The Young and the Louder

Last week I popped over to Black Squirrel Books for another edition of Not Normal, curated by Low Noise Productions. The first performer was Young Truck, shown here using one of those ubiquitous red toolboxes as a percussive instrument.



VJ Cinetek was also on hand to provide some black and white visuals.



More percussion!



On to Leon Louder and his "junkyard spaceship" - a cobbled together contraption made from effects and keyboards.



Makeshift action!



More Louder!



Brockville's Clint House wrapped things up.



House action!



Cool stuff all around.

Where the neon cacti grow

On Sept. 15 I headed over to Pressed for a diverse plate of pop and rock music. New York City quartet were passing through town and landed on a bill with Casa Lagarto and Concrete Desire. Concrete Desire is the solo project of Rory Lewis; last time I caught him performing was with Kalle Mattson way back in 2010 (I've bumped into him since doing sound at Bar Robo). Here he is with some gripping action!



More guitar!



Rory sings!



And so on!



On to Casa Lagarto, serving up their trademark desert noir. Here's Jonny and Travis!



Guitar action with Jason!



Grant strums, Travis sings!



Percussive action with Tyler!



More Grant!



Keyboard action!



New York's' Zula reminds me (and a lot of other folks) of the mid 2000's psych pop crowd that included combos like Animal Collective. It's fronted by a couple of cousins, Nate and Henry. Here's Henry!



Bass action with Jo-Anne!



She also plays keys.



Guitar action with Nate!



More Henry!



And so on!



Alejandro hits!



Singalong action!



More Nate!



Jo-Anne sings!



Pop action!



Extra Arturo!



 A fun night out.

Orange amplification

There was an eastern invasion at Orange Art Gallery last week. Superheavy duo ZAUM, from New Brunswick and Gothenburg, Sweden doom titans Firebreather played crushing sets, while The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol started things off. Blueish tint comes courtesy of accidentally adjusting my camera's settings to incandescent lighting.



Rhythm section action with John and Nate! The art on the wall is courtesy of Anita Utas.



Jason adjusts!



Guitar and trumpet action with Dave and Scott!



Symbolic action!



Guitar action with Bill!



Firebreather really crushed it - I detected a definite High On Fire and Sleep vibe from Mattias, Axel and Kyle.



Axel hits!



Hair-tossing action with Kyle!



Guitar action with Mattias!



Riff-worshipping action!



Firebreathing action!



Mattias sings! And wears an Iron Giant shirt! Whatever happened to those guys?



Well, here's one of them: Chris was the vocalist with IG when I caught them destroying Mavericks twice way back in 2005, now he's drumming and singing with ZAUM.



Here's Kyle, the other half of ZAUM.



More Chris!



The whole lot!



Chris hits!



Bass action!



Guest vocal action with Mattias!



The band also had dancer Nawal Doucette with them.



And so on!



Thundering action!



Extra Nawal and Chris!



Everything sounded great - hopefully the gallery will step up their musical offerings.