Recording: Nifty

Artist: Nifty

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall ("Blocks Final Concert"), May 9, 2015.

Nifty - unknown

Matt Smith closed out a lengthy night of music with some re-energizing body-movement grooves, including some from his Pity Slash Love, which will be remembered as the final Blocks release.

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

Recording: Austra

Artist: Austra

Song: Freepower

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall ("Blocks Final Concert"), May 9, 2015.

Austra - Freepower

Katie Stelmanis apologized for not playing material from her Blocks-released solo album (blaming it on the scourge of old hard drive incompatibility) but turned the night's retrospective vibe on its head by instead presenting a full set of brand-new material with Austra. That turned the set into a celebration of the fact that although Blocks is ending, the talent that it nurtured continues to flourish.

Recording: The Barcelona Pavilion

Artist: The Barcelona Pavilion

Songs: Tidy Up Tidy Up + New Materialogy

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Blocks Final Concert), May 9, 2015.

The Barcelona Pavilion - Tidy Up Tidy Up

The Barcelona Pavilion - New Materialogy

The original lineup of classic Blocks agit-poppers The Barcelona Pavilion reunited five years ago at Wavelength, but it was still a joy to see Maggie MacDonald and Steve Kado bantering/arguing on stage in between songs. A joyful semiotic/dance party ensued.

Recording: Les Mouches

Artist: Les Mouches

Songs: Love Song to an Empty Room + (They Long to Be) Close to You [The Carpenters cover]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall ("Blocks Final Concert"), May 9, 2015.

Les Mouches - Love Song to an Empty Room

Les Mouches - (They Long to Be) Close to You

The secret identity of the show's "unnamable special guests" was spoiled well before when Owen Pallett confirmed that Les Mouches would be playing. Although Rob Gordon and Matt Smith have been Pallett's touring band for a good while, it'd been more than a decade since they'd performed under the old name, playing the music from their Blocks albums. This older material shows off Pallett's nascent songwriting gifts, even if it situates them in a different sonic environment than in his Final Fantasy/solo incarnation. The set started off with a bang — quite literally — as Gordon punctuated a line early on "Love Song to an Empty Room" by tossing a cymbal onto the floor of the open area of the stage in front of his drumkit. And from there, things proceeded well enough that "Close To You" was inserted before the closer.

Recording: Hank

Artist: Hank

Song: Danes in Peril!

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall ("Blocks Final Concert"), May 9, 2015.

Hank - Danes in Peril!

Cab Williamson played three quick songs with a backing track on reel-to-reel tape, but he wasn't alone on stage, with a half-dozen members of the Hank Collective singing along.

Recording: Bob Wiseman & Liz Hysen

Artist: Bob Wiseman & Liz Hysen

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall ("Blocks Final Concert"), May 9, 2015.

Bob Wiseman & Liz Hysen - [excerpt]

This duo set, played on the piano at the foot of the Main Hall's stage, was brief enough that a good chunk of the crowd didn't quite realize it had come and gone. I'm not sure to what extent it was improvised, but there were a couple different ideas explored, including this segment that sounds a bit like Lubomyr Melnyk's interpretation of chopsticks.

Recording: The Phonemes

Artist: The Phonemes

Song: Pain Perdu

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall ("Blocks Final Concert"), May 9, 2015.

The Phonemes - Pain Perdu

The original trio version of The Phonemes (Magali Meagher joined by Matias Rozenberg and Liz Forsberg) only played a pair of songs, but they were perhaps their two finest — "Steeples And People" as well as this optimistic secular hymn, which declares, "Every day we discover a new day / every night we discover a new night / All I want, all I want, for my friends / is to sing about it."

Recording: Matias

Artist: Matias

Song: Medley: Wasted Time + Small Fires Burn Bright

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall ("Blocks Final Concert"), May 9, 2015.

Matias - Medley: Wasted Time + Small Fires Burn Bright

Creating a place to release Matias Rozenberg's music was one of the original impetuses behind the creation of the Blocks Recording Club — the Matias Sucks cassette was the label's second release. After drumming the crowd hanging around outside of the Tranzac into the Main Hall, Rozenberg led his quartet through a short set, including this one that could now stand as a requiem for Blocks: small fires burn bright.

Recording: Ninja High School

Artist: Ninja High School

Song: It's All Right to Fight

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall ("Blocks Final Concert"), May 9, 2015.

Ninja High School - It's All Right to Fight

The shuttering of Blocks Recording Club came in a couple stages, with news of the collective cleaning out their office and a retrospective at Long Winter bringing feelings of nostalgia to a certain segment of local music fans. But it was still proper that there was an occasion for folks to come together in one last celebration that felt a bit like a high-school reunion, with old show-friends getting caught up through a long night of music.

The night began with one of the label's most emblematic groups taking the stage with a joking list of possible updates to their name (Ninja Retirement Home, Ninja Hip Replacement, etc., etc.) as Matt Collins and co. struggled to remember the bulk of their rapid-fire lyrics, in between friendly bickering on stage. Not too much has changed, in other words.