Explosion in motion

With summer in the air, that also means it's time for my favorite local festival, the Ottawa Explosion! I was much engaged with personal matters at the start of the month, and I didn't get to see as much of the festival as I'd like, but I still caught a good chunk of what was going on at SAW Gallery, starting with a performance from Spell. Here's Kai!



Mallet action with Tyrin!



Keyboard action with Connor!



Extra Tyrin!



Instrument-switching action!



Next up, the raucous punk sounds of Tightlip!



Vocal action!



Dan hits!



Guitar action with Scott!



Lippy action!



More Dan!



And so on!



Shocking rhythm section action!



Back outside for a rare daylight performance by The Yips!



Closeup action!



Guitar action!



Percussive action!



Rhythm section action!



More inside, more punk, featuring people you've seen onstage and off!



Percussive action with Patrick from Asile!



Guitar action!



Sierra sings!



Hair-swirling action!



More Dan!



More Sierra!



Outside one could hear the jangular and angular indie rock sounds of Casper Skulls, up from Toronto for the festival. Here's Neil and Chris!



Melanie strums!



More Neil!



Melanie sings, Fraser jumps about!



Chris hits!



A rare picture of Fraser standing still.



Extra Melanie!



Back inside, The CHUDs were ready to rage. Here's Imogen running about!



Guitar action!



Percussive action!



Imogen works the floor!



Cannibalistic action!



And so on!



The day ended with a MIDI-centric set from the always evolving Fet.Nat. Here's Lynsey and Pierre-Luc!



Olivier hits!



JFNo sings!



More Pierre-Luc!



More Lynsey!



Extra Olivier!



The crowd goes wild!



A fine first day.

In their element

November was two-thirds done with when I headed over to Black Squirrel Books to catch an eclectic show put on by The Indie Scene and featuring Deaf Children, Puffs, Montreal's Fleece and Elementals. Deaf Children kicked things off; I don't know anything about them except two-thirds of the band is also in Puffs. Here's some vocal action!



Rhythm section action with Connor (also of Spell) and a bassist I know not.



More Connor!



The whole lot!



Less flash, more singing!



More bass!



On to Puffs, who I saw a week earlier opening for New Swears.



Connor! Again! And also Deaf Children's singer on drums.



Percussive action!



The whole lot!



Guitar action!



Since they were performing in a book store, Fleece decided to open their set by reading some poetry.



Percussive action! The band had a much jazzier sound than the other acts on the bill.



Guitar action!



Singalong action!



Fleecy action!



Keyboard action!



More drumming!



Bass action!



The whole lot!



When I saw The Elementals a couple of months ago at House of Targ they made a good impression; I thought they sounded even better this time around, and quite a bit more like Nirvana. Here's Rick, Cody and Jamie!



Singalong action!



Jamie hits!



Bass action with Rick!



More Jamie!



Rick sings!



Cody sings!



A very pleasant night out.