Make it fast

As November rolled in it was fundraising time at CKCU, and that means fundraising shows. The one I made it out for was Mercury Lounge (which coincidentally was celebrating a big anniversary the same week), and featured a bunch of loud and fast punk bands, starting with Toronto's School Damage; here's some introduction action, plus guitarist Brad!



Rhythm section action with drummer Curtis and bassist Jon!



Brad sings!



Curtis hits!



Jon sings!



Blurry action!



Extra Brad!



Extra rhythm!



Faceoff action!



Outtacontroller were up next; like School Damage their set was broadcast live on CKCU (you can check it out here). Here's some vocal action with James!



Bass action with Jesse (who has also appeared on the blog with Feral Trash)!



Terry sings!



Sean hits!



And so on!



Extra Jesse and Terry!



Bonus James!



The whole lot!



The end!



Average Times provided a bit of relief from the breakneck pace. Here's Todd!



Steph hits!



Seiji sings!


Closeup action with Curtis!



Singalong action!



Extra Curtis!



Neck finished things off with some more hard'n'fast stuff. Here's Kevin!



Jeff sings!



Johnny sings!



Kevin sings!



Singalong action!



Closeup action!



Extra Jeff!



A great evening for a fine cause.

Trashed and smashed

Here's the last little burst of Saturday Ottawa Explosion action; I got back later than expected from my evening meal and only caught The Steve Adamyk Band's set outside. No sooner had I gone inside to catch Feral Trash's set than I dumped my camera on the floor, snapping its battery hatch. The clever folk at Nikon quite naturally expect the numbskulls who own their cameras to do this every once in a while, so they're designed to come off and re-attach easily, but unfortunately in this case I busted the actual hatch well enough to make my camera unusable. To add insult to injury, I started feeling so woogie after Feral Trash's set I headed on home and missed The Red Dons, Crusades and Needles//Pins. Enough griping about my lot in life: Here's Steve and Co.



Max frets! It was more like The Sonic Adamyk (Steve Avenues?) Band this night.



Singalong action!



Steve and Seb!



More guitar!



David hits!


 
Faceoff action!



Extra Seb!



Then it was inside to Club SAW and some unfortunate camera acrobatics (I swear, I thought the strap was still around my neck ...). Well, there's always the iPhone.



The shouty bit!



Since its telephoto is rubbish, here's a square photo with a reasonably in-focus Ilisha and Jesse..



And that was it for me (until Sunday, that is).

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.