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Last Friday was the loudest of my life. As part of Suoni Per Il Popolo, noise artists Esprits Frappeurs and Keiji Haino took the stage at La Sala Rossa, with medieval psychedelic Preterite sandwiched in between for good measure. The show began with Esprits Frappeurs, which is a collaboration between Philippe Lambert (of Monstre fame) and Alexandre St-Onge (Shalabi Effect’s bassist). The two donned white face paint, white robes, and large white sun hats strewn with leafy arrangements; they looked like characters from a Ken Russell film, wraithlike and amazingly fearful. They were painted by the disturbingly beautiful projections of Karl Lemieux while they twiddled and screamed. The set was a long improvisation, lasting about forty minutes. For those who know of Monstre, think Monstre. Otherwise, the project could be compared to noise projects coming out of Japan. There was dynamic and splendour in the madness. You could almost make out the lyrics obscured by layers of distortion and effects. A melee of noise art produced by two separate sound boards wired to various electronics supported the contorted voices. It would have been a nice segue into Keiji Haino, except that’s not exactly how the evening ensued.

Following Esprits Frappeurs was Preterite. This duo composed of Genevieve Beaulieu (Menace Ruine) and James Hamilton play ethereal drone tunes hearkening back to medieval times. Their set was longer - about an hour - and felt a little misplaced within the noisy atmosphere. At one point an audience member shouted for Haino; the audience was perceivably restless. Still, they were well received. Maybe a little calm before the storm was what was called for.

Keiji Haino is a legendary Japanese noise artist who has collaborated with Coil, John Zorn, Mayo Thompson, Peter Brotzmann, Thurston Moore, Faust, Fred Frith, and many others. During the sound check, even, the audience was going bananas. Apparently, he hasn’t been here for thirteen years, and the fans were thirsty for some Haino insanity. This guy is sixty years old and looks about twenty, save for the long white hair. His set started with a noise explosion and the cacophony never let up. When I thought it would get quieter, it just got louder. If anyone was cheering, it wasn’t audible. With noise like that, feeling is racking the bones, it is hard to not become completely entranced. Haino was alone on stage, just him and his guitar, but it could have been ten jet planes in a bathroom. There were stacks and stacks of amplifiers behind him, making the soundman nearly obsolete. Haino would turn around and slowly inch up the volume of each of his amps at intervals. For anyone who wants to blow out their brains with sound, this is your man. That’s definitely not a criticism.

All in all, I left Sala with ears bleeding and heart thumping out of my chest. Noise shows are not normally so popular, but the audience here were fanatics, and the atmosphere made it bearable.

-Danielle J hosts Runny Noise on Thursday from 10pm-12am

*Editor's Note: This article marks the begining of a weekly travel blog by Natasha P, a CJLO correspondent currently on exchange in Beijing, that will cover her experiences training in Beijing Opera and living in China.*

8 months of training, 4 performances, 6 hours of paperwork, 14 hours in transit and now I find myself sitting in a hotel room on the other side of the world looking out over Beijing.

It's almost by some strange accident that I became involved with Beijing Opera, but it has become my obsession within the past year. After being rejected for the second time from the "Drawing and Painting" studio arts class, I had a big fat space open in my Fall semester that needed to be filled. I settled on the "Chinese Opera" studio course for no other reason than for its use as a movement class this semester. I assumed (very naively, I must add) that I would be good right off the bat considering I had done martial arts as a child. However, during the first class I came to the realization that the training would be extremely challenging as we spent the majority of the session going from one side of the studio to the other doing high kicks that would put even the most robust goose-step to shame. As I continued the class, my fondness for the distinct and dynamic style only increased, and every day that passed I was more and more sure I wanted to spend a summer in China (that was a fun phone-call home). Eventually, after a few fundraising attempts and a dip into the education savings account, I was confirmed as going to the land of the rising sun.

But more about Jingju (or Beijing Opera); don't let the name deceive you, the style of theater is more acrobatic that operatic; this past school year my most used phrase must have been, "Ooooh everything hurts." Concordia University's Theater Department has made an alliance with the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts in Beijing, the foremost school in China for the study of Chinese Opera, and in recent years has formed a bi-annual exchange. Two years ago, a group of students from the theater program made the trek to China, and now in 2011 a second group comprised of 10 Concordia students is participating in the exchange.

One of the main reason I really wanted to go to China, aside from the fact that Chinese Opera had become my favorite class... and that I was girlishly mesmerized by the intricate makeup and the entrancingly beautiful costumes, was my acceptance to the newly formed theater company Jingju Canada. The company was formed by Shijia Jiang (our instructor this year) and Nicholas Santillo (a graduate of Concordia's Theatre Performance Program and one of the original students who went to China two years ago). The company has been getting more and more work as the months passed, to the point of now having a show at the Fringe "Crossroads" June 10th-19th at the Mai. Knowing that I was the member with the least training, it became my mission to venture to China and learn as much as I could, to discover how to be an asset to the company, and to boldly go where no Concordia student has gone before! Silliness aside, I wanted to expand my acting vocabulary into something more stylized than the overdone naturalistic approach that I had been learning about in most of my classes. Plus: ITS FREAKING CHINA! Who wouldn't want to go?

During the voyage there I was blessed with the greatest stroke of luck. A week before departing I was in performance week of the Concordia Production "Faerie Musical." One evening after the performance, my flying buddy, who had come to see the show, greeted me. After the customary congratulations, he informed me that he had received a phone call from Air Canada telling him that our flight had been overbooked. Immediately, my heart sank, and my mind began racing trying figure out how I would manage to get a flight this late in the game and the ungodly amount it would probably cost. However, before I could break down completely, he added that because Air Canada had felt so bad, they had put us on a flight that would cut 5 hours off of our total flight time, and for "inconveniencing us" they would bump us to executive class. Well after a few dozen giddy and giggly twirls around, I jumped onto him like a lemur and began profusely thanking him. Looking back, this might not have been the most appropriate of moves, as his very sweet and demure girlfriend, whom I had just met, was standing no more than a foot away.

So a week later, after a 10 hour crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, Greenland and a good portion of Asia with complementary drinks, good food and seats that actually turned beds, the group of us arrived in Beijing. When waiting for our bus with our translators, who graciously greeted us at the airport, I was feeling such a strange mix of elation, jet lag, giddiness and restlessness. I was astounded that I literally could not READ anything... absolutely everything was in Chinese! I marveled at the fact that I couldn't even decipher the label on the bottle of Cola that I had purchased in the airport - much to the annoyance to my exhausted friends, I must add. We all made our way to the hotel and rapidly passed out in our very short Chinese beds. Over the next few days, we toured the school, and before we knew it we were yet again marching across studios doing kicks and putting ourselves into the most uncomfortable positions with the goal of becoming more flexible.

The first week of classes was rigorous. It was filled with many misunderstandings due to the language barrier and witness to the return of the phrase "Ohhhh everything hurts". This can probably be attributed to the work of Professor Yang who teaches “Basic Skills.” Not a very tall man, he will often enter into the class grumbling and ferociously sucking on a cigarette. He will look us all over with his small, shiny eyes and either give us a sinister smile showing off his crooked and discolored teeth or just continue scowling. As the class continues on, we undergo a barrage of, what the group has agreed, are chains of Chinese insults. Between being manhandled and forced into painful stretches, having our hair pulled and being smacked, most of us approach the class with increased focus and effort as to ward off the teacher's angry outbursts. As of yet, we are still unsure if when he strikes us he means to punish us or congratulate us... we suspect it is a strange and undecipherable combination of the two. The group has playfully begun to refer to him as "Slappy Guy." We were told by participants of the last exchange that this teacher actually walked out of class screaming after saying he could not teach them a class, as they had not trained what he had taught them the previous class. So we have been trying to be good and if we train for only one class it's his. Speaking of which... I am due for my daily session of improving my splits (ugh). Off to self inflicted (but apparently useful) pain.

-Natasha P

Plastic money will replace the paper bills you have in your wallet. The Bank of Canada unveiled the new bills on Monday, which are apparently among the most secure in the world. The bills made of plastic polymer material are not easily counterfeited. They are also more durable. Canadians will spend 9 cents more on each bill.

Polymer bills are now used in 32 countries around the world. But don’t start snooping in your friends’ wallets for the new bills just yet. They aren’t set to hit the market until 2012.

Suoni Per Il Popolo reared its obscure head again this year with an all-star lineup including such underground stars as Keiji Haino, Omar Souleyman, Colin Stetson, and Dirty Beaches, supported by local big names Shalabi Effect, Jerusalem in my Heart, Martin Tetreault, and Constellation Records favourites like Hangedup. This festival, which runs from June 5-25, seems to be a favourite of experimental music lovers but is lesser known then perennial favourites Osheaga and Mutek. All shows take place in a conglomeration of Plateau venues including Sala Rossa, Casa del Popolo, Il Motore, and under the St-Laurent Underpass. You can find the schedule for this year here. Its line-up rivals even the Festival Musique Actuelle Victoriaville. So, I got on my dancing shoes and headed out to several shows, the first being Shalabi Effect’s CD release with Volcano the Bear.

I have to admit, embarrassingly, that I didn’t have an inkling of Volcano the Bear’s existence before this show. The prolific foursome hails from England, and only two of the members made it to Montreal this time. Sala was beautifully arranged for the show, a baby grand on the floor, an assortment of homemade instruments on the stage, and four reel to reel projectors on a riser in the middle of the room. The show began with two Bears only (Daniel Padden, Aaron Moore), on piano and drums. Cymbals were thrown onto the floor and the performance began in relative silence, a throwback to John Cage’s 4’33” perhaps. The set itself remained aleatoric in nature, including various tube instrument constructions. Tubes were attached to water bottles, clarinet mouthpieces, and trumpets to give Volcano the Bear a sound unlike any other. They have been categorized as “freak folk” by some, but their sound seemed more free jazz-inspired during this performance. The audience was rapt as VTB betrayed their endearing senses of humour through poetic lyrics and heavy beats.

Following Volcano the Bear, Shalabi Effect began a forty-five minute Middle-Eastern psychedelic jam with projectors whirring behind us. Shalabi Effect seemed toned down compared to their recordings and other times I’ve seen them. They had no percussion save for Will Eizlini creating broken-up, abstract beats on his laptop. Sam Shalabi once again awed the audience with gorgeous psych riffs, supported by another guitarist, Anthony Seck, and Alexandre Saint-Onge on double bass. With the acid-induced projections on their bodies, the quartet lifted the audience into a trance like state that, for me, felt like a mere five minutes.

There are still more shows to see! Check the link above for the full schedule and artist bios, pick a show or five, and have your mind blown.

-Danielle J hosts Runny Noise on Thursday from 10pm-12am