Explosion in motion

With summer in the air, that also means it's time for my favorite local festival, the Ottawa Explosion! I was much engaged with personal matters at the start of the month, and I didn't get to see as much of the festival as I'd like, but I still caught a good chunk of what was going on at SAW Gallery, starting with a performance from Spell. Here's Kai!



Mallet action with Tyrin!



Keyboard action with Connor!



Extra Tyrin!



Instrument-switching action!



Next up, the raucous punk sounds of Tightlip!



Vocal action!



Dan hits!



Guitar action with Scott!



Lippy action!



More Dan!



And so on!



Shocking rhythm section action!



Back outside for a rare daylight performance by The Yips!



Closeup action!



Guitar action!



Percussive action!



Rhythm section action!



More inside, more punk, featuring people you've seen onstage and off!



Percussive action with Patrick from Asile!



Guitar action!



Sierra sings!



Hair-swirling action!



More Dan!



More Sierra!



Outside one could hear the jangular and angular indie rock sounds of Casper Skulls, up from Toronto for the festival. Here's Neil and Chris!



Melanie strums!



More Neil!



Melanie sings, Fraser jumps about!



Chris hits!



A rare picture of Fraser standing still.



Extra Melanie!



Back inside, The CHUDs were ready to rage. Here's Imogen running about!



Guitar action!



Percussive action!



Imogen works the floor!



Cannibalistic action!



And so on!



The day ended with a MIDI-centric set from the always evolving Fet.Nat. Here's Lynsey and Pierre-Luc!



Olivier hits!



JFNo sings!



More Pierre-Luc!



More Lynsey!



Extra Olivier!



The crowd goes wild!



A fine first day.

Monster mash

There were many fine shows last week, but I only managed to make it out to two of them, starting with this Thursday outing at Pressed. When I first saw the listing I thought it was a bit odd that the Irish folk-pop duo would have a band named after the people-munching namesakes of 1984 cult horror flick CHUD opening for them, but quickly sussed out that this was a different Heathers - one that actually has someone named Heather in it! Anyway, first up were The CHUDs, which feature some folks from Sick Nurse and Sailor Jupiter. Here's some rhythm section action!



Guitar action!



Glammy action!



More bass!



More hitting!



And of course Darryl rolling around on the floor; the band will be opening for Downtown Boys at Zaphod's April 29.



Gosh, it seems like it was just a couple of weeks ago that I was watching BB Cream perform at Pressed - oh wait, it was ... not that there's anything wrong with that! In fact it seems they're going to try to play there at least once a month since they're opening fro Tough Age on April 22 as well (they also play tonight at the Kent St. Legion). Here's Alanna!



Jon handles the low end.



Kurt hits!



Extra Alanna!



Kurt took a spin on guitar for some Pixies=covering action.



Alanna plays bass!



Heathers call themselves post-punk and post-riot grrl. Here's some lunar action with drummer Nikki!



Helen sings!



Guitar action with Heather!



A shouty bit!



Extra Nikki!



More guitar with Helen!



Hair-swirling action!



Riotous action!



Singalong action!



Even more Nikki!



Heather bends!



And some final jumping around by Helen.