Out of the west

In-store shows at Vertigo Records are something of an Ottawa Explosion tradition, but Saturday's was the first time I'd made squeezing in part of my schedule. Emmanuel had already announced that the surprise guests were Benny The Jet Rodriguez, so that was all the more inducement to go and check it out. First on the floor were Poor Form, who made the trip all the way from Vancouver. Guitarist Adam also serves in Needles//Pins. Here's guitarist Legs.



James hits!



Punk-pop action!



Legs sings!



Adam shouts, James bends!



Extra Adam!



More James!



The whole fish-eyed lot!



A good crowd, inside and out.



San Pedro Sandlot aficionados Benny The Jet Rodriguez carried on the pop-punking, with Lauren and Todd making a repeat appearance from Underground Railroad to Candyland's set.



Lauren sings!



Todd works the keys!



Also on hand, Joey, Tanner and somebody else.



Tanner and Joey work the crowd.



Outside-looking-in action!



Percussive action!



Head-to-head action!



It was all West Coast combos for this in-store: Vancouver's Nervous Talk finished the evening off with some tasty power-pop.



You may recognize Joel Butler from that Moby Dicks gig at the Legion in August 2011 with M.O.T.O. and Needles//Pins.



Fretful action with Todd!



Percussive action with Trevor!



Extra Joel!



Bass action with Shane! Shane's also making a repeat appearance on the blog; he was in Hot Blood Bombers when they played the Rock'N'Roll Pizza Party during its brief stint at the Royal Oak.



Now with more fisheye!



Overhead action!



Then it was back home to grab a bite to eat ... almost ... there was of course time to return to the SAW Gallery to catch some not-quite secret reunion action from Statues.



Mitch sings!



Jeff hits!



Rob strums a bit!



Then it really was time to split.

Arriving at the station

Here's another helping of Ottawa Explosion: Saturday started way before I did, so I missed the chance to catch Shaped By Society, Voicemail, Pretty Pretty and Wet Brain in the courtyard. When I arrived, Earth Girls were starting things up. You'll recognize Joey Kappel from his Boilerman stint the night before.



And here's Liz Panella and someone who is not Antonio Holguin III, but is in fact Annie Saunders of Bullnettle, This Is My Fist and others (not the only extra hand on board, I might add).



Liz sings!



Extra Annie!


Providing some extra guitar punch, Joey's Boilerman mate Jim Gies.


Grimacing action!



Guitar action!



Rhythm section action!



Even more guitar!



The whole lot!



You want to catch a hot performance? Nato Coles & The Blue Diamond Band are the men to see. They're from the meat-and-potatoes school of rock'n'roll and made me think a bit of Steve Earle. They rip it up on stage - and how! The BDB has recently had an amicable parting with its bassist, so they had a ringer on hand in the form of Daniel James of infamous glam scumbags Indonesian Junk.



Nato sings!


Mike Cranberry hits!



Extra Daniel!



The shouty bit!



Singalong action with Sam Beer!


Back-to-back action!



Nato gets in a little airtime.



Luke de Beaumarchais sweeps the keys.



More Beer!



Extra Nato!



Blue diamond action!



More jumping? Why not!



Underground Railroad to Candyland invaded the capital next. Plenty of familiar faces, particularly if you caught either or both of Toys That Kill or Benny The Jet Rodriguez's sets since the two are basically a musical Venn diagram. Here's Laura Freeman of BTJR, for one, along with Toys rhythm crew Ferrara and Fleps, plus extra drummer Trevor Roundhouse.



John Predny monkeys around on trombone.



Todd sings some.



Double drumming action!



Lauren gets all Maple Leafy.



Extra Chachi and Lauren!



John extends.



Touchy action!



Singalong action with Emmanuel!



So much drumming action!



Then it was off to Vertigo Records for some in-store action