TORPOR & BASTARD IDOL East Cost Raid Report

2026-09-13T10:50:33.000-04:00

Contributed by Felix L.G

In August, my chromatic hardcore band TORPOR and my d-beat band BASTARD IDOL went on a small tour of Canada’s east coast on our way to the second edition of PEI’s only punk fest, Secret Trash.

When I was playing in DUREX, we played with CELL DETH a number of times, including our very first show, and during our first summer as a band we trekked out to PEI to play with them. We were shown amazing hospitality, saw beautiful sights, and had a wonderful time. DUREX were also able to go to Newfoundland to play the LAWNYA VAWNYA festival, again, playing with CELL DETH twice while we were there. The members of C.D. are integral to organizing the fest as well as each member playing with various other projects, and hosting bands at their homes, etc. The two times I’ve gone east of Quebec have been very special experiences, so I expected nothing less this time, and was looking forward to seeing the friends I had made as well as introducing them to my bandmates who had never been out that way.

FREDERICTON

God I adore New Brunswick. The drive from Montreal to Fredericton is long and might be intimidating to some, but it felt so worthwhile. It doesn’t get a whole lot better to me than listening to back to back NEIL YOUNG albums in the van and appreciating the vastness of this country with my best friends. There was a bit of rain, although not too much that it would’ve made driving sketchy, and the mountains covered in mist were a real sight. Melody pointed out to me that the mountain range we saw was actually the northern end of the Appalachians. It’s on both of our bucket lists to see those mountains stateside someday, but since we probably can’t right now, this felt like a nice consolation.

I had not been to Fredericton before. When I came through New Brunswick with DUREX, Ales set up a show for us in Bathurst. Ruby had been to Fredericton a few times before and was mostly able to navigate the small city by memory. The venue, the Odell Lodge, is a community centre like local legions/veteran’s halls. It’s surrounded by a spacious park to chill in between and after bands.

There were some mild PA issues, but everyone played great. Local opener ANTIPHETAMINE played a twisted blend of hiking black metal and mid-tempo d-beat. PIPER MARU played great, this was my first time seeing them since 2019. They blew their bass head but took it in stride and it was quickly swapped out. There was a good amount of movement for all the bands but especially for PIPER.

I reckon the show Sienna set up for us at the Odell Lodge might’ve beat out Charlottetown for the youngest average age of show attendee. There were gangs of kids in crust pants and thrash vests. I gave away a couple CITADEL cassingles and THE NOT tapes to some young heads who seemed like they were still developing their punk tastes. Ruby overheard some kids after BASTARD IDOL’s set saying “THAT’S what we should be doing”, which really warmed my heart. It seems like the local flavour of the moment is very much on the grindier metal side of punk, but I would love to see some of these teens start a raw punk band by the next time I visit.

HALIFAX

Since this was one of our shorter drives, we were able to chill a bit with Sienna and Seger before hitting the road. Many of us walked to Tim Hortons to pick up coffees and breakfast and took in the neighborhood as we went. Coffees and farmer's wraps were leisurely consumed, and we hit the road by 11am.

This was my second time in Halifax. Plenty of people were moshing. TORPOR opened, followed by DESPERTÁ, who had Maria filling in for Nadia on guitar for this run, apparently she learned the songs in a handful of jams which is super impressive. BLACK DOG played third. Ben shouted out the touring bands and asked showgoers to buy merch from us and DESPERTÁ, and not them. I missed BLACK DOG the last time they played in Montreal for SEARCH FOR THE SUN, so it had been a while since I’d last seen them and I still hail them as masters of the blow-fi sound. BASTARD IDOL played fourth and we felt super intimated to follow BLACK DOG, but we had fun. I had to take out my ear plugs to hear myself during BASTARD IDOL’s set, and so I ended up sitting out RITUAL WARFARE to give my ears a break. Last time I saw them though they played an incredibly loud set at Funeral Home (RIP).

After the gig we stuffed ourselves with gigantic pizza slices from Randy’s. Full of grease and donair sauce, we slept and readied ourselves for what we came out east for.

PEI DAY 1

We hit the road early the next morning to get to load in for the Secret Trash matinee. Melody cried a little on seeing the ocean while we crossed the Confederation Bridge. Emily noticed a distinct lack of invasive plants compared to the rest of our travels, and told me about them as we made our way to Charlottetown.

Secret Beach are the local punk organizers, who collabed with High Trash Media last summer to do Secret Trash Fest. Two of the main organizers, Brett and Sophia, had a baby in the spring, and my understanding is that other folks like Ryan have stepped up to the plate in terms of taking on more responsibility with booking and running the fest. That said, Brett and Sophia were there and as enthusiastic as ever with baby Oliver in arm. That should make it no surprise that this might be the most truly all ages friendly punk event I’ve been to. Many many parents with babies and small kids, as well as young teenagers who had never been to a show before!

The attendants were a roundup of what were then familiar faces - ANTIPHETAMINE were in attendance despite not playing, a bunch of Halifax punks who we’d seen the night before drove up – clearly this was the place to be.

The gig started at 2pm with COY, a three piece fronted by Story from CELL DETH & FIRING SQUAD. Airy, breezy pop tunes where Story plays guitar and sings. They sounded like a more laid back SONIC YOUTH or a noisier VASELINES. There were seven or eight kids, including Matt and Story’s, up front vibing and playing with beach balls. The next band C.A.B.L.E were probably the youngest band that played. The older and younger crowd alike were stoked for them, and they got the side to side going right away. I think they covered THE RIVAL MOB. The kids had started to filter out of the main show space by now, although one baby kept trying to wander into the mosh zone and people stood politely to the side so the dad could come scoop them. Up next was new Charlottetown supergroup BILGE. Brett got roasted for his Flying V which looked tiny on him. WAYWARD CORPSE closed out the first half of the matinee, looking supremely evil in warpaint like something out of APOCALYPSE NOW.

After the first four bands there was an hour long intermission, for people to chill, eat, and recover their strength for the next four bands. This is an innovation that I want to bring to Montreal if I ever have a reason to book a seven or eight band show again. During the intermission several eggs that had been pickled with liquor by Matt were consumed. The caesar eggs were deemed to be delicious. Many were pronounced inedible. The author of this article did not consume any “beer eggs”.

Left to right: Rye & Ginger Egg, Budweiser Egg, Jaeger Egg, Champegg

The matinee resumed with DEAR BLOSSOM, another band from the younger batch of PEI rockers, sharing members with C.A.B.L.E. This band had more of a HUSKER DU, alt punk thing going on. The Secret Trash crew really know how to book a show like curating a good playlist. Never did I get sick of one sound, because it was always on to the next thing. Next were St. John’s pogo punks DESPERTÁ, who sounded way louder than at Gus’ Pub, and had a ton of people dancing. BASTARD IDOL played next, and Brett came up to me as we were setting up and said “I think people are going to really go off...the way they did last year for RECALL”. Closing out the matinee was the final performance of Charlottetown rockers OAKDRIVE, who were all wearing shirts that said “I miss TITLE FIGHT”. I’m not come across that band’s tunes but Elodie kept going back and forth from the merch table where I was sitting and chilling after BASTARD IDOL played. She and many others were all singing along to what I was told amounted to seven or eight TITLE FIGHT covers, along with a bunch of original songs.

DESPERTÁ at Secret Trash Fest

We had a bit over an hour to chill and get food before the night show at Sportsman’s Pub. Elodie and I had planned to try and hit up the only record store in the province, Back Alley Music, but it was closed. Nearby were a couple book stores, so we checked out Bookman on Seger’s recommendation. Our visit was short but next time I go to PEI I definitely wanna sneak away to do some window shopping at these spots if there is the time. Emily and Melody ate some Chinese take out while the rest of us snacked on sandwiches assembled from what we had in the cooler.

Sportsman’s is a much smaller venue than Trinity United, so it filled up fast and made for a crazy scene when people started to slam. Locals TROJAN WHORES played first, after which TORPOR played to a super enthusiastic crowd. Next were our buddies in PIPER MARU, who probably played the best set I’ve ever seen them play. I first played with PIPER in, I believe, 2018 when they played with SPACERS at a show I booked in Ottawa, and they’ve only gotten better and more confident as musicians since then. Next were CONDUCTOR, dad rockers from Cape Breton, providing a refreshing vibe shift. Closing out the gig were POISON SPEAR, who played a very short, feral set, ending with a 30 second cover of PARANOID by BLACK SABBATH.

After the gig, we drove about half an hour outside Charlottetown to Matt & Story’s forest compound, where there was a separate cabin that was reserved for us to stay in. Each of us had a pull-out, cot, or bed to sleep on, which was a real relief after a few nights of sleeping on floors.

THE JOURNEY HOME

This was our day of real leisure. I slept latest of all of us, till around 11:00, and joined everyone at Matt & Story’s house for breakfast they made for the 4 bands who stayed over. After breakfast a bunch of festival attendees, bands, and organizers pulled up to Blooming Point Beach. I didn’t bring any flip flops, and had sand in my sneakers for a week. After a couple hours at the beach, we packed up and went to Cow’s Creamery on our way out of PEI. There, we parked the van on a lawn in front of the iconic cow statue, and a local alternative looking person was down to take our last group pic of the run. In keeping with the theme of the week, we also ran into PIPER MARU here before they went back to Toronto. We drove about ⅓ of the distance back to Montreal that evening, stopping at Mactaquac Provincial Park to camp. Melody set up the fire and roasted hot dogs for our last evening together.

I would highly recommend any band to travel out east. We ended up taking a bit of a bath because of the cost of our rental van, but sold a lot of shirts, and sold almost all of the split tapes we pressed for the run. If a vehicle is not an issue, it is a must before considering playing in the United States. People talk a lot about the hospitality of people on the east coast, and the tight knitted nature of east coast communities. This tour was particularly special because despite not planning it, we kept playing with the same bands and seeing the same people at almost every show. It really felt like a large tour family. The bands that shared this unofficial tour – us, PIPER MARU, and DESPERTÁ, have all at times had “weekend warrior” status, and have not been able to play super regularly. With projects like that, you’re excited to get to play at all. To be able to share a small tour like this, with the additional planning it takes to jam and travel, felt pretty rare and special. I can’t wait to do it again.

The Counterforce - TORPOR

TORPOR & BASTARD IDOL East Cost Raid Report

FREDERICTON

HALIFAX

PEI DAY 1

THE JOURNEY HOME