Ups and downs

You want folk-punk, punk? Then the place to be was Mavericks last night for a trio of killer sets from Into It. Over It., Andrew Jackson Jihad and Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls. There was a ban on professional cameras (i.e. digital SLRs with detachable lenses), and I didn't have my point-and-shoot with me, so this rundown will be photo-free, but I can at least tell you what went down, more or less.
Into It. Over It. is a one-man band, Evan Weiss. Weiss is also quite a raconteur and gave amusing intros to many of his songs (apart from one about hearing that a friend had been killed) and ranged over subjects ranging from retrieving stolen bikes, girlfriends that got away and dangerous neighbourhoods. He had a large and pretty enthusiastic audience right from the get-go - the show was apparently sold-out - and clearly had a great time.
Andrew Jackson Jihad also enjoyed themselves, and also had "spiritual guru" Kepi Ghoulie on hand to help out with some singing and whistling on Sense, Sensibility. The duo of Sean on guitar and Ben on double bass are more acerbic than IIOI, with songs about hating stuff, trying to quit smoking and gerneral snarkiness, though that may just be because they feilded a lot of requests and the audience wanted to hear what Sean dubbed "bummer tunes."
Frank Turner has been through town before, and played the folk festival last year. His Ottawa fanbase has obviously grown since then. There was plenty of singing along from the audience and bouncing about from his band, and by song No. 3 his shirt was pretty well sweated through. About midway through he did an a capella English Curse, about the death of William II in the New Forest (Turner himself comes from what he jokingly referred to as the "mean streets of Hampshire"). He wrapped up his set with a suitably histrionic cover of Queen's Somebody To Love, then encored with Bruce Springsteen's Thunder Road, the quite appropriate Ballad of Me and My Friends and finally Photosynthesis with everyone chiming in on the chorus.

• Show reminder: Now that it's actually Halloween, there are plenty of shows for folks to get their costume on .... Constraints, Critical Convictions, Think Twice, Motivator, Asile and Fractures do the annual Halloween Hardcore, at Mavericks; Babylon has Rockalily Burlesque, Eagleson and Billz & Woo; En Esch, Günter Schultz & Mona Mur and Promonium Jesters play Zaphod Beeblebrox; A Darker Day performs at The Rainbow.