The mountain of madness

Local lights New Swears announced a short while ago that their next show, last Friday at Babylon, was going to be their last for "a long while." I was keen to go since my photos from their last show turned out a bit rubbish, and Sammy J. was kind enough to invite me, so off I went to see them, Wine Lips and Remi Royale, with Buddy Smiles handling the introduction action. Here's Smiles!



"The Earth is flat!"



And here's Remi!



Remi works the crowd!



Shirtless action!



Toronto's Wine Lips played a cracking set. Here's drummer Aurora!



Guitar action with Cam!



Bass action with Richard!



Track-suited action!



Richard sings!



Lippy action!



Singalong action!



On to New Swears. As usual, the audience went completely nuts, too nuts to huddle down in the front row like I usually do (it was fatal if you were an inflatable whale). Anyway, here's Sammy!



Guitar action with B.J.!



See-thru action with S-Mike!



Confetti-launching action!



Singalong action!



Stoney hits!



S-Mike sings!



More B.J.!



I finally managed to creep around to the stacks beside the other side of the stage to get a shot of Nick!



So what happens next?

Because the night

Back in mid-June (yes, I am horribly behind schedule!) I headed over to Babylon to catch some New Swears. The band has just released a new album on Dine Alone, Night Mirror, and were celebrating its release with some help from The Thrill and Cole Sauve, who kicked things off with some hip hop action!



Drinking action!



Guest vocal action with Yashavelli!



More Cole!



And so on!



The Thrill followed with a rocking set. Here's Mikey!



Kieran hits!



Mikey sings!



Thrilling action with Derek and Mikey!



Nigel, of the pre-New Swears unit The Girlfriends was also on hand to play some guitar.



Headbanging action!



More Derek!



Extra Kieran!



New Swears finished the night, and as is usual the case, things went bonkers. To start things off, here's B.J. with special guests Spiderman and Batman!



Singalong action with Sammy!



Swearing action!



Keyboard action!



New action!



Silly string action!



And er, that's it!

Musique noire

On May 25 I made the short trip to Babylon to check out Nicole Dollanganger, whose music has been referred to as sadcore, goth and dreampop - all of which seem apt. Opening up for her was local quartet Nighttime In Kansas. Heres some percussive action with Michael!



Guitar action with Eric!



Nicholas multitasks!



Jonathan sings!



Michael sings!



Extra Eric!



Gripping action!



Nightly action!



More Nicholas!



And so on!



Nicole Dollanganger put on a very pleasant set; I got a heavy Lana Del Rey vibe.



Keyboard action!



More Nicole!



And the crowd goes wild!



An entertaining evening.