National Capital Rock: Fryquency

Showing posts with label Fryquency. Show all posts

Friday, May 08, 2015

Caged heat

Summer may not be here officially, but it certainly feels like it with patios opening up near and far (to sat nothing of the mercury soaring to 31 degrees this weekend). While not as toasty as this Saturday is intending to be, it was till warm enough for Mugshots to open up its courtyard to a trio of fine bands, curated by Fryquency (that is, Debaser, Weird Canada, CKCU, CHUO and all the usual suspects). Bands came from west and east to strut their stuff, starting with Halifax-by-way-of-Toronto's Baby Cages.

Halloway Jones sings! The duo is usually her and Jeremy Costello, but on this occasion she was accompanied by a lady violinist.

Some less flashy singing.

Violin action!

The whole lot!

The shouty bit!

On to another duo, Eraserheads, featuring Alex Seguin, Omar Rivero and some uncooperative electronics. The crowd was enthusiastic about all three bands on the bill, but I'd say Eraserheads had them bopping the most with their twisty electro-rock.

Omar sings!

Alex hits!

They had some cool projections, which unfortunately don't show up well with flash.

Close-up action!

Extra Alex!

Keyboard action!

Fever Feels were an excellent capper to the evening. The Calgary band was formed by brothers Logan and Landon Gabert, swollen to a quartet for live shows. They've got a retro feel thanks to the organ and a bit of swing to them as well.

Percussive action!

Thomas Platt works the organ.

The whole lot!

Brotherly action (I believe that's Logan on guitar and Landon on bass, but it could be the other way around ...).

Landon sings!

Feverish action!

Mighty fine.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Darker and deeper

Last Saturday was the first of the month, and that means it's time for another helping of Fryquency, the pop weirdness doled out monthly at Mugshots by Weird Canada, CHUO and CKCU's Debaser show.

First on deck was Montreal's Year of Glad, a trio founded and primarily staffed by A.P. Bergeron, whose music is by turns spooky, ethereal and atmospheric fairly often. That's A.P. at left.

Echoey vocal action!

Nick Laugher hits!

Glad action!

Cello action from Sweet Mother Logic's Justin Wright!

Nick works some electronics.

On to Scattered Clouds; for this set Philippe and Jamie were joined by Michael Dubue of The Hi Lo Trons (who also put together the video for their latest single, Enchanteresse) and a bunch of keyboards. They have a show coming up at the Record Centre May 2, and release their new album, The First Empire, on April 21. Now here's some feedback!

Michael works the keys!

Scattered action!

Philippe sings!

Limited space plus keyboards equals fisheye lens.

The whole lot!

Jamie hits!

Del Bel weren't quite as experimental as the opening acts; mining a pop noir territory. They released a self-titled album in February. There's enough of them that mandolinist Joe Ernewein had to perform off-stage (to be precise it's a "Mandocaster"). Behind him is bassist Tyler Belluz, guitarist Michael Brooks and singer Lisa Conway.

And here's trumpeter Ira Zingraff and drummer Adam Hindle, the other two members on hand (at full strength, the band stretches to a dozen, not counting backup singers).

Lisa sings!

Tyler is also the band's composer in-chief.

Slide action!

Extra Adam!

Michael frets!

The whole fisheyed lot!

A pleasantly diverse evening, where no band sounded like another but they all suited the bill.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Koo-koo-ka-joob

A week ago Saturday I headed over to Mugshots to check out Toronto's The Auras and Haligonians Walrus. I caught The Auras at a Debaser-curated show featuring The Swollen Eyes and Spectre in August 2013. Then as now, they gave off quite a Brian Jonestown-styled vibe.