SBSW: Night One, Part One

Ottawa's newest min-festival, the Side By Side Weekend, has just come and gone, so I'm going to post some pictures before it's too far in the past (this means I'm skipping a couple of shows at Bar Robo and Pressed, and M'dou Moctar's super set at Queen's St. Fare; I'll get back to them). Things got kicking at House of Targ on the Thursday, starting with Stoby. Here's Maryse!



Percussive action with Jesse!



Kevin and more Maryse!



Rick sings!



Jesse sings!



Singalong action!



Guitar action with Kevin!



And so on!



Hammy action!



Afteer a few minutes watching Bug Bites soundcheck upstairs at Black Squirrel Books, I checked out a quick set from The Offers. Here's Seiji!



Tongue action with Davey!



Tim hits!



More Seiji !



Davey sings!



Singalong action!



Back upstairs for Bug Bites' actual set, starting with Pat counting in!



Shayla sings!



Guitar action with Anna!



More Pat!



Bass action with Felix!



More Shayla!



Back at Targ, Nashville's Sad Baxter played an absolutely super set. Here's Deezy!



Alex hits!



Bass action with Taylor!



Alex sings!



Baxterish action!



Taylor jumps about!



More Alex!



Singalong action!



And a bit more Taylor.



Then it was back upstairs for Part Two of the night's festivities.

Ottawa Psych Fest: Night 2

The second night of Psych Fest at House of Targ was a roaring success, but things started off with an unfortunate blunder on my part: As Wasted Cathedral was starting things up, I realized I'd forgotten to remove my camera battery from the charger at home. Oops. After watching the first bit of Chris from Shooting Gun's set, I zipped off home to fetch my battery and returned in time to catch the start of Technicolor Blood's super set. Here's Marty on vocals and guitar!



Bass action with Boredom!



More Marty!



More guitar with Spacy Steph!



Hot Carl hits!



The other side of Hot Carl!



Keyboard action!



Bonus Boredom!



The Band Whose Name Was A Symbol performed next, in ensemble format with guest appearance from Shooting Guns/Wasted Cathedral man Chris. Here's some guitar action with Dave and Bill!



Bass action with Nate!



Guitar action with Chris!



John hits!



Keyboard action with Jason!



More Dave!



More Nate and Chris!



Chicago's Plastic Crimewave Syndicate brought things to a close. Main man Steve Krakow is a well-known illustrator and publisher of the hand-written and drawn music mag Galactic Zoo Dossier. Here he is starting things off with some keyboard!



Rhythm section action with Jose and Cosmik Jru!



More Steve!



Steve sings!



Another great night!

Ottawa Psych Fest: Night 1

After the success of last year's Ottawa Psych Fest, there was nothing to do but hold it again, except more so. The first of two nates at House of Targ featured Comet Control, Anunnaki and Monobrow, and started off with local experimental duo Horseman, Pass By. Here's Mark on cello!



Duo action with Bennett and Mark!



Mechanical action!



More Mark!



The mighty Monobrow were up next with their usual awesome doom rock instrumentals. Here's Brian and Sam!



The whole lot!



More Brian!



Paul frets!



The whole lot again!



Anunnaki played a fantastic set - maybe my favourite of the fest. They're associated with psych band Moths & Locusts. Here's Dave rocking the Vender Bass VI!



The whole lot with Arlen on drums!



Dave steps on it!



Arlen hits!



Extra Dave!



Extra Arlen!



Comet Control wrapped things up nicely.



Rhythm section action!



Controlled action with Christopher and Chad!



Chad sings!



More Christopher!



Great stuff all around!