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Punk parents playing Whistler

Monday marks the return of Vancouver duo Blackie LeBlanc & The Kytami Revolution

Vancouver violinist Kyla Uyede was notably scarce on the Whistler scene this past winter.

The former Whistler resident was definitely missed. The popular performer’s Celtic-flavoured duet sets with Whistler legend Guitar Doug are the stuff to write home about.

But it’s not like the girl hasn’t got anything else on the go. Aside from her solo gigs playing art gallery openings and cafés and her Wednesday night residency at VanCity’s DV8 Lounge, the classically trained Uyede is a key figure in the Vancouver underground music scene.

She’s the Kytami element of Blackie LeBlanc and the Kytami Revolution - the raw acoustic punk collaboration with her partner Jay LeBlanc, who also rocks with the indelicately-named Cumsock and a new project tentatively titled the West Coast Death Squad. The duo used to host the Acoustic Chaos punk nights at Vancouver rock club The Cobalt before the venue closed down, and were last seen around these parts at the Whistler incarnation of Acoustic Chaos at the Crab Shack in 2004.

Also on Kyla’s dance card – a metal band called Lownote, and the live hip-hop/drum ’n’ bass project Third Eye Tribe, which is following up a high-profile Shambhala Music Festival performance last summer with an upcoming headlining gig in the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Oh, and there’s also the recent addition to the Kytami/LeBlanc household — a baby girl named Cyprus.

Not like Cyprus has cramped her parents’ style in the least. Kyla says she was playing Shambhala at eight months pregnant and showed up for DV8 the night before she went into labour.

In fact, the serene violinist muses, rather than things going soft, there seems to actually be more gigs since the baby came.

One of those gigs is Blackie LeBlanc and the Kytami Revolution’s return to Whistler, opening for Florida punk band Against Me! at Garfinkel’s this Sunday night. Blackie and Kytami will be accompanied by Vancouver drummer Jimmy The Bitch and will provide LeBlanc’s signature zine-style commemorative songbooks featuring the set list and lyrics.

Following the Garf’s gig, it will be back to Vancouver, back to an eight-month old and a steady stream of gigs and a life less ordinary, a life she wouldn’t have any other way.

"I just love music," Kyla says. "I like playing with all these different people from all these different scenes. Everything from Shambhala to dirty east-side bars; from art galleries to tiny little cafés."

"It’s just what I do," she adds. "I guess I’m not the same as most mothers."