Return to the roots

Last week I paid my annual visit to Irene's for a trio of roots-rocking acts. It was the debut performance for Hundred Pacer and the sophomore show from Chris Landry & The Seasick Mommas, but I dare say they aren't too many unfamiliar faces on stage. The usual suspects start with Chris, usually seen playing with The Glorious Moonrockets. For this more acoustic offering, he was joined by Stuart, his only Momma (for this set, anyway).



Momma action! Stu has also played with The Dusty Drifters and Train Jumpers.



Closeup action!



Extra steel!



More guitar!



Saint Clare was on stage next with some loud'n'rowdy Memphis-styled rock'n'roll. Here's some closeup action with frontman Matthew!



Bass'n'keyboard action with Ryan and Casey!



Some jumping about on the left from Morgan, Nick and Jeffrey!



More horns!



More Matthew!



Clapping action!



Daniel is stuck back there.



More guitar!



Extra Casey!



Ryan might be enjoying himself a bit too much.



Richard sings one!



Headliners Hundred Pacer are fronted by Rey, of John Henrys fame, and feature a couple of Pop Shove-Its in the lineup as well (and some Handsome Devils as well). Here's Sebastian on guitar, Rey singing and Kosta on drums.



Close-up action!



Singalong action!



Pop Shove-It, Handsome Devil and Chops & The Holicster Rob rounds out the quartet.


Extra Sebastian!



Kosta hits!



Guitar-lifting action!



Well-paced action!



Sebastian sings!



Extra Rob!



Faceoff action! Rey: "The photographers like it when we do that. We'll have to do it more often."



A super night out.

Trees and Bees

I headed over to Pressed on Friday to catch a few returns to the stage. Rob Snasdell-Taylor, last seen on the blog with The Pop Shove-Its many years ago (November 2005 or thereabouts to be precise) is back in action with his new combo Chops and The Holics, and Christine Chesser of The Johnnies, Secret Lovers and Chickpea has also made a comeback with Treees of North America, featuring a slew of familiar faces.

The actual opener was Slo' Tom, whose set I arrived to late to see; Trees of North America were on stage and you should recognize everyone from other posts - well, maybe not, since I neglected to keep my camera battery charged and was forced to fall back on my iPhone. Anyway, that's Darrel Angus (Golden Famile, Shakey Aches, Desecrators, etc.) on guitar, Patrick Shanks (Glads, Shanker & Romps, Merle Knurling, etc.) on bass and Scott Terry (Klovenhoofs, Camp Radio and a bunch of others) on drums.



Singalong action! Darrel, Christine and Scott all took turns singing lead on a tune while I was there.



On to Chops and The Holics; here's a very blurry Rob.



He's ably assisted by Johnny Nash Neck, And What Army, Fucking Machines, Long Timers and so on)on rhythm guitar, Matt Murdoch on lead, along with a rhythm section of Max McMillan and Joel Lemiuex.



The Dead Bees finished things off; I saw them at Zaphod's in January of 2013, and they're still the same sharp pop cpombo they were then.



Chris sings!



Unfortunately all my other photos were terribly grainy so I'll leave it at that.

Shove it!

The Pop Shove Its were all crazy energy for their triumphant return to the stage. I don't recall ever seeing the band back when it was a real going concern, though I've seen all three band members in other bands. Rob Skitmore and Kosta McKay are, of course, another 2/5s of The Department of Foreign Affairs while Rob Snasdell-Taylor is a veteran of King Kung (for some reason I keep remembering him playing a good chunk of a show at Lucky Ron's/The Hi-Fi with his fly down ...), The Waxies, etc. Anyway, the band went crazy, the crowd went crazy, and I took an unrealistic amount of pictures of people bouncing around.

Rob sings!



Snasdell-Taylor must have ankles of steel.



Kosta McKay grimaced more or less non-stop.



I just noticed that Rob was wearing a dynamite shirt and Snasdell-Taylor's T-shirt is decorated with gun silhouettes ... what does it all mean ...?



RST adds some backing shouts ...



... works the feedback ...



... and gives a great big kick!



Pop action!



The band hasn't quite called it a day. I see from Chart Attack's Ottawa Buzz that they plan to finish off a few recordings and release an EP - perhaps with a show to go with it.