Some cool things: WITCH, Pete Campbell, La Femme, Red Herring, VU, and EUGENE CHADBOURNE!

A few brief notes of things that interest me going on around town. Basically my wife is on the phone, so I'm stealing a minute, here...

Zambian rock band WITCH (an acronym for We Intend To Cause Havoc) combine elements of psychedelic and garage rock with African music. That's about all I know to say about them, but they're playing on Saturday and I really like what I've heard. There is a film about them. Better yet, there's a chance to see them at the Rickshaw this Friday. How can this not be interesting? What was the last African rock band you saw live...?

Meantime, Pete  Campbell will be doing a rare solo set at Central City Taphouse on Saturday, followed by  a Coach StrobCam concert. He has a new rock video to give you a taste of where COVID took him as a songwriter; it's not what you'll expect, if you know Pete from Pink Steel, the Wardells, and the Sweaters. More to come on that!

On Sunday, French band La Femme return to Vancouver, again at the Rickshaw. Not sure how to describe their music - it's a very cool multi-genre mix that I'm pretty sure you can dance to, but I don't really know their stuff deeply, haven't seen them live, etc. But I loved a track that appeared on the soundtrack for the Dowdle brothers film As Above, So Below, "Hypsoline." So I might go just based on that one song, because damn, I love it. 

Monday, you have a choice: Red Herring is going to play in a fuller format at the Princeton, with Enrico, Stephen Nikleva, Id Guinness, and maybe one or two other original members. Again, there's no cover, and the music is more likely to be polished songs than stream-of-consciousness jams. Here's Enrico with Charlie, a friend of the band...

Or if you're more of a movie fan, you might be interested to note that, at the VIFF Centre, you can see the Songs for Drella documentary, with Lou Reed and John Cale, in a double bill with Todd Haynes' Velvet Underground doc (which is a bit of a deep dive into the more avant-garde aspects of the band, so if your favourite Velvets' album is Loaded, it isn't the film for you, but if you're into Tony Conrad and LaMonte Young, say... rush to the theatre.) More information on the VIFF website - looks like the Haynes doc is Monday only, but the Songs for Drella one is on Tuesday and Wednesday, as well. 

Also note: mark your calendars, Eugene Chadbourne is coming back to town in late July - his first Vancouver appearance since just before the pandemic hit! More to come there, but there will be a show at LanaLou's on July 22nd and another at Central City on July 23rd. 

Like I say, more to come on almost all of the above, but that's some really fun music (and music-related film stuff).