Kinetik Fest aims to make Montreal top destination for industrial music fans If you like your music dark, loud and dig-
itally crafted, it’s time to brush up on your French. For seven days in May (11-17), fans of industrial and electronic music will descend upon Montreal for the third annual Kinetik Festival. Developed out of the ashes of the similarly
themed C.O.M.A. festival – which happened yearly from 2004 to 2007 but ran out of steam when the main organizer pulled out – Kinetik was first realized in 2008 by C.O.M.A. cohort Jean-Francois Fortin Gadoury. The one-time industrial DJ and his partners believed the concept of C.O.M.A., which only featured in- dustrial and noise acts, could be expanded to include subgenres indicative of the constant evolution of electronic music. “The first edition of the festival was only
three days,” says Gadoury, “but we were able to bring in a lot of bands that had never been to North America before [or not recently], like Feindflug and Nitzer Ebb. In 2009 we added a full night of EBM/synthpop and changed the festival to four days, attracting more than 2500 attendees. This year, probably out of craziness, we decided to make it over a five- day period – seven if you count the pre- and after-festival parties – and we hope to see up to 3500 people.” More than 70 percent of the advance tick-
ets have sold outside of Montreal, as this year’s Kinetik is expecting visitors from across North America, and as far away as Australia and Germany. Gadoury believes the stats are an indication that Kinetik is be- coming a destination location for industrial enthusiasts, not unlike European electro-in- dustrial festivals such as Wave Gotik Tref- fen and M’era Me Luna. “A lot of people coming from the US are loyal fans from the past two years, and see this
Combichrist performs as part of Harsh Industrial Night, and (below) Covenant headlines EBM/Synthpop Night.
festival as the place to go to see all the ‘in- dustrial family’ from North America,” he ex- plains. “Even when we do a ‘big’ event, fans can see most of the band members hanging out and chatting, since even for [the artists], it’s one of the rare times where they can see all those shows in one place.” With 50 bands programmed by style,
Gadoury is confident patrons will have no problems picking an evening tailored to their particular brand of musical poison. May 12 is Electro Night (headlined by Fixmer/McCarthy); Old School Industrial Night brings the classic darkness on May 13 with Leæther Strip and The Gothsicles, among others; Harsh Industrial Night and Noise Night crank up the aural horror on May 14 and 15, respectively, with aggrotech demons Combichrist, Belgian noise hea- thens Hypnoskull and Alien Vampires; and EBM/Synthpop Night closes the festi- val’s musical component on May 16 with headliners Covenant. Kinetik’s ethos, according to the
festival website, is “a complete im- mersion via the inner force of elec- tronics.” Each show is heightened by live projections and interactive art expositions of various medi- ums (painting, drawing and mul-
timedia), but Kinetik isn’t so highbrow it ex- cludes the usual parade of colourful cos- tumes and creature comforts one associates with such events. “A lot of bands playing at the festival either
use visuals from horror movies or look like se- rial killers on stage,” says Gadoury. “The audi- ence also plays a big role. The electro-industrial scene is a mix between the electro scene, goth scene, raver scene and cyber scene, and a lot of [fans] see this as a place to show off some unique ways to dress up.” According to Gadoury, more than twenty
different vendors will be on hand at Kinetik, peddling everything from the expected (mag- azines, discs and T-shirts) to the unusual (gas masks). New this year will be the addition of garden and barbecue areas, with “goth-dogs and industrial-burgers” on the menu. A Platinum pass for the week will run you
$280 CDN, but a multitude of ticket options are available at Kinetik’s website, festival-
kinetik.net, enabling attendees to take in one night, all seven or combinations thereof. If you’re planning to stay the whole week, Gadoury advises comfortable footwear and a strong constitution may be in order: “We do hope that everyone’s feet and livers will still be alive after this.”
TREVOR TUMINSKI
9 RM
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