Aunt and all

I won't call Great Aunt Ida a regular visitor to the nation's capital - mainstay Ida Nilsen is based out in B.C., after all, but it does strike me that I've had numerous opportunities to catch her live that have gone unfulfilled. Well, no longer. Of course I've seen Nilsen before - she looks swell with a euphonium, and performed with great distinction as a member of both The Violet Archers and The Buttless Chaps at Barrymore's in March 2006. On to Great Aunt Ida, which for the purposes of this show was Ida Nilsen and Scott Malin, with some assistance from Sarah Hallman's drummer Tim and on one tune a drum machine named after their regular drummer, Barrie.

A well-lit Ida and a shadowy Scott.



And vice-versa.



More Ida!



And, er, that's it. Shortest post in quite some time, but this was one of those gigs where most of the crowd is sitting down and I didn't want to be running back and forth between performer and audience all night. I picked up GAI's 2005 release, Our Fall, after the show, and it's super; if I'd had a chance to hear it back when it was released it would undoubtedly have made my year-end best-of list (one of the shorter ones, I'd add). I shall have to track down her more recent effort, How They Fly.