East meets Westboro

I made a brief trip last night to a new venue General Assembly; It's right by House of Common and run by the same folks (the House will focus more on exhibits while GA handles the musical side of things, I understand). Scattered Clouds and Jerusalem In My Heart were performing. I arrived to late to catch the Clouds, but JIMH put on a dynamite set in compensation for stragglers like myself. Radwan Ghazan Mounmeh is the heart of the operation; for this set he was joined by filmmaker Charles-Andre Coderre, who provided the visuals. Here's Radwan before the lights went down.



And here's Charles-Andre before the lights went down.



Radwan sings!



Burzuq action!



Keyboard action!



A really fine performance, and a nice-sounding space as well.

To the heart

I had a pretty quite weekend, despite the multiplicity of shows going on in and around town, but I made the decision to douse myself in cold meds and head off to see Change of Heart. I was keen to see Ian Blurton's other band again, and perhaps even more enthusiastic to finally see Yellow Jacket Avenger. Geoffrey Pye's longstanding, chameleonic musical endeavor was on first. Here's the man himself!



Rhythm section action with Christos on drums and Alan on bass!



Sammy works the keys!



Christos hits!



Geoffrey sings!



Singalong action with Alan!



Extra Christos!



Avenging action!



The Heavy Medicine Band held down the middle slot with some rocking sounds. I think they might be getting more psychedelic ... (They also have a show coming up Oct. 26 at Club 27.)  Here's Keturah!



Bass action with Sean!



Guitar action with Robert!



Keturah sings!



Chris hits!



More Keturah and Sean!



Extra Sean!



On to Change of Heart, who are celebrating the 25th anniversary of Smile. They played a killer set with lots of audience singing along. Now here's Ian waiting for his smoke!



Bernard adjusts!



Bass action with Rob!



Blue Rodeo's Glenn in the smoke!




Ian sings!



Stick-twirling action!



Slightly smokey Rob and Bernard!



More smokey action with Ian!



Bonus Bernard!



A great night out!

All over the place

A week ago I popped over to Pressed to check out Galapagos, Outer Rooms and No Mistakes In Space; I'd only heard of No Mistakes In Space (and had planned to check out their record release show at Targ, but couldn't make it). First up were Galapagos with some pretty straight-ahead indie rock sounds. Here's a blurry Matt and Adam!



Bass action with Gerardo!



Jamie hits!



More Matt!



Extra Adam!



More Matt and Jamie!



Rhythm section action!



Head to head action!



I was tipped to this show by Sean from Outer Rooms - they've got a raucous sound. Here's Sean!




Andrew sings!



Rich hits!



More Andrew!



More Rich!



Even more Andrew!



More Sean!



The whole lot!



No Mistakes In Space just released an EP, which to my ears combines post-rock with 1990s Britpop a la Verve. Here's drummer Andrew!



Guitar action with Matt!



Kyla works the keys!



Bass action with Cody!



Rhythm section action!



Kyla sings!



More Andrew!



Extra Matt!



Silhouetted action!



A fun night out.