Solo, with company

On Friday I went off to Pressed to catch some indie-rocking and singer-songwriting acts. The occasion was the release of Jon Hynes' new CD, Watchful Creatures.

Another Jon, Jonathan Pearce of Winchester Warm, started things off with some stuff from his regular band, performed solo style. Here he is, conveniently backlit by the street light outside.



Profile action!



The man in full, plus lighting.



Callum Runciman of Grime Kings and Boyhood notoriety was going to perform solo, but decided to recruit bandmate Jimmy before showtime. Thus, he sung and drummed.



Jimmy!



Glowing whatsit action!



Callum sings!



Extra Jimmy!



The whole lot!



On to the headliner. The first time Jon showed up on the blog was helping some Centretown Recording Alliance pals cover the Replacements back in 2012, around the start of his Ottawa residency. He's played with The Hidden Cameras, among other acts. For his CD release he recruited Rolk Klausener (The Acorn, etc.), Sarah from Fevers, CRA pal Dave Banoub, and Army of Saint Joan vet Pat Johnson (Also of many other bands). Here's Jon!



Pat and Sarah ...



Rolf! Dave! Jon sings!



Backlit action!



More Sarah!



The shouty bit!



Dave strums.



Pat counts in!



More Jon!



Rolf sings!



They finished things off with a cover of Guided By Voices' Game of Pricks.

Black and brown

Last Saturday I dragged myself over to Cafe DeKcuf (it's been a while) to check out Gnarly Brown, a new band featuring Ty Black of Pretty Little Death Machine, along with Black Market Candy, and East Coast travellers Verse The Sun (Monsun was also on the bill, but I had to split early).

Black Market Candy were on first; this was also the debut performance from new bassist Robert.



Geoff Hiscock sings!



Ty McKim hits!



Guitar action!



The whole lot!



Extra Geoff!



On to the premiere of Gnarly Brown, who were sounding very solid out of the gate.



Faceoff action!



Extra Ty!



Guitar action with Tricky!



Cymbal-gripping action with Jamie!



The whole lot!



More Jamie!



More Guitar!



Rhythm section action!



More faceoff action!



Verse The Sun was the end of the evening for me; I was dead tired by the time they were have a dozen songs into their set. They've got a more moder metal sound than Gnarly Brown and Black Market Candy, with some good crunchy guitar sounds.



Fretful action with Jack Leonard!



From left, Cody Hicks, vocalist Pat Smears and bassist Brad Small.



Hair-shaking action!



Gripping action!



More hair!



The whole headbanging lot, including drummer John Morrison!



John hits!



Extra Pat and Brad!



Blurry action!



Then back home for blessed sleeeeeeeeeep.

Swoop and hover

Friday night I headed over to Pressed on Gladstone to hear some My Bloody Valentine-styled noise and high-volume shoegaze from Halifax's Kestrels and one of several bands named Harsh Reality (this was the Montreal one).

The Mnemonics opened; the Twin/Tone-loving folks from the Centretown Recording Alliance are on a slightly different tip then the other acts of the bill, being fonder of The Replacement than, say, Medicine. Here's singing Colin and bending Dave.



Singalong action with Chris!



Jon hits!



More Chris!



Dave frets!



In the most Canadian act of charity possible, Larry gave Jon his beer after some accidental spillage.



Rhythm section action!



The whole lot!



On to the mighty fuzz of Harsh Reality, which features Joni Sadler (also of Caymans and Lungbutter), Kaity Zozula (also of Lungbutter) Eamon Quinn of Alcrete et al., and Sebastien, of whom I know nothing.



Guitar action with Eamon!



Joni hits!



Rhythm section action!



Kestrels finished things off with a brisk set (they had about a half-hour to fill) of songs from their new EP and future record (expected in February). Maybe it's the East Coast connection, but they had me thinking of Eric's Trip.



Percussive action with Paul Brown!



Devin Peck handles the low end.



Chad Peck sings!



The whole lot!



Rhythm section action!



Bendy action!



The end!



Fine sets from everyone.