Left to their own devices

On Monday I caught a rare early-week House of Targ show featuring seminal first wave British punks The Vibrators (or what's left of them, anyway). Since I saw them play a dynamite show at the Dominion in 2006, Knox has left to pursue a solo career, leaving drummer Eddie as the sole original. Opening up were local combos Chloroform and Voicemail.

I missed the first couple of songs by Chloroform, who have a great heavy sound/ Here's Rick riffing away ...



Scott also features in Asile and Shackles.



They've switched bassists since I saw them play at Pressed last year.



More Rick!



Fretful action!



Bouncy bassist action!



The whole lot!



On to Voicemail. I bet I bought the exact same Regulations shirt at the exact same show in End Hits basement ...



Birthday boy Ian Manhire sings!



Ken and stucco!



Michael hits!



Telephonic action!



Extra Ken!



Ian strums!



Shouty Ken!



Voicemail goes disco! Well, they covered ELO's Don't Bring Me Down, so close enough.




Singalong action!



Todd!



The Vibrators finished things off; I had to split early but managed to catch a half-dozen tunes. Guitarist Darrell definitely has skills, but I prefer Knox's more twisted style. Here he is with bassist Pete.



Darrell sings!



Pete sings!



More Darrell!



Eddie hits!



Yet more Darrell.



Tongue piercing? Check!



Cymbal-smashing action!



More Pete!



Extra Eddie!



Then I had to split for home.

Voices from the past

Back on August 15 I headed over to Raw Sugar for an intimate show featuring Twin Voices, Old Cabin, Bosveld (who I gather were the main draw for a lot of folks) and Ancient Voices. Things started with Twin Voices, which despite the name is actually one person, Ottawa's Laura Beach. She makes excellent use of loops and her own lovely voice to make some enchanting music.



Gripping action!



Old Cabin is Yukon's Jon Barr; he's been touring with Beach.



There was also some horn accompaniment, courtesy of Jean-Francois Beachamp of Amos The Transparent fame and Bosveld's Jeremy Mulder.



Laura Beach kicked in some vocals and violin near the end.



And so on!



On to Bosveld, who also do the electro-folk thing, former Kalle Mattson man Thean Slabbert rounds out the duo.



Good crowd!



Things thinned out a bit for Ancient Voices, which is a pity, since they were excellent; a bit reminiscent of The Clientele, I'd say.



Ancient action!



Singalong action!



A very pleasant evening.

Surf, Slax and sharks

Well, my school year is done, but there was quite a lot of studying to be done in that least week, which is why this oft-delayed blog post was delayed as often as it was. A couple of Fridays ago, I headed over to see Vancouver's Jay Arner perform at Pressed for a good-sized crowd. They were joined by locals Bonnie Doon and Montreal rockers Zakary Slax.

That Zakary; you may recognize one of the Astral Gunk crew to the left.



Gunk action!



Slax works the neck muscles.



Backup vocal action!



Rhythm section action!



More singing!



Guitar action!



More drumming!



Hairy-chested action!



The end!



Bonnie Doon followed them with some Pizza Shark action! Here's Leslie in Jaws mode.



Madison strums!



Sara handles the low end.



Singalong action!



Keltie hits!



More Sara!



Tambourine action!



Jay Arner wrapped things up with a brisk set of synth-touched pop; live he sounded quite a bit more in garage-pop mode than he does on record. Here's drummer Tim (ir is it Tom?), who also stepped up to the microphone for a song.



Jessica Delisle on keys.



The man himself!



Evan on left handles guitar duties.



More Tim/Tom!



The other side of Jay!



Evan sings!



Tim/Tom takes a spin in front, singing a song "from his upcoming Mammoth Cave single."



Jessica slings some axe!



Jay goes full frontman!



Great show and great shirts!