then the backdrop of images during the show was unexpected and at times a bit unsettling. There were clips from (what I later discovered to be) Lucio Fulci's "NEW YORK RIPPER" which were pretty shocking (and pretty amazing!). It was a great show.
    A postscript - a few years later, I went to line-up to see a Dario Argento flick at the Toronto Int'l Film Festival (the movie was "OPERA") and who's there at the front of the line but Jimi LaMort. And not only that, but my friend KNEW him and introduced us. He gave me a copy of the "Punishments EP" on cassette (which wasn't yet released) telling me that it was "the new shit, the GOOD shit". I asked him about the imagery he had used at the Apolcalypse Club (specifically the "N.Y.Ripper" clips), he mumbled something about "I dunno... some Italian film... can't remember". He seemed a bit weirded out that I was even asking about it.
    That's my story - for what it's worth.

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    1. Thanks for the info !
      yes, James is kind of weird! but a good kind of weird, you know, in an 'Edgar Allan Poe' way, but not in a 'he will break in your home to kill you' way.

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