Recording: VCR

Artist: VCR

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Galleria Shopping Centre (Long Winter: Galleria), January 30, 2016.

VCR - unknown

An ambitious "takeover" project from the Long Winter crew saw their usual mix of music + art transferred to the near-derelict/doomed-by-gentrification Galleria Mall. It was a sonically awkward environment to hold a show (there's a lot of muddy "mall reverb" in these recordings) that attracted a rather different crowd than the regular LW events — skewing older, and perhaps towards those feeling a sense of pre-nostalgia for kitschy but less-corporate spaces like this. (Ironically, having a larger 19+ component in the crowd made for long lines for anyone wanting to get into the event's licenced areas, but that notwithstanding everything on the night seemed to run pretty smoothly.) VCR seems to be settling down and extending their songs a bit, but that's certainly relative as by any reasonable measure their music is still pretty frenetic. Bringing a waft of punk insouciance to the stage, they gleefully made fun of the stand-in-place crowd, the show's organizers and the event's pronounced security presence. In the end, they confessed they were only in it for the money, a moshpit broke out in front of them, and they closed their set with a guest saxophone spot. Call it mall-punk, I guess.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!