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■ Holy F**k
Holy F**k is a Canadian electronica band from Toronto. They were a part of Dependent Music, a music label and artist collective that began in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 2004 until its closing. They were then a part of the Young Turks label, and in 2016 they signed with Innovative Leisure.

A last minute decision had me head over to Turf Club in perhaps the grossest weather: hot & humid and then it started to rain on the way. But as much as spring in Saint Paul tried to put a frown on my face, it was all for naught as I headed indoors to the cool confines, with Canadian indie electronica band Holy F*ck in the house.

Gus Englehorn got the evening going. The singer, songwriter, and former professional snowboarder(!) had the unfortunate timing to release his first album right at the start of the pandemic, but he’s kept at it, including a new album The Broken Balladeer, released here in 2026. A duo (vocals/guitar/harmonica, his wife Estée Preda on drums/backing vocals), we had a long, mellow opener, heavy on reverb, and a slow build up across the song. Englehorn was performative, throwing the harmonica to the stage floor, not once but twice. We got a spoken word component and when they went into rock mode, the hat Englehorn was wearing had no chance at all, flying to the floor. There was a bit of noise rock here, and Emglehorn’s obvious happiness was a real plus as he worked through his pedals. A false ending had him yell, “hey, someone plug that thing back in” and was emblematic of the early going. Preda mentioned the last time she was in the Twin Cities (16 years ago!), she was trying to snowboard a rail, and “ate sh**”. It was a weird mix of humor from the couple, but was pretty charming. Some dual vocals on perhaps the shortest song were nice, and Englehorn was weirdly compelling. “Here comes a triple medley” was the intro to something, but I couldn’t keep up with everywhere they were ranging. It was definitely three distinct parts and Englehorn was surprisingly sharp musically, even as the banter was light. The longest pause in a song I can remember had performer and audience in a stare down, as it was obvious it wasn’t the end of the song. The crowd gave way first in a spate of laughing and Gus Englehorn had upended expectations in the best possible way. One Eyed Jack Pt. I and II had a purposefully off tune “I’ve been working on the railroad” intro and worked its way up from there. A thanks to the crowd led to the most driving number of the night and the harmonies were perfectly placed. A final song, Tarantula, had Gus Englehorn close hard and with one last laugh, they were off the stage.

Holy F*ck (dear reader, they don’t roll with an *, by the way) is a quartet out of Toronto, who are an old school elctronica band. They will use all sorts of instruments and non-instruments, but eschew laptops or programmed music. They have been playing since at least 2005, releasing a new album about every five years, with 2026’s Event Beat their most recent. A batch of synthesizers at front kept two of the quartet busy (though not too much, as one grabbed a guitar mid first song), while the back row had drums and bass (plus some kind of synth set up). Our main vocalist Brian Borcherdt was armed with a butter knife, but that was the least of the accoutrements in the early going for him. This was high paced electronic dance music and Holy F*ck was flying. Even their slightly slower tempo songs were driving, pulsating events that had band and audience rocking in time to the beat. The bottom gave out on the drop of the third number and I couldn’t believe the layers and volume coming from the quartet. Holy F*ck also were relentless as they moved from song to song, with little to no speaking and this could have easily been a dance club at midnight on a Saturday. With the band in full dance and jump mode, it was infectious and the front of the crowd was fully into it. The nearly frantic set up work between songs was impressive to watch, and as they headed into another song, there was almost a liquid feel as the synth waves crashed over, followed by intermittent vocals. We got a cheers over tea drinking (“it’s not very cool”), but that didn’t stop the band from dripping heavy beats. A switch of lead singer to Graham Walsh was a nice counter, and the band just kept humming.

A mid-set song had a nearly Prodigy feel, which gives you a sense of how far across the EDM space the band was going. Matt Schulz’s drums kept the pace for sure, but also hit hard for emphasis throughout. Reverb, deep bass, rollicking synth, Holy F*ck had it all going and a repeated stretch of music allowed for subtle differences that were well executed. A pure instrumental had bassist Matt McQuaid get a key foundation for the dual synths and this was a completely different sound from the band. Back to the alt dance beats, the reverb heavy vocals kept the atmosphere high even with a slight (very slight!) slowdown in tempo before things took off again. As we crossed the hour mark, the band was back to full press mode and the electronic effects were on high, including Walsh’s very modulated vocals. As the main set ended, it was hilarious to watch most of the band literally running jump off the stage, but an encore was inevitable. Back pretty quickly, it was a slow build up on the first one, but those triple synths got things flying soon. As they headed into the second and final number, they poured everything they had into the moment, and as bass & synth were screaming, Holy F*ck had delivered a unique evening to the Turf Club audience.