Sausage fest

Everyone remembers the happy days of the Rock 'n' Roll Pizza Party. It apparently has some culinary offspring with the Rock 'n' Roll Hot Dog Party, slated to be a regular thing on the first Thursday of every month at the House of Targ. The inaugural edition featured punk trio Brat Kings (who made a great impression at Targ in November on a bill with TV Freaks) and Toronto's Greys.

Here's some singalong action with Nick and Chance!



Shouty action with Theo!



More Chance!



Nick sings!



Quick break for perogies action!



Rhythm section action!



More Nick!



Greys are a band I've heard of but not heard. They've apparently been flooded with Fugazi comparisons, but really reminded me of McLusky. They were up for some serious trekkin' this weekend, playing Brooklyn yesterday and Washington, D.C. tonight.



Shehzaad sings!



Braeden hits!



Rhythm section action with Colin!



Cam frets!



Running about!



Guitar action!



Extra Shehzaad!



Bonus Cam!



DJ Luke shows off his buns!



More Colin!



The shouty bit!



A fine start to what will hopefully become a regular event. 

Starting somewhere

Mondays can be a little slow in Ottawa, but that didn't stop local scene admirers Ottawa Showbox from putting locals The Haig and out-of-towners Dories up on Mugshots small stage. A fairly enthusiastic crowd made the trip to the House of Correction to eat chili and listen to music.

The Haig cop to a certain eclecticism; they've got some of that heavy 1990s college sound along with some quirky vocals. Here's Richard, Dean, Chris (on drums) and Treawna.



More Richard and Dean!



Dean sings!



Treawna sings!



Chris hits!



A rare non-blurry photo of Treawna.



On to Dories; who may recognize drummer Spencer and Josef (at left, on guitar) from their Daily Grind show with Topon Das and Obsidian Will under the Mono No Aware name. Aidan and Chris fill out Dories.



Staring action with Aidan!



Spencer hits!



Chris rocks the low end.



More Josef!



The whole lot!



Aidan sings!



An interesting evening of off-the-beaten-track pop.

Fun in the sun

Tropical Dripps's months-long hiatus took a quick break Saturday night as Bytown exile made a quick return - time enough for at least one show, in conjunction with Montrealers Tang Soleil and Sam Coffey associates King Creep. It all went down at Gabba Hey.
King Creep includes some Iron Lung folks (also veterans of Ultimate Lost High of Killer Wolf fame) ... and off they go!



They have a snazzy new EP out, as well. Exactly who they are, I know not.



Stand up drumming action!



Singalong action!



They definitely have a West Coast garage rock sound.



The shouty bit!



The whole lot!



Tang Soleil has ties to The Brabazons and Mystery Girls. Last time I saw these guys was in 2011 at Babylon. They've had a few lineup changes (no sax player or Ysael, for two) in the intervening years.



I think that's still Matt on guitar and vocals ....



New (to me) bass player Lil' Stevie.



Tangy action!



Dollard has moved over to guitar.



Jean hits!



On to Tropical Dripps, who rocked through a rambunctious set.



Kieran hits!



Shadowy action!



Soon-to-be-doomed pinata action!



The whole lot!



Kieran's bass drum made several attempts to escape.



The shouty bit with Kurt!



Surf's up!



Some nice sunny garage rock for the middle of our godforsaken winter.