Blueprint Records celebrated their sixth birthday with a lot of live music at the Slice, Sept. 15.
I arrived just in time to hear a new rock band featuring Clayton Smith on drums, Jane Edmundson on keyboards and Tony Zucco and James King taking turns on guitar and bass.
They had a strong early ’80s new wave, synth powered sound along the lines of Devo and the Cars. They played plenty of upbeat pop hooks and lot of energy.
They broke a guitar string early on in their set and out a call out for another guitar. Opening act Vancouver punk band Shitty Neighbours, proved to be anything but as they happily and most neighbourly lent their guitar to Open Channels to finish their set in fine form.
They played plenty of punk tinged pop music full of power chords and pop hooks.
Calgary punk band the Shematomas were a totally different animal, as the four girls played a high powered, ear blistering set of delay drenched punk and garage pop with just a touch of surf. The vocals were drenched in reverb, drummer Lace Shaw banged her head, hair flying everywhere, while statuesque bassist Rena Kozak blasted the throbbing bottom end, overpowering guitarist/ vocalists Jamie Fooks and Kayla.
