Fun in the sun

Tropical Dripps's months-long hiatus took a quick break Saturday night as Bytown exile made a quick return - time enough for at least one show, in conjunction with Montrealers Tang Soleil and Sam Coffey associates King Creep. It all went down at Gabba Hey.
King Creep includes some Iron Lung folks (also veterans of Ultimate Lost High of Killer Wolf fame) ... and off they go!



They have a snazzy new EP out, as well. Exactly who they are, I know not.



Stand up drumming action!



Singalong action!



They definitely have a West Coast garage rock sound.



The shouty bit!



The whole lot!



Tang Soleil has ties to The Brabazons and Mystery Girls. Last time I saw these guys was in 2011 at Babylon. They've had a few lineup changes (no sax player or Ysael, for two) in the intervening years.



I think that's still Matt on guitar and vocals ....



New (to me) bass player Lil' Stevie.



Tangy action!



Dollard has moved over to guitar.



Jean hits!



On to Tropical Dripps, who rocked through a rambunctious set.



Kieran hits!



Shadowy action!



Soon-to-be-doomed pinata action!



The whole lot!



Kieran's bass drum made several attempts to escape.



The shouty bit with Kurt!



Surf's up!



Some nice sunny garage rock for the middle of our godforsaken winter.

Khandemonium

I try to make a habit of seeing King Khan and Mark Sultan whenever either man makes a trip through town, since either independently or together they always put on a great show. It's only been half a year since they performed as a duo at Babylon. Things have been increasingly fired up at their shows, so when Khan rolled into town with both Sultan and His Sensational Shrines on hand, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that the audience would go bonkers.

The Sunday Sinners kicked things off with a killer set. I've actually seen a few of these folks before: Guitarist Jordan also slings his axe for The Mystery Girls, and I saw him when he performed at Mavericks on a bill with The Weapons of Mass Seduction and BBQ. Ottawans have seen organist Work With Me Annie a couple of times as she once did time in a band called Les Sexareenos (which come to think of it also included BBQ). Unfortunately you can't see Annie in thse shots, since she and her Farfisa are tucked away on the other side of the stage (also out of view, drummer Chantale). What we have here is Jordan, Jenna and Kieran. Jenna has a super voice, and I think anyone who enjoyed The Detroit Cobras would find them irrestible as well.



Next up came Mark Sultan, another guy I've seen plenty of times before, performing with The Spaceshits, with King Khan (also an ex-Spaceshit), in Les Sexareenos and of course as BBQ. For this show he let things get a little crazy, speeding up and slowing down and babbling gibberish between tunes.



King Khan and His Sensational Shrines put on a really hot show. As for the crowd, they were already keyed up, tolerating a lengthy soundcheck and setup, and flipping their collective lid when Khan and The Shrines finally swung into things. Khan took the stage wearing a blue plastic helmet he quickly doffed. While he and his band got their mojo working the audience surged and heaved - and indulged in a little surfing, despite a posted ban upon such behaviour.



Things may have gotten a little too hectic at the end, when one crowd surfer launched himself into the crowd at shoulder level and landed on a particularly diminutive woman near the front row. Dude, you're supposed to try for altitude.

• Show reminder: White Whale Records is celebrating five years with Tusks, The Mohawk Lodge, Octoberman and Poorfolk at Babylon; if I weren't working tonight I'd almost certainly be down at The Dominion watching C'mon and Pride Tiger tonight; Mr. Plow, Doug Hell, Four Stroke, Jon Creeden and Pull The Trigger are performing at Cafe Dekcuf; Sun's Command and Kris and Dave are preforming at Woody's on the Elgin Strip. Michael Munnik and Whale Tooth are at Zaphod's. Our Kingdom, Crash, Violated Rot, Kimaris, Paradigm Divide and Elypsis play Mavericks. Nudie and The Turks hit Irene's. Melwood Cutlery plays The Elmdale House.

Mystery date

It's a Monday, and a little bird tells me that my camera, or a reasonable facsimile, may be returned to be in the near future. Yay! I'm working late seven days straight, so it's not going to be doing me much good (though I do have faint hopes of catching the last fleeting moments of the Rock'n'Roll Pizza Party at Baylon this Thursday so I can see one or more of Gunsmoke, Sedatives and The White Wires). As for tonight, you can catch The Imports, The Sunshine Project and The Epilogue at the Bytown Tavern. Until then, here's yet more archival rubbish to tide you over. The Mystery Girls at Mavericks in August 2004.





As I said way back when, they didn't make a great impression sandwiched between BBQ and Weapons of Mass Seduction. Last I heard of them was a 7-inch in 2005. The only member I've been able to track down (granted, I didn't look too hard) is Matt, who performs occasionally in company with the incongruously fragile Montreal folkie Laura Borealis.

It's a mystery ...

The Mystery Girls put out a fine album "Something In The Water", then played Mavericks. They were surprisingly young, and surprisingly so-so, considering their past in swell bands like The Knockers and Catholic Boys. Maybe they were having an off day.

Matt rides on a Mustang.



Jordan Davis blows some harp while Casey Grajek munches on the mic a bit.



The rhythm section, Peter Pearson and Jamis Kipp:



BBQ opened the show ...



And The Weapons closed it. Did a swell job too.





Then it was time for karaoke. As noted earlier, the Weapons have a show coming up March 26 at Mavericks. Also on the bill: We're Marching On and SS Cardiacs.