This is the second in a weekly series all taken from Hope 2. The fanzine sees a collection of 70 contributors from the punk rock world. All asked the same question
My Favourite Gig by Brendan Canty, Deathfix, Fugazi, Rites of Spring, One Last Wish etc
The Mummies + Thee Headcoats
Calgary, early 90’s
Guy and I ducked out after a Fugazi gig one night in the early nineties in Calgary, and went over to see Thee Headcoats play. The Mummies were opening up, but we had no idea who they were at the time. We were just both big Billy Childish fans.
The place was small and I think a biker bar. There were certainly mostly bikers there. Definitely not the place to be by the looks of it. Yet, as we all know, life usually runs in the converse of expectations.
When the Mummies hit the stage they hit with such force and commitment that everyone’s mind was playing catch up with what they were seeing. 4 totally disgusting looking fully costumed in filthy rag mummies were beating their instruments to death and whipping through killer garage tracks one after another. Everyone in the room got into it in one way or another. After a while one of the drunk biker women went to the bathroom and wrapped herself in toilet paper mummy-style and came out and stood in front of the stage giving the band two birds. This made them even more jacked up.
As the singer rocked his Farfisa back and forth hanging from the water pipe above the stage, the organ gave way and he came crashing down with his arm breaking between his body and the keyboard. He kept playing.
After the set Thee Headcoats couldn’t really do much. I’ve seen them and loved them, but that night they dissolved into a mess and eventually broke up on stage when the drummer took the only working microphone and used it as a drumstick. Billy Childish quit and walked out of the club. It seemed like a reasonable response. We were all wiped.
Brendan’s latest recorded output was Deathfix and his lates band is Super Silver Haze
Brendan Canty
