Driving you crazy

I've always hoped that The Blue Van would return to Ottawa. Last time they rolled through they put on a really exciting set. I'd heard that their live show was a big step up from their recorded work and so it proved to be. At the time they were appearing for a Danish showcase at Zaphod's along with Kira & The Kindred Spirits and The Figurines, who were riding a wave of critical acclaim at the time thanks to their au courant New York sound (think The Strokes). The Blue Van were not trying to reinvent the wheel - they liked The Small Faces, but didn't try for a slavish recreation of the 1960s sound. Jump forward to June 17 and The Blue Van are still in the game (so are The Figurines, while Kira Skov has moved onto a new project). With NXNE going on in Toronto and an about-to-be-released-in-Canada album (actually two years old) called Man Up, it was time once again to visit Ottawa and jump around.

Guitar action with Soren Christensen and Steffen Westmark.



Jump-prone bassist Allan Villadsen.



The whole lot, including drummer Per Jorgenson.



Soren at the edge.



Fiery action!



Closeup action!



The shouty bit!



Guitar action!



Extra bass action!



Soren gets organized.



Per hits!



Bending action!



Jumping action!



Allan takes a stand.



More Per!



Microphone sharing action!



More jumping!



I am not sure if Soren's technique is recognized by the Organists Association of Denmark.



I'm just waiting for it to end up on someone's foot ...



Blue action!



The end!



For the next few weeks they're going just about everywhere you can in Denmark.

• Show reminder: Scottmandu and The Ringtones hit the Elmdale Tavern. Texa$, The Jettison Commitment and UTKF play Cafe Dekcuf.

Hither and yon

It's NXNE time again, and that means a trickle of bands from far foreign parts will be passing through town, maximizing the bang for the buck of their airline tickets with a bunch of extra shows in Canada and the U.S. Thursday night we had folks from Copenhagen, Denmark, Brisbane, Australia and Regina, Saskatchewan gracing Mavericks stage. The band I was there to see, and enjoyed the most, was The Blue Van.

I saw The Blue Van play a super set with a bunch of Danish compatriots in March 2006. It was the last show I photographed with film before my switch to digital (brought on by my Pentax Super ME's untimely death). I remember stewing as bassist Allan Villadsen jumped about in a most photogenic manner. They once again rocked out, with organist-guitarist Soren pushing his instrument around and over, just like at their last show. And jumping!


The Blue Van at Mavericks, June 17, 2010

The Grates are an Australian trio (augmented for this show by another guitarist and keyboardist) fronted by the energetic and vivacious Patience Hodgson. All her jumping about was making me think of early 1990s indie-pop band Whale. They certainly like their guitar fuzzy as well.


The Grates at Mavericks, June 17, 2010

Library Voices capped the evening. I wasn't quite feeling them as much as the other bands, though they have a pretty bouncy bassist too. Unfortunately with eight people on stage there wasn't as much room to jump about. They had a bit of a 1990s indie-pop feel as well. I could see them on a bill with You Say Party! We Say Die! though they aren't as dance-centric as that band. They're quite upbeat, even when singing about the end of the world.


Library Voices at Mavericks, June 17, 2010

From here, The Blue Van head to Montreal, The Grates are off to Brantford and Toronto, while The library Voices are going to Guelph for a show with The Besnard Lakes and Young Galaxy.

• Show reminder: Andy Brown and Telfer play The Rainbow; Hellbros, Farewell Cool reason and Caution Inc. rock Zaphod's; Sadie Hell, Ghostkeeper and The Arbitrarys are at the Elmdale House; Al Wood and The Woodsmen roll into Irene's; The Mahones, Continetal and The Beer Barons party it up at Mavericks.

Giving up the ghost

This is going to be a text heavy post (I'm shamelessly cannibalizing a soon-to-appear pennyblackmusic.com article) because these pictures of the Danish showcase opening act, Kira and the Kindred Spirits, was the last to come out of my camera. She's certainly a photogenic last subject, though, so I guess my Pentax died happy ....

The lovely Kira. She has a forceful style erroneously compared in her press kit to Janis Joplin. She gave a far too modulated performance (and looked far too good in a black velvet catsuit) to really merit it. Anyway, with her voice and looks I can well imagine a lot of (deserved) success on this side of the Atlantic.



And some Kindred Spirits; I particularly appreciated Rune Kjeldsen's Telecaster licks. At right, bassist Nicolai Munch Hansen.



Someone else is going to have to provide the name of their organist.



Rhythm action from Hansen and drummer Jesper Lind.



Looks good in that, doesn't she?



Singalong action.



More spirited action!



Kira and Co. (And mo' co.)



"Come a little closer ..."



"I mean, really, come a little closer!"



And that picture's the last from ye olde Pentax. I did snap one of The Figurines, but it perished when my camera jammed.
And now for that text I threatened: The next band were the highly touted Figurines, whose New York New Wave sound fit in well with the current Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Interpol and Strokes-loving zeitgeist.
Their stage performance was also very energetic, with frontman Christian Hjelm'’s facial expressions and Mick Jaggerish prancing providing quite a bit of extra entertainment value. With his large blond mop, thin mustache and tight jeans he did look a bit like he just stepped out of a 1970s porn movie, though.
The Blue Van finished things off. Musically, the band walks the line between garage rock and The Faces with perhaps a little too much loyalty to their forefathers; as a stage act they'’re pure dynamite. Top marks to bassist Allan Villadsen, who was leaping, shouting, twisting and turning in every spare moment. He even jumped off the organ, albeit with a somewhat low trajectory to avoid braining himself on one of Zaphod's pipes. Guitarist and singer Steffen Westmark has his own rock moves down pat. Even organist Soren Christensen got in the act, actually pushing his hefty instrument around the stage. His fingers stayed on the keys, but the rest of him moved about quite a bit. An awesome stage act.

• Show reminder: The Buttless Chaps, Violet Archers (Tim Vesely of The Rheostatics' new crew) and Rhume play Barrymore's.

Don't make me blue

I've just returned from the Danish showcase at Zaphod's. Fine performances from Kira and Her Kindred Spirits, The Figurines and The Blue Van. The latter in particular put on a wonderfully kinetic show, leaping about with abandon. I don't know if I'd buy a CD, but I'd definitely investigate a live DVD. Unfortunately, you won't see two-thirds of this (unless you were fortunate enough to be there) because my Pentax Super ME died on me after Kira and Co.'s set. I calculate I've taken more than 20,000 pictures with it in the last three years (about six rolls a week) so I can't say it hasn't done journeyman service. I feel fairly certain that at this point it would cost more to fix than replace, so I'm going to hie myself to Ginn sometime in the next week and make the leap to digital. At least now I know where my tax refund is going ...