At the Rickshaw Theatre on Saturday, October 17

What happens when four unsigned Vancouver bands get together, record covers of each other’s songs, put out an album, perform all 12 tracks at a CD-release party, and then pepper their own material in each set, including ditties that were previously covered by other bands on the same bill? Answer: it turns into a cross-referencing, fact-checking hell for the hapless reviewer trying to get song titles, credits, and performances straight. But that’s neither here nor there.

What’s really important is that this local love fest actually happened at all and that these bands had the balls, creative ingenuity, and organizational skills to make this art project happen. No easy feat. There are schedules to juggle, money to front, egos to keep in check—none of which is the average musician’s strong suit.

So props to Junior Major, Fake Shark-Real Zombie, Adjective, and the Good News, because not only did they pull this off—the finished product, Quadruple Dare/Vancouver Mutilation is a damn fine indie-rock album.

Those involved dropped this limited-edition vinyl coup last Saturday at the Rickshaw Theatre, where, in the spirit of collectivism, they picked numbers out of a hat for time slots.

Junior Major pulled unlucky number one. The garage-y pop four-piece kicked off three hours of name-that-cover with “The One We Know”, a song originally recorded by Adjective. Considering how challenging it can be to warm up a room as people are filing in, Junior Major did a bang-up job. This was mostly due to lead singer Suzy Sabla’s infectious B-52s-esque enthusiasm, bassist Adam Sabla’s rock-star bravado, and drummer Tony Dallas’s knack for playing it cool while keeping it all together—he’s the Charlie Watts of the band. Guitarist Katy Horsley, however, looked like a Scandinavian art-rock project would be more to her liking. So it was no surprise when they announced that she was, in fact, leaving the group. Good luck with your future endeavours, Katy. See ya on Facebook!

Up next: Fake Shark-Real Zombie. The four dirty trash ’n’ rollers cranked out a straight-up punk version of the Good News’ “Backstage Underage”. But it was their own “Puke Rawk”—East Van’s new favourite party anthem—that was the real crowd-pleaser.

After that, it was Adjective’s turn. The post-punk quartet started with “The One We Know”, the band’s own song. But there was some minor credit confusion when guitarist Luna Tic announced it as a Junior Major song. Turned out to be a wording glitch. Still, it was nice to know I wasn’t the only one struggling to keep it all straight.

Headliners the Good News stole the show. With Rodrigo Gonzalez’s big, bad, beautiful R&B voice bringing soul to the proceedings, the poppy-gospel-punk six-piece killed it. Of course, in the end, it wasn’t about who was better than whom, as everybody jumped on-stage for a great big sing-along to “Backstage Underage”. This is also where Fake Shark’s bassist P-Boss and Gonzalez simulated a dry 69er. You just don’t see that kind of camaraderie among bands every day, so again, hats off to the Quadruple Dare project. Nicely fucking done!