Problem child

I headed over to Pressed on Thursday to check out a trio of acts covering a wide range of pop sounds. Headliner Gregory Pepper, a long-serving Guelph power-popper, is touring some Weezer-worshipping sounds, locals Pony Girl are exploring their acoustic side, and Montreal's Old Haunt is having a religious experience, so the sounds were fairly diverse. Pony Girl were on stage first. I gather they were quite a bit quieter than usual. Here's Yolande, soundchecking some clarinet.



Gripping action with Pascal!



Percussive action with Jeff!



Julien strums!



Singalong action!



The whole lot!



More singalong action!



Old Haunt - in this case represented by main man Lucas Huang - has a new EP coming out on Monday, dubbed Refuge, containing songs like Get Back Satan that deal with Lucas's "complicated" relationship with religion.



It's got a folk, ambient and gospel feel to it (you can download it free online).



Next up, the stripiest band in the land, Guelph's Gregory Pepper and His Problems. Pepper's latest album Chorus! Chorus! Chorus!, named after his songwriting philosophy (I kid), comes out August 21, with the vinyl arriving sometime later once the record pressers are finished with re-releasing every 1990s album. Anyway, here he is with Tyson Brinacombe (far left), Alex Ricci (at back on bass), occasional Legato Viper Mike Brooks at right on guitar and mostly obscured drummer Adam Zantinge.



They kicked things off with a Thin Lizzy riff and spent the rest of the show doing cheesy rock moves.



Tyson frets!



Mike sings!



Gregory shouts!



Guitar action!



The whole lot!




Alex gets on down.



Hair-shaking action!



Feedback action!



Adam hits!



Extra Gregory!



They finished things off with an encore of The Boys Are Back In Town.