Bread and water

As I walked through the rain Friday night, I comforted myself with the thought that when I reached the House of Targ, things might be dry. Not really: The big crowd meant things were pretty sweaty. Since I arrived late I was also afraid I'd be watching the show from the back of the room. Fortunately some nice people let me squeeze through so I could crouch at the front and take some shots of House of Targ proprietor Paul "Yogi" Granger's newest outfit, Black Bread.

It's a heavy quartet with Ian Vance from The Mere Humans (et al), Adam Fraser of Klovenhoofs and Megan Dean on keyboards and vocals. Think Mongrels and Public Animal and you've got the idea.


BlackBread at the House of Targ, August 30, 2013

Yogi and Adam bring the thunder and lightning!


BlackBread at the House of Targ, August 30, 2013

Next on the bill were PUP. They're an offshoot of energetic Toronto rockers Topanga. They pledged to finish off a 26 oz. bottle of Jagermeister during their 26-minute set. And they're off!


PUP at the House of Targ, August 30, 2013

Puppish action!


PUP at the House of Targ, August 30, 2013

They finished things off with a cover of The Dead Kennedy's Too Drunk to Fuck.


PUP at the House of Targ, August 30, 2013

The Dirty Nil also rocked out in fine style, kicking things off with Thin Lizzy's The Boys Are Back In Town.


The Dirty Nil at the House of Targ, August 30, 2013

Rhythm section action!


The Dirty Nil at the House of Targ, August 30, 2013

The crowd goes wild!


The Dirty Nil at the House of Targ, August 30, 2013

They wrapped things up with some Replacements.

Put in a good word

Ottawa's The Superlative first came to my attention when they opened for Black Mastiff at Mavericks in March 2011. They weren't their usual self on that occasion because their singer Charles Lapointe, couldn't make it. This time around he was on hand to flesh out their slightly grungy rock sound as they opened for By Divine Right.

Pat LeBrun sings!



Stringed action with Kiel Burwell and bassist Alex Tait!



Charles looks on, Zachary hits, Pat frets.



More guitar!



The whole lot!



Extra Charles!



More bass!



Extra Alex!



The end!



They're playing at the Mansion in Kingston Friday night.

At length

The whole purpose of this evening at the Dominion was to celebrate the release of Big Dick's new LP. Quite a few people have raved about it both online and elsewhere (e.g. Razorcake, Maximumrocknroll). Right now they're touring all over (including performing at Ottawa Explosion and Arboretum), but in mid-February they were playing in front of a rambunctious crowd, recent surgery be damned!

Dave hits!



Johnny handles the low end.



The whole lot!



The crowd prepares to rush the stage.



Big action!



Moshing action!



Dave sings!



You can just about make out the guy who fell into Dave's drumkit in this photo.



They'll be playing at Awesome Fest 7 down in the California on Friday.

Clothes make the man

On to Neon Windbreaker. The Toronto band specializes in some noisy punk in the vein of Jesus Lizard, or perhaps a more frenzied Pleasure Forever.

Guitar action!



Eric Warner grabs the mike!



Bass action, plus a Peach Kelli Pop plug! If I'm not mistaken, this is Pat McCormack, who also plays drums for Sam Coffey.



Perccusive action!



Eric runs about!



Yet more guitar!



Neon action!



Windy action!



More drumming!



The end!



A new EP is imminent.

Where the boys are

A couple of days after catching Callum Runciman's band at Pressed, it was off to the Dominion to see his sister Caylie's outfit, Boyhood. The gig was for Big Dick's LP release, and also had Toronto's Neon Windbreaker on the bill.

Caylie sings!



Luke handles the low end.



Callum blurs.



Keyboard action!



Extra Callum!



More Luke!



The whole lot!



Since then they've rocked the Ottawa Explosion, Arboretum Arts Festival and places beyond.

We are family

After a quick break for some Quebec City vacationing, we're back with the headliner from the February 15 show at Pressed, the ever-wonderful Cousins. Aaron Mangle brought along Leigh Dotey for this shindig.

Relative action!



I think Aaron may be looking more boyish at every show I go to.



Leigh sings!



Steamy action!



Blurry action!



And some feed back action!



Since then they've released a split album and done a heap of shows. Their next gig in town is at Mavericks, where they'll open for The Dodos, September 25.

Grime and sweat

In the middle of February I went over to Pressed to see Cousins,  band justly beloved by many. Opening act was Grime Kings, who have also been getting raves (I bumped into Michael Feuerstack of Snailhouse fame at Arboretum and he praised them). They've already shown up a bunch of times on the blog (and will again).

Callum sings!



Bass action!



Chandler hits!



A big crowd steamed the windows up mighty quick.



Grimey action!



Keyboard action!



Faceoff action!



They made an excellent opener.