Edmonton act Gender Poutine have only been an active outfit for less than a year, so being placed on a festival bill alongside several Edmonton heavyweights, including grime punks Naomi Punk, was a vote of confidence.
They played highlights off their recent Dear Mom EP, a release they gleefully announced was now available on cassette with their own mothers featured as cover art. Gender Poutine warmed up the crowd with a loud, reverberated tuneful racket that owes much to surf, garage and '90s slacker guitar rock, featuring all three members sharing vocal duties — duties including singing and loudly yelping altogether. There were sloppy moments: a guitar patch cable caused a new song to derail completely and the band struggled to stay together on a few numbers. It wasn't exactly a coordinated performance, but with a band like Gender Poutine, it didn't need to be in order to feel exciting.
They played highlights off their recent Dear Mom EP, a release they gleefully announced was now available on cassette with their own mothers featured as cover art. Gender Poutine warmed up the crowd with a loud, reverberated tuneful racket that owes much to surf, garage and '90s slacker guitar rock, featuring all three members sharing vocal duties — duties including singing and loudly yelping altogether. There were sloppy moments: a guitar patch cable caused a new song to derail completely and the band struggled to stay together on a few numbers. It wasn't exactly a coordinated performance, but with a band like Gender Poutine, it didn't need to be in order to feel exciting.
