Mothers and sisters

As the New Year began I hobbled over to the House of Targ to check out some ferocious punk action from Montreal powerhouse NOBRO. Combos Custodians, Magic Mommy and Hang Nail stepped up to provide some extra kick to the night. Montrealers Hang Nail were up first, starting with some shouty action with Alex and Hannah!



Hannah sings!



More Hannah!



Fraser hits!



On to Magic Mommy! Here's Aaron!



Sof sings!



Bass and guitar action with Elo and Fi!



Gripping action!



Magical action!



Guitar action with Lix!



New Swears man Sammy J. has done some stuff on the side while his main outfit was rising to fame, Custodian is his new outlet, alongside fellow Swearian Nick.



Bass action with Nick!



Percussive action!



Sammy sings!



Sammy jumps about!



Nick sings!



NOBRO always play a killer set - they'll be back in town for this year's Bluesfest. Here's Kathryn!



Closeup action with Lisandre!



Kathryn sings!



Amused action with Sarah!



Guiar action with Karolane!



Non-brotherly action!



Instrument-switching action!



Sarah rocks the bass!



Microphone-sharing action!



Karolane sings!



Always great!

The mountain of madness

Local lights New Swears announced a short while ago that their next show, last Friday at Babylon, was going to be their last for "a long while." I was keen to go since my photos from their last show turned out a bit rubbish, and Sammy J. was kind enough to invite me, so off I went to see them, Wine Lips and Remi Royale, with Buddy Smiles handling the introduction action. Here's Smiles!



"The Earth is flat!"



And here's Remi!



Remi works the crowd!



Shirtless action!



Toronto's Wine Lips played a cracking set. Here's drummer Aurora!



Guitar action with Cam!



Bass action with Richard!



Track-suited action!



Richard sings!



Lippy action!



Singalong action!



On to New Swears. As usual, the audience went completely nuts, too nuts to huddle down in the front row like I usually do (it was fatal if you were an inflatable whale). Anyway, here's Sammy!



Guitar action with B.J.!



See-thru action with S-Mike!



Confetti-launching action!



Singalong action!



Stoney hits!



S-Mike sings!



More B.J.!



I finally managed to creep around to the stacks beside the other side of the stage to get a shot of Nick!



So what happens next?

Because the night

Back in mid-June (yes, I am horribly behind schedule!) I headed over to Babylon to catch some New Swears. The band has just released a new album on Dine Alone, Night Mirror, and were celebrating its release with some help from The Thrill and Cole Sauve, who kicked things off with some hip hop action!



Drinking action!



Guest vocal action with Yashavelli!



More Cole!



And so on!



The Thrill followed with a rocking set. Here's Mikey!



Kieran hits!



Mikey sings!



Thrilling action with Derek and Mikey!



Nigel, of the pre-New Swears unit The Girlfriends was also on hand to play some guitar.



Headbanging action!



More Derek!



Extra Kieran!



New Swears finished the night, and as is usual the case, things went bonkers. To start things off, here's B.J. with special guests Spiderman and Batman!



Singalong action with Sammy!



Swearing action!



Keyboard action!



New action!



Silly string action!



And er, that's it!