Back for the first time

You'd think by now I'd be smart enough not to be surprised when a performer I never thought I'd see live breezes through town, but I'll admit my eyebrows bounced when I heard that Lydia Lunch was going to be playing Mavericks. Even better, it would be with her top-notch Retrovirus band. I bought my ticket early, and showed up early too in order to catch most of Doctor MoM's set. The Ottawa trio have a heavy grunge sound - those Soundgarden and Screaming Trees shirts tell no lies. Here's Bud on bass!



Guitar action with Jay!



Jay sings!



More Bud!



Kev hits!



Even more Bud!



Extra Jay and Kev!



Bonus Kev!



Bud sings!



Next up, a punchy punk set from Omerta! Here's Pat (also of Asile and Durs Couers) on drums!



Sierra sings!



Bass action with Aaron from Alcohol Fueled!



Guitar action with Rick from Chloroform!



Even more Sierra!



Even more Rick!



More Aaron!



Rick and Sierra!



Pat hits!



Backlit action!



Feedback action!



The Lindbergh Babies rolled out some more punk sounds. Here's Ken, also of four-stroke!



Guitar action with Greg!



Tara sings!



Buttoned-up action!



More guitar and more Tara!



Even more Tara!



Jon sings!



Extra Greg!



Babied action!



More Jon!



Singalong action!



Extra Tara!



More Kris!



Extra, extra Tara!



Shadowy action!



Lydia Lunch and her Retrovirus band ended the evening with a killer set. It helps that the band itself is an all-star affair, with bassist Tim Dahl, drummer Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Knoxville Girls, and others) and Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers) on guitar. Hereès Walter, rocking the jodhpurs.



Bob hits!



Lydia sings!



And so on!



More Walter!



More Lydia!



Bonus Bert!



Bass action with Tim!



Even more Lydia!



Retroviral action!



Walter certainly likes jumping around.



"We like all your drugs!"



Wicked sets all around.

Dress code

I made my usual trip down Bank St. last week for another edition of Switched On Synths at House of Targ. The headliner was Parallels - who I've caught before, with opening sets from techno man pH and the debut of ex-Dead Astronaut Mecha Maiko. First up, pH, creating some fist-pumping techo, sans shirt.



He's an active chap, thus the dozens of blurry photos where he's only half in the frame on my Flickr feed.



Adjusting action!



And so on!



Reaching action!



Mecha Maiko likes her anime, dreamy synth pop and adorable frocks. This was her live debut. Here she is!



Hayley adjusts!



Gripping action!



Vocal action!



Animated action!



The lights were down so low for Parallels' set that I busted out the flash. They played as a duo this time around, with Holly accompanied by another keyboardist.



Keyboard action!



Fingerless gloved action!



Parallel action!



More keyboard!



Always an entertaining night out.