Bleu on Blue

After catching the White wires I went to the Blacksheep Tent to see Ryan Montbleu - the only other option was gospel band Newworldson. As I popped in there were a couple of folks sitting in their lawn chairs, about as far back from the stage as they could be. Kind of lame. Montbleu deserved a more interesting audience, since he had an interesting soul-blues-americana blend, but I won't say he blew me away.

Ryan and keyboardist Jason Cohen.



Also on board are drummer James Cohen, bassist Matt Giannaros and viola player Laurence Scudder.



After a couple of tunes from him I went off to see Bjorn Berge, whose name may make you think of tennis, but who is in fact a 12-string guitarist from Norway with serious chops and a great gravelly voice. Unfortunately my point-and-shoot is not the right instrument for main-stage photography ...



After that I went to see fashionably hatted performer T.J. Wheeler, a fairly traditional blues performer.



After that dabbling I played a little more attention to local act The Sound Technicians. They seem to have shared a lot of stages with the kind of band you hear on alternative rock radio. They're a trifle glossy for my tastes but seem to have a decent power-pop sound.

Pete Ling sings!



Shawn Ogston rocks the goldtop.






Leigh Uttley - Drums, Sounds

Keith Charlebois rocks the other guitar, and occasionally keyboards.



And so on. I didn't get any good pictures of drummer  Leigh Uttley — sorry (and if you're wondering, is that the Broken House guy? Yes, it is).



Their next show is November 20 in Toronto at the Rivoli.

• Show reminder: Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band and Basia Bulat are at Capital Music Hall; Neverfriend and Suburban Sunrise perform at the Rainbow.

White Wire weather

Hmm, I think The White Wires may be closing in on the record for the local band I've seen the most of. Okay, they have a couple more shows before they leap-frog The Double Pumpers, Million Dollar Marxists and Four'N'Giv'r, but they're getting up there! They started things off on Saturday with a bang.

Ian shaved off his abundant locks for this set.



Allie sticks to the shades.



Hair-shaking action from Luke!



I should have taken this photo in black and white.



Yay! The White Wires have defeated the weather and summoned the sun!



The whole lot!



More Allie! One problem of using the point-and-shoot — it's hard to get a good drummer photo.



And that's it, since I went off to the Blacksheep tent to catch some N'awlins music. As for the Wires, since they're now international megastars they have a record coming out on Dirtnap real soon — November 23 to be precise — and you can download an MP3 of Be True To Your School ('Til You Get Kicked Out) over at the site. Plus, they have a show with Brutal Knights and Belgian legends The Kids in Toronto in December.

• Show reminder: The Books and The Black Heart Procession perform at Mavericks (not the Capital Music Hall, as was originally scheduled). Elyse Simpson, Nicole Christian, Alfie Smith perform at the Rainbow; over at the Elmdale you can catch Chris MacLean, John Gillies, Sue and Dwight and Sean Peever.

Stars come out

With nothing scheduled after Blonde Redhead's fab set, I considered going off to see Marcia Ball and The Wetland All Stars, but they still had the seats from the comdey show set up in the Blacksheep Tent and sitting down strikes me as the antithesis of funky grooves, so I hightailed it back to the Hard Rock Stage for some of Ronnie Baker Brooks. Brooks is a Chicago bluesman who is most definitely upholding the family tradition (his father is noted blues fretmaster Lonnie Brooks).

Cigar-chomping bassist Carlton Armstrong made quite an impression. Anthony "CJ" Tucker Jr. is the man on drums.



Ronie rocks the strat.



Ronnie sings!



Faceoff action!



Grimacing action!



More Ronnie!



Thisaway and thataway action!



After a bit of that I toddled over to the Subway Stage to see some Stars.



Smokey action!



Amy Millan sings some!



Gesturing action!



And even more smoke!



They were recently in town with Young Galaxy (just this Monday, actually) and are now touring hither and yon.

• Show reminder: Baptized In Blood, Counterparts, After The Vendetta, Dancing With Paris, Sleep Is For The Dead and The Rest Is Silent play loud and early at Mavericks; A Plot Against Me, Deadline Arson, Mad June and Symphony in the Stairwell play upstairs (and a bit later) at Cafe Dekcuf; The Hammerheads play the Rainbow; Zydeco Loco go nuts at Irene's; you can get your Ya-Yas indoors at the Elmdale House as an all-star band plays the tunes of the Rolling Stones.

Flip your wig

I first became interested in Blonde Redhead around the time of 1997's Fake Can Be Just As Good, mostly because Unwound bassist Vern Rumsey helped out. They've changed a bit from their early days as New York noise worshippers, but you can still hear hints of their earlier sound beneath the burnished dream pop exterior of more recent albums. Their live show was just what I'd hoped it would be.

The brothers Pace, Amedeo on guitar and Simone on drums.



And of course inimitable vocalist Kazu Makino.



More Simone!



Blonde action!



Faceoff action!



Kazu works the keys!



Amedeo sings!



Brotherly action!



The whole lot!



Out comes the Teisco six-string bass.



Kazu rocks the mic. Her hat drew much admiration.



Group faceoff action!



Kazu gets her turn on bass.



And so on!



More bass!



Amedeo goes down!



The shouty bit!



The end!



Since the show they've released Penny Sparkle. It's okay, though not up to the high standard of 23. They're still touring behind it for a good while, with dates in the Midwest, West Coast and South looming.

• Show reminder: Subb and Freshly Cut rock Cafe Dekcuf; Unexpect, Necronomicon and Insides Out are downstairs at Mavericks; The Love Machine, We Were Lovers and Cherry Chapstick perform at Oliver's Pub. A Darker Day gets gloomy at Zaphod's; John Primer plays the Rainbow; Irene's hosts the Jesse Green Band; The Reverb Syndicate and The Bible All Stars make some noise at the Elmdale House; Vancouver punks Cambridge are at the Avant-Garde.

"They're all Sabbath tunes"

In the middle of my Chicha Libre sandwich I caught some of local quartet Garaga's set. As usual they were emitting a powerful crunch. "See if you can spot the Black Sabbath cover ... they're actually all Sabbath tunes," said frontman Jeff (or something like that ... it was four months ago and the mind grows hazy).

Jeff sings!



Freshly minted dad Shawn (I mean now, not freshly back then) frets.



Later in the festival the frontman of The Whigs declared shorts a "rock faux pas". Garaga obviously didn't get the memo.



I don't know what's up there.



Tim doesn't need all of this rack tommery! Just some of it.



I suspect witty banter.



Colin shows the Visitors love.



Rock action!



Rhythm section action!



Toasting action!



Jeff sings some more!



Guitar-lifting action!



More guitar!



Since then they've done some recording and once again switched drummers - Dave Faught of Blackball fame will be manning the kit sometime soon.

• Show reminder: It's punk polka time at Mavericks with The Dreadnoughts, The Beer Barons and The Krapskraps; Jon Cohen Experimental and The Wind Up Radio Sessions perform at Zaphod Beeblebrox. Pistol George Warren and Beth Hamilton roll into the Elmdale Tavern.