Ottawa Explosion: Saturday, Part II

My Saturday night had a bit of a late start - in fact, the only set outside I caught was The Smugglers' headlining shindig. Anyway, here's a shadowy Grant leaping out of the frame, as he is wont to do!



Guitar action!



Vocal action!



Grant takes a stand!



Smuggled action!



Graham hits!



Bass action with Beez!



After being served, protected and entertained, it was time to head inside for some scuzzy punk with Cleveland's Vanilla Poppers.



Vanilla action!



Guitar action!



Percussive action!



Next up, Halifax's Booji Boys, who are fond of DEVO and power-pop. There was a lot of jumping about from this crew.



Vocal action!



Eyeball action!



More running about!



A shouty bit!



See-through guitar action!



They were followed by more Calgary crudpunks Leather Jacuzzi. Singer Sarah is from Ottawa and has performed in local combos like The Misclits and early Zebrassieres.



Sarah sings!



Vocal action!



Percussive action!



Singalong action!



More singalong action!



Leathery action!



And that was it for me - I had other business I had to attend to, which is why this post is like two months late.

She

We move from a band with a fair dosage of covers to a band whose set list was entirely spawned elsewhere: Lodi, New Jersey to be precise. As you might have guessed, The Misclits are an all-female Misfits tribute band. They started things off with Legacy of Brutality's Hybrid Moments, then went on to Angelfuck, Last Caress, Where Eagles Dare, Some Kinda Hate, We Are 138, Bullet, Skulls, Astro Zombies. I'm just a little surprised they didn't cover Ghoul's Night Out ... What, no London Dungeon!?!

Sara rocks the devil-lock; Morgan had one too, but it's a little harder to make out.



Barb handles the keys.



Feline and White Wire Allie drums. She also rolls with the Blackhearts as Crimson Bitch.



Morgan and and a devil-locked Erin throw in some woah-ohs.



The whole lot!



Audience action!



Woah-oh-along action!





And so on!









They played most recently at the Punk Rock Karaoke night, backing a number of would-be-Danzigs. No word on future activities.

Rock and roller derby

Last night I trotted over to the Bytown tavern for the latest benefit on behalf of The Bytown Blackhearts Roller Girls, featuring prizes, bands, DJs, and a tasty selection of vegetarian cupcakes. There was a pretty big crowd too.

First up were Perth quartet Fools Like You, a tough sounding bunch with a throaty vocalist in Tolsen Nicholson. They did covers of We Don't Need No Education and Suzie Q.



The Misclits did a bunch of Misfits covers ... you may recall bassist Morgan from The Felines show; Felines drummer Allie was also on board, with keyboardist Barb, singer Sara and guitarist Erin rounding out the skull-desiring colection of "one part evil, one part estrogen, three parts kicking ass."



There was a raffle. (I didn't win anything. Boo! Hiss!)



The Gemini Sideshow - a.k.a. Ilona and Daisy Szabo - were spinning tunes between the sets.



The Suppositories played next and once again sounded great. Their next gig is at The Bytown Tavern for their actual honest-to-goodness record release show Nov. 13 with Savage Crimes.



Finally The Nymphets knocked out a dozen tunes of their zippy lo-fi punkrock, including a cover (as before) of Borstal Breakout. Regulation Nymphets with regulation Nymphets Jared and Johanna joined by Nathan (subbing for Ben) on bass. It seemed a lot peppier than the last time I saw them at Babylon, a staggering two years ago.



That was swell. Don't forget to turn your clocks back this morning if you haven't already ...

• Show reminder: I was hoping to see Spiral Beach at Zaphod's tonight, but apparently that show is postponed. Rachelle Van Zanten slides in to The Rainbow.