Solo, with company

On Friday I went off to Pressed to catch some indie-rocking and singer-songwriting acts. The occasion was the release of Jon Hynes' new CD, Watchful Creatures.

Another Jon, Jonathan Pearce of Winchester Warm, started things off with some stuff from his regular band, performed solo style. Here he is, conveniently backlit by the street light outside.



Profile action!



The man in full, plus lighting.



Callum Runciman of Grime Kings and Boyhood notoriety was going to perform solo, but decided to recruit bandmate Jimmy before showtime. Thus, he sung and drummed.



Jimmy!



Glowing whatsit action!



Callum sings!



Extra Jimmy!



The whole lot!



On to the headliner. The first time Jon showed up on the blog was helping some Centretown Recording Alliance pals cover the Replacements back in 2012, around the start of his Ottawa residency. He's played with The Hidden Cameras, among other acts. For his CD release he recruited Rolk Klausener (The Acorn, etc.), Sarah from Fevers, CRA pal Dave Banoub, and Army of Saint Joan vet Pat Johnson (Also of many other bands). Here's Jon!



Pat and Sarah ...



Rolf! Dave! Jon sings!



Backlit action!



More Sarah!



The shouty bit!



Dave strums.



Pat counts in!



More Jon!



Rolf sings!



They finished things off with a cover of Guided By Voices' Game of Pricks.

Unsilent night

For the last few years the Centretown Recording Alliance - i.e., folks from The Centretown Cripplers, Allrights and sundry - offshoots and their friends have thrown a seasonal shindig with a heap of bands. This year they rolled into Gabba Hey. The weather was about as uncooperative as it could get, but a few dozen people showed up to catch the action. I got there a bit late to see Thunderuncle start things off.

Patrick Shanks was up, singing about sumo wrestlers and beating up giraffes.



And so on!



Next up were Neck, who I've seen a bunch of of late - third show in two months, or something like that. They like their matching duds!



Johhny rocks the low end.



The whole lot!



Kevin hits!



Singalong action!



Santa action!



More Centretown action after the jump!

You can be replaced

I have a shocking secret to reveal - some members of The Centretown Recording Alliance cicrcle which has produced such bands as The Centretown Cripplers, Finders Keepers, The Mnemonics and The Allrights are fans of The Replacements. Incredible, eh? Anyway, here we are, back for Punk Rock Covers night No. 5 at the Montgomery Legion Hall with Chris Cook, Matthew Banoub, John Sproull and Hidden Cameras bassist John Hynes, performing some of the Twin Cities' finest slabs of rock.

John and David!



John hits!



Bass action with John!



Chris sings!



Replacement action!



More David!



Extra Chris and John!



Double the hits!



The whole flashy lot!



Faceoff action!



I missed The Mnemonics' Ottawa Explosion gig, but if you're in Toronto you can catch them at 3030 Dundas West this Friday for some Craft Beer Week-related (and likely heavily influenced, if you know what I mean) music.

• Show Reminder; The Aves and Revolver rock Zaphod's; Brasstronaut, Utidur and Phantom Shores perform at Mavericks; the Elmdale hosts Belle Plaine and Bobby Dove.

Night time is the right time

You'd think after witnessing the show-stopping might of Australia's Wagons I would toodle off to bed (or you might not, I guess). Anyway, The Allrights and some other folks were rocking up a storm at the Rainbow so I went there instead.

Jon mans the traps.



Dave bends, Mel sings!



Singalong action with Chris!



More Mel!



A shouty bit!



More bending!



It only looks like Mel and Dave are comparing sneakers.



The end!



They'll be rocking the Clocktower this Friday with Aunt Beazy and Mississippi Grover.

Back to the great indoors

With Bluesfest over, things return to our regular irregular schedule of showgoing with a performance at Irene's by The Allrights. It's been some time since I was at Irene's - all too often the place is full up by the time I arrive. This gig was pretty full too, as is often the case when headliner B.A. Johnston comes to town.

Mel frets!



And that's about all the tolerance I had for low-light photography.



Jon hits!



Chris sings!



Mel sings!



Singalong action!



After two weeks of daylight my flash-fu is horrid.



Guitar action!



Jon sings!



Dave sings!



Faceoff action!



The end!



You can download their new album at their Bandcamp.

• Show reminder: A Darker Day, Claudia, Project Mars and Descendant play Greenfield's Pub; Ol' Savannah, Ninety Pounds of Ugly and Morgan Friend play The Rainbow; Ideamen, Soul In Stone, Shot By Jack, One More Me and Celery Troff perform at Zaphod's; Trevor Alguire and Steve Earle tribute outfit Exit-0 play Irene's. The Elmdale hosts Phil Motion, The Easy Lo-Fi and The Marlow Beat Kings.