With the spirits

For the final set of the night, Shahman knocked out a killer set of quiet-loud fuzz. Identical twins Rob and Peter Johnson have been getting raves around town for their lives ests and 7-inches, and it's easy to hear why.

Large amps, small basement.



Drumming action!



Then I decides to start messing with the shutter speed.



Feedback action!



Fisheye action!



And so on!



The whole lot!



The shouty bit!



Bending action!



Overhead action!



They play again at 337 Lemoine in Vanier with Prawn and Calculator.

Band of gingers

It's back to the basement for Round 2 of an evening of post-hardcore (or something like that ... they also call themselves "2/3 ginger") with Bandera following The Discord Of A Forgotten Sketch. The two bands fit well together, and have released a split record. Tim, Jordan and Darryl make up the band, but I confess to not knowing who is who ...

It's all about the cloth caps.



Last seen swinging from a beam in the TDOAFS snaps, the drummer!



Low-end action!



Singing action!




I guess if you're going to get ink of a Pac-Man ghost, Inky is the one to get.



Fisheye action!



Extra bass!



Shirtless action!



Pole-hugging action!



The end!



In addition to that split, they're hitting the U.S. Midwest in early August.

• Show reminder: Dan Vapid and The Cheats, The Riptides and In Heat rock Cafe Dekcuf; Teddy Geiger and Laurent Bourque perform at Mavericks; The powergoats play the Rainbow; the Elmdale hosts Fiona Noakes, The Other Guys wand PartiZen.

Picture this

The day after watching Reverend Horton Heat and Co. (who don't get a post of their own because no SLR allowed, and I only snapped a couple of photos with my iPhone) it was down to the basement of 443 Kent St. for some postpunk action courtesy of The Discord Of A Forgotten Sketch.

The guy on the microphone isn't in the band, he's just joining in ... F.A. plays the guitar, Mx is on bass.



The shouty bit with Julien.



Upside down action!



Singalong action!



Fisheye action!



Extra Julien!



Sketchy action!



Julien hits!



They recently played at the Pelecanus Festival with Ottawa's own Alaskan .. what else they're up to now, I know not.

• Show reminder: The Chantrelles and The Hornettes play Zaphod's.

I heard something downstairs

AFter two nights of rocking at ritual, Sunday brought me to a somewhat smaller venue: The basement at 443 Kent St. The roomies change, but the house shows go on! The official reason for this three-band get together was the release of Shahman's latest 7-inch record. It's been more than two years since I saw a show there (it was The Girlfriends and Vincat in January 2010, to be precise)

First up, Montrealers The Discord Of A Forgotten Sketch. Screamy post-punk done right. I thought I was going to get away without using any flash, but then they turned the light off.


The Discord Of A Forgotten Sketch at 443 Kent, May 6, 2012

It's a bit close-quarters down there in the basement!


The Discord Of A Forgotten Sketch at 443 Kent, May 6, 2012

Next up Bandera, who brought a real churning noise to the room.


Bandera at 443 Kent, May 6, 2012

Singalong action!
 

Bandera at 443 Kent, May 6, 2012

Finally, Shahman, who introduced some loud-quite dynamics and a giant heap of amplification. They'll be playing May 16 at Cafe DeKcuf with Isosceles Project, and at the Ottawa Explosion.


Shahman at 443 Kent, May 6, 2012

And now for some shutter-speed abuse.


Shahman at 443 Kent, May 6, 2012

It all ended with a round of Happy Birthday for the twins.

Ladies' night

The Girlfriends seem to be keeping busy; they've showed up playing songs around Christmas Eve and have a bunch of gigs coming up. They seem to be switching up the intraband job descriptions a bit, with Sam doing more frontman stuff and even adding a bass to the mix. Four months ago it wasn't so.

Masked Sam, no bass.



Masked Nigel, also no bass.



Wolfgang does his Gandalf impression.



Shirt-tossing action, now with extra smoke.



Nigel ditched the mask pretty soon.



Barefoot action!



Hair-rocking action!



Sam sings!



Duds-doffing action with Wolfgang!



Earpulling action! Plus bonus background Vincat.



Face-to-face action!



Headstand action!



Everybody gets on down.



Shirtless Sam action!



Grappling action!



Sam drinks first, sings later.



Actually the two were kind of intermixed.



Say, is that mistletoe?



And finally, some (more) rollling around on the floor.



They'll be performing with Monotonix at Babylon next Monday, at Mavericks January 30 with Rottaway and at Zaphod's with Get A Life Losers and Little Girls February 13.

• Show reminder: Clues, Giant Hand, The Rough Sea and Les Mammographes rock and folk Cafe Dekcuf.