Something wicked this way comes

Here's a short little post about a Nov. 20 show featuring Bell Witch and Mono. Mono prefers not to be photographed, so here's some shots of Seattle's witchiest duo. I saw them back in 2018 opening for Yob at Mavericks, and they were just as good now as then. Here's bassist Dylan!



And so on!



Percussive action with Jesse!



More Dylan!



The whole lot!



Super stuff, as was Mono.

One Furr all

Country rock enthusiasts Blitzen Trapper are on tour right now, celebrating the 10th anniversayr of their landmark album Furr. I was keen to see them play again -even though another fave, Castle, was performing the same night at Targ - since my last sighing, back in 2012 during Bluesfest. It was fun to see them in a club setting, as an added bonus their was a fine opening set from Oregon trio Candace. Here's guitarist and vocalist Sarah!



Rhythm section action with Sarah and Mara!



Singalong action!



More Mara!



Closeup action!



More guitar!



Blitzen Trapper pulled a pretty big crowd; here's guitarist and keyboardist Erik!



Eric sings!



It was pretty busy at the front of the stage, so this is probably the best picture you'll get of drummer Brian.



Guitar action! That's bassist Michael at right.



More guitar with Erik!



More Eric!



And finally some harmonica action, with keyboardist Marty at right.



A very pleasant evening.

Praise Jesus!

I've said it before, and Ill say it again: I'm a sucker for strong female vocalists (Neko Case is a particular fave), so no extra points for guessing I was at The 27 Club a couple of Tuesday's ago to check out Zola Jesus. The opener was bedroom recorder Townes, doing a solo thing with synth, guitar and drum machine. Here he is now, likely explaining something.



Vocal action!



Guitar action!



And so on!



Multitasking action!



Clapping action!



Zola Jesus put on a fantastic performance, aided by guitarist Alex DeGroot (her regular violin accompanist, Michelle Woodward, was occupied elsewhere). Her between song banter was mostly cheerful, including an off-the-cuff rendition of an Ottawa tourism tune, which made for an amusing contrast with her gothic song subjects. with  Here she is getting psyched up!



Gripping action!



Slide guitar action!



More Zola!



More gripping action!



Hair-tossing action!



And so on!



It was all I'd hoped it would be!

Iceage in June

I'm going to indulge in a bit of a flashback here, because the first time I caught Copenhagen's Iceage, at Babylon in June 2013, I never got around to posting a full roster of photos. Here's some stuff from those long ago days! Here's Johan, Elias, Jakob and Dan!



Bass action with Jakob!



Dan hits, Elias frets!



Extra Dan!



Gripping action!



And so on!



Already, flash forward four years and they're back in town, touring with Los Angeles harpist Mary Lattimore. Here's Mary warming things up!



Adjusting action!



And so on!



Closeup action!



And now for the older, wiser Iceage, starting with Jakob and Elias!



Guitar action with Johan!



Extra Elias!



A not very good picture of Dan!



More Elias!



Aged action!



More Johan!



Pointy action!



Icy action!



Cabled action!



And check out my Flickr stream for many, many more photos of Elias, since he was the best lit.