Everybody do the explode!

Yes, it's that time of year again - Ottawa is exploding, with punkers, rockers and poppers coming from as far away as Germany and California to play music for all the cool kids. I missed last year's gigs because I was busy building the world's largest pepper-grinder; this year I made it out to Club SAW on Wednesday in time to catch the last half of Tough Age's set.They were here in April for a show at Gabba Hey, then went back west, and have returned east - that's a lot of road mileage!

Here's Jarrett and Paul!



Penny sings!



Paul, Penny and Jesse are also performing as part of Century Palm this year.



Extra Jesse!



Guitar action!



More Penny!



The whole lot!



The crowd goes wild!



Over to Mugshots for The Dirty Frigs, who put on a dynamite set, particularly Bri, who I have to say has a dynamite voice. They really made me think of The Pretenders this time around.



Cameron bops about!



Edan hits!



Bri sings! Duncan's Silvertone amazingly has not fallen apart yet!



Dirty action!



Duncan bends!



Bonus Bri!



Extra Edan!



The whole lot!



Hair-tossing action!



Shadowing action!



Back to the SAW Gallery's courtyard for the gentle sounds of Monomyth. They were down to a quartet for this gig.



Mythical action!



Rhythm section action!



Singalong action!



Smiley drummer action!



The last set of the night in the Mugshots courtyard came courtesy of Denver's Homebody's off-kilter jangle.



Singalong action!



Percussive action!



Rhythm section action!



The whole lot!



A bit of guitar-switching ...



The final set outside went to the splendidly named Guantanamo Baywatch, who really rocked the play with their surf slaughter.



Chevelle has the best shoes of the festival so far.



Jason hits!



Bayful action!



Twist action!



Chris sings!



More guitar!



The crowd goes wild!



Tongue action!



Then it was off inside.