Crown of creation

On Saturday I toddled over to Birdman Sound for a set by The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol. The iconic Glebe vinyl emporium is calling it a day at that location (owner John Westhaver is shifting toward popups, drop-offs and the like going forward), and TBWNIAS was to have played at Targ for Psychfest III (now delayed to a post-Covid era), so the band decided to commemorate the event with a live stream on Facebook. After some kludging with the Internet, things got underway. Here's Nate and John!



Feedback action with Dave!



The walls got a green-screenign for those online psychedelic effects.



Trumpet and guitar action with Scott and Bill!



More Scott!



Symbolic action!



Keyboard action with Jason!



More Nate and John!



Documentary action with Ron!



And so on!



Dave dangles it!


More percussive action!



Jason shakes it!



And now, back into hibernation!

Move around

July 3 I slipped away to End Hits to see Captain Foxy - a local group I've never seen before - and Calvin Johnson, K Records founder. Captain Foxy play punk rock about unrequited love and oddball indie pop about working in an ice cream store. Or is it the other way around? It was 10 days ago and I can't recall anything that ancient.

Rekha on tambourine and vocals.



Chris Landry, once of Expatriate.



Allie Hanlon on drums.



Unfortunately I failed to get a good solo photo of bassist Andria (or of much else, I'm almost moved to say).



The whole lot!



Foxy action!



Captain action (it's quite similar, you'll notice)!



After that it was time for Calvin Johnson to take to the stage. Of course since this show was in End Hits' basement there was no stage, so he made do with a small bit of grey carpeting. Johnson has turned to acoustic balladry, which suits his careworn baritone and heartbreak lyrics. For this show he just stuck with acoustic guitar - he didn't even plug into a PA, not that one was required in the End Hits' basement with such an attentive audience. He also performed a capella on Move Around, When Hearts Turn Blue. He covered Dusty Springfield's A Little Bit of Lovin', which he said he admired for its combination of Memphis musicianship, Brill Building songwriting and Brit blues vocals.

All of my pictures of Johnson also turned out irredeemably horrid with but a few precious exceptions. Here's Johnson and his audience.



And him busting a few moves during the a capella Move Around.





An entertaining and occasionally funny show. I definitely heard some tittering and the odd guffaw.

• Show reminder: Brock Zeman performs at Irene's. In addition to their Bluesfest gig, The Deadstring Brothers will perform at the Rainbow.

Another country

Last Saturday I was looking at the show listings at punkottawa.com debating with myself whether to go and see DD.MM.YYYY, Quebexico, The Doers, Varge and The Expatriates at the Montgomery Legion or Detective Kalita, The Banditas and Andrew Vincent at Babylon. I couldn't make up my mind, so I decided to go to both - bless those AA shows and their early start times! I've never been down to the Montgomery Legion's lower bar, but any venue with a white ceiling and walls wins big points with us flash-bouncing types.
First up, The Expatriates - who I seem to have taken a lot of pictures of lately, so I'll keep this short.

I've lost count of how many "Damian at the keyboard" photos I've taken, so I tried to spice this one up by getting in the tape delay. Thrills, eh?



Bill and a few spare chairs.



Damian and Chris.



Michael borrows Chris' Jet King, Damian borrows Quebexico's Epiphone; I don't think he's actually moved from the last picture ....



Expatriate action!





The Expatriates welcome your feedback.



Great noise!

• Show reminder: Pianosaurus Rex, Place, F!ghtF!ightF!ight and more play the inaugural Synthfest at Babylon.

Eight is enough

Bands to see in one night, that is. My first stop on Saturday was the Montgomery Legion Hall on Kent where local photographer Paul Galipeau was holding a show featuring five bands. First up, Expatriate, who really ladled on the feedback.



Sudbury's Varge played an active set.



Vancouver's Doers have a new drummer and less facial hair then when I saw them at Babylon ("Where we played to two people" they said - I forgot who the other person was ...) but still sounded great.



Then it was faceoff time as hometown boys Quebexico did battle with Toronto's DD.MM.YYYY.







Everything wrapped up around 11 p.m., so I had plenty of time to go a block to Babylon and catch Andrew Vincent starting off a triple bill with The Banditas and Detective Kalita, who were there to celebrate the release of their new CD on Kelp, The Michael Parks.







A fine way to spend six hours or so, but man are my feet tired. Come to think of it, so is the rest of me.

Over the border

The Expatriates wowed a tiny crowd at Babylon with their heavy instrumental rock - it's a bit like Kinski meets Sabbath ... or at least, I like Kinski, Black Sabbath and The Expatriates, so I figure there's a connection there somewhere.

Michael Weiland shows off some rock moves.



Chris from on low.



One advantage of all these floor-level wide angle shots I've been doing: By the end of the year you'll know what kind of shoes Ottawa musicians favour ...



Bill Guerrero models the Gerard Van Herk look.



Chris and Bill.



Keyboard action from Damien.



Michael stands above it all.



Group action! (Although Michael is on notice - I want a big rock star jump next time he stands on something ...)



There next show is at the Montgomery Legion Hall May 13, along with DD.MM.YYYY, Quebexico, Sudbury's Varge and West Coasters The Doers.

• Show reminder: The Hussies, For The Mathematics and Turning Into Salt play Zaphod's.

We're outta here

Well, the turnout was meagre, but the performances were hot at Babylon a few minutes past. Four'n'Giv'r keep sharpening their sound, and The Expatriates were as solid as ever.





Some entertaining stage antics to delight the eye when I get around to posting some other pictures, too.

Across the border

The Gris Gris didn't make it over the border thanks to the ever-vigilant men and women of Canada Customs (or at least, that's one version of events - apparently the GG managed to make it to their Montreal show). Fortunately The Expatriates turned up, in both sense of the phrase. They rocked even harder than usual, and I'd say this was my favourite performance by them to date.

Those Expatriates in full!



Damien Thompson and Bill Guerrero got rhythm.



Michael D. Wieland (and his Eko foot organ) makes a quick return appearance to NCR after his solo Avant-Garde Bar show.



Tonight's episode is brought to you by the letter "E".



Chris Landry aims for a higher frequency.



Darn shame about those California boys, but the Expats did a fine job of making up for the loss.

• Show reminder: CloseDown, The Nads, Finkelstein Shit Kids, The Intruders and Eugene and the Eugenics play a benefit for CKCU at Cafe DeKcuf, it's an earlier AA show. Bands from points south and west converge on Zaphod's: The Shout Out Out Out Outs, Luke Doucet, Fembots, and Whitey Houston (who totally rocked when they played Mavericks a short while ago) are converging as part of Exclaim!'s Four for Fall tour.