What year is it?

Year Zero, that's who! Wait - wrong Mike Haddad band. Anyway, Year Zero had a bumper year, what with the release of their fancy CD and vinyl ("We promise this is the last time we repackage the same recordings," someone said), and a swanky do for New Year's Eve at Babylon.

Introduction action with Emmanuel!



This is the least of Brad's tattoos that I've ever seen.



Singalong action with Tim and Dave!



Rhythm section action!



More Brad and more tree!



Shouty Dave action!



Michael hits!



Dave bends!



More singalong action!



Very fisheyed action!



Super-bonus Dave!



Some low-light action.



And so on ...



The f-stop is as low as she goes ...



Extra-special guest action with Davey!



Visitors audience action!



Singalong action!



Another shouty bit!



And finally some laser-shootin' action with Emmanuel.



A fun way to end and begin things.

• Show reminder: Birdie Whyte and Andre Bluteau are at Raw Sugar Cafe; Three Little Birds and Testament are at the University of Ottawa's Bar 1848; The JW Jones Blues Band is at The Rainbow; Washboard Hank and the Corn Pickles join Catfish Willie and the Buckle Busters at Irene's in a heavyweight battle of the band names; Jehan Khoorshed and his Problems and Jack Pelletier and The Battle of Ontario are at the Elmdale House.

Not quite Doctor Rock

And so we come to the last show of 2010: New Year's Eve at Babylon with Male Nurse and Year Zero. I've seen Davey Quesnelle perform several times under his solo sobriquet. In fact I believe I took photos at his first non house-show performance at Mavericks. Since then he's won acclaim from Exclaim, mockery from Mocking Music and plaudits for his song-a-day for a year project on Tumblr. How he does it while performing in a half-dozen other bands (look for photos of him fronting Klovenhoofs just a few posts back) I don't know. Good time management? Anyway, Male Nurse, while still all-Quesnelle creatively has picked up a couple of other folks for liver performances (sometimes, anyway). For this razzle-dazzle New year's show he had Steve Adamyk and Dave Fournier on hand to boost the decibels.

Davey sings!



The whole lot! See that black shadow along the bottom? That's because I'm using the on-camera flash, a consequence of my Speedlite suddenly dying.



Dave hits!



Guitar-lifting action!



Steve swings the Sqier.



More Dave, and for some reason a plant.



Singalong action!



More Steve!



Running about!



A shouty bit!



At least someone still has a working flash ...



Davey bends!



The end!



Solo shows at the Manx might lurk in the future.

• Show reminder: Hunter City Madness, Not Even Death, Rising City States, Aimless Endeavor, I Now Walk Into The Wild and Tyrants Rise are at Club SAW; Dragonette and Kidstreet rock Babylon; there's pop-punk aplenty at Mavericks with The Queers, The Riptides, The Apers and The Visitors. The Elmdale House hosts Joe Bones and Kevin Logue.

This year, that year

Happy New Year everyone! I had the day (and night) off since the Ottawa Sun doesn't publish Saturday, and spent it doing productive things such as having lunch with my aunt, searching for a missing sweater, going to the gym, buying some death metal and African garage pop, clearing out my closet and of course heading off for a night of revelry at Babylon.

The show was opened by Male Nurse. Davey Quesnelle is no doubt relieved at having finished off his 365-songs'n'stuff recording odyssey over at his Tumblr site ... although since he's at 364 as of this writing I guess he has one more to do.


Male Nurse at Babylon, December 31, 2010
 
He played a clamorous set aided by Steve Adamyk and Dave Forcier, full of kicks and jumps and feedback.


Male Nurse at Babylon, December 31, 2010

Next up were Year Zero ... you may recall their CD release show back in July. This time, they were holding their record release show since the vinyl has landed courtesy of the fine P.trash label.


Year Zero at Babylon, December 31, 2010 

As you can see they dressed up all snappy for the occasion.


Year Zero at Babylon, December 31, 2010 

They also had a super-secret special guest for the last two songs ... Davey! Okay, so not much of a surprise there.


Davey Quesnelle with Year Zero at Babylon, December 31, 2010 

At around 11 p.m. the man and woman of Shameless took over: Emmanuel Sayer and Cait Powers that is.


Shameless at Babylon, December 31, 2010 

Plus, there were lasers!


Shameless at Babylon, December 31, 2010

It was all swell except that my Nikon Speedlight died ... oh well, it has taken about 30,000 photos in the last 18 months so I can't say it hasn't served me well. Thank goodness for the D90's excellent on-camera flash. (The Speedlight's also still under warranty, so fingers crossed I get a free replacement.)

• Show reminder: Steve Marriner and his happy helpers will hold forth at Irene's.

Pieces of eight

Barrymore's New Year's Eve party was pleasant enough, with capable performances by Gunsmoke performing in country-tinged rockabilly and Fiftymen playing a 22-song set of rock-tinged country. I'm not quite sure where the somewhat inflated ticket price went to (noisemakers, beads and paper hats can't cost that much) but it was a nice way to welcome in the New Year. My resolutions include practicing my guitar more and finally getting the folks who insured my camera to get off their rumps and get it repaired or replaced - it's been in the shop for two months now, for crying out loud ...

Out with the old

So long 2006, hello 2007! I went to Irene's for their new year's shindig. Muffler Crunch started things off, Good2Go held down the middle (with the help of many musical guests and bubbles) and Blackball finished things off with a bunch of originals and a few judicious covers.

According to Angie, 2007 will contain lots of fucking. Swell!



Good2Go! Again!



Blackball were much hairier than I recall. Also, there was more interpretive dance.



A fine way to ring in the New Year.