In effect

I've been lazing around this winter break and only caught a few shows, but I figured it was worth making the trip over to Raw Sugar to see Shalabi Effect and David Jackson. Along with a lot of people, I first heard about Sam Shalabi in conjunction with his split recording with Godspeed You Black Emperor. Later I caught him performing solo at Gallery 101's old place on Nepean St.; that would be April 2003.

David Jackson's show ended much like his Pressed performance opening for The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol in March at Pressed, reminding me very much of some of Roy Montgomery's work, but he started things off in a more experimental mode, manipulating his guitar's pickup selector switch, futzing with pedals, and using a vibrating clip and miniature street organ to stimulate the strings.



I only took three photos, one of them out of focus, so let's move right along to Shalabi Effect. In addition to Shalabi, the Effect features the many talents of filmmaker Anthony Seck, percussionist Will Eizlini and avant-garde musician Alexandre St. Onge. They started things on a more experimental tip, then wrapped things off with some Eastern-influenced stuff.



St. Onge got a seat at the table.



Too dark for a good Eizlini photo, sorry! No wait, I just made a mess of my ISO settings.



Seck frets!



Extra Osama!



St. Onge works the mike.



Lap steel action!



Time for the oud.



Seck's instrument looks a bit like a dutar, but I'm no expert.



They really finished the night in style.