Hag Face

What better way to start off the eighth annual Sled Island Festival in Calgary than with a local band playing inside the city's notorious hot dog shop and sometimes live music venue? Cowtown four-piece Hag Face took the cramped booth/stage area at the front of Tubby Dog and proceeded to wipe our faces with dirty, syncopated punk/garage and a few death metal flurries thrown in for the hell of it. It was a jarring mix to see bassist/vocalist Lindsay Coulton channelling her inner Cannibal Corpse, her guttural screams making her eyes roll back in her head, while the band frantically jammed their best Bratmobile or Slant 6, but it was a mix that was pleasing nonetheless. Playing nearly their entire set in a mess of squawking feedback, Hag Face plowed onwards, adding in some less spazzy, jammed-out tunes that were as ugly and scary as the grunge that bands like Dickless and 7 Year Bitch were cranking out in the '90s. Enthusiastic moshers got Tubby Dog rocking as the band barreled through songs with choruses of "I'm your worst nightmare" and "psycho bitch." Both Sled Island curator Kathleen Hanna (who was forced to cancel attending the festival due to health reasons) and Cannibal Corpse would be proud.