Bomb you live!

The Hot Blood Bombers are just one of the many fine Canadian acts carrying the torch of power trio rock'n'roll aloft with pride. Stick them on a bill with C'mon, The Double Pumpers, Tokyo Sex Whale, Flash Lightnin, the late Shikasta or Tricky Woo and they'd do just fine. They certainly played an explosive set at The Royal Oak a couple of nights ago. I also highly recommend their EP Dirty Little Party.

Them bombers explode out of the gate.



The guilty parties are Shane Grass on bass, Herb Exner on drums and Dave David on guitar.



Shane sings some.



Dave sings some more.



And so on!



Miesha - who is 50% of Miesha & The Spanks, which I guess would make her the non-spanking portion - makes a guest appearance for a cover of The MC5's Ramblin' Rose.





Fun fact: Herb Exner is Canada's tallest drummer.



Faceoff action!



Singalong action!



Big finale and ducking action!



A fine way to cap the evening. They're probably back in their hometown of Regina now preparing for their opening slot with Monotonix on May 22.

• Show reminder: Hey kids! Tyvek, Beach Blankets and Fucked Corpse are performing at the Bytown Tavern!

Sphere of darkness

If The O Voids had been active 30 years ago they'd probably be on a Messthetics compilation today. They have a sort of post-punk sound I associate with dwindling British industrial towns and bands like Swell Maps or very early Wire (back when Howard Devoto was a member).

Peter!



Leah!



Chris!



The whole lot!



Rhythm section action!



Yelling action!



And so on!



Brief yet tasty. I bought their LP on Troubleman Unlimited and may actually find the time to listen to it this weekend (I've been busy, eh?).

• Show reminder: There's black metal at The Bayou with The Agonist, Woods of Ypres, Ceremonial and The Epilogue; Mavericks hosts Modernboys Moderngirls, The Paint Movement, and Centretown Cripplers.

Ape: A type for destruction

Once again off to the Royal Oak and another fine Rock'N'Roll Pizza Party presentation. Endangered Ape started things off with a band, thanks in particular to crazy frontman Adam Munro. On their killer EP they sound quite post punky; live they were more psychedelic garage. Really fine either way.

Shouting and eyeball-popping action!



Who's who? I know not since I was even lazier than usual and didn't get names ... the bass player is Phil Lawton and that's all I got.



Expostulating action!



Jane Edmunson handles the keys, while the Hot Blood Bombers' Shane Grass looks on.



Upstanding action!



Shirtless action!



A brief moment of contemplation.



Big finish!



They promise a full-length LP some time soon; they're now headed back west for a multitude of shows in Alberta and B.C.

• Show reminder: British grind legends Napalm Death, crush Babylon along with Kataklysm, Toxic Holocaust, Coliseum, and Trap Them; Gunsmoke, Machine Gun Dolly, Nummies, Winslow, The Zero Hours and Saucy Jacks rock Cafe Dekcuf; Amos The Transparent and Laurent Bourque are at Zaphod's. Jack Pelletier and The Battle of Ontario and The Soiree perform at the Elmdale House. West Coast folksters Fish & Bird perform at the Avant-Garde.
  

In the mood for love

Milwaukee's The Goodnight Loving played a great set of twangy Memphis-styled rock for the Rock'n'Roll Pizza Party crowd. I missed them the first time they were here, but they must have made a great impression since their was a sizeable crowd (both indoors and out) for them this time.

Singalong action with Andy Kavanaugh and Andy Harris!



As you can see, The Royal Oak is a cozy place - particularly since it's more-or-less divided into three parts. I think the number of Converse sneakers and Budweiser cans per square metre also reached some kind of critical mass.



The view from the back.



Colin Swinney played bass for the first part of the set, then moved up to the microphone.



Ryan Adams drums! Don't say it, he's heard it.



Some final Telecasting and singing from Andy Harris before he trades Colin for the bass.



Colin rocks the Tweedcaster.



And so on! It's awfully cramped under the PA, by the way.





Big finish! They ended things with Dead Fish on the Banks, the first song off their Greg Cartwright-produced album Cemetery Trails, thus motivating me to buy said album.



The Goodnight Loving is home and resting, but shall embark on a tour of Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium, Austria and Italy in June after a couple of U.S. dates.

• Show reminder: Hello Operator, We Say Summer, In Safe Hands and No More Hollywood rock Cafe Dekcuf; The Nomadic Massive and Jesse Dangerously perform at Zaphod's; This Old House, Greggy B and The Flats and Pamela Brennan play the Elmdale House.

Start at the beginning

The Rock'n'Roll Pizza Party has a new home at The Royal Oak after stints at Babylon and The Bytown (now Yuk Yuks on Elgin), and as before it provides Thursday's finest entertainment value for your dollar (and still would even if it weren't free). Previous Pizza Party goers The Goodnight Loving were the headlining act, while the openers were Year Zero. This was their second show (after a house party).

The trio is composed of three familiar faces: Drummer Michael is also in The Beach Blankets and Mother's Children and was once in The Sick Fits, bassist and singer Tim from The Million Dollar Marxists and Brad, formerly of The Neighbourhood Brats and also one of the RRPP guys. The folks at Ottawa Explosion say they sound like early 90s Lookout label bands - could be, I never listened to that stuff.



Tim Sings!



Michael models the latest in White Wires wear.



Brad rocks the Sheraton.



And so on!



The whole lot! (Plus soundman and DJ Luke at back.)





Needless to say they'll be performing at the Gaga Weekend on June 13 at Yogi's.

• Show reminder: The Habit, Dan Voltan and Amy Campbell perform at Zaphod Beeblebrox; Christophe Elie plays The Rainbow. Age of Daze and My Darkest Days rock Mavericks.

Darkness and void

All right, I was planning to go to Cafe DeKcuf to see Rich Aucoin and company, both to provide something different from the rock'n'soul I'll be seeing tonight at Babylon, courtesy of King Khan and His Sensational Shrines and because taking photographs in the Royal Oak is a pain thanks to its dark environs. Then I got to watching Master of the Flying Guillotine, and you know how time flies when heads roll. To make a long story a little less long, I walked over to The Royal Oak on Bank St. to catch what I thought was going to be an evening of electropunkery, a la Lost Sounds. Not so!

Openers Endanged Ape may have a Moog on hand, but the Lethbridge, Alta., sextet are closer to an outfit like Simply Saucer or Joy Division (and I'm not the first person to have made the comparison, apparently). They have a lively, shirt-shedding singer too, who had fun racing around the room giving high fives, jumping on stuff and falling down. There was some enthusiastic crowd dancing - a little too enthusiastic in the case of the guy who lost his cellphone and ID.


Endangered Ape, Royal Oak, May 7, 2009

I'm not going to say that Montreal's O Voids sound a huge amount like The Urinals or Flipper, but there's a certain similarity to the aesthetic impulse of those two combos in their yowly punk blurt. They've garnered some art-punk comparisons to Wire and Mission of Burma, and I immediately thought they should play with The Suppositories if they ever come back through town.


O Voids, Royal Oak, May 7, 2009

The Hot Blood Bombers capped the evening with a sizzling set of loud, fuzzy and bluesy hard rock. They made me think of combos like Australia's Powder Monkeys and played the MC5's Ramblin' Rose as their penultimate tune before finishing off with some ramalama blues.


Hot Blood Bombers, Royal Oak, May 7, 2009

The whole lot is performing in Montreal tonight at Squalor along with Ottawa's own Sedatives.

• Show reminder: As mentioned earlier, King Khan & The Shrines are hitting Babylon tonight, along with Khan kohort Mark Sultan and The Sunday Sinners; Death In Custody, Disco Assault, The Rookers, The Botched Suicides and Vanier Shank punk rock at Cafe Dekcuf; there's more punk rock down below with SNFU, Ab Irato, Snatchback, Hands of The Few and Chachi on Acid; Former High Dialer Rishi Dhir brings his psych'n'sitars outfit Elephant Stone to Zaphod's with Death of Apollo and Urban Aesthetics;

Down and dirty

It's strange: I've been to Royal Oaks all over the city, but last night was the first time I'd been to the one closest to my own doorstep, the so-called "Dirty Oak." I'm not sure why it's been called that, but feel free to post any non-libelous explanations in the comments section. My reason for crossing its threshold was to witness the return of Milwaukee's Goodnight Loving to Ottawa and the birth of local supergroup Year Zero at The Rock'N'Roll Pizza Party, which has relocated to the Oak after being laughed out of the Bytown Tavern by Yuk Yuk's.

Year Zero features Million Dollar Marxist and Uranium Comeback kid Tim on bass and vocals, Neighbourhood Brat Brad on guitar and Sick Fit, Mother's Children offspring and Beach Blanket warmer Michael on drums. They have a hard and heavy punk sound. "It's our first show so be gentle!" said Tim.


Year Zero, The Royal Oak, April 30, 2009

What if power poppers listened to The Byrds instead of (or more than) Big Star? What if they traded their Rickenbackers for Telecasters (if they haven't already?). You'd get something sounding a lot like the twangly, jangly sounds of The Goodnight Loving. They put on a great show - really sharp, even minus fifth member Zach.


The Goodnight Loving, The Royal Oak, April 30, 2009

I picked up their Cemetery Gates CD since they played its title track to finish their set, and it's mighty fab. They're playing Toronto tonight with The White Wires.

• Show reminder: Emmanuel Sayer recommends you all go see Detroit's Gardens at The Rocker Room under the James St. Pub tonight. Kelp's celebrating its 15th anniversary, and you can check out Camp Radio, Andrew Vincent, Andy Swan and Micarza Camaro at the Elmdale Tavern. Politique, The City Above and Opopo play Zaphod Beeblebrox; Chinese Food and Rudeboy perform at The Rainbow.

Two years in one

Here we are at the last show of 2008 or, if you prefer to be forward-looking, the first show of 2009. Good2Go has popped into the Royal Oak for a few shows before, including a New Year's Show like this 'un. This was my first time inside this particular Oak. It's a pretty cozy one, with the tables neatly situated to allow a reasonably leggy singer to strut across them.

Speaking of whome, here's Good2Go singer, birthday gal and Elementary Teacher of the Year Miss Maureen.



Keyboardist Glenn and guitarist Christian.



And rhythm section action with Reg and Gilles.





Chairs are good too.



Birthday cake action!



Glen keys.



Big 2008 finish!



And here we are in 2009. Actually these photos got all mixed up because my camera started renumbering photos when the clock struck 12. Much like the actual New year's Eve experience, one often doesn't know what time it is ... or where you are ...



Another big finish! Possibly still in 2008.



Their next show is scheduled for March 7 at the Dominion Tavern.

• Show reminder: Billy Lyte performs at The Rainbow.