Hither and yon

It's NXNE time again, and that means a trickle of bands from far foreign parts will be passing through town, maximizing the bang for the buck of their airline tickets with a bunch of extra shows in Canada and the U.S. Thursday night we had folks from Copenhagen, Denmark, Brisbane, Australia and Regina, Saskatchewan gracing Mavericks stage. The band I was there to see, and enjoyed the most, was The Blue Van.

I saw The Blue Van play a super set with a bunch of Danish compatriots in March 2006. It was the last show I photographed with film before my switch to digital (brought on by my Pentax Super ME's untimely death). I remember stewing as bassist Allan Villadsen jumped about in a most photogenic manner. They once again rocked out, with organist-guitarist Soren pushing his instrument around and over, just like at their last show. And jumping!


The Blue Van at Mavericks, June 17, 2010

The Grates are an Australian trio (augmented for this show by another guitarist and keyboardist) fronted by the energetic and vivacious Patience Hodgson. All her jumping about was making me think of early 1990s indie-pop band Whale. They certainly like their guitar fuzzy as well.


The Grates at Mavericks, June 17, 2010

Library Voices capped the evening. I wasn't quite feeling them as much as the other bands, though they have a pretty bouncy bassist too. Unfortunately with eight people on stage there wasn't as much room to jump about. They had a bit of a 1990s indie-pop feel as well. I could see them on a bill with You Say Party! We Say Die! though they aren't as dance-centric as that band. They're quite upbeat, even when singing about the end of the world.


Library Voices at Mavericks, June 17, 2010

From here, The Blue Van head to Montreal, The Grates are off to Brantford and Toronto, while The library Voices are going to Guelph for a show with The Besnard Lakes and Young Galaxy.

• Show reminder: Andy Brown and Telfer play The Rainbow; Hellbros, Farewell Cool reason and Caution Inc. rock Zaphod's; Sadie Hell, Ghostkeeper and The Arbitrarys are at the Elmdale House; Al Wood and The Woodsmen roll into Irene's; The Mahones, Continetal and The Beer Barons party it up at Mavericks.