No offense to the bands, but the best part of last night’s show at Squid & Ink was the vegan poutine. Crispy fries, peppery country gravy, and cheez curds… Poutine is the best thing Canada ever offered the world. It’s even better than curling.

Not long after everyone finished their dinner, Squid & Ink cleared all of the booths out of the small dining area, set up a shoddy PA, and let the show begin. It’s a tiny little space in Georgetown, probably no more than 40 people could fit in the room at the same time, but if you didn’t feel like being cramped inside, you could hang out font and see and hear just fine through the big windows from the street.

Marrow only played four or five songs. Not sure why the set was so short, I was digging their music. They were doomy and angry—not much too it other than muddy bass fighting with slightly less-muddy guitars and cookie monster vocals, but they were intense and perfect for a dark, Sunday night if you wanted to bask in something moody and harsh.

This Time Tomorrow played some pretty low, evil metal, but it was too generic to keep my interest for more than a few songs. Being loud and blatantly demonic isn’t exciting like it was when I was 15.

The Helm was supposed to headline, but their guitarist was injured (again) during his dayjob (which involves saws and hammers and other tools that can cause serious problems). So Heiress headlined and they were fucking great. The singer is Adam Paysee of Rome Plow fame (they put out the Blues record that I love so much, Helms Alee’s vinyl-only EP, and the Assailant’s Colera). During their set, Paysse paced across the floor like a caged wild cat—he couldn’t stand still, he couldn’t stay in one place. He went from the back to the front, screaming in people’s faces, stomping his foot, throwing down the mic, and screaming up towards the ceiling. He was an animal. The music was just as unstable—it quickly shifted from being really haunting, ethereal rock to spastic metal.

Check ‘em out; they have a few songs posted on MySpace.

As for Squid and Ink, they’re open Tues-Sun for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s awesome vegan food (and I hated the Globe)—check out their menu. Or fuck it all and just get a $7 plate of poutine.