Tuesday, Sep 16 MOLLY NILSSON with Amery (of Born at Midnite) TrickyFM 7pm doors $18 adv / $22 doors all ages Amateur is the 12th studio album by Molly Nilsson. Deep in the teeth of a career that threatens to tip into something resembling a “legacy,” Molly Nilsson celebrates with an album recorded instinctively, quickly and bursting with so many moments of emotional brilliance and clarity it may be her greatest yet. Hers has been a career spent reaching out, perennially powerful in her earnestness, a warrior ridiculously defenceless and armed with a glittering sincerity. Shearing herself of the machinations of the music industry, recording at home, writing direct to the heart. Amateur is a jubilee for losers. A treatise in 13 songs, Amateur states clearly that we should live our life with eternal curiosity, offers us an open hand of comradeship out of the rat race. The songs on the album are both some of the most personal of Nilsson’s career and the most anthemic. First single How Much Is The World asks us to re-evaluate value in the face of a Neo-liberal system squeezing the life out of our loves. Pulsing opener Die Cry Lie satirises the commercialisation of emotion in the form of a shout-along diss-track. With a pounding rhythm track held down by gorgeous chord changes, heartbreaker Valhalla carries the torch for the main themes of the album: never growing up, making mistakes with kindness, moving on. When the drums crash in on the line “It’s going to get better now, you’ll see, going to be much better off without me” there is a world of feeling swirling about in the vocal delivery. One reading of the track might be that it’s a break up song but the subtext is classic Molly Nilsson: by living truthfully, making mistakes, we’re active agents against the myriad oppressions of the world. https://mollynilsson.bandcamp.com/album/amateur Canadian artist Amery Sandford began releasing as Alpen Glow in 2020 after years playing in punk groups in Newfoundland and as half of Montreal pop duo Born At Midnite (Arbutus). Her debut album release with Night School Records, Continue As Amery, is a blast of melodic joie de vivre produced by Montreal’s finest David Carriere (TOPS, Marci, Born At Midnite), Patrick Holland, and Kristian North. Sandford brings her punk and DIY credentials into sharp focus on 8 perfect pop odes to city living, making mistakes and figuring it out as you go along. Suffused with powerful imagery and an almost uncanny talent at spinning out hooks brimming with humour and spirit, Amery’s soundworld is informed by friendship, epic ragers, and experience and by her day job as a renowned illustrator and visual artist. Beginning Alpen Glow in a spirit of fun and now shedding the alias, Amery’s ready to hotwire the nite. https://www.instagram.com/amerypress Tricky FM is the music project of San Francisco-based artist Hana Freed, known for her emotionally raw, genre-blurring performances that have made her a fixture in the Bay Area DIY scene. Her 2023 release, Peace, Love, Unity, Rave (Cherub Dream Records), explores the complex terrain of contemporary womanhood — navigating love, intimacy, trust, and artistic fulfillment — weaving together early 2000s indietronica, drum and bass, ambient, freak folk, and pop to create a sound that is both nostalgic and forward-thinking. https://www.instagram.com/trickyfm/