Music to die for

Linsey Wellman's a busy fellow; if you've been following the blog you'll have seen him performing with Fet. Nat. and The Mashed Potato Mashers. He's performed with several other local acts, such as Adam Saikely and The Rakestar Orchestra, but on this night last week he was heading his own trio, the Linsey Wellman Funeral Band, accompanied by Mike Essoudrey (also a Potato Masher) and Keith Hartshorn-Walton on tuba. The sound mixes Balkan and free-jazz influences ... heres the whole lot!



Sax'n'drum action!



Clarinet action!



More Mike!



Tuba action!



And so on!



More clarinet!



A lively evening.

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.