National Capital Rock

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

The torrid zone

Last week I took one of my frequent trips to House of Targ for a bit of garage rock action. Miesha and The Spanks are on tour again, and they brought Cambridge's HotKid to Targ for a show opened up by locals Average Times. Here's Seiji, singing a bit!

Guitar action with Todd!

Singalong action with Curtis!

More Todd!

Extra Seiji!

Steph sings!

Curtis closeup!

More Steph!

Average action!

More singalong action!

And finally a bit more Steph!

HotKid brought their own lighting setup, which showed off their flashy drummer Rob but meant most of the other photos of band members were on the grainy side. Here's a well-lit Rob!

Shiloh sings!

More Rob!

Bass action with Peter!

More Shiloh!

Roof-raising action!

Stick-twirling action!

The whole lot!

Faceoff action!

Peter sings!

Last time I saw Miesha and The Spanks was at the Dominion back in 2013. She has a new (to me) drummer, but not much else has changed with her no-frills garage rock crunch.

More Miesha!

Sean is mighty enthusiastic!

The whole lot!

Miesha sings!

Extra Sean!

Miesha runs about!

Sean sings!

Singalong action!

A fun night! (Also, flash update: Miesha and Sean will be back in Ottawa for a show at Pressed May 27.)

Thursday, May 04, 2017

Back to the books

A couple of weeks ago I headed over to Black Squirrel Booksto catch sets from Casa Lagarto, Saxsyndrum and Del Bel. Casa Lagarto were up first in a drummerless formation and sounding more like American Death Ray to my ears than ever.

Jonny sings!

Well-stacked action!

Singalong action!

More guitar!

More bass!

Next up, Del Bel. They have a new album out, III (which makes sense since it's their third). Last time I saw them was at Mugshots a couple of years ago, as a sextet. They were up a saxophonist for this set and sounding great.

Emphatic action with Tyler and Michael!

Lisa sings!

Mandocaster action with Joe (and also Karen and Ira)!

Extra Lisa and Tyler!

Windy action!

And finally there was some ghostly action from Saxsyndrum! Here's A.P. and David!

Electronic action with Nick!

Extra David!

Microphone-stand manipulating action!

A fine evening of music.

Monday, May 01, 2017

Coastal drivers

A week or so ago I headed over to Pressed to check out some guitar-rocking action. Unfortunately I got to the show too late to catch Worn Robot; when I got there mainman Cory and Mallory (of Night Shades) were just wrapping up. So, on to Coastal Pigs - here's some rhythm section action just before Scott (Andrew Vincent & The Pirates, Banditas and many others) and Leigh (Street Meat, World War 4 and many others) crank it up.