Rocktober nights

Back in mid-October I headed over to House of Targ for a diverse night of music. Seventies rock fans Flesh Rag were headlining a night, joined by Montreal's Priors, 1980s synth rock fancier Vanity Phase and Ottawa's own Empty Nesters, who kicked things off (they're also playing today at Cafe DeKcuf and Saturday at Black Squirrel Books). Eric is the main brain behind the shoegazey project.



Bass action with Philip!



Robert hits!



More Eric!



More Philip!



A bit more Robert!



Vanity Phase was on next. Andrew was at Targ not so long ago as part of the Devo tribute, and here he is with more synth sounds, 1980s style (i.e. with fingerless gloves).



Gesticulating action!



And so on!



Moog action!



Priora played a really lively set. I thought they sounded quite a bit like Hamilton's TV Freaks. They're a supergroup of sorts, with folks from Sonic Avenues and Famines, among other bands, filling out the roster. Here's main brain Chance (last seen on the blog playing bass with the Sonic Avenues).



Guitar action with Stuart!



Bass action with Alan!



Shirtless action!



More guitar with Seb!



Drum action with Drew (also of The Famines)!



Adjusting action!



More Stuart and Chase!



Prior action!



Flesh Rag finished the night off with a tough-sounding set of proto-punkish rock- very Detroit sound style, to my ears. They have a new album out, Inside Your Mind. Here's bassist Eric and guitarist Matt testing the smoke machine (it worked).



Nathan of TV Freaks, Sweet Dave & The Shallow Graves (among others) mans the drums.



Caped action!



Smokey Eric action!



More guitar with (another) Matt!



Matt sings!



Ruffled action!



Drinking and shaking action!



Guitar action!



Fleshy action!



Feedback action!



The whole lot!



Keyboard action!



Good stuff all around!

Stay hungry

Garrett Heath Kruger and Raymond E. Biesinger, the wacky Albertans also known as The Famines concluded the evening with some jumping and shouting and strumming and hitting.

Most bands wait for a few songs to go by before they run around in the crowd - they'll be no such delay here!



Garrett rocks the hair.



Raymond struts vertically.



The whole lot! Or to put it another way, both of them.



More hairiness.



Raymond works the crowd again.



Raymond goes down!



Whole lotta shakin' goin' on.



Aaaaaah!



Boom!



Raymond in red.



Raymond likes the floor.



Alot!



There's a lot of lying around on the job here. Must be Irene's swell rug.



I forget how Garrett got over there, or why.



And that's it! As you can tell, they're a lively bunch. I bought their book-tape combo, but haven't had a chance to listen to it because my tape player died. D'ohh! Book looks nice, though.

• Show reminder: Billy Bragg and The Skydiggers (or at least two of them) play Bronson Centre; Two Hours Traffic, Still Life Still, The Gallop and Taekwondo No-Show appear at Cafe Dekcuf. By Divine Right, Spooky Ruben and The Job perform at Zaphod Beeblebrox; Capital Grass and The No Men show their appreciation for Folk Festival Volunteers at the Elmdale House. The Bible All-Stars help the ladies of Starlite Burlesque shake it at Babylon.
  

Tongue tied

The Bruised Tongue label staged a little shindig at Irene's last night, featuring local space-rockers Wrist Pain, the Tongue supremos own outfit Fucked Corpse and Edmonton volumetric duo The Famines. There was plenty of goodies for sale, as well as delicious cupcakes (I had three because it was my birthday).

Wrist Pain features members of such bands as Weapons of Mass Seduction, Daydream Square and Cold Coffee and Salty Boots. They reminded me of Loop and SPaceman 3.


Wrist Pain, Irene's, August 7, 2009

Last time I saw Fucked Corpse they were a multitudinous combo with a variety of strange instrumentation and a ramshackle feel. They've stripped down a bit, with only five members and a ramalama psychedelic feel with plenty of reverberating vocals.


Fucked Corpse, Irene's, August 7, 2009

Edmonton's The Famines play thunderous minimalist garage. Guitarist Raymond E. Biesinger used to be in The Vertical Struts, drummer Garrett Heath Kruger used to be in The Wolfnote.


The Famines, Irene's, August 7, 2009

Irene's was also pretty packed with local noisy rock fans ... no doubt I'll see many of them again tonight at the Polish Party Palace for the Nobunny show.

• Show reminder: NoBunny, the White Wires and The Handsome Sexies are playing tonight ... but I already said that. Harvey Cartel, The Gospel and In Kaleidoscope are at Cafe Dekcuf; Brainhunter and Mississippi Grover rock the Avant-Garde; The Sound Technicians and The Cutmen play Zaphod's; Marc Charron and John Allaire perform at Irene's; The Ethics and The JimmyRiggers rip it up at the Elmdale House. Mavericks hosts Stuck on Saturn's CD release party..