Fight the stand

Next up at the Club SAW courtyard: The nervous sounds of The Nymphets, who often strike me as a combination of Television Personalities (vocally) and Sham 69 (musically). No Oi! cover on this occasion, but plenty of microphone-stand wrasslin'.

Them Nymphets!



Juliana sings!



Shadowy action!



Non-shadowy action! (There was much messing around with my flah while I tried to find a setting I liked.)



Julianna hits!



Closeup action!



More Juliana!



The first appearance of the mysterious banana ...



The shouty bit!



Dunno what they're up to right now.

• Show reminder: Nu Sensae, Holy Cobras and Mark Alexander McIntyre rock Babylon; Permanent Bastards, New Elders and Kraken the Case play Cafe DeKcuf;Amos The Transparent, Ben Caplan and The Battle Mountain Band fight it out at Zaphod's.

Ottawa Explosion 2012, Day 2

Once again, it's time for Ottawa to explode! Last year, things were put together a bit hastily; this year the minds behind the Ottawa Explosion had a bit for opportunity, and things are a bit more expansive. For one thing, the festival is five days this year. I missed the Wednesday (a show by The Men, Metz and Pregnancy Scares at Club SAW), but no I have a few days off work so I can check out the action ... assuming I survive until Sunday. Last night was a doubleheader, starting off with some shows at Club SAW.

First up, Ian Manhire's new band. Billed as Gary Voicemail and The Touchtoones, apparently they're cutting it down to just Voicemail. Here they are jamming on a song pre-show. Apart from Ian and Todd (of Sweet Janes et al.), there's Mother's Children Ken and Mike on guitar and drums.


Voicemail at Club SAW, June 14, 2012

Also on the scene, Dirty Donny, touching up the design he did for the Ottawa Explosion on one of the T-shirts.


Dirty Donny at Club SAW, June 14, 2012

Following Voicemail's actual set, The Nymphets took over with their adorable yet jittery sound. There was much tussling between Jared and his microphone stand.


The Nymphets at Club SAW, June 14, 2012

Le Kid and Les Marinellis are a Montreal band, featuring a bunch of vets from that scene, including Breastfeeders and Walnut Kids.


Le Kid et Les Marinellis at Club SAW, June 14, 2012

The real audience rambunctiousness gets started with Big Dick's set. Lots of really loud noise, but strangely enough no Tutti Frutti cover.


Big Dick at Club SAW, June 14, 2012

Mother's Children wrapped things up with a hot set.


Mother's Children at Club SAW, June 14, 2012

I zipped off home to dump some merch, then headed over to Babylon in time to catch Dead Weights. You could call this night "Bands influenced by Leatherface" (with the exception of Robots everywhere, who I arrived to late to see, and Low Culture). It was a really sharp-sounding performance.


Dead Weights at Babylon, June 14, 2012

Crusades really had the audience fire up for their set.


Crusades at Babylon, June 14, 2012

Low Culture came all the way from New Mexico to rock the Explosion (and parts of New York and Quebec with Iron Chic) - which they did quite adeptly.


Low Culture at Babylon, June 14, 2012

Iron Chic - who play again today at Club Saw - finished the evening off with some audience singalongs.


Iron Chic at Babylon, June 14, 2012

There's more Ottawa Explosion going on today, at Club SAW, Mavericks and DeKcuf and Mugshots, the jail hostel bar.

Bright young things

The Nymphets seem to have left their bass player somewhere ... it doesn't seem to matter much since, apart from some technical difficulties, they pulled off another fine set of Jonathan Richman-meets first-wave punk rock.

Jared and twice the usual amount of Johanna.



The dynamic duo and their mirror image.



Johanna sings!



Singalong action!



Johanna sings some more!



Johanna hits!



Jared sings!



Guitar action!



Nymphet action!



More Johanna!



The shadowy remix.



Faceoff action!



The end!



They have a single release show coming up in September in Montreal ... I guess that means a new single is en route.

• Show reminder: She Roars, The Disco Vikings and Dr/Jr are at the Rainbow; Scene Through Your Eyes, Brain Damage, The Cowards and Apocalypstic perform at Mavericks.

Drugs and bunnies

Last night provided a great opportunity to see a lot of bands. First stop of the night was an early performance at Zaphod Beeblebrox by the great Ted Leo. I've been an admirer since the days of Chisel, when his sharp mod rockers provided a snappy alternative to grunge. For this particular show he was joined by New Jersey's Screaming Females.

Perhaps that should be Screaming Female, since the trio has only one, guitarist and singer Marissa Paternoster. The band is a bunch of troopers, having just come off a tour that ended with some serious van woes. Fortunately Ted and Co. lent them their gear so they could soldier on. Marissa's fuzzy guitar actually reminded me of Kyuss at one point. Her playing also makes me think of Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis, albeit not quite as loud.


Screaming Females at Zaphod Beeblebrox, June 24, 2010

As for Ted Leo, I think he's one of the best performers around, always super-intense in his singing and guitarwork, witty and charming between tunes. He's an uncommonly intelligent songwriter too, which may be why he's not as popular as he should be. Anyway, it's been a couple of years since I last saw him play at Barrymore's October 6, 2007. I figure this is show number five for me, and No. 6 can't come soon enough.


Ted Leo & The Pharmacists at Zaphod Beeblebrox, June 24, 2010

The Born Ruffians were also in town, but I couldn't pass up a chance to see Nobunny again - also the Ruffians had apparently sold out a while ago. So off to Nine . I arrived in time to catch the Steve Adamyk Band's last three or so songs.


Steve Adamyk Band at Nine, June 24, 2010

The Nymphets followed them. The band is down to a duo. They sound just fine sans bass player, like a combination of The Television Personalities and a ramshackle Buzzcocks. The Nymphets like to round out their sets with an Oi! tune. At previous gigs it's been Borstal Breakout - this time it was Cocksparrer's England Belongs To Me.


The Nymphets at Nine, June 24, 2010

The first portion of Nobunny's set was not as wild and crazy as previous Ottawa dates. You can blame the fact he was playing guitar and thus had less opportunity for misbehaviour. Fortunately White Wires' Allie Hanlon soon joined on drums, allowing the drummer to take over on guitar and Nobunny to put the Nine railing to maximum use.


Nobunny at Nine, June 24, 2010

A short set that ended strong.

• Show reminder: Ukrainia!, release their new album, accompanied by Mike Essoudry's Mash Potato Mashers at Babylon; Bob Wiseman, Glenn Nuotio and Catriona Sturton play the Raw Sugar Cafe; Brendan Flynn and the Terrible Liars and Morgan MacDonald are at Irene's; Great Bloomers and Donlands And Mortimer perform at Cafe Dekcuf; Muffle Crunch and 90 Pounds of Ugly do batle at The Rainbow. Luther Wright and the Wrongs and The Jack Grace Band.

Girl talk

The Blackhearts benefit ends with a bang, Montreal's Nymphets putting on another extra-bouncy set of punk rock.

From right to left, bassist Daniel (subbing for Ben) Jared and Johanna.



Jared shouts!



Johanna sings - probably Borstal Breakout.



Daniel basses!



The side view!



The overhead view!



And so on.







Fans can rejoice since they'll be back in town next Thursday for another Rock'n'Roll Pizza Party gig at the Bytown Tavern.

• Show reminder: The Acorn, Ohbijou and, somewhat oddly, Sleeping Pilot play Barrymore's; Loudlove and Chris Colepaugh and The Cosmic Crew rock Zaphod Beeblebrox; Lonesome Paul plays Irene's. Trevor Alguire and The Jimmy Riggers play the Elmdale House. Jon Lajoie performs at Babylon.
  

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.