Night Vision Monarch!

Here are video clips of Monarch!'s complete Halloween set at The Hideout in Chicago, featuring Kenny Rasmussen from Anatomy of Habit on drums

A Few Hallowen Photos

Halloween photos from the Reader, including Kenny pounding the drums for Monarch: here

Halloween Recap

Well, if the state of my ears this morning is any indication of how insanely loud it was last night (thanks Tony!)... and what a night it was! It was such a pleasure to join in the festivities with both Rabid Rabbit and Indian. My thanks to all of them for including me in such a killer show. I had the best of both worlds, getting to see/hear two of my favorite Chicago bands play incredible sets and getting to jump up on stage with them for a pair of intense songs. With Rabid Rabbit it was a reprise of "Suicide Song" (AKA "Gloomy Sunday"), which I first performed with them back in February. For this outing, Dave Rempis, who is also on the studio version, joined in live... another one of those "How have we never met before?" scenarios. It was cool to meet him and to play with him. And with Indian, I played synth/noise and I provided a few quick screams on "Worshipper of Sores," from their 2005 album, "The Unquiet Sky." And, in the middle of that, was a totally monumental performance by Monarch. As a huge Winter fan (the band, not the season, for fuck's sake), it was great to hear something equally glacial sounding, but with a uniquely feminine feel to it. Emilie's vocals were devastating -- at one point, all I could think of was Monarch!/Pharmakon split 12-inch -- and, my god, their set was remarkably tight... not at all belying the fact that my bandmate Kenny Rasmussen from Anatomy of Habit was playing drums for them after only two days to learn "Sabbat Noir" and to practice with them. Kenny did a phenomenal job and they sounded fantastic. They were also such nice people to hang out with, even if only briefly. It was great to see so many friends come out to the show and to see such a full house in support of what has definitely become a Chicago institution... Halloween at The Hideout...

Happy Halloween!

Halloween whoredom is what some of my bandmates might accuse me of. I will be making two appearances at the Hideout's Halloween show tonight... I will be singing a suicidal song with Rabid Rabbit and I will be adding noise to a nihilistic song with Indian. Monarch! will rule, too...and my pal Kenny Rasmussen has been learning "Sabbat Noir" to sit in on drums with them. Please join us if you can.

Thanks,
Mark

P.S. I will not be wearing a costume.

Sunday October 31, 2010
Halloween Doom

The Hideout
1354 West Wabansia
Chicago, IL
60642
773.227.4433
http://hideoutchicago.com/

9:00 PM
$10.00
21+

Indian
http://www.myspace.com/indiandoom

Monarch! (funeral doom from Bayonne, France)
http://www.myspace.com/monarchuberalles

Rabid Rabbit
http://www.myspace.com/rabidrabbitlives

The Reader on Halloween

From the Chicago Reader:

There are at least a couple active bands called Monarch (which is why you sometimes see an exclamation point after this one's name), but if you like it sludgy and heavy, this four-piece from the south of France is the one you want. They've just issued the long-delayed CD version of their fifth full-length, Sabbat Noir (Heathen Skulls), which has already attracted a fair number of slavering reviews thanks to a beautiful but expensive vinyl release in April. Their first album with drummer Robert McManus, late of Melbourne's Grey Daturas, it consists of one half-hour song (split into two parts for the LP) that begins with a creepy insectoid whisper of electronic noise and feedback, then slams into a slo-mo nod fest—though the drums, which manage a few more impacts per minute than the rest of the band, beat you about the head and neck and make it impossible to relax too much. The uncanny wailing of vocalist Emilie Bresson is buried so deep in the mix that she sounds like a banshee you might hear in a nightmare on the edge of sleep—only to bolt awake and find she's still there. Her eerie keening and wheezing adds a skin-crawlingly ethereal dimension to the band's grainy, glacially churning murk, transforming its canyonlike spaces into haunted grottos. Indian headlines; Monarch and Rabid Rabbit open.—Monica Kendrick

Time Out on 10/31

From Time Out Chicago:

Chicago's doom-a-rific Indian soundtracks the apocalypse. France's Monarch! cites “mainly Black Sabbath” as an influence, but things are even more sludgy, spooky and slowed down than the comparison might portend. The shape-shifting haunted house drone-psych outfit Rabid Rabbit opens.

Jim DeRogatis on Halloween at The Hideout

From WBEZ's Nightclubbing:

Finally, we come to my choice for the most bone-rattling, blood-chilling lineup of original music this holiday season, the three-band lineup Sunday night at the Hideout (a very friendly place, of course, but that sparsely populated stretch of Elston can be pretty spooky). “Halloween Doom” kicks off at 9 p.m. and features the Chicago doom band Indian, French metal maestros Monarch! , and Chicago monsters of rock Rabid Rabbit. The cover is $10 (and bring your earplugs!).

Advance Notice - 10/31

Sunday October 31, 2010
Halloween Doom

The Hideout
1354 West Wabansia
Chicago, IL
60642
773.227.4433
http://hideoutchicago.com/

9:00 PM
$10.00
21+

Indian
http://www.myspace.com/indiandoom

Monarch! (funeral doom from Bayonne, France)
http://www.myspace.com/monarchuberalles

Rabid Rabbit (with guest Mark Solotroff on "Suicide Song")
http://www.myspace.com/rabidrabbitlives