National Capital Rock

Friday, May 08, 2015

Caged heat

Summer may not be here officially, but it certainly feels like it with patios opening up near and far (to sat nothing of the mercury soaring to 31 degrees this weekend). While not as toasty as this Saturday is intending to be, it was till warm enough for Mugshots to open up its courtyard to a trio of fine bands, curated by Fryquency (that is, Debaser, Weird Canada, CKCU, CHUO and all the usual suspects). Bands came from west and east to strut their stuff, starting with Halifax-by-way-of-Toronto's Baby Cages.

Halloway Jones sings! The duo is usually her and Jeremy Costello, but on this occasion she was accompanied by a lady violinist.

Some less flashy singing.

Violin action!

The whole lot!

The shouty bit!

On to another duo, Eraserheads, featuring Alex Seguin, Omar Rivero and some uncooperative electronics. The crowd was enthusiastic about all three bands on the bill, but I'd say Eraserheads had them bopping the most with their twisty electro-rock.

Omar sings!

Alex hits!

They had some cool projections, which unfortunately don't show up well with flash.

Close-up action!

Extra Alex!

Keyboard action!

Fever Feels were an excellent capper to the evening. The Calgary band was formed by brothers Logan and Landon Gabert, swollen to a quartet for live shows. They've got a retro feel thanks to the organ and a bit of swing to them as well.

Percussive action!

Thomas Platt works the organ.

The whole lot!

Brotherly action (I believe that's Logan on guitar and Landon on bass, but it could be the other way around ...).

Landon sings!

Feverish action!

Mighty fine.

Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Let's zeppelin

Everyone knows that music is a business (one you don't usually make any profit on, mind you), but only Toronto's Blimp Rock has taken things to their logical conclusion, as a fundraising arm of Blimp Rock Entertainment, chasing down $700,000 in funds so they can run a rock festival on a blimp. They stopped off at Raw Sugar to give a presentation to Ottawa's movers and shakers (or at least its imbibers and chewers) to make their pitch. Opening up was the drawling folk rock of Winchester Warm. Here's Jon!

Some mid-song soundboard adjusting.

The whole lot!

You can basically forget about good drummer photos at Raw Sugar, but here's Matt anyway.

More Jon!

Rhythm section action!

Matthew sings a bit.

And now for a very important message from Blimp Rock spokesman Peter Demakos. The band is touring behind its Sophomore Slump LP.

Powerpoint action!

Okay, enough corporate standup, here's some catchy pop!

Claire Whitehead plucks.

Peter sings a bit. That's Robyn Letson at left.

Claire sings a bit!

Emma hits!

Robyn handles the low end.

Clapping action!

Singalong action!

Faceoff action!

Emma sang the last number.

All very entertaining.

Saturday, May 02, 2015

Rockets and Bombs

I'm a big fan of wild'n'crazy Japanese rock bands like Thee Machine Gunn Elephant, Teengenerate, Guitar Wolf and Electric Eel Shock. Unfortunately, not many of those bands have made the trip to Ottawa (I did catch the Electric Eel Shock at Zaphod's back in 2002 with Le Nombre, pre-blog); an exception are Zoobombs, who have made several trips to Canada since striking up a friendship with noted Toronto promoter Dan Burke, and frequently made side trips to Ottawa for gigs here and there. Despite their relatively frequent trips to the nation's capital, I never managed to catch any of their gigs. The band called it a daytwo years back, with mainman Don Matsuo embarking on a solo career. However, a chance encounter with one of the band's earlier drummers Bukka Billy, led him to get things together again. The band had a gig at CMW, so once again it's off to such hotspots as Peterborough and Bowmanville and yes, Ottawa, to reacquaint themselves with the local fanbase. They dropped in to the House of Targ for a rare Tueday show, which also featured an outing for the recently renewed Glorious Moonrockets. Here's Chris!

Chris sings!

Pat (of Face of Jam and Gutter Rocks fame) hits!

Coupe of Rat Tales, Black Stone Hearts and sundry others, and whom I completely failed to recognize without a headband - handles the low end.

Guitar-lifting action!

The whole lot!

Pat sings!

Hair-tossing action!

And so on!

Chris works the crowd!

Singalong action!

Rhythm section action!

Zoobombs put on a heck of a show; I'd say it was the best I've seen this year, if Divers hadn't blown me away completely a few weeks back. As it is, Don was wild from word go, and the rest of his band (which also includes his wife, Matta, and hired gun Machiko on bass) were super-solid. Here's Don, just warming up.