LIMP WRIST with OMEGAS, NO TOLERANCE, VIXENS, MANIPULATION, ANCIENT HEADS and ANTI-VIBES as part of NOT DEAD YET at Wrongbar (1279 Queen West), Saturday (November 16), doors 6 pm, all ages, $20. RT.
He might be fuzzy on the exact date, but Martin Sorrondeguy remembers the details of the first Toronto show he played with his band Limp Wrist like it was yesterday.
“It was around 12 years ago. The first time we played El Mocambo, it was one of the Vazaleen parties that Will Munro organized. There was a lot of dancing and DJs and a little bit of everything,” says the singer over the phone from his home in San Francisco.
Munro – Toronto activist, artist, DJ and promoter, who died from brain cancer in 2010 -actually took the cover photo for band’s first LP in the bathroom that night.
The El Mo’s had a facelift since then, but Sorrondeguy – who’s back in town this week for the Not Dead Yet hardcore festival – remains the same guy who started not one, but two of the genre’s pioneering groups.
Before Limp Wrist, he founded Los Crudos – one of the States’ first Spanish punk bands – after moving to Chicago from Uruguay with his family. They tackled topics affecting the Latino community including racism, xenophobia and economic inequality.
When they broke up, Sorrondeguy started Limp Wrist, a group that became known for addressing gay youth culture and identified as part of the “queercore” punk movement.
The frontman is happy with the changes he’s seen between then and now. “There’s definitely a way larger queer presence, and I’m noticing a lot more trans people at shows,” he says. “Things have shifted as far as the queer punk scene goes: there’s a lot more visibility, and that’s amazing.”
Limp Wrist’s upcoming show is a one-off (Sorrondeguy lives with guitarist Scott Moore, while bassist Andrew Martini resides in Brooklyn and drummer Paul Henry in Boston), but he’ll continue to make music (he also sings in Needles, which is playing Not Dead Yet as well) and put out a follow-up to his 2012 photography book, Get Shot.
On top of that he writes reviews for San Francisco-based punk magazine Maximum Rocknroll and runs his own record label, Lengua Armada Discos.
“I’m always scheming in my head with new projects,” he says. “Whatever I can do to keep my hands dirty.”
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