Metal transcends borders and continents with Vancouver based metal band Social Arsonist, including members from Canada, Chile and Mexico.
 But they all met and bonded over music through the power of the internet.
 They play the Smokehouse, May 28 with the Vth Circle.

“I was playing music and couldn’t find anyone who quite fit with what I wanted to do so I started a youtube channel and Dario (Zuñiga Marro, bassist ) and Manuel (Morgado Prado, guitarist) started commenting on it from Chile, but I thought it was just spam, so I just deleted their comments,” said Social Arsonist frontman Cayle Charlton, noting they persisted, so he finally made contact and started communicating with them online in 2010 with them and was so impressed that he decided to go to Chile for a few months in 2013 to work and play with them, where they were already making music, but couldn’t find the right vocalist fit.

“It was a real eye-opener. It was an awesome experience,” he said.
“It was just the right fit,” he continued.
While they were down there, they recorded their debut EP  “De-Evolution of Thy Self” and full length CD “Duality of Perception.”

The Eisenhauers are excited to present their new Cd “The Road We Once Knew” to Lethbridge at the Slice, Monday, May 29.

 The Kaslo, B.C. based duo of Sheree Plett and Jeremy Eisenhauer are visiting Lethbridge in the middle of a tour of B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in support of their debut CD as a duo which they recorded in Nashville with renown producer Steve Dawson, who immediately released it on his record label Black Hen Records.

“We think it captures how we play live,” said Jeremy Eisenhauer, who has been playing with his wife, Sheree Platt for the past 12 years on their solo projects.

“It was great. Steve really just let us play. He didn’t multi-track us, it was really enjoyable,“ he said, adding Dawson added some steel guitar and  some Nashville session musicians also added a few extra flavours.
 They have no plans to tour  with Dawson.
“We’d love to, but he’s so busy,” he said.
“The Road We Once Knew” is the first time they have recorded a CD as a duo.
They did a Kickstarter crowdfunding  program to finance the CD and record with Dawson.

Long standing New Jersey based street punk icons Hudson Falcons made a great first impression during their first visit to Lethbridge, and indeed Alberta, May 11 at the Moose Hall.
 They had an enthusiastic crowd of approximately 30 moshing in front of the stage.

Hudson Falcon, including frontman Mark Linskey, founding drummer Alyson Cina , guitarist Matty Davalo and bassist Nick Ferrero, sounded like Bob Mould jamming with Bruce Springstreen and the E Street band. They focused on more straight ahead punk edged  older material and were impressed the audience knew the songs.

Hudson Falcon struck quickly with a solid rock and roll shot to the downstairs regions, with unbelievably catchy and unbelievably tight musicianship and hair raising lyrics of being chased by the police in “Johnny Law,” a great older song “Worker Fate”  about “workers  getting screwed over which I wrote 18 years ago according to Linskey, trade unionism and a fantastic ode to working class bars being closed down due to gentrification called “Monahans.”

A highlight was a slower, harrowing tales including “Long Live the King,” about a freed gangster seeking revenge from a CD from a few years ago called “Dancing Underneath the Moonlight.” In a similar vein, another highlight was “Jersey City Streets.“

Linskey was alternately chewing nails and spitting venom while telling stories about the songs. While they were focusing on older material, they played several outstanding newer songs including “ We’ll Fight Back,” one of several extremely literate and insightful songs preceded by diatribes about the working man’s plight in the face of corporate greed and ignorance.

But there was some more lighthearted fare including the outstanding “Rich Kids Can‘t Play Rock and Roll.” Hudson Falcons provided plenty of working class politics hit guitar solos and huge gang vocals.
 Before calling it a night, Linskey brought out  the old bluesman‘s trick, by playing slide guitar with a beer bottle, which translated well  into the band’s brand of punk and rock and roll.

 They ended their set and the show before midnight with a hot cover of Stiff Little Fingers’ “Alternative Ulster.”
While I missed the Galacticas’ opening set, I was just in time for Streetlight Saints, playing in front of the Galactica’s banner.
They played an energetic, incredibly fast and super tight set of straight ahead three chord punk punctuated by “oi’s” and gang vocals. A couple highlights were a tribute to Princess Leia called “Sweet Prince,” and and a hyperactive  “First World Problems.”

As always, the Windy City Opry at the Slice had great music. The May 11 edition didn’t have as great a turnout as usual, but there was still plenty of excellent music. While I missed Winnipeg musician Dave Quanbury, I caught most of Edmonton singer/songwriter John Guliak’s set, arriving just as he invited Ryan “Skinny” Dyck on stage to add some beautifully spontaneous pedal steel guitar to a set featuring plenty of keyboards and accordion from Jason Kodie and solid bass from Tomas Muireb backed by drummer Marek Tyler.

 Guliak told stories and strummed a little acoustic guitar, playing a set mostly of music from his three CDs. But he was winding down his set with a couple of covers including a Richard Thompson song.
 Windy City Opry organizer Shaela Miller joined Guliak on stage to sing some spontaneous harmonies.

 I left after an excellent version of his original song  “Tryptych” as I didn’t want to miss Kimberley MacGregor and Elliott Thomas at the Owl Acoustic Lounge.