Additional Information
At this year’s Suoni Festival, the newly formed booking collective Sick of Fun have proposed us a wild and visceral evening of music. The lineup features emerging punk talent from the east coast with bands like White Knuckle, Zeal, Purity Culture, and Puffer, promising a raw and loud conclusion to the festival’s eclectic offerings.
PAN M 360 : Thanks for taking the time. You’ve put together quite a show for the 23rd! Can you tell us more about Sick of Fun and your relationship with Suoni?
Alex Apostolidis : Sick of Fun is a show booking group in Montreal featuring members of Sitting On The Outside (Ottawa), Positive Distortion (Maritimes) and IWant2BeOnTV (Montreal). Back in March of this year, we put together a benefit show for some friends of ours who had been arrested and are facing legal fees. From there we decided to continue booking shows and the group has grown to include six members. I started working for Suoni at the end of my degree in 2021, since then my involvement in the festival has spanned communications, production management, design and documentation work. This year I was offered to curate two nights with Sick of Fun and we put together a Punk Show/Magic Trick Competition which happened last Friday and this Epic Rock Line Up on Sunday the 23rd – which we’ll have a DJ set afterwards to close the festival.
PAN M 360 : Could you describe the process of curating the lineup for this event? What made you choose these specific bands?
Alex Apostolidis : The lineups evolved quite a bit with time but I think it ended up with a really exciting selection. I feel like we’re hitting fun, outrageous, scary, evil notes. What if we kissed at the intersection of Egg and Chain vibes.
Sonic rundown:
White Knuckle’s carrying the CanCon yolk-torch, speedy and zippy.
Zeal is quick, hard and appropriately, in your face with a Scandi touch.
Purity Culture is noisy, ripping and angry, cooking up something doomy.
Puffer is catchy, rock n roll meets hardcore – one of Montreal’s best.
PAN M 360 : How do you think the punk scene in Montreal has evolved over the years?
Alex Apostolidis : I feel like it’s a really exciting time for the punk scene in Montreal. Despite there not being a ton of DIY spaces, which is really unfortunate, people really want to make things happen and there’s a lot of excellent new bands. If anything, the scene feels more inclusive and bustling than what I’ve known it to be. It’s nice to see promoters like IFO bringing in wild bands and Be About It revitalising the all ages scene.
PAN M 360 : What role do you believe Sick of Fun plays in the local and broader punk community?
Alex Apostolidis : We’re pretty new, but eventually we’ll settle into our own spot.
PAN M 360 : What are your future plans for Sick of Fun? Any upcoming events or projects beyond Suoni that you’re particularly excited about?
Alex Apostolidis : We’re having Cell Deth (from PEI) and Hormone (from Baltimore) coming through July 5th (more details TBA), there will be a DULF fundraiser at La Sotterenea on July 27th. Be sure to keep an eye out on askapunk.net for more details – or you can check our mastodon page https://438punk.house/@sickofun
PAN M 360 : How do you see the current state of punk music in Canada, and where do you think it’s headed?
Alex Apostolidis : Montreal’s scene is absolutely bursting at the seams, the maritimes is hot, ottawa is fun – it seems like toronto and vancouver are sleeping a bit… probably because it’s impossible to live there economically. I think all of our music scenes are under threat regardless of genre given the housing crisis and state of the economy but people are really passionate, having a good time and making great music. Canada’s punk scene is not to be brushed over.
PAN M 360 : Right on, that’s what the music is there for.
