Wolf Eyes / Gastric Female Reflex / Awesome

Those who bore witness to Wolf Eyes' first-ever Toronto gig went home with a horror story worth telling their future grandchildren, but above all they were spectators to an exciting new leg of this ferocious noise unit's rotting corpse legacy. This tour found long-time member Aaron Dilloway replaced by Hair Police main-man and noise rock hero Mike Connelly. Whether or not Dilloway will return to the Wolf Eyes front, supported by founder Nate Young and pillar John Olson, is open to speculation, but for now Connelly's role in upholding this band's burning funeral pyre of wounded thuds, disgusted garbles and enflamed walls of noise is more than sufficient. Throughout their murderously satisfying set, Wolf Eyes hammered out concrete-heavy versions of cuts from Burned Mind (including two killer versions of "Village Oblivia," thanks to the requests of a dude named Roach) and obscure tracks from rarer releases, like the stultifying closer "Leper War." Local support was provided by noisy pranksters Gastric Female Reflex, who assaulted the audience with a care-free set of random squeals, noise bursts and announcements, and Awesome, who performed clothed in cloaks with flood lights for masks and spiked their multi-drum tribal meditation with light noise atmospherics. But the biggest shock of the evening came in the form of a mishap that may go down in Wolf Eyes folklore. During the early stages of the show, Gastric's Andrew Zuckerman mischievously tossed a nearby crash cymbal at Nate Young's leg. Young responded by blindly kicking the cymbal toward the audience, where its blunt edge struck a young woman's throat. Young rushed to the girl's aid and she insisted she was okay, but moments later she exited the crowd, holding her throat, living proof that Wolf Eyes and violence are synonymous acts.