Her Majesty's Ship

A heap of keyboards, high vocal harmonies, sombre moods, off-kilter pop nous, a couple of drummers and a grab bag of instruments goes into Royal Canoes' sound. They jammed them all into Raw Sugar for a fine show. Here's a familiar face: Bucky Driedger of The Liptonians.



Pulling back we get Liptonian No. 2, Matt Schellenberg on the left and Matt Peters.



On bass, Brendan Berg; the shadowy figure of Liptonian No. 3, drummer Michael Jordan is at right.



Keyboards and more keyboards!



Singalong action!



Acoustic action!



Getting a picture of one drummer at Raw Sugar is hard enough, getting a picture of two (namely Derek Allard) is nigh impossible.



It can be a bit hard to manouevre around the cafe with a sextet.



More keyboard action!



Matt Peters munches microhpone.



They have a couple of western dates on the go.

• Show reminder: There will be some mind-expansion outside the National Gallery of Canada as the VEO (a.k.a. The Valiha Experimental Orchestra, a Castor-associated group) performs from 6 to 8-ish.  A short walk away and just about an hour later, Milk Music, Pregnancy Scares and Solids will rock Cafe DeKcuf. The Kestrels, Aim Low and Fiveways perform at Zaphod's; the Elmdale hosts Music Maul and Kris and Dee.

Fits to a tea

The Liptonians seem to be surfing on a sea of acclaim right now. They have a hotly tipped new CD, Let's All March Into The Sea.

Testing, testing, one two three. Front and centre is vocalist and guitarist Bucky Driedger, while at left is his co-founder Matt Schellenberg on keyboards; Mitch Braun, just behind Bucky plays some more keyboards and autoharp as required, while Michael Jordan plays drums and a slightly translucent
Levi Penner rounds out the quintet on bass.



More Jaguar!



Matt plays on two levels.



Bucky frets.



Hmm, what to step on next?



Guitar action!



Michael hits!



Just don't make eye contact.



Overhead action!



Keyboard action!



Bucky adjusts.



The rockin' end!



As mentioned earlier, they'll be back in town for The Prairie Scene. Meanwhile, they're almost back in Winnipeg and have a slew of western dates coming up.

• Show reminder: Monkey 99 and Marc Cowie perform at the Rainbow; The Peoples Are Explosion comes to Elmdale, possibly killing dozens, or at least entertaining many with performances in various genres courtesy of Three Little Birds, Claude Munson, Brad Morden and Heather Black.

Surprise visitors

I was planning to spend a quiet evening in on Sunday, but then the Avant-Garde's upcoming shows lineup landed in my e-mail. Now, the Avant-Garde is usually closed on Sunday, but as it turns out they opened for a show with Winnipeg's Liptonians and a couple of local combos, Henrietta and The Wind Up Radio Sessions. I've been hearing some buzz about The Liptonians so I trotted over around 8:30 p.m. to see what was up.

The Wind Up Radio Sessions led things off. The trio started up in Hamilton, moved to Montreal and seem to have some Ottawa ties now as well. It's made up of two brothers from Dundas, Marc and Dan Kiely, who definitely have the sibling harmony thing going on and Matt Lazenby, a British-born Montrealer. They're a quite robust sounding pop trio.


The Wind Up Radio Sessions at The Avant-Garde Bar, March 6, 2011

There's a fair amount of instrument switching going on.


The Wind Up Radio Sessions at The Avant-Garde Bar, March 6, 2011

Henrietta have recently produced a new record (of the actual vinyl variety) and I gather from the stage banter they've been on a bit of a hiatus - or at least had trouble getting the whole lineup together. I quite liked their hard-driving music and admire guitarist Kyle Devine's tone (perhaps due to the aluminum neck guitars he uses). They also covered Built To Spill's The Plan.


Henrietta at The Avant-Garde Bar, March 6, 2011

They're an active lot, even squeezed onto the Avant-Garde's tiny stage.


Henrietta at The Avant-Garde Bar, March 6, 2011

The Liptonians have been compared to Spoon, perhaps due to their tight rhythms, but they definitely have a deeper lover of the keyboard than that band. I dare say it's the first use of a reed organ I've seen on stage. They, too, have a new album out, entitled Let's All March Back Into The Sea, which they're touring behind.


The Liptonians at The Avant-Garde Bar, March 6, 2011

There's too many of them for the stage ...


The Liptonians at The Avant-Garde Bar, March 6, 2011

They'll be back in town for the Prairie Scene showcase at Mavericks at the end of April.

• Show reminder: Are Zaphod's showcase Mondays getting back in gear? We Are the City and Aidan Knight play there tonight. Jason Kirkness is performing at the Rainbow.