Learning that beloved music venue the Slice was to close its doors after their Aug. 22 show with Moon Tan, the Moon Runners and local band the Rainbow Patrol doubtlessly contributed to a packed house for the Postnamers, Calgary‘s Manaray and the Bummer Club, Thursday, Aug 18.
The Postnamers, aka Grand Prairie performer Matthew Wilkinson opened up the show late as people started trickling in, played a weird set of noise and electronica music.
He knelt on stage to fiddle with a keyboard and to loop atonal , echo laden vocals, then stood up to play dissonant guitar and swiped at a steel guitar on stage with his foot. He had a few audience members nodding their heads in appreciations.
Calgary’s Manaray were up next.
They played a long set of hippie -grunge music. They started off slowly, laying down layers of soporific ambient guitars and groove filled bass and drums which they complemented with vocals that alternated between ethereal and agonized.
I was jumping back and forth between the Slice and Attainable Records, as were much of the audience, who wanted to hear The Supervoid and Dead Ranch, so missed much of their set and unfortunately Dead Ranch.
I arrived back in time for more uptempo, howled vocals and that mellow groove.
The Bummer Club closed off the night by playing new music It was more noisy, ambient indie rock with a touch of punk.
