Saturday, December 16, 2006

Back to the country

The last time the Town Cryers played together at a serious show was something like 1995 (they did stage a brief mini-reunion at the Rainbow two months ago, but it was only for a couple of songs). Thus, I seized a rare opportunity to catch them at Zaphod's. This was also a chance to see a new band on the scene, The Semantics, and fine country rockers The BushPilots, too.

The Semantics: Sounded like a bit of an alt rock melting pot ... I'll just say I liked that one song that had a long musical intro, and then only up to the point where the singing started. I'm filing them under "acquired taste" for now.



Ottawa cowpunk legends The Town Cryers sounded great; they were definitely rested and ready.



The BushPilots. Drummer Kevin Smith is, of course, also in the Cryers, and the bands share a similar country rock sound, so the teamup was a natural.



And I promise for the full post there will be more bassist, and jumping bassist at that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hopefully I'll be able to catch The Town Cryers at another reunion gig sometime. They were one of my fave Ottawa bands back when I was in highschool. My first gig in The Buzzards was opening for those guys at an all-ages club called The Starlight Cafe, in the summer of 1987!

Anonymous said...

The Town Cryers rocked the house!!! The years sure haven't affected their ability to entertain. And all their merch was for sale on a donation basis. That was cool. I picked up John Allaire's latest solo album and it is fantastic!

I saw the Cryers back in the Downstairs Club days and they were alway my fav local band. I always thought they where going to hit the big time. I see John still does a lot of touring. I saw him play solo in the west end last year and it was great. His songwriting is very different, edgy and heartfelt.

I sure hope the Town Cryers keep playing shows! Maybe we should start to petition them!

ToMmyD