Eric Lohrenz and Blim present:
Tunnel Canary: 1978–2008 (film event)
Friday July 25 | doors: 8 PM, screening: 8:30 PM | $5 – 10 sliding scale
Tunnel Canary : 1978–2008 is a feature film documentary about the Vancouver, BC anarchist scream noise/punk group Tunnel Canary
Featuring performance by Nathan Holliday of Tunnel Canary
Formed in 1978, Tunnel Canary performed approximately 26 times before disbanding in 1983. Their performances included many guerilla street performances which drew crowds of 100–250 people and were often broken up by the police.
Tunnel Canary produced a volatile and often violent mix of pure-noise, synthesizer music, free-improv, and confrontational performance art. Centered around the chaotic guitar antics and synth compositions of guitarist Aleh Kaheen (now Nathan Holiday), along with the accusatory and often absolutely-hysterical caterwauling of vocalist Ebra Ziron, and supported by the tasteful and powerful bass punctuations of David Sheftel, TUNNEL CANARY’s unique sound sits somewhere in the spheres of Post-Industrial, Proto-Power-Electronics, and Noise.
“I wanted to take things much further than leather jackets and spiked hair cuts. I realized many of the punks, apart from their hair-do’s and the leather, safety pins, etc., were doing all the same things that their parents were doing — getting drunk, smoking tobacco, and eating shit food. I wanted to take the best parts of the punk attitude, e.g. the anger, the spontaneity and their exuberance and extend it by adding vegetarianism, buddhism / theosophy, yoga (no alcohol, no tobacco), and a more sophisticated left wing political viewpoint.” — Aleh Kaheen / Nathan Holiday
Tunnel Canary showcases many rare/never seen live performance videos and interviews from people and fans that were fortunate enough to have experienced this intense and esoteric trio in the late seventies.
Also featured in the film is a brief history of experimental artists from the late seventies, eighties and now. Artists include The Haters, Rubber O Cement, Ecomorti, Mutators, Torturing Nurse, Brutophilia and a rare performance from father / daughter duo Cosine and 12 year old Hot Fries.
Now for the first time in 30 years this important piece of Vancouver’s underground music history comes to light in this new full length documentary by Eric Lohrenz.
