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Muffler Crunch is pretty much the best band I can think of

Muffler Crunch: Angie Barbarian and Luc Lavigne

(disclaimer: I have a crush on the band Muffler Crunch. Not the people in it, but the band itself. If that band were a woman, I would do unspeakable things with it and most likely upset my wife. My point being, the following is totally biased).

Only about 60 lucky people showed up at Mavericks on January 7th for Muffler Crunch’s triumphant return to the stage, after about a year off. In case the name escapes you, Muffler Crunch is Ottawa’s premier doom/sludge/metal power-duo. It’s been about a year since they officially took the stage (they did a mini warm-up gig a few weeks ago, at a hair salon, of all places), and the silence during their absence was deafening.

2008 was a great year for Muffler Crunch – they released their second album, Arc Welder (Last Drag Records), to rave reviews, played some amazing local shows, and were voted Ottawa’s Best punk/metal/hard rock band in the annual XPress reader’s poll.

After taking a year off to write new stuff (apparently by candlelight, after the evil power company cut off the hydro at their jam space), they hit the stage at Mavericks, and boy did they hit it hard. Muffler Crunch is 2 people, Angie “The Barbarian” Neatby on drums and lead vocals, and Luc Lavigne, guitarist. I’m generally opposed to power-duos, but I make an exception in this case. I’m not even going to attempt to describe the music, I won’t do it justice – check out their website for tunes.

What I CAN describe is the live show. Muffler Crunch commands the stage with brilliant showmanship and top-notch female metal vocals, producing some of the most awesomely dirty metal I’ve every heard.

At centre stage is Angie The Barbarian, with her very intimidating drum kit (complete with animal bones hanging off the front). Angie’s a neat mixture of deadly beauty – she’s not afraid to look pretty on stage, with her tight-fitting shirt, glittery cowboy hat and makeup, but there’s always the underlying message of “I may be friendly but I’ll throat-punch you if you cross me”.

That kind of duality carries over into the singing, a low (for a girl) operatic belting accented with rather sweet girly moments. And if there’s any question about the force of her throat-punch, just watch how she hammers the drums with insanely heavy beats that’ll make you wet yourself.

Off to Angie’s left is Luc Lavigne on guitar. Luc doesn’t say much during the show – Angie does all the bantering between songs while he orchestrates the noise and feedback for ambiance. Normally, there’s not even a microphone for him to use – this show was an exception, but he only used it for one song, and I’m fairly sure it wasn’t plugged in.

What Luc lacks in things to say, he makes up for in things to do; when he’s not operating one of his 18,000 pedals (or struggling with a hair-elastic), he’s jumping on top of amps, drums and the bar, thanks to one of those wireless receiver doohickeys. Luc wangs out sludgy riffs and uses various effects and loops to lay down an extremely solid wall of music – If you weren’t seeing it with your own eyes you wouldn’t believe that one beat-up acoustic guitar is making all that noise.

Which of course brings me to Ol’ Sparky, the third member of the band. Ol’ Sparky is Luc’s guitar, the only one he uses during the show – it’s a beat-up acoustic guitar, full of holes and extra switches and held together with duct tape, and run through a gazillion different effects pedals and no less than 3 amps at the same time.

It’s not just some gimmicky thing, this guitar is at times the center of attention and is the very definition of the Muffler Crunch sound. The band’s first album, Ol’ Sparky’s Revenge, demonstrates this by the title alone. I’m no sound technician but I know that when I hear the noises Luc pulls out of the guitar, I’m like “whoa” and then I’m like “yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” and it makes my ears water. Forgive the technical jargon…

For the big finale, Luc climbed up on top of the kick drum (no easy feat, it took 4 tries) and finished the song with his back to the audience, and then just sort of collapsed on top of Angie, taking down half her drum kit with him. The show wrapped up with everything crashing to the floor, cymbals ringing and guitar feeding back and the crowd of 60 screaming in reverent adulation, or adulatory reverence, you pick one.

All said, Muffler Crunch is hands-down the best live band in Ottawa right now, and I’m not just saying that because I want to have their babies. You can catch their next show on February 6th at the Cajun Attic.

PS.
Three Jaw Puller opened the show, but I missed their set because of prior engagements. However, I saw them play once before and I really liked them, so be sure to check them out too.

- Greg Harris

Greg Harris can be found at his website

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