Technical difficulties

It's been a busy week for rock of the fuzzy variety. First there was The Famines/Fucked Corpse/Wrist Pain show at Irene's, then there was Saturday's Nobunny show and last night was a Wooly Weekend/Nobunny hangover at the Montgomery Legion. For those of you not in the know, the Wooly Weekend was a garage-rock get-together held up in Montreal, featuring such luminaries as The Gruesomes, The Morlocks, The Hypstyrz, Question Mark and The Mysterians, The Alarm Clocks, The A-Bones ... and the list goes on! Anyway, a little further down the bill on Saturday you could see The Jinxes, The Teutonics and Ottawa's own Beach Blankets. Three of The Jinxes played last night as The Handsome Sexies opening for Nobunny, and they showed up again at last night's show.

Unfortunately, local Scott Beerwulf's dangling string wasn't the first break of the evening. Shortly after he was down to two, and that was the end of their very brief set.


The Handsome Sexies at Montgomery Legion, August 9, 2009

Next up were The Beach Blankets, who rocked out in their usual wild fashion. Unlike previous occasions, the space was too large for the crowd (in fact the turnout kind of sucked), and the band couldn't get up close and personal with their beloved audience like they should.


Beach Blankets at Montgomery Legion, August 9, 2009


Beach Blankets at Montgomery Legion, August 9, 2009

Still, a fine set from Ottawa's frat-rock favourites, despite Daniel's insistence they not play their AC/DC jam. Up next were The Jinxes - basically The Handsome Sexies plus one, with Scot trading in his guitar for a Farfisa. I've heard of performers who play guitar behind their back. This show was the first time I've seen someone do the same thing with an organ, as Beerwulf literally hoisted it up and turned in circles to the shock and amusement of the crowd. Alas there is no pictoral record of this momentous event, at least from me, because for some reason after a few shots of the Beach Blankets my camera stopped recording photos - and the damn thing's only a month old. It's not like someone spilled beer on it or anything either. I hope my experience with Nikon's warranty people is not as vexing as my battle with Ginn's old third-party warranty guys.
Anyway, onto The Teutonics. This doughty German quartet hails from San Francisco. Their hobbies include spraying beer, drinking beer, pouring beer on themselves and others, and being stuck in a timewarp from Hamburg circa 1962. They've got the vests, high guitars and collarless jackets, as well as a coal-scuttle helmet so you can tell they're really from Dusseldorf. They eased the audience into their set with some jokes read from a book (which also appeared to date from the 1960s) before beating out the beat.
Finally Gunsmoke finished things off with a rough and ready set of their own. It was getting on so they didn't stay long, and made up the set list as they went along ... actually just about every band tossed off their sets, but doesn't matter, it just added to the evening's slow-motion disaster charm.

• Show reminder: Alyssa Munaretto, Big In China, Erik Jorgensen and Keturah Johnson perform at Zaphod Beeblebrox; the Rainbow hosts Permanent Bastards.

Blood and bullets

Up next at The Rainbow, lo these may weeks ago (August 30, that is) were Gunsmoke. I've seen the band a few times before, but on all occasions my camera was in the shop, so these are the first pictures of the rockabilly cats.

Black and white Sam action!



Brother Adam on double bass.



Guitarist Ben Hurlow, also of Fortunate Sons.



Drummer Dan Haynes ... who I understand has since been replaced/left



Brotherly action!



Blurry action!



And so on!



The whole lot!



Singalong action, as the blood begins to flow.



Things were definitely getting a bit liquid at this point, and the band brought things to a halt.



They're hitting the road for a big U.S. tour in a couple of weeks.

• Show reminder: A heap of bands rock the vote at Zaphod Beeblebrox - on the bill are The BushPilots, Big Jeezus Truck, The Club Love Love Club Cult, Soul Bomb, Rare Scenes and My Favourite Tragedy.

Back to the future

I've just been away in Nelson, B.C., visiting family while an army of robot slaves update the blog in my absence. Fortunately there was a bevy of show opportunities awaiting my return because the Nelson nightlife, while pleasant in its own way, doesn't exactly offer the diversity of Ottawa. I walked over to The Rainbow after a full day of attending to neglected chores to see Gunsmoke and The Reverb Syndicate. The former is just back from tour, while the latter is readying itself for a trip overseas. The band on stage when I walked in the door was neither the former nor the latter: Sudbury's The Havocs. I hadn't heard of them before, but did recognize drummer Mitch as Varge bassist "Mike Fang"; guitarist Jeff Houle also served in Varge (as drummer). Bassist Paul Lowenberg rounds out the trio. Mitch and Jeff - who are brothers, I hear - also play in Statues (who came through town on August 9). Anyway, the family tree aside, these guys rock a heavy mod influence with covers of The Who and The Jam's In The City, and also covered MC5's High School.


The Havocs, The Rainbow, August 30, 2008

Gunsmoke sounded really sharp. So sharp Adam Freeborn sliced open a finger, leading to much blood on the bass strings and a premature end to the set.


Gunsmoke, The Rainbow, August 30, 2008

Finally the Reverb Syndicate capped the evening with their spyadelic instro-sounda, plus dancing girls. This was their first Ottawa show in a while - sort of a warmup for an upcoming Euro-tour.


The Reverb Syndicate, The Rainbow, August 30, 2008

They had a big enthusiastic crowd of dancers - hopefully a sign of future success on their overseas trip.

• Show reminder: The Stolen Minks, The Guest Bedroom and the Weathermakers perform at Irene's; Hell Yeah Fuck Yeah, the Bella Bombs and Zerg rock Zaphod's.

This wheel's on fire

My original plan this evening was to go over to Zaphod Beeblebrox to see Said Hell and Sister Suvi, then go to The Rainbow and see The Trudels make their debut alongside Gunsmoke and Reverb Syndicate, but I had such a busy day only about 50% of that plan came through ... and I was only about 50% awake for most of it. As expected, it was rowdy garage rock from Solid Senders Patrick Shanks (also of Shanker and Romps, The Glads, The Knurlings, et al.) , Mark McIntyre (Weapons of Mass Seduction, Four'n'Giv'r) and Eric Espig (Daydream Square), with drumming provided by Mike Sheridan (Golden Famile, Kepler, Centretown Wilderness Club). Just think of The Midways, but with more songs about having sex with your mom. Gunsmoke put on a fret-scorching performance, but by the time they brought the curtain down on their performance I was beginning to feel my eyelids beginning to drag, and I only stuck around for the first five or six tunes by The Reverb Syndicate. The Rainbow was pretty packed for this show, so the folks of the local roller derby league should be darn happy.

Pieces of eight

Barrymore's New Year's Eve party was pleasant enough, with capable performances by Gunsmoke performing in country-tinged rockabilly and Fiftymen playing a 22-song set of rock-tinged country. I'm not quite sure where the somewhat inflated ticket price went to (noisemakers, beads and paper hats can't cost that much) but it was a nice way to welcome in the New Year. My resolutions include practicing my guitar more and finally getting the folks who insured my camera to get off their rumps and get it repaired or replaced - it's been in the shop for two months now, for crying out loud ...