Burn that barn

I walked over to the Polish Combatant's Hall (a.k.a. The Dom Polski) on Waverly street a couple of weeks ago to enjoy my sole exposure to this year's Kelp Weekend. I usually try to schedule the weekend off, but various events conspired against it so all I got was a few minutes of checking out the offerings at the Kelp food and flea market and a half-dozen Greenfield Main songs.

Jon Bartlett strums!



Testing, testing 1-2-3.



Michael Ball kicks in some fiddle.



Rolf sings!



Jon Lomow! John Higney! An entirely obscured Jake Bryce!



The shouty bit!



The acoustic bit.



Mo' Lomow!



Sadly, my best Jake photo.



More Michael!



Jon strums!



Singalong action!



Bonus Rolf!



The whole lot!



Most entertaining.

• Show reminder: The Rainbow hosts The Polymorphines, Doll, Muffler Crunch, Machinegun Suzie and An Optional Circus; Steve Rawles, Keturah Johnson and Quin Gibson play Cafe DeKcuf; Static Revolt, Celery Troff and Melted Faces are at The Avant Garde Bar; The Brabazons, Dagger Eyes, Roberta Bondar and Chris Bush rock the house at 137 McLeod; Kalle Mattson, Hotshotcasino and Life In 2D play Zaphod Beeblebrox; A Darker Day, Future Snake and The Bigmuffs will be playing Juliana Park as part of Victoria Day festivities; The Davis Payne Band and Blisster and The Saddle Sores are at the Elmdale;Meredith Luce and Brian Simms play Irene's.

The hard sell

Kelp is 17 this year, and to celebrate record label supremo three the usual three-day party to celebrate. Unfortunately I didn't hear about it until it was too late to book a day or two off to catch some of the shows, so I only managed to snatch away 45 minutes before work to see Greenfield Main play their last (most recent?) album, 2004's Barnburners & Heartchurners - and probably only the A-side at that. There was also the Kelp 17 Food and Flea-Market, with The Wig presenting the very tasty-looking food section and a grab-bag of other stuff for sale on the inedible side.


The crowd mobs the edibles at Kelp 17's food and flea market, May 7, 2011


Greenfield Main at the Polish Combatants Hall, May 7, 2011


Greenfield Main at the Polish Combatants Hall, May 7, 2011

Then it was back home and off to work in rapid succession.

• Show reminder: Destruction, Heathen, Warbeast and Aggressor pummel Mavericks; if you aren't flea-marketed out, punkottawa.com's own is on at Bronson Centre's Mac Hall. Top Shelf Bottom and Fish & Bird perform at the Rainbow; The Mash Potato Mashers mash it up at the Elmdale starting at 3 p.m. for an all-ages Mother's Day show.

The main attraction

The Magnolia Electric Co. show must have gotten off to an early start, because I only caught the last three songs by local opener Greenfield Main. But at least I got to enjoy songs about hunting, suicidal Thai lovers and a Neil Young cover (of Walk On).

Jon Bartlett, king of Kelp!



Smiley Rolf Klausener (who incidentally will be performing with The Acorn at Club SAW August 19)!



Smiley Jon Lomow!



Not-so-smiley John F. Higney Jr.!



Country-rock action!



Mighty fine as always.

• Show reminder: It's an instrumental death match between Polaris veterans as The Flaps (featuring John F. Higney) and The Empiricals go head to head at Babylon. The Botched Suicides and Lefty McRighty and The Boxcar Cadavers bring happy thoughts to The Aloha Room.