The streets are alive with art this week as most of the activity this week is centred around Casa and ArtsDays. There will be a cornucopia of music, visual art, drama and performances happening throughout the week.
But there a couple of excellent  shows will be rocking September to a close.

 A slew of Toronto based in die rock bands play Studio, Sept. 30 when Tokyo Police Club, The Elwins and Born Ruffians will be performing. Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 in advance.
 If you like punk, be at the Moose Hall where Hamilton, Ontario punk/ garage rock duo Artificial Dissemination will be performing with East Vancouver’s Spree Killers and local punk band the Space Wolves and Paint the Damage. There is a$10 cover for the show. which begins at 9.

 October opens with a couple excellent punk and metal shows. Over at the Eagles Hall, on Oct. 1 annual extreme metal festival Zombiefest V features  several bands including Calgary metal band Ye Goat Herd Gods, Saskatoon black/death metal duo Lutheran, Morley based brutal death metal band Dethgod and local punk/ metal band Chernoff, Pathetic and Cultist, plus Edmonton death metal band Display of Decay. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $10.

 The Moose Hall host another great punk show, Oct. 2. Canadian punk legends SNFU return to Lethbridge with a wicked lineup including Vancouver’s the Jolts, Medicine Hat metal band Western Death and No More Moments. Tickets are 20 in advance from Blueprint, $25 at the door. The show begins at 9 p.m.

Toronto area pop rock band the Elwins wok as hard as they play and have a lot of fun doing it.

They return to Lethbridge, Sept. 30 to play Studio with long time friends The Tokyo Police Club and Born Ruffians.

“ I think you can count on one hand the number of times we’ve played with them, (Tokyo Police Club) but we‘ve been friends for a long time. We went to the same high school and grew up in the same town. So it’s going to be exciting,” said Elwins frontman Matthew Sweeney. Drummer Travis Stokl, guitarist / keyboardist Feurd and bassist Frankie Figliomeni complete the Keswick, Ontario based band’s lineup.

 The Elwin are starting to get a little success of their own with their most recent CD “Play For Keeps.”

“We’re starting to get radio play which is good for us as we’ve been able to play lots of summer festivals this year. We also toured in Japan and Europe. So it’s been great. We’ve been having fun,” he said, adding they are also working on new music.

“It’s been fun. We’re collaborating more than ever. It will be different,” he said adding they hope to release the new CD next year, though they aren’t playing any of the new music  live.
“We want to make sure we’re comfortable with it, but we are playing new music from ‘Play for Keeps,’ And we’ve got some new covers. It will be a new show,” he continued.
 They enjoy reworking pop covers of the likes of Adele and Beyonce for a four man rock band. They released a cover of Adele’s hit “Hello.”

The Jolts are ready to give Lethbridge punks a shock to their system when they open up for Canadian punk legends SNFU, Oct. 2 at The Moose Hall.
 The long standing Vancouver based punks released a new CD “No Paradoxes” before the summer and are excited to get on the road to support it
 The Lethbridge show is the only one with SNFU.

“I’m pretty excited about it.  We’re both doing tours which criss cross with each other and this was the only day that works, which is great because otherwise we’d just be sitting around on a Sunday,” said frontman/ guitarist Joey “Blitzkrieg”  Bingham, just getting home from his day job as a landscaper.

“I‘ve seen them lots of times in Vancouver, but I haven’t played on the same stage as them,” he continued adding SNFU aren’t an influence on him, though they have influenced his bandmates.

“ We’ll probably get 25 minutes or 30 minutes to play because there are a bunch of the bands on the bill. So we’ll probably play four new ones and at least one from everything we’ve recorded, which is a lot,” he said.
 The Jolts have been playing since 2004, though he is the lone original member of the band.
The new Cd  expands the band’s sound into a more rock and roll sound.
“These songs are the products of of songwriting sessions I had with the guitar player and the drummer. They weren’t jammed out, so they were the songs going through out heads at the time,” he said.
“It’s a different style than Jolts fans are used to , but they still fit in with the set especially when we amp them up and play them live,” he said.
 He is leased with the end result.