Hidden gems

There was a fair amount of loud music on offer Thursday night, but I decided to go for something a little lower in volume at Raw Sugar. Adam & The Amethysts hail from Montreal. They're fronted by Adam Waito, who has appeared before in National Capital Rock performing with Telefauna and Miracle Fortress.

The opener was Owl Loris, a.k.a. Jordan Robson Cramer, who also played drums in Miracle Fortress at their Babylon show, has played with Spencer Krug's Sunset Rubdown and also mans the traps for The Amethysts. Some shoegazy pop that unfortunately slid into some high-pitched feedback on the first number, but turned out nicely when the PA was brought back under control.


Owl Loris at Raw Sugar, August 18, 2011

Something about one guy and a guitar inspires fooling around with shutter speed and whatnot.


Owl Loris at Raw Sugar, August 18, 2011

Onto A&TA. Waito has a nice offbeat line in pop music - I think I heard hints of Roy Orbison and Television Personalities in his tunes, which you don't get every day.

That Adam!

Adam & The Amethysts at Raw Sugar, August 18, 2011

And some Amethysts, including Jordan on drums, Rebecca Lessard on cello and Scott Johnson Gailey on bass (not Rory Seydel as I originally said).


Adam & The Amethysts at Raw Sugar, August 18, 2011

Adam & The Amethysts have been signed by local label Kelp, and album No. 2 is expected in the fall, so no doubt a return visit looms.

• Show reminder: Finish What You Started continues with G.O.D., Four Stroke, Wooka Tribe, Nightmare//Reality, Asco, Silent Bones and Dead Lights at Mavericks and Prevenge, LOKI, The Beer Barons, Todi Stronghands, Dead Weights, Benevenstanciano, Woolkfolk upstairs at Cafe Dekcuf; M.O.T.O., Needles//Pins and The Moby Dicks rock the Montgomery Legion Hall on Kent Street; Lefty McRighty and the Sinister Six, Lee Mellor and Huntley Slim play The Rainbow; Little Stella, Tyler Kealey and Breaze perform at Zaphod's; Corinne West and Kelly Joe Phelpsplay Irene's with James Farr as an opener. Bloodshot Bill and The Greasemarks slide into The Elmdale.

This is the life

Think About Life have carved out a hard-won reputation as one of Montreal's most fun live bands. They're the brainchild of Miracle Fortress dweller Graham Van Pelt. I prefer the Fortress for its California pop leanings, but certainly don't mind TAL's non-stop dance fun.

Graham bends!



Martin Cesar is a bundle of energy and the group's MC; Matt Shane on drums.



Singalong action! I think that's Owen's bouquet from the previous night's Token blowout.



Martin made frequent trips to the keyboard to adjust this and that.



Caila Thompson-Hannant - also of Shapes + Sizes - provides some extra vocal power and handled bass duties.



Martin works the crowd.



A shadowy Shane.



Caila really is a good vocalist; I wish I'd seen Shapes + Sizes years ago when they were slated to play Zaphod's with The Castanets; unfortunately a band member fell sick so all I got was the shirt.



Hi there!



Audience, we salute you.



High-tenning action!



Shake it all about!



Caila sings some more!



Big finish ... actually there may have been a couple of encores to go.



That was a heck of a way to end the night ... if you were someone other than me. After this show I popped over to Irene's for more music.

• Show reminder: Labasheeda, The Rough Sea and The PG-13s sail into Zaphod Beeblebrox; Wise, Young & King rock The Rainbow; Grand Theft Bus and Share hit Mavericks.

Got rhythm

Another night, another doubleheader ... thankfully this one didn't last as long as the previous evening's. First, off once again to Babylon to see Think About Life, Tuneyards and Videotape.

Videotape played another fine set of Velvets Underground goes krautrock. When I saw them at Zaphod's, Adam was using a Strat - now he's gone the electronics route, but it's much the same as before, with his deadpan vocals over Nathan Gara's motorik drums and Ryan Patterson's guitar shards.


Videotape, Babylon, May 23, 2009

For some darn reason, I thought tUnE-yArDs (I'll be damned if I ever spell it like that again) was going to be Duchess Says ... then I thought she was the frontwoman of Duchess Says doing a solo thing ... then my brain restarted and realized it didn't know what the heck it was talking about (an all-too-familiar feeling, I might add). In fact Merrill Garbus is one woman with loops, drums and ukulele, and much of her music has an African feel about it. She only had five albums with her and I'm guessing they all went pretty quickly, as she put on an impressive show.


Tune-yards, Babylon, May 23, 2009

I've heard from several quarters what an amazing show Think About Life put on; I figured I'd get a chance to see them in some basement (possibly 59 Argyle's), but the chance never came to pass. I'm happy to report they're every bit as good as promised, putting on a wickedly fun show of dance-pop. They don't fill up Babylon quite as well as a basement, but they had the crowd shaking their stuff with ease. On this occasion Matt, Martin and Graham were joined by Caila on bass and excellent backup vocals.


Think About Life, Babylon, May 23, 2009

After that energetic show I traipsed off to Irene's .. it was only about 11:15 p.m., way before my bedtime, and I figured I could catch a good chunk of the (Norman)Shanks-Garaga-Mississippi Grover bill at Irene's - and so I did. Unfortunately I missed Greg's set, but Garaga were just a couple of songs into their set when I walked in the door.

Their performance was undoubtedly the loudest and sharpest I've heard them - a really good set, featuring a cover of The Cynics.


Garaga, Irene's, May 23, 2009

Headliners (Norman)Shanks' name is apparently just pronounced Shanks ... I'm guessing some other band with a similar name and a longer provenance persuaded them to add the qualifier. They say they hail from the unaligned state of Mono, and work as butchers on a farm, or something like that. There's a definite meat products theme going on. As I headed down the stairs to the bathroom I heard the drummer telling someone "What we lack in talent we make up for in volume" - and they have the cabinets to prove it. Although all things considered they weren't crushingly loud, but perhaps that's just because I'm getting deafer with age. For some reason they made me thing of 80s dance-pop. I'm not sure if this was a hangover from Think About Life or because of the bassist's slightly melodramatic vocals and the lyrics about conquering donkeys. And yes, the bassist did make himself electrical tape eyebrows and sideburns. There was also a cover of Got My Mojo Workin' in there somewhere.


(Norman)Shanks, Irene's, May 23, 2009

That was a very full evening - and tonight I'm staying home, damn it!

• Show reminder: The Tony Danza Tapdance Experience, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Stray From The Path, Did You Just Hex Me and Sleep Is For The Dead rock Mavericks. Tricot Machine is at Zaphod's.
  

Plus Fort

Day 2 of the Capital Idea Festival and it was off to Babylon to see three bands I had never seen together. True, I've seen Spencer Krug - mainman of headliner Sunset Rubdown - perform in both Frog Eyes and Wolf Parade. All I knew of the other two acts was that the opener, Miracle Fortress, was the work of Graham Van Pelt, who is also in Think About Life. Not much help there; although TAL has played in town a few times (they seem to be regulars at the 59 Argyle St. basement) I hadn't seen them either. However, as it emerged after the show I'd seen at least half of Miracle Fortress' live band. I saw guitarist and bassist Jessie Stein play Mavericks in March 2005 with her band SS Cardiacs. I was sure I'd seen Van Pelt's other guitarist and keyboardist before as well, but only placed him after he asked if I'd taken pictures of Telefauna's gig at the Rainbow April 9, 2006; it was Adam Waito. Anyway, onto Miracle Fortress, who I wouldn't rush to compare with any of the aforementioned bands (man, that was a lot of leadup for nothing, wasn't it?). I'd say MF incorporates both the Beach Boys’ dreamiest moments with some of My Bloody Valentine’s noisiest and crossbreeds Cornelius with Saturday looks Good To Me.



Popsmith in chief Van Pelt.



Drummer Jordan Robson-Cramer also features in Sunset Rubdown. Good thing too, since it means I'll have another picture of him less dull than this one.



Jessie rocks out!



Adam takes his turn on the Ibanez.



Fortified action!







They'll be back in town (or close to it) on July 12 when they play the Black Sheep Inn on their return from from a western tour.

• Show reminder: Speaking of 59 Argyle, Screaming Females and F!ghtF!ghtF!ght are playing a gig there this evening.

Miracle Montreal massage

I popped over to Babylon for the second night of Mocking Music's Capital Idea Festival at Babylon. There was something of a Montreal focus, since the band features Montreal's Miracle Fortress, Montreal-to-Vancouver transplant Montag and Victoria-to-Montreal emigrant Sunset Rubdown.

Miracle Fortress features an all-indie-star line up live, including main man Graham Van Pelt and SS Cardiac gal Jessie Stein.



Montag had a lot of doodads to supplement his synth pop. He was fun, but I'm not sure how interesting he'd be on record.



A super set from Spencer Krug's Sunset Rubdown. Spencer plays piano so hard he unsettled his lampshade.



That was very good. Unfortunately I just noticed that my camera's starting to croak - note the thin red line that bysects Krug's hand. After reviewing my files I see it's shown up on every photo since the Simply Saucer show a week ago - @#$!!!! I guess I'll have to ship it off to the fixit folks. Capital Idea continues tonight at Bronson Centre Theatre with The Walkmen, Relief Maps and Acres.

• Show reminder: The Shovels, Crowded Skies and Rickity Ship perform at Irene's. Flecton Bigsky plays a benefit for the Ottawa School of Art at Babylon along with Army of Saint Joan and The Kettle Black; i(heart)music presents Young Galaxy, Sadie Hell and The Nymphets at Zaphod's.