Solo, with company

On Friday I went off to Pressed to catch some indie-rocking and singer-songwriting acts. The occasion was the release of Jon Hynes' new CD, Watchful Creatures.

Another Jon, Jonathan Pearce of Winchester Warm, started things off with some stuff from his regular band, performed solo style. Here he is, conveniently backlit by the street light outside.



Profile action!



The man in full, plus lighting.



Callum Runciman of Grime Kings and Boyhood notoriety was going to perform solo, but decided to recruit bandmate Jimmy before showtime. Thus, he sung and drummed.



Jimmy!



Glowing whatsit action!



Callum sings!



Extra Jimmy!



The whole lot!



On to the headliner. The first time Jon showed up on the blog was helping some Centretown Recording Alliance pals cover the Replacements back in 2012, around the start of his Ottawa residency. He's played with The Hidden Cameras, among other acts. For his CD release he recruited Rolk Klausener (The Acorn, etc.), Sarah from Fevers, CRA pal Dave Banoub, and Army of Saint Joan vet Pat Johnson (Also of many other bands). Here's Jon!



Pat and Sarah ...



Rolf! Dave! Jon sings!



Backlit action!



More Sarah!



The shouty bit!



Dave strums.



Pat counts in!



More Jon!



Rolf sings!



They finished things off with a cover of Guided By Voices' Game of Pricks.

Sunday wonder

It turns out that even in March you can have a show on Sunday night. Now, not a lot of folks turned up for this Pressed gig, but it was a pleasantly convivial show with lots of familiar faces. Headliner Jon Hynes, for example was last seen on the blog playing bass as one of "The Replacements" at the Punk Rock Covers show in April 2012, along with Dave Banoub and John Sproull, who also made on-stage appearances.

First up, Wunderstrands. And yes, Jon is in this band too, along with Mara Pellerin of Gramercy Riffs, Brad Kirkland of Holy Fuck (albeit not on any of the occasions when I've seen them) and Shaun Brodie (like Hynes, an occasional Hidden Camera). As usual, Mara's vocals sounded great. There was also fine covers of work by Victor Lewis and Neil Young's Expecting to Fly.



Brad hits!



Singalong action!



Shaun, as seen through the entranceway window.



Mara also took a spin on guitar.



Jon played an acoustic set at Raw Sugar a few days ago with Chris Page; this time around he had Dave and John on hand. Unfortunately bassist Don Ellis' flight was trapped in Newfoundland, so there was a bit of filling in going on. 



Guitar action!



And even more guitar with Dave.



A bit of bass.



Mara and Shaun then added some brass to the last couple of numbers.



Studio recordings are promised in the not-too-distant future.