No worries atoll

Islands used to pair downer lyrics with peppy pop and curveball tunes incorporating rap and other oddities. On its new album Arm's Way, the band's music is a dark melodic churn with the same sinister ambience of Pleasure Forever and The Afghan Whigs.
Islands' sound is also reflected in their stage gear. Once, the whole band wore white; now they all year black (though a few holdouts still wear white sneakers; replacing one's footgear is apparently a trickier business). They've had the same lineup for the last year or so, and that's meant a much sharper sound as well. This was a really excellent set - my favourite by them to date - with the band zipping through their set list with superb effect.

Nick Thornburn is still the least hairy-chested performer in indie rock.



Since I was stuck over on the right of the stage by the capacity crowd, most of my pictures are of guitarist and saxophonist Patrick Gregoire.



Nick and a not very good picture of brother violinists Alex and Sebastien Chow.



More Patrick!



You can almost make out drummer Aaron Harris at the back of this picture.



More Nick and more brothers!



And so on!



And last but not least bassist Patrice Agbokou.



A dynamite show.

• Show reminder: Rex and the Dire Royalty, Dry River Caravan and Maxim Cossette of the Sick Sick Sicks play Zaphod Beeblebrox; Adam Puddington unleashes his new CD at Irene's.

From Babylon to Bytown

There was a sizable crowd at Babylon when I walked in around 9 p.m. Last time I saw Islands was at The Capital Music Hall. The venue is smaller but their audience doesn't seem to have shrunk any. If they keep putting on shows like they did last night, there's no way they're going to be able to pack all their fans into Babylon. It was an excellent double bill. Guelph's The Magic sounded as sharp as they looked in their cummerbunds and white ties. It was formed by Geordie Gordon - the chap in the tie - who some folks may recognize from his membership in The Barmitzvah Brothers. That's his brother Evan handling the bass synth. Of the others I know not, but the sound has a certain Bryan Ferryish vibe.


The Magic, Babylon, May 27

Then The Islands whipped through a knockout set. They used to sugarcoat their sinister intent. On the new album there's no sugar and contrary to some opinion, I think it suits them very well. The performance was stellar from all points of view. The mass failure of Nick Thorburn's pedals didn't seem to affect them in the least.


Islands, Babylon, May 27

After the show (and a brief stop at the merch table to buy both band's latest releases) I headed off to the Bytown Tavern to check out the four-band show.


Biipiigwan, The Bytown Tavern, May 27

Unfortunately I missed the first three combos, including the newly re-purposed Mile Over Mecca (now Mothers of the Lower East Side). I stuck around for 20 minutes of Biipiigwan's grindmetal then dashed home. I need my sleep, since as far as I can tell the folks upstairs are rebuilding their apartment from scratch ...

Mapping out the week

There's several intriguing shows this week. My days off fall early in the week so I'll have to skip out on the weekend pileup, but there's a few shows of note on Tuesday ...


Islands, Capital Music Hall, September 27, 2006

Namely Islands, who return too Babylon with new album in tow. The Magic and Street Carnage open the show. The Mantra, Biipiigwan and The Mothers of The Lower East Side and The Mistress make for an intriguing bill at the Bytown Tavern.


Good2Go, Barrymore's, May 5, 2006

Then it gets a little quiet - drop me a line if you know different - until Friday, when you can see Kintra, The Unavowed and Breadfan at Cafe DeKcuf. Good2Go and Robin Black perform at Zaphod's. Danko Jones and the ever-wonderful Hot Springs perform at Barrymore's. You can also see The Sunbleached Skulls at the Elmdale House Tavern.


Evil Farm Children, Zaphod Beeblebrox, June 6, 2007

Saturday Evil Farm Children fall in with the hot rod set with a show at Autowonderland. That kicks off at 11 a.m.; later in the day you can see Sirens and Serenades, Jamin Aura, Dead Eye Daisy, Eternal Paradox, Five Forty Nine and Bear The Witness at Cafe Dekcuf. Hollowtip Hearts release their new CD with Shanker + Romps and The Weathermakers at the Bytown Tavern. 90 Pounds of Ugly and No Barbers Required perform at Irene's. Amos The Transparent and Laurent Bourque play Zaphod's.
On Sunday The New Cities, To The Rescue and Bright City Lights get municipal at Cafe DeKcuf.

At sea

I've seen Nick Diamond and Co. three times. First as The Unicorns, then as Islands at Babylon back in May, and most lately at the Capital Music Hall. I seem to remember a bit more sparky commentary between songs on previous occasions, and this show was sliver below their Babylon appearance in terms of musical fire. Of course, they didn't have Jim Guthrie or Jamie Tambour with them, so it isn't quite a fair comparison. Still quite good though.



Diamond!



Diamond close up!



Violinist Sebastien Chow makes an impish counterpart to Diamond's smart aleck stage presence.



Bassist Patrice Agbokou in lights.



Sebastien's brother Alex in less light.



Faceoff action! (With Patrick Gregoire.)



Later in the set I snuck up to the balcony. A couple of guys left before the encore, so I had a good spot to shoot from.





As an added benefit, it was actually a half-decent place to get a few shots of Patrick from.



Brotherly action!



Seb and Nick action!



Encore action!



Unfortunately I couldn't get a decent picture of Tambour's replacement, Aaron Harris. New violinist Kate Perkins wasn't around, either.

• Show reminder: There's Ladyfest action at Maverick's with Julie Doiron, The TunaHelpers and Kelsey McNulty (ex-My Dad Vs. Yours; Amos the Transparent).

Who goes there?

What ... we ... have here ... is a failiyuh to communicate. There was some minor confusion over whether the Islands show at Capital Music Hall had been moved (it hadn't, but the rumour definitely was about). I was even tempted to zip over to Babylon to see if they had in fact moved, but decided to hell with it and walked off to George St. I got there expecting to see The Unireverse on stage, only to hear some kind of acoustic singer-songwriter stuff. No, The Unireverse haven't traded in their Moogs for Martins and Taylors. So who's that on stage?

Answer: Stephen St. Pierre, with Takamine.



Unfortunately, Malajube couldn't make it - Unireverse went on second.



Islands took the stage about 10 p.m., played for an hour, did a three song encore.



Good show, perhaps a bit more sedate than their Babylon show. This was my first time in the Capital Music Hall's new digs. Seems pretty nice, and I thought the sound was very good.

No Island is a man

Actually, Islands are all guys - at least at the moment. Last time I saw any of this lot was at Zaphod's when Niel Diamonds and J'aime Tambour played as two-thirds of The Unicorns. They were joined on their album, Return to the Sea by Patrice Agbokou on bass and Jim Guthrie on guitar (though I gather this may have been his last show with the band, given Diamond's onstage comment that he didn't know when they'd be playing together again), but the sundry other players have been substituted on stage by the recently added bass clarinetist Patrick Gregoire as well as Sebastian and Alex Chow (who come from Ottawa - their parents were at the show).

Niel (or Nick) Diamonds.



Patrice on the five-string bass.



J'aime Tambour ... like The Dymaxions he hails from Guelph, so I'm wondering (quite irrelevantly) if the connection helped get them on the bill.



Sebastien shakes it.



And sings along with brother Alex.



Patrick Gregoire takes a turn on the keys - good thing too, because there was no way I was getting pictures of the other side of the stage. Incidentally, he has a duo of his own, Sister Suvi, which will be performing at End Hits June 24.



And last but not least a very tight telephoto shot of the soon to depart(?) Jim Guthrie.



Clapping action. Flash + plus long stage + white shirts = crap photo, but oh well.



Island action!







Who is this mystery man ... could it be ... J'aime Tambour?!?



Well yes, it could be. Babylon gets a might sweaty when it's crowded.



Singalong action!









Niel had some fun in the crowd.



Hi there.



Feedback finale!



Although I once again preferred the opening acts to the headliners, this time it was very, very close - their indie-rock mashup is much improved from their Unicorn days.

• Show reminder: The Massacre, The Annoyers, The Poulsens, The Nads, Midnyte Revival and Jaded Community play Cafe DeKcuf; Clock Strikes, The Screaming Monkeys, Travolta Sings, Sarah DeLuca, Eric Eggleston play Zaphod Beeblebrox.