THURSDAY 2
Improv will never be the same after The Bitter End Presents: Lethal Seduction, an "erotic thriller" that may or may not be either of those things as the dictionary defines them, but will be entertaining and hilarious, at Montreal Improv Theatre (#202-3713 St-Laurent), 8 p.m. Meanwhile, over at the Strip Spelling Bee, the erotic educational thrills spill and chill, at Mainline (3997 St-Laurent), 9 p.m. Halifax’s Play Guitar do just that and more, with Braids, at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent). And L.A.-based Warp Records artist Flying Lotus fuzes jazz, hip-hop, blippy-bloppy sounds and danceable beats at Studio JPR (2109 St-Laurent).
FRIDAY 3
Haïti à vif displays 150 images by Quebec press photographers in Haiti soon after January’s earthquake, at Musée Juste Pour Rire (2101 St-Laurent), to Oct. 3, mhaiti.org. Photographer Catherine Bodmer details transformation in bare places and spaces, and Paul Litherland‘s video work Force majeure loses control, at Clark Centre (5455 De Gaspé), to Oct. 9, vernissage Sept. 2, 8 p.m. Parlovr plays the Musée d’Art Contemporain’s Nocturnes, 5 p.m. Before grunge, before art-school metal, Melvins were the masters of the post-’70s stoner kingdom of heaviness – they loudly attempt the throne again, with Trung Hoa, at Club Soda (1225 St-Laurent).
SATURDAY 4
Language takes a licking in Time Will Have Passed. Le Temps aura passé, a mid-career retrospective of video artist Nelson Henricks, at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery (1400 De Maisonneuve), to Oct. 16. Rad’a Yoga offers free and fun yoga classes at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at 841 Gilford. Piknic Électronik and Ninja Tune love the long weekend with hip-hop producer Steinski and more at Parc Jean-Drapeau, piknicelectronik.com. Kele (of Bloc Party) disturbs the dance floor at Le Belmont (4483 St-Laurent), and Japanese action-comic punks Peelander-Z prove that good times don’t have to make any sense at all, at Il Motore (179 Jean-Talon W.).
SUNDAY 5
Taste the ocean! And lose your mind to your mouth at Oysterfest 2010, as 10 restaurants serve up the sea and more at the Pigeon Hole Parking Lot (St-Jean at Notre-Dame), 2-9 p.m., proceeds to Environmental Defense non-profit organization. Plastik Patrik, who assumed the upright role of Spiderman’s kissable friend on Hour’s Pride cover, falls in with Patrik et Les Brutes, along with Voivod, Priestess, Wintergloves and many more musical types, at M on the Quays in the Old Port. And NYC-based musician and producer Martin Bisi gets good ‘n’ weird ‘n’ entertaining with Panopticon Eyelids and Crabe, at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent).
MONDAY 6
Today marks our last chance to tour plasticized inner-space: the Eaton Centre’s Bodies show packs it in, skin and all. Art Mûr starts its new season with group show Hantise, an exploration of "magical presence" and the uncanny, at 5826 St-Hubert, to Oct. 23. Parisian all-girl fashion-rock band Plastiscines puts the pop back into making a grand spectacle of being a teenage rock star with pretty hair, at La Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent). And the admirably named, Missouri-based Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin twangs guitars to the tune of crushes crushed and loves lost, with Telekinesis at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent).
TUESDAY 7
Paul Brunet messes mass media, traditional painting, comicbook-like illustration and absurdity at Projex-Mtl Galerie (#212-372 Ste-Catherine W.), to Sept. 9, part of Extreme Painting Montreal. Frédérick Gravel reprises his Festival Transamériques dance-and-music crowd-pleaser Tout se pète la gueule, chérie – though maybe "pleaser" isn’t quite the right word for a show with this much cock, figuratively and literally. Well, it seemed to please a lot of people… at Théâtre La Chapelle, to Sept. 18, 8 p.m. And Copenhagen’s Efterklang fill the stage with magical harmonic indie love, with Buke and Gass, at La Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent).
WEDNESDAY 8
Studio 303′s Spark lights up with PME-ART’s Individualism Was a Mistake at Studio 303 (#303-372 Ste-Catherine W.), 7 p.m., Jacques Poulin-Denis’ Dors at Monument-National (1182 St-Laurent), 8:45 p.m., and Wants & Needs’ Short & Sweet at La Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent), 10 p.m. Reefer Madness: The Musical, inspired by the 1936 film in which weed prevents young minds from becoming cogs in the capitalist machine by causing them to love jazz and sex and, oh, violence, sparks up at Mainline (3997 St-Laurent), 8 p.m., to Sept. 29, processedtheatre.com. One day someone will explain Vampire Weekend to me, with Beach House at Métropolis.
