Teachable moments

I made a return trip to Raw Sugar Saturday night for another helping of indie rock from out West, in the form of Shotgun Jimmie (formerly of Ajax, Ontario, Dawson City, Yukon, and Sackville, New Brunswick, now  holding down the fort in Brandon, Manitoba), who's headed out East for some Sappyfest activity. Keeping him company in the van are Vancouver's Adrian Teacher and The Subs and Human Music, who are also serving as his backing band. Adrian Teacher and company were up first. Teacher is formerly of Apollo Ghosts and has backed a bunch of folks, including Julie Doiron, Baby Eagle and Shotgun Jimmie. He's just finished recording an EP with K Records kingpin Calvin Johnson.



Amanda Panda on drums!



Closeup action!



Robby Bobby on bass.



Amanda is amused.



The whole lot!



Big finish!



More British Robbie!



Educational action! (Fun fact: Adrian is, in fact, a teacher.)



Adrian heads outside to check out his wireless!



All that running about, a man has to take the weight off.



Moving right along, we have the human musicians of Human Music, Jory, Mef and Cole. The band works out of Winnipeg and essays the sort of pop I can see emerging on Twisted Nun.



Cole strums!



Jory rocks the Fender VI.



Singalong action with Mef!



Mef hits!



More Cole!



More singalong action!



Mef gets in some bass time.



The whole lot!



Jory hits!



Mef rocks out!



Everybody plays everything in this band.



A short break and they were all on stage again, this time backing up travelling man and tour urganiser Shotgun Jimmie.



Backup action with Mef and Jory!



Cole drums a bit.



Jim sings!



And so on!



Well you get the idea!



The end (which was a cover of The Constantines' Young Lions)!



Props also to Raw Sugar for hosting the show after the unfortunate demise of Mugshots.

Solo flights

So I missed Weed Mom on Wednesday, but at least I had an opportunity catch one of the band's members, Allie, performing solo as Trails. She was opening for Astral Swans, the solo project of Michael Swann. He's performed in town before, on a bill with Chris Page and Heavy Bedroom in November 2012. Since then he's released All My Favourite Singers Are Willie Nelson (in February). Allie took the stage first and was extremely impressive - her playing, singing and songwriting form a wonderfully cohesive whole.



Guitar action!



Allie sings!



Michael Swann was as introspective as expected, singing songs new, old and as yet unreleased, as well as his cover of Wolf Parade's You Are A Runner And I Am My Father's Son and Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain, the Fred Rose-penned tune that elevated Willie Nelson to No. 1 on the country charts for the first time.



Guitar action!



Michael takes a little time to tease his step-dad, who came to the show.



That guitar's older than the both of us.



And, er, that's it!

The upper crust

Well, my heart was torn in two on Wednesday; should I go to WTCHS and Weed Mom on Gladstone, or Hard Charger, Swarm of Spheres and Slumlord at the House of Targ? I figure odds are slightly better that WTCHS will head back this way before Fredericton's Hard Charger, so I slunk over to Ottawa South for some rock attack. As it happened, this was also the fifth anniversary of Slumlord's inception and singer T.J.'s birthday, which meant there were cupcakes involved. Here's T.J. and his mighty sideburns.



Bassist Sev! Since the band formed more or less to perfor at her and T.J.'s wedding, it was also their fifth anniversary.



Trasha hits!



Sev sings!



T.J. bends!



Extra Trasha!



Guitar-lifting action!



Marital action!



Ponytail-swinging action!



More T.J.



The shouty bit!



And finally a bit more percussive action!



Swarm of Spheres played a really killer, and fairly brisk, set. Here's Mark hitting some stuff.



Flashy action with Andrew!



Jay frets!



Wah-wah action!



Andrew bends!



Everybody's doing it.



More Mark!



Big red action!



The end!



Hard Charger also killed it. The New Brunswick combo make me think of latter-era Darkthrone crossed with Motorhead: A bit crusty, a bit metal, and a whole lot of rock'n'roll.



Percussive action!



Guitar action!



The whole lot! The Yeti! The Wolf! The Hammer! Not necessarily in that order!



The shouty bit!



Singing drummer action!



Rhythm section action!



More bass!



More drums!



Closeup action!



Even more guitar!



Faceoff action!



A very solid night of entertainment.