Fitness regime

The Sick Fits finished the night off with some rocking action, including a cover of the Velvet Underground's White Light White Heat and Elton John's The Bitch is Back. They capped the evening with Alice Cooper's I'm Eighteen.

Michael Hurts in slow-mo.



New guitarist Preston Gunn - brother of Oliver (a.k.a. Rocky), if memory serves.



These slow speed photos al look much better in their bigger versions.



It's much easier to get a good drummer pic, like this one of Oliver, since they moved the front-of-the-house board at Babylon.



More rock action with Preston and Chase on bass.



Singalong action!





Most of the whole lot!



In related news, The Sick Fits had planned to go up to Montreal for a show with The Jet Five, but inclement weather sent their van into a ditch en route. Fortunately there weren't any real injuries and the band was well enough for their New Year's Eve gig at Zaphod's.

• Show reminder: Say, that's tonight! Amos The Transparent, Travel By Owl and The Reverb Syndicate are also on the Zaphod Beeblebrox bill. Also partying it up are Muffler Crunch, Good2Go and Blackball at Irene's Pub and Hilotrons, Fiftymen and Ukrania! at the Black Sheep Inn.

Eve of destruction

Then it was The Sweet Janes to show off their own brand of rock destruction (and their new bassist, Messy Jesse Lee). They threw a cover of Redd Kross's Linda Blair into their usual punkoid trash.

Jesse at right, newish guitarist Rodney Royale at left, Grady down below.



Todd sings! Or just about.



Janes action!



Midnight snack time.



I think we have a possible entry for the first National Capital Rock caption contest.



Rhythm section action!



Why get up?



Janes action!







The whole lot!

Down on the farm

A swell triple bill at the Rainbow ran long. By the time The BushPilots had finished things off, it was creeping past 2 a.m. The openers were the Evil Farm Children. I hadn't seen them before, but I dug their hard-edged 1950s rock'n'roll vibe.



Next up, Good2Go, who sounded really good, despite a shortage of practice and soundchecking (I forgot to mention that today was Miss Maureen's birthday - the boys in the band gave her a bubble machine, so when they play Irene's tomorrow you can expect airborne soap).



Then the BushPilots; the last band I saw before taking off for Nelson B.C., as it happens.



All in all a great night art (apart from the chilly walk home).

• Show reminder: Transitaural, The City Above and Butterflies and Zebras perform at Club SAW; The Photoelectric Effect, Dan Tait, The Worrell Charm, Good Night Knights and Jon Boy Swift play Cafe DeKcuf; The Empiricals perform at Irene's; another heaping helping of bands play Mavericks: Maximum RNR, four-stroke, The Bella Bombs, Gunsmoke, Nummies, Take One For the Team, Obscene Bastards, Wanton Manor and It's Asshole Time fill out the lineup.

Johnny's children

The Jet Five hail from Montreal - their spiritual inspiration is New York rockers like The NY Dolls, Johnny Thunders in particular. They used to call themselves The Jet Boys (and still have the jacket stencils to show for it) but changed because there was another band by the same name. They go by the names Jee, Olli, JOB, Ced and Yan. Who is precisely who, I don't know ... so I'm gonna guess!

Babylon had decked itself in Christmas lights (I presume a few may have survived until now - no thanks to Duchess Says). This is why Ced looks like he's surrounded by a swarm of fluourescent spermatozoa.



Gee is the quiet one. I think, times two.



Drummer definitely, JOB, perhaps.



Bassist Olli.



Guitarist Yan(?).



Singalong action!



Aeronautical action!





More singing! The secret is to keep your toes pointed in.





Real good.

Get together

The Soiree ended the evening with their roots-touched indie-pop. Seemed like a short set to me, but not as short as the snippet I caught in September in Irene's. I missed their release party for Birds at Irene's last month, so this was my first exposure to some of their newer material.



Rhythm section action! With Mike Armstrong and Eric Roberts.



Bryce Colenbrander sings and harmonicas a bit.







Singalong action!



I really enjoyed myself, which may be why it seemed to pass by so quickly.

• Show reminder: A huge whack of bands - A Dying Race, Farler's Fury (Sherbrooke Celtic Punk), Hands Of The Few, Midnyte Revival, The Sewer Rats, The Possums, Bombed Out!, The Valveenus and Sketchy Poutine - perform at Mavericks as the New Year's show season kicks off in earnest; Big Jeezus Truck, Gunsmoke and Radiodazed are playing at Zaphod's, while The BushPilots, Good2Go and Evil Farm Children either celebrate Christmas late or the arrival of 2007 early at The Rainbow Bistro.

Set sail

I learned one thing from going to see Flotilla: It's damn hard to take a good picture of someone playing a harp. There's a fair amount of music education with Flotilla - Geof Holbrook is an award-winning composer, and Veronica Charnley has won a fair amount of acclaim for her songwriting talents. Eveline Gregoire-Rousseau handles the harp (yes, they do say they like Joanne Newsom - but who doesn't, apart from Rolling Stone?). I gather they also have a drummer named Mark Nicol, but he wasn't in evidence, leaving Holbrook to handle the backbeat with an electronic drum pad. I can well imagine them on a bill with Sarah Hallman or Julie Doiron.

Veronica is an Ottawa transplant.



Geof.



Eveline concentrated on the high end.



Naval action!



Geof does double duty - triple if you count the vocals.



The whole lot.



Singalong action!





Flotilla plans to return for a date at Arts Court Feb. 23.

In the area

I had a quiet Thursday back on Dec. 7; the music that night was, if not quiet, at least a bit more restrained than the ramalama I usually expose myself to. The Soiree were the headliners, Acres were the openers. You will, of course, perceive that my pictures from the last show I saw by Acres were a damn sight more interesting. That was something of a theme for this show actually.



Some serious teeth-clenching from Matthew.



Michael from the floor.



Brian shows a little tongue, as is his wont.



Acres action!





As before, they focussed on the instrumental side, though the vocals were more than an afterthought. They once again made me think of The Wipers, and perhaps My Morning Jacket as well.