Around the sun

November was a slow month for me; not only were the shows few and far between, my Nikon D90 once again went on the fritz, forcing me to revert to my Olympus E-500. I went off to Mavericks on November 21 to see some heavy metal. Priestess was making one of their periodic jaunts through town, but best of all they brought Early Man with them. Montreal metal-punks Trigger Effect were also along for the ride. Unfortunately my E-500 does not function as well in low light as my D90, and all my flashless photos turned out cruddy (you can go to my Flickr photostream in you want to see the gruesome evidence firsthand).

So let's start with a flash ... I had it set to black and white, since monochrome photos tend to work out better without flash and I forgot to change my settings.



Oops!  lets just turn that back to colour ... there we go. Patrick Bennett on flying V, Nick Babeau on vocals, Jordan Brown on guitar, Mike Niro on drums and Sergio Da Silva on bass.



Nick is a good audience baiter-and-banterer.



Mike hits!



Jordan and Sergio action!



Gripping action!



Jordan bends!



Shouty action!



And that's it, because it was a short sharp set.

• Show reminder: Mother's Children and the newly minted Kokomo Punx play Babylon; Cold Coffee and Salty Boots and The Secret Loves rock the Clocktower Brewpub; another new crew The Start will perform at the Ottawa Little Theatre Foyeron King Edward; Modernboys Moderngirls, The Allrights and Burn Planetarium are at Cafe Dekcuf; Mini Mansions and That's The Spirit play Zaphod Beeblebrox; Bastien Vaultier and Butch Bouchard are at Cafe Umi; Julian Fauth performs at the Rainbow; The County Boys and Tilda whoop it up at Irene's; the Elmdale House hosts Brock Zeman.

Walking distance

It's nice to live in a city where a bunch of the clubs are in close proximity - you can go to Zaphod's to check out a few bands there, then head of to somewhere like Mavericks and Cafe DeKcuf and catch their later shows. That's just what I did last night. Lauchie Headrick of Jokers Wild asked me to check them out and snap some photos, and since I liked the classic rock sound on their Myspace I did just that.

You didn't need the very capable cover of Led Zeppelin's Dazed And Confused to tell these guys like their heavy duty riffing. Loads of wah and some hefty drumming, plus some quite supple bbass woprk make for a good listen.


Jokers Wild at Zaphod Beeblebrox, February 4, 2010

I wasn't as keen on Pressure Makes Diamonds, though the band did have two-dozen pals to belly up to the stage, so that's probably just my taste in music. They do the throaty punk rock thing with a double kick drum - I heard something about a Protest the Hero cover in their (I don't know enough about the band to ID whatever they did play as a finale). Some bass problems and a mid-set pee break by the singer did cut down on the momentum a bit, but at least one of their pals jumped on stage for some interpretive dacing.


Pressure Makes Diamonds at Zaphod Beeblebrox, February 4, 2010

Dallas Waldo is a rapper, making this one of the more peculiar triple bills I've seen. His backing comes from a wee MP3 player. I thought he sounded okay, but I was hankering to pop off to Mavericks and see One Hundred Dollars.
 

Dallas Waldo at Zaphod Beeblebrox, February 4, 2010

I've seen some of One Hundred Dollars before - the drummer, bassist and keyboardist come out of Jon-Rae and The River -  but the creative key are Simone Fornow and Ian Russell. They do real-deal country on record. Live they're a somewhat noisier affair as pedal steel guitarist Stew Crookes uses a Gibson SG and volume pedal and isn't afraid to get some strange sounds out of his setup. I'm listening to their 2007 album Forest of Tears, and let's just say they were closer to Tirade of a Shitty Mom than the more acoustic stuff on it. It was a really great set and I'm now sincerely regretting not checking them out earlier (despite advice to the contrary from several corners).


One Hundred Dollars at Mavericks, February 4, 2010

As for Attack In Black, I posted about their last Mavericks set just a few days ago (man, that backlog) and once again they put on a super set. They also had some bass problems. "I've always felt bass shouldn't use effects" opined Daniel Romano after tossing the offending fuzz pedal aside.


Attack in Black at Mavericks, February 4, 2010

They called things to a close relatively early since they were feeling a bit bagged - believe me, I know the feeling ... zzzzzz.

• Show reminder: Andrew Vincent, returns from his conquest of Europe for a show at Raw Sugar with Rolf Klausener; Everlea, Lifestory:Monologue, Sounds Serious For A Sunday and We Say Summer are at Mavericks; Thunderuncle, The City Above and Room 222 rock Zaphod's; JW Jones Blues Band performs at The Rainbow; Rocket Rached and The Fat City Eight continue their live recording at the Elmdale House.

On the 99th floor

Back wehn I was in college Nirvana made their big splash and the next thing I knew everyone was forming grunge rock bands. In fact I'd already heard a lot of that kind of thing before from combos like The Sons of Freedom and Slow. There's something about the combination of fuzzy guitars, blues rock and plaid that appeals to Canadians - Neil Young may be to blame. Anyway, judging by The Donna Litas the sound is still common currency - and there's nothing wrong with that.

Rhythm section action (plus drinking) with Andrew Jonasson on bass and Justin Orr on drums.



Meanwhile over on the right we have some guitaring from Adam Dunn and Phil Jonasson (facing the other way).



And last but not least Sean Rioux on vocals.



More guitar faceoff action with Adam and Phil.



Singalong action!



Sean shakes.



Adam rocks the dogears.



More guitar!



Justin up close! (Or if you prefer, more Orr).



Singing, guitar, etc.



More rhythm!



And so on!



Big finish!



They have a freshly recorded EP in the bag (or close to it), so I'm going to presume a release show is close.

• Show reminder: Baptized in Blood dropped off the bill, but International Maniac Institute, After The Vendetta, Ecliptium and Autumn's Fall are still at Cafe Dekcuf; Attack In Black, One Hundred Dollars and The Amalgamation play Mavericks; Dallas Waldo, Jokers Wild and Pressure Make Diamonds rock Zaphod Beeblebrox; Rocket Rached and the Fat City Eight get it down on tape at the Elmdale House.

In bloom

On to Bloomistry, who I had seen listed for many shows around town with performers I like (such as Flecton Big Sky, for one) but had never gotten around to checking out live. They're a bit psychedelic, a bit paisley pop ... I could see them on a bill with the Telescopic Eyes or High Dials.

A blurry Wayne K. Spear on guitar and Simon Meilleur on drums.



A less blurry Terry Calder on guitar (a presumably unblurred Dmitri Koev, there bass player, couldn't attend this performance).



A smoke-enshrouded Simon.



Downstroking action!



The red lights were a little too high for shooting without a flash.



Things were a bit better under the blue.



Oh wait, that's better!



Mmm, coloured lights!



Terry sings!



Big finish!



You can stream their entire album, To Be, at their Facebook should you so desire - and so you should.

• Show reminder: Wise, Young & King, Acorn Trail and David are at Zaphod's; Ottawa rocker Greg Werthman releases his CD at The Rainbow; Lefty McRighty, Ray Harris, Shannon Eddy Smith and John Allaire make up the Elmdale singer-songwriters' circle this week.

Folkasaurus Rex

Riishi Von Rex made me think of P.J. Harvey when she started things up at Zaphod's November 2, 2009 - P.J. in her less strident moments, anyway. Her set was a pleasantly intense bit of singer-somngwriter stuff.



When shooting without a flash at Zaphod's, you really want o be on the side of the blue light.



The Gretsch was a new addition to the armory.



I can't stay vertical all the time.



Stepping back a bit ...



One last photo with flash - heaven knows why.



Since this show I haven't heard anything, so perhaps she's hibernating over winter.

• Show reminder: Punks go solo with Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music and Tim Barry of Avail ditching their bandmates for a gig at Mavericks with Cavaliers! and Ben Scriver.

They'll be back in black

I can't help but thinking Attack In Black should be a punk rock band, but the brothers Romano and their co-conspirators take a lot more from Neil Young. They drew a big, loyal crowd for this show. I get the impression thy like to keep busy, since they're already headed back this way.

A be-hatted Dan Romano.



Rhythm section action! With Ian Kehoe (who I heard was leaving but apparently I was misinformed) and Ian Romano on drums. That's an above-average number of Ians.



Spencer Burton rocks the Tele.



Dan sings!



Ian takes a traditional approach to the skins.



Brotherly action!



Good crowd for this show.



Feedback action!



Spencer sings, plus Ian on bass - the other Ian I mean. Also Ian switched to drums.



Extra Ian. Extra-purple Ian, at that.



Yet more Ian.



Here's the cousin of the post-show photo.



More Ians!



Big finish!





Hot stuff! They'll be back at Mavericks with One Hundred Dollars, and The Amalgamation on Thursday.

• Show reminder: Sleepless Nights and Hamilton Trading Co. are at Zaphod Beeblebrox; Adam Saikaley and The Luyas are at Raw Sugar; Andy Brown is at the Rainbow.