Purple haze

Madison Violet are a couple of lively gals who both grew up in small-town Canada with huge families - Brenley MacEachern in Kincardine, Ont., and Lisa MacIsaac in Cape Breton. The duo sports some pretty sharp harmonies. Unfortunately, there was a lot of noise from off-stage - both from the rockers upstairs at Cafe DeKcuf and a couple of audience chatterboxes, who the ladies wasted no time in upbraiding.

Here's the appropriately lit Brenley and standup bassist Adrian Lawryshyn.



Lisa is the multi-instrumentalist of the band, also throwing down on mandolin and fiddle as required - and yes, she is sister to the famous Ashley.



Singalong action!



Brenley works the harmonica.



It was hard to get a good shot of Lis, she moves around a fair bit.



Adrian at rest.



Lisa fiddles about.



Guitar action!



More Lisa!



And with extra violin.



Final faceoff action!



They're still on the road with the John Henrys (they wrap things up May 15 in Vancouver), but will be back in town for Westfest June 11.

• Show reminder: Lullabye Arkestra, Klovenhoofs and Doll rock Cafe Dekcuf; Standard Issue wants your money ... Steve Adamyk Band, Big Dick and Pregnancy Scares will make you give it to them with the power of rock (at Babylon, that is)! Dead and Divine, The Bled, Blind Witness and LetLive play an early show at Mavericks; Dry River Caravan and These Machines are at Irene's Pub; Mean Dog Howl (the band formerly known as The Coggs, that is) and St. Joe's Mission perform at The Rainbow; The Balconies return to Ottawa, accompanied by Sandman Viper Command and The Belle Game. The Elmdale House Tavern hosts Rudeboy and 40 Watt Monkey. Charlotte Cornfield and Purple perform at Raw Sugar.

Gotta getta sweatah

A few nights after seeing Jello Biafra and company tear the joint up I was back at Mavericks enjoying the relatively rustic sounds of Brendan Flynn and The Terrible Liars, who were opening for The John Henrys. I last saw Brendan and his band more than three years ago for a show at Babylon, when he was releasing Songs Of Brendan Flynn. By an odd coincidence that evening was a double-header as well. I'm not even going to pretend I can exactly remember what Flynn sounded like all those years ago - I can barely remember last week - but a faint sonic remembrance tells me he was a bit more rock on this occasion. On this night he was definitely working things out in a Steve Earle vein.

That Brendan.



The Terrible Liars include two-thirds of Acres, Matt Corbiere and bassist Mike Zorn.



Phil Evans finishes things off.



The other side of Brendan. As you can guess, the light was a bit low and a lot red.



Matt sings! Mike stares!



Brendan strums.



Still time for a few flash photos before they wrap things up.



Terrible action!



I did not know they still made ties like that. Perhaps they don't.



The whole lot.



Lying action!



Enthusiastic action!



And that's all she wrote since I arrived too late to catch their whole set.

• Show reminder: Band of Skulls, The Whigs, Wise, Young and King and Silver Starling rock Capital Music Hall; Rock'N'Roll Pizza Party returns to Elgin St., the new venue is nIXne and Year Zero and The Visitors will be providing the rock.That show I mentioned earlier with The Face of Jam, Kill City and Riishi Von Rex is on at the Elmdale House. Denis Hache performs at the Avant-Garde.

Medical emergency

Jello Biafra just keeps on going. The One true Dead Kennedys frontman and spoken word artists is on a role of late, still as aggravated by oppression as ever and still just as keen on making rabble-rousing music. His latest band, The Guantanamo School of Medicine is packed with pros and turned in an ultra-tight performance at Mavericks to a highly appreciative audience. The crowd went wildest for The Dead Kennedys covers, but as Biafra noted during the set, punk rock was always about making something new. so most of the songs were from his new album, The Audacity of Hype.

Here's a couple of his crack band, Andrew Weiss on bass and Kimo Ball a.k.a. "the guy with the least grey hair in the band," on guitar.



Andrew's brother  Jon rocks the traps.



Guitarist Ralph Spight works the wah.



The mad doctor himself, Jello Biafra!



Biafra starts every song with a pantomime.



Medical action!



Flag-waving action!



Ralph sings!



"I'd jump in, but I'm a little worried about all these hands in the air ... you know dental work costs money ..."



Show promoter and punk rock photographer extraordinaire Shawn Scallen snaps!



Jello goes down!



Jello works out. California Uber Alles workes even better now with Arnie as governor.



Jello was geting wet from all the water-bottle spraying he was doing.



There was a sign saying no crowdsurfing on one of the pillars in the middle of mavericks. Jello must have missed it. Frequently. The two guys on stage are the band's roadies, reeling Jello back in.


Jello was shirtless by the encore.



Still crowdsurfing, though!



The band's next shows are in Europe, starting with Goteborg, Sweden on June 17.

• Show reminder: The Elmdale House hosts Push Star Chris Trapper along with Brian Gordon.

Split single

I know what you're all thinking: Isn't it time Davey Quesnelle joined a band? Well, he's finally gotten around to it with Klovenhoofs. For a while, the band was going by the name Cloven Hoof, but then another hoofy lot from Britain with a somewhat longer pedigree ordered them to cease and desist. But enough about those geezers from across the pond ... Ottawa's hoofers feature scene veterans Shawn Jams Hill, Adam Fraser (who I completely forgot to mention in my earlier post - sorry bout that!), Davey and Scott Terry. These guys like their riffs monstrous and their lyrics shouty, putting me in the mind of Bison B.C., High on Fire and Asbestosdeath.

But first, the most important part of any rock'n'roll show — the drinking.



Davey shouts!



Shawn rocks the camo.



Scott models the latest in Alaskan-wear.



Shawn frets.



Running about!



Grimacing action!



Scott sings!



Bass-raising action!



And Adam prepares to hit!



The whole hairy lot!



Their next show is April 30 at Cafe DeKcuf with Lullaby Orkestra. I also hear rumours that the guys are in a bunch of other bands. Pfft. I'll believe it when I see it.

• Show reminder: The Dead Zone play The Rainbow Bistro; pH releases his new EP at the Mercury Lounge with Shadow Cabinet and Element Kuuda.