With teeth

Things then took a bluesy turn at the Dominion with a performance by Bearshark, fronted by Jeff Cogghill of the Coggs, backed by Hamish Robinson, on of Trevor James' Perfect Gentlemen, on drums.

He's under there somewhere.



The bluesy duo!



And sans flash.



More Hamish!



Guitar action!



Jeff sings!



Bearable action!



Singalong action!



The end!



No word on what they're up to now.

Red White and the blues

A few years back, I became enamoured of a band called The Clone Defects. Tim Lampinen - a.k.a. Timmy Vulgar - has since bequeathed a fine catalogue of fried psych punk upon the world as Human Eye, but when the band went its separate ways a couple of its members ended up backing Chicago's  Miss Alex White as her Red Orchestra. I bought a few of her albums and enjoyed their spunky chunk-rock quite a bit. Her current project is White Mystery, a duo with her brother Francis, and it's more of the same goodness. They're on a nine-week tour, which took them to the Dom last night.

Local trio Haywired was rocking the place as I walked in the door. I hear a bit of UK82 punk, some LA hard rock. At least some of the band has done time in The Nummies. They have a mohawk-sporting drummer who looks like he should be in a crusty band and a guitarist with a Nashville Pussy shirt. In fact, they covered Nashville Pussy's Dead Men Can't Get Drunk. It was a really ferocious set and I'm eager to hear more.


Haywired at The Dominion Tavern, April 24, 2012

Faceoff action!


Haywired at The Dominion Tavern, April 24, 2012

The two men of Bearshark I've seen before. Guitarist Jeff Coghill was of course in The Coggs and has brought their bluesy sound to his new unit. Last time I saw Hamish Robertson he was jumping about with a Flying V on the Bluesfest main stage backing Trevor James - this time he manning the traps. He's under there somewhere ...


Bearshark at The Dominion Tavern, April 24, 2012

Jeff frets!


Bearshark at The Dominion Tavern, April 24, 2012

Finally, White Mystery brought the house down with their curly haired mop waving and three-chord rock. Miss Alex White rocks the Ric! Complimented on her guitar tone after the show, she explained she just turned everything up all the way.


White Mystery at The Dominion Tavern, April 24, 2012

Francis hits!


White Mystery at The Dominion Tavern, April 24, 2012

They're in Hamilton tonight, Toronto tomorrow.

• Show reminder: The Dudes, Poor Young Things and Ashleys perform at Cafe DeKcuf.

Coggnoscenti

Last time I had a chance to photograph The Coggs were releasing an album and The Watters Brothers Rebellion shared the bill. Same thing this time at The Rainbow.



There's plenty of other stuff on around town: GOB, Ash Lee Blade, Ending Alexander, The Prefect play Mavericks. Upstairs at Cafe DeKcuf you'll find Brendan Flynn & The Terrible Liars and The Murder Plans; Joel Plaskett Emergency and Two Hours Traffic play the first of a sold-out two-night stand at Barrymore's.

Wheels keep turning

I spent a goodly amount of time thinking The Coggs were a folk band - something about the name, I guess. In fact they're a blues-rock power trio. They've been playing a residency at The Rainbow (it ends June 7) and have just released a fine debut album, Blackjack and Cigarettes. They played through much if not all of it at their Saturday release show at Zaphod Beeblebrox, and covered blues songs from all eras: Have Love Will Travel, Cream's Crossroads and The White Stripes' When I Hear My Name (and a couple more I don't recall). I liked them, though as I believe I've mentioned before, photographing people in black against a black background in low lighting does not do much for camera focus.

Jeff Coghill.





Bassist Travis Hood.



Drummer Mike Brittain.



Coggs action!











They also have a handful of shows at The Pour House coming up early in July.

• Show reminder: The (International) Noise Conspiracy upset the status quo at Babylon with The Fever, Sailboats Are White and For The Mathematics. I shall be missing this show because it starts early and I work late, but c'est la vie. Paper Moon and Square Root Of Margaret play Zaphod's.

Caught and missed

A lovely Saturday, and there I was feeling under the weather. However, I've been jonesing to see The Polytones for many months and liked what I heard on The Coggs' debut CD, so I rose from my sickbed to catch them at Zaphod's.

First, The Watters Brothers - and yes, unlike my earlier show plug there are two Ts - a 1960s soul funk influence sprinkled with some modern nods, and a killer live show.



Then The Polytones - represented here by frontwoman Lesia Manchulenko and guitarist Ben Wilson.



And finally The Coggs - good show, but not so easy to focus a camera on a man dressed in black, with a black guitar and black shoes on a black background while the lights are low. Here's guitarist and singer Jeff Coghill.



Then I zipped over to Cafe DeKcuf to catch The Creeps (unfortunately I missed Sexhead, Le Volume Etait Au Maximum and A Dying Breed, who were also on the bill - next time, I hope!).



Music is good for what ails you - I actually feel much better. More pictures will of course appear later, complete with guest appearances and a wardrobe malfunction.