Now they wanna help your dog

There was quite a number of interesting shows on last night, but I decided to head over to the Rainbow Bistro to catch the benefit for the Westminster Pet Shelter since there was a number of Ottawa bands I was unfamiliar with on the bill plus Useless ID all the way from Israel. When I walked in the door Jason Ramone from The Nads was finishing up a set employing some electronic pseudo-guitar gizmo. I only caught about 30 seconds, then there was a quick switchover the next act ...

Which turned out to be acoustic-punk rocker Jon Creeden. "I know everybody's really down on emo these days, but most of my songs are about girls," he explained. He covers up what he calls the subject's "pathetic" aspects by throwing in copious movie references.


Jon Creeden at The Rainbow, March 26, 2010

Next up were hard-rocking quartet Kill City, who really ladle on the distortion.  I'm going to guess their band name is an Iggy Pop reference. They know how to work a stage and spent a fair amount of time bouncing off one another. There was a cover of The Cramps' Human Fly.


Kill City at The Rainbow, March 26, 2010

They were followed by The Beer Barons. The Barons are a bit of a departure from the other acts, being of the Celtic punk persuasion and the vein of Flogging Molly, The Mahones and the like. They had a quite a vigorous mosh pit going. Unfortunately their singer couldn't make it due to pressing family matters, but they did have Nick from The Dreadnaughts up to sing a song about beer and the perennial Whiskey in A Jar. There was also a Johnny Cash cover - Folsom Prison Blues, sung by bassist Sarah.


Beer Barons at The Rainbow, March 26, 2010

The show then returned to the pop punk in earnest, starting with Montreal's Old School Politics, who did an appropriate cover of NOFX's Murder The Government. Lots of jumping about from these guys.


Old School Politics at The Rainbow, March 26, 2010

Finally Useless ID played a really hot set, more super-melodic punk (plus a snippet of Twisted Sister).


Useless ID at The Rainbow, March 26, 2010

Lots of fun - I would have bought some merch, but my last $5 went to the Westminster Pet Sanctuary, for which the night was a benefit.

• Show reminder: Snailhouse and Yellow Jacket Avenger play the Raw Sugar Cafe; The Cowards, The Ginger Fox and Diatonic Fifths perform at the Cajun Attic; Zeroes, We Fled Cairo and Ace Kinkaid are at Cafe DeKcuf; Ketch Harbour Wolve, Telefoto and The Watters Brothers perform at Zaphod's; there's more fundraising action at the Elmdale House Tavern, this time the beneficiary is Hopeful Hearts and the performers are Shannon Eddy Smith, John Allaire, Hazel May Lebrun, Ray Harris, Greg Kelly and NSV.