Leave the vowels at home

March of last year I took a brief break from schooling to head over to Gabba Hey to listen to a diverse crew of bands, including Hamilton's WTCHS. They made a pretty good impression so when I heard they were returning to town for a show at Black Squirrel Books I decided to toddle over and see what was up. Bondar were also on the bill, but due to some bone-breakage were replaced by Alex's solo act, Heavy Bedroom.



Closeup action!



Well, you get the idea!



On to WTCHS, who were a much noisier proposition.



More witchy action!



Percussive action!



Bass action!



Hoodied action!



Vocal action!



The whole lot!



And so on!



The end!



A  nice way to spend an evening.

There will be blood

Surfer Blood are one of those bands whose CD I purchased and listened to just once - I acquire a fair amount of music, even now, so there's not a lot of time for band to make a good first impression. That said, I must have retained an iota of interest because when I heard they were playing the House of Targ I gave their music another quick listen and decided to head on out. Opening honours went to KIngs Quest. Here's drummer Owen.



Bass and guitar action with Liam and Eric!



Jenna sings and strums!



Ann sings!



More guitar!



Grimacing action!



Eric is under their somewhere.



Feedback action!



Eric sings!



Bonus Owen!



Singalong action!



Surfer Blood are one of those acts I think of being a descendant of The Pixies; no one's ever managed to bottle The Pixies' sound, but you do get some of the same pop songwriting and off-kilter guitars. Here's mainman John Paul Pitts!



Mike McLeary on more guitar!



Lindsey Mills is an old band pal who has just joined on bass.



Tyler Schwarz hits!



Faceoff action!



Extra Mike!



John was unable to resist the siren song of the House of Targ's perogie-order calling microphone and used its to sings a few choruses.



Getting on down action!



More Tyler!



And some final point-making action!

Get connected

On to the "turf" part of the Surf & Turf festival. In addition to The Sir John A. Macdonalds, who really seem to be contradicting the whole "only play one show" thing with ever-increasing frequency, there were two out-of-towners: The hard-rocking Lord Almightys from Toronto and New Hampshire ruffians The Connection. Here's Macdonalds' guitarman Chris.



Dotty action with Patrick Shanks!



Rhythm section action with Liam and Chris!



Chris sings!



Bonus Patrick!



More Liam!



Ministerial action!



The Lord Almightys are a tough-sounding crew (their stuff sounded much more melodic and jangly on tape) and made a great first impression. Most of this outfit come from Nova Scotia. Here's singer Myles and bassist Gerry.



Extra Gerry!


Carla Gillis (of Plumtree fame) sings!



Myles sings!



Steve hits!



Singalong action!



Rhythm section action!



Gripping action!



And finally, some hair-tossing action!



The Connection made me think of The Undertones and other high-energy pop combos with a 1960s rock fixation. They've been lauded by Steven Van Zandt and Andrew Loog Oldham and have a good line in vocal harmonies as well. Here's mainman Brad Marino and guitarist Geoff Palmer.



Rhythm section action with drummer Rock Orcutt and bassist Bobby Davis!



More guitar with Brad and Geoff!



Singalong action with keyboardist Kris Rodgers!



More Kris!



Extra Geoff!



More Rick!