The single life

On Tuesday I toddled over to House of Targ to check out some Single Mothers (the nice people at Hive Mind PR got me on the guest list), alongside local combos Curl and Mushy Gushy. Curl kicked things off with some shouty bedroom sounds. Here's Brandon!



Man of many bands (Holy Christopher, Celery Troff, etc.) Andrew hits!



Neo-Tokyo action with Brandon!



The whole lot!



Extra Andrew!



Microphone devouring action!



Mushy Gushy were on next; they've been crafting some new tunes for an upcoming release and premiered them for the crowd. Here's Daniel, and Pat (also of Steve Adamyk Band and many more), on drums!



Jonathan sings!



More Pat!



Kneeling action with Cory!



Mushy action!



More Daniel!



Rhythm section action!



Guitar action!



Single Mothers finished the night off with an active set. They've been around awhile and apparently go through band members at a cracking pace. Here's singer Drew, preparing to jump about!



Bass action with Riley!



Rhythm section action with Ross of Life In Vacuum!



Single action with Peter on guitar!



Riley sings!



Extra Drew and Peter!



Bendy Peter action!



More Peter and Ross!



Closeup action!



Most entertaining!

Brothers gonna work it out

Do KEN mode ever stop touring?  The Juno-winning experimental metaltallurgists have a new album out, Success, and it seemed the right thing to catch them live after a hard day of voting. They've been on the road with Life In Vacuum and funnyman Garrett Jamieson, and were joined for their House of Targ show by local trio Hamn. Yes, Leigh Newton also plays in Street Meat and World War 4, but I guess he wante to pick up the guitar again.



Percussive action!



Bass action!



Bendy action!



The shouty bit!



More bass!



Rhythm section action!



On to Life in Vaccum, who are ready to start now thank you! Like KEN mode, these guys seem to spend their lives on tour. Here's guitarist Sasha Chornyy.



Rhythm section action with Dylan Bravener and Ross Chornyy!



And so on!



More Ross!



The whole lot!



Singalong action!



More Dylan!


Then it was time for a musical break, with Garrett Jamieson doing a brief bit of standup.



Finally, the crushing sounds of KEN mode steam-rollered the audience. Here's guitarist and singer Jesse!



His brother Shane hits!



Bassist Skot fills out the trio.


More Jesse!



Grimacing action!



Extra Shane!



The whole lot!



The shouty bit!



A great start to the week.

In the House

After a week's delay, I've finally made it out to the new House of Targ (a previous effort was stymied by a huge lineup). It's not, strictly speaking, the first time I've been there. Once upon a time it was the site of the New Bayou, where I caught unlikely appearances by French black metallers Peste Noir and Belgium's legendary punks The Kids (also my first White Wires show, if memory serves). Well. the New Bayou is now old news, and local recording engineer, pinball enthusiast and perogie tycoon Paul "Yogi" Granger has claimed it for his own. It's quite spacious, so the capacity crowd of around 180 can look a little thin at times, but then as now it's a nice place to catch a band. On offer for this Saturday show were Montreal's Solids, locals big Dick and Waterloo's Life in Vaccum, who have a nice, tensile post-puk sound.

And they're off! With Dylan Bravener on bass!



Ross Chornyy hits!



Sasha Chornyy sings!



Double Dragon does not stop for music!



Pedal board action!



Fisheye action!



Dylan sings!



On to Big Dick, who have made frequent appearances on the blog, so on to the photos.



Dave sings!



Johnny sings!



Extra Dave!



Solids finished the evening - I confess I was feeling pretty damn sleepy by the time midnight rolled around (my schedule is waaaay earlier now than a month ago, and soon I'll be getting up at 5:30 in the morning - yikes!), so I didn't stay for more than a few songs, but as always they put on a heavy set of that mid-80s-meets-the-90s indie rock sound. Ready, set ...



Go!



Louis sings!



Xavier sings!



Okay, time to bust out some flash.



Extra Xavier!



The end!



A fine sort-of introduction to the new House of Targ!