Last Saturday I made another trip to House of Targ for some birthday celebrating. Targ co-owner and heavy music standby Paul "Yogi" Granger is another year older and he reunited with his old Tokyosexwhale bandmates for one more gig. Boom Creek did the opening honours - here's bassist Wayne (also of the No-Men and Four Frames).
Guitar action with Ian!
Adam (of BlackBread) hits!
Former Dead City Rebel Neil works the floor!
And so on!
Extra Ian!
Ian sings!
Unbuttoned action!
Singalong action!
Extra Adam!
The whole lot!
Stucco-scraping action!
Creeky action!
Public Animal also played a killer set; I think Ian Blurton's tone gets better every time I see hime play live. Here he is with Eric on bass!
Keyboard action with Caitlyn!
Ryan hits!
Caitlyn sings!
Extra Eric!
More Ryan!
And so on!
Look over there action!
Bearded action!
Even more Caitlyn!
Animal action!
It was cool to see Tokyosexwhale again after six years; Julia has moved to Toronto and is drawing up a storm, J.P. is drumming with Loviatar and Paul is of course helping to run the show at Targ and playing in BlackBread. Here he is working the frets with his old trio!
Some shows I want to go to, some shows I feel like I have to go to. Last night's orgy of reunions at the House of Targ combined both, with local greats Four Frames, King Kung and Double Pumpers taking a break from all their other bands to rock the stage at the House of Targ. It was good to seel all the familiar faces both on stage and off.
Four Frames were up first. I've namechecked the band a bunch of times, but I'm not actually sure I have any photos from their heyday ... they might just have snuck in pre-blog (it's been 13 years or so since they got on stage together). I can distinctly remember singer Chris puking his guts out at Bumpers (he warned the crowd last night about possible projectile vomiting).
Wayne frets!
Brother Albert hits!
On our right, Rene LeClair made the trip from New Brunswick, Ian Vance did not.
More Ian!
That reminds me, I have to check out that Xenozoic Tales collection.
Extra Rene!
More Chris!
Extra Wayne!
Running about!
Rhythm section action!
Wide angle action!
Guitar-lifting action!
Bendy action!
The end!
Now here's some video of the band tearing through one of their tunes; my apologies for the terrible sound, my camera's wee microphone has been subject to so much volume over the years I think it's adding an extra layer of fuzz to everything.
King Kung were definitely pre-blog. If memory serves, I saw them only
once, performing at the Hi-Fi/Lucky Ron's (I forget what stage it was at
then). Since then, I've seen Rob Snasdell-Taylor perform with The Pop
Shove-Its and more recently stage a return with Chops & The Holics;
bassist Johnny Nash has kept busy with The Fucking Machines, Long Timers
and most recently Neck (among others). Shawn Hill was pretty active for a while with Garaga and Mighty Eagle Band. Drummer Scott Terry has also done plenty of other things, most recently behind the kit with Trees of North America, but wasn't on hand for this get-together. Here's Rob!
Here's Shawn!
Here's Johnny!
The whole lot (with Joel Lemieux on drums)!
Guitar action!
Joel hits! Hel also plays drums in Rob's new combo, Chops & The Holics.
Faceoff action!
Guitar strap repairing action! It was a night of technical difficulty "just like the old days!"
The shouty bit!
Singalong action!
And so on!
Rob likes a good ankle workout.
Extra Joel!
Finally Double Pumpers wrapped things up with their patented greasy boogie.
Rhythm section action with Damian and Yogi!
Dave sings!
Nightmarish action with Yogi!
Damian sings!
The whole lot!
Singalong action!
Extra Yogi!
Gripping action!
Extra Dave! "Try not to get too much nostril hair.," he told me ...
Barre chord action!
The shouty bit!
Clapping action!
The end!
A might fine walk down memory lane for all involved.
I'm an inveterate show-goer and photographer from Ottawa, Canada, and take copious pictures of live shows, most of which can be seen here on my blog or on Flickr. You can also follow me on Twitter, or on Tumblr. Past show and music reviews can also be found at Penny Black Music.
All contents are copyright Andrew Carver, except for album covers and the work of other photographers. Bands are free to reproduce photos of themselves on their blogs and websites; please don't use them elsewhere without permission. Most photos after April 2006 are linked to a larger version. I can be reached at andcarver "at" hotmail.com.
