One of these days

It's been many years since I first saw The Atomic Bitchwax; back before I was doing the blog they performed at Molly Maguire's on a bill with Nebula and Core for a heavy evening. They rolled back through town again in late 2005 for a set at Babylon with local space-gods Castor. And here we are, almost a decade later and they're still trucking along - and sounding better than ever after a few rocky years. Also on the bill for this evening were Michigan Motorhead worshippers Against The Grain and locals Big Moan and Blackbread. Big Moan were just wrapping up their first song as I walked in the door at House of Targ Monday Night. Here's guitarist and singer Calvin!



Rhythm section action with Mandy and Jon!



Hair-tossing action!



Jon hits!



Kane works the frets.



Extra Calvin!



Big action!



The shouty bit!



Banged action!



More Mandy!



Extra Jon!



On to BlackBread, which played a typically sharp set.



More Paul and Megan!



Roof-raising action!



Ian handles the low end.



Extra Megan!



Yeesh, I totally forgot to take any photos of Adam. Well, next time!



Against The Grain really ripped things up. Unfortunately, they made me think so much of Motorhead I couldn't help but make an unfavorable comparison. But that's just me - the audience was super-enthusiastic for their deadly thrash sounds. Here's frontman Chris Nowak and lead guitarist Nick Bellomo.



More guitar with Bryan Griffin!



The shouty bit!



Extra Nick!



Rob Nowak (brother of Chris, of course) hits!



Frontline action!



Singalong action!



Atomic Bitchwax played an absolutely monstrous set; the crowd went crazy for the gigantic riffs being dealt out by Finn Ryan and bassist Chris Kosnik, to say nothing of drummer Bob Pantella's mighty thumping. Here's Finn, trading some vocal back-and-forth with Kosnik.



Rhythm section action!



Bob hits!



Fisheyed action!



Finn frets!



One thing about the House of Targ - it's easy to take good drummer photos ...



The crowd was super-hyped for the encore, which kicked off with a killer cover of Pink Floyd's One Of The Days.

It's addictive

Have you ever told yourself, "Self, I'd like to look at Andrew's photos, but accompanied by something other than those repetitive captions and all those damn exclamation marks!!!" Well, now you can! I've partnered with the folks at rockandrolljunkie.com. They do the writing, I provide the occasional snap. Check out today's review of ATomic Bitchwax at the House of Targ for a taste of things to come. And here's a picture of Bitchwax (and Monster Magnet) drummer Bob Pantella to provide a bit of colour!



Er, I mean "Percussive action!"

The Bitchwax is back

Many years ago, one could see live shows at Molly Maguire's in the Byward Market: I saw Resin Scraper, Jehovah's Wetness, The Delta 72, The Donnas and a few other acts before MM's changed names and stopped putting on any kind of live music I was interested in. One of the acts I watched there was The Atomic Bitchwax - Nov. 24, 1999. They were on tour with Core (who I arrived too late to see) and Nebula. Back then Ed Mundell was the band's guitarist. He was in Monster Magnet (as he still is) and the group bore the unfortunate tag of being his side project.
Flash forward five years and 11 months (give or take a day or two) and once again The Atomic Bitchwax is on an Ottawa stage, this time at Babylon. Ed's no longer around; instead Finn Ryan of the aforementioned Core has joined bassist Chris Kosnik (also of Black NASA) and drummer Keith Ackerman on guitar and vocals. He's brought some of Core's classic rock and a smidgen of their jazz to The 'Wax - which means a good, long night of heavy duty Deep Purple (they cover Maybe I'm A Leo) and Captain Beyond style grooves.

Waxy buildup, plus some shirtless drumming!



Kosnik sings! (And let me tell you, the band sounds a whole lot better vocally than it did back in 1999.)



I wonder how the Customs folks react to the sight of Ackerman's bass drum head ...



Finn'n'Keith.



Kosnik goes cosmic.



More Finn!



In a word: Heavy, man.

• Show reminder: Caribou and The Acorn play Babylon.