Kicks in the apse

Tuesday was the kickoff for Ottawa's first Megaphono festival. The festival is part of John Bartlett of Kelp Record's plans for Ottawa music scene world domination, and in addition to concerts in venues around town features panels and information sessions to help the locals get a leg up. The musical part of the program commenced at St. Alban's on King Edward. The church has hosted a few music shows in the past, but this was my first voyage to the hallowed halls. The layout is quite simple - bands in the chancel, crowds in the nave. First up were Scattered Clouds.

They performed as a duo with Phillipe on keyboards and electronics and Pierre-Luc on guitar.



Phillipe sings!



More Pierre-Luc!



More Phillipe!



The whole lot!



Next up were Evening Hymns. The band is the musical expression of Jonas Bonnetta, and takes root in the same sonic garden that nurtures acts such acts as Timbre Timbre and Monroe Mustang. Here's main man Jonas and guitarist Jon Hynes.



He's also joined by Sylvie Smith of The Magic.



That Jonas!



The whole lot (including local drummer Pat Johnson, who's also backed Jon recently).



More Sylvie and Pat!



Fisheyed break action!



Striped action!



Singalong action!



Jonas likes to jump around a bit.



Finally, a half-decent picture of Jon.



On to Last Ex, which apparently features folks from Timbre Timbre who turned an attempt at a horror movie soundtrack into an instrumental album. Here's the ever-busy Olivier Fairfield, last seen performing with H. de Heutz at Black Squirrel Books, soon to be seen performing with Fet. Nat. at the House of Targ.



Simon Trottier handles the guitar.



Keyboard action!



More guitar!



Fisheye action!



Violin action with Mika Posen!



Extra Olivier!



Then it was off to the bus stop for a ride to the House of Targ.

Solo, with company

On Friday I went off to Pressed to catch some indie-rocking and singer-songwriting acts. The occasion was the release of Jon Hynes' new CD, Watchful Creatures.

Another Jon, Jonathan Pearce of Winchester Warm, started things off with some stuff from his regular band, performed solo style. Here he is, conveniently backlit by the street light outside.



Profile action!



The man in full, plus lighting.



Callum Runciman of Grime Kings and Boyhood notoriety was going to perform solo, but decided to recruit bandmate Jimmy before showtime. Thus, he sung and drummed.



Jimmy!



Glowing whatsit action!



Callum sings!



Extra Jimmy!



The whole lot!



On to the headliner. The first time Jon showed up on the blog was helping some Centretown Recording Alliance pals cover the Replacements back in 2012, around the start of his Ottawa residency. He's played with The Hidden Cameras, among other acts. For his CD release he recruited Rolk Klausener (The Acorn, etc.), Sarah from Fevers, CRA pal Dave Banoub, and Army of Saint Joan vet Pat Johnson (Also of many other bands). Here's Jon!



Pat and Sarah ...



Rolf! Dave! Jon sings!



Backlit action!



More Sarah!



The shouty bit!



Dave strums.



Pat counts in!



More Jon!



Rolf sings!



They finished things off with a cover of Guided By Voices' Game of Pricks.

Sunday wonder

It turns out that even in March you can have a show on Sunday night. Now, not a lot of folks turned up for this Pressed gig, but it was a pleasantly convivial show with lots of familiar faces. Headliner Jon Hynes, for example was last seen on the blog playing bass as one of "The Replacements" at the Punk Rock Covers show in April 2012, along with Dave Banoub and John Sproull, who also made on-stage appearances.

First up, Wunderstrands. And yes, Jon is in this band too, along with Mara Pellerin of Gramercy Riffs, Brad Kirkland of Holy Fuck (albeit not on any of the occasions when I've seen them) and Shaun Brodie (like Hynes, an occasional Hidden Camera). As usual, Mara's vocals sounded great. There was also fine covers of work by Victor Lewis and Neil Young's Expecting to Fly.



Brad hits!



Singalong action!



Shaun, as seen through the entranceway window.



Mara also took a spin on guitar.



Jon played an acoustic set at Raw Sugar a few days ago with Chris Page; this time around he had Dave and John on hand. Unfortunately bassist Don Ellis' flight was trapped in Newfoundland, so there was a bit of filling in going on. 



Guitar action!



And even more guitar with Dave.



A bit of bass.



Mara and Shaun then added some brass to the last couple of numbers.



Studio recordings are promised in the not-too-distant future.