Aunt and all

I won't call Great Aunt Ida a regular visitor to the nation's capital - mainstay Ida Nilsen is based out in B.C., after all, but it does strike me that I've had numerous opportunities to catch her live that have gone unfulfilled. Well, no longer. Of course I've seen Nilsen before - she looks swell with a euphonium, and performed with great distinction as a member of both The Violet Archers and The Buttless Chaps at Barrymore's in March 2006. On to Great Aunt Ida, which for the purposes of this show was Ida Nilsen and Scott Malin, with some assistance from Sarah Hallman's drummer Tim and on one tune a drum machine named after their regular drummer, Barrie.

A well-lit Ida and a shadowy Scott.



And vice-versa.



More Ida!



And, er, that's it. Shortest post in quite some time, but this was one of those gigs where most of the crowd is sitting down and I didn't want to be running back and forth between performer and audience all night. I picked up GAI's 2005 release, Our Fall, after the show, and it's super; if I'd had a chance to hear it back when it was released it would undoubtedly have made my year-end best-of list (one of the shorter ones, I'd add). I shall have to track down her more recent effort, How They Fly.

Quiet night

It got a bit chilly yesterday, didn't it? It was quiet as I walked down to Irene's (particularly compared to Saturday's blaring horns), and fairly quiet inside Irene's as well. Maybe everyone was sleeping off their post-Sens victory hangover; there were about two dozen people on hand to watch Sarah Hallman and Great Aunt Ida.

A slightly blurry Sarah with an even blurrier rhythm section.



Ida Nilsen and bassist-illustrator Scott Malin.



Lovely performances from everyone involved. Oh, and Mighty Eagle Band photos should be up later in the day.

Great expectations

At last, a day of rest. So needless to say I'll be running around and seeing a lot of things. Unfortunately, one of them won't be Great Aunt Ida, who perform at End Hits this evening (I'll be at Zaphod's instead). I will, however, dig a picture of Ida Nilsen out of my files from about six months ago. She was in town for a show at Barrymore's with both The Violet Archers and The Buttless Chaps. Here she is singing a bit and playing euphonium with the Archers.



Mark Wilson is also on the bill. Apart from the Beirut/Animal Hospital show at Zaphod's, there's also a Hi Lo Trons gig up at the Black Sheep Inn with husband and wife team Marianne Dissard and Naim Amor.