Above average

If I were a rational person, I suppose I might have slept in on Sunday instead of going off to Club SAW for the hangover edition of Ottawa Explosion. As evidence I'm not, here are some snaps of Average Times, who I caught the last few minutes of. It was their first show.

Todd frets!



Drummer Stef, Tim (from Year Zero, etc.) and Curtis, a.k.a. Stabatron of Hellbros.



Stef hits!



And, er, that's it. Fortunately I managed to catch a bit more of them in August at the Atomic Rooster.

Shedding skin

The Holy Cobras have switched around their rhythm section, replacing Sweet Jane Chris Smith and current Beach Blanket Meaty with Sick Fit X-Ray X and Fucking Machine/Long Timer Johnny, since I saw them last. They've also changed their sounda bit, blending some Chrome in with the Gun Club and Cramps.





Shirtlessness impends!





Rich shakes it.



Rhythm section action!



A Beach Blanket flies as Danny Druff tambourines.



Rodd gets on down.



You can also see part of their lightshow.



The whole lot!



A fine set, in honour of their cool new cassette, Make Pyramids. They're playing with AIDS Wolf at Babylon January 9 at Babylon. They're also playing with The Aversions at bar le scanner in Quebec City January 17.

Titans of trash

Thanks to some handy scheduling (for which I'll pay a horrible price in upcoming weeks) I managed to swing off two rock-heavy nights in a ray. On night No. 2 I went by Babylon to see Jay Reatard, The Holy Cobras and CPC Gangbangs courtesy of local promoter, music blogger and soon-to-be expatriate Calum Marsh. Locals The Holy Cobras opened with a brief set. The band features former Sweet Janes members (Danny Druff, formerly Grady Finch, Rodd and Chris along with new guy Daniel). They've divested themselves of some of their 77 punk leanings and headed toward The Cramps and The Gun Club. They stumbled into their own Stormy Weather, squealed and sauntered their way through another half-dozen tunes then called it a day. I picked up a copy of their new cassette on Telephone Explosion, Keep Your Hands Off My Stuff and it's cool too.


Holy Cobras - Daniel, Danny, Chris (at rear) - Babylon, April 16, 2008

Montreal sleazoids CPC Gangbangs held down the middle with a super set of sweaty Pagans influenced fuck-you punk rock. It was a first rate din. I think I've seen most of this entire disreputable lot in other incarnations. I saw Danny Marks and Roy Vucino many years ago in Los Sexareenos. Marks has switched over to drums while Roy still manhandles the six strings. Paul Spence used to be Lyle Sheraton in The Daylight Lovers (Roy was a member too, if memory serves). Any way, these guys don't need any more priors to get their trash rock merit badge. They nailed it right out of the gate and had the crowd thrashing about in short order.


CPC Gangbangs - Roy Vucino, Tom Kitsos, Paul Spence - Babylon, April 16, 2008

Jay Reatard is riding a high in the wake of his critically acclaimed Blood Visions album. I personally prefer his more trashed out early stuff, but his newer output has much of the same manic vigor. In person he's got a lot more hair than I imagined and looks not quite old enough to shave. He came with a rhythm section of equally hirsute character. His bassist also had a Flying V, which was cool. He ripped his way through a few numbers before disaster struck. Bassist Stephen Pope fried his amp, and when he went to grab The Cobras combo jobby he was ordered off the stage to seek the CPC Gangbang's Tom Kitsos and his amp head. Reatard riffed for a while along with drummer Billy Hayes then declared "Let's play one without him!" and thundered through a bunch of tracks sans bass. By the time Pope was ready to play again, there was just one tune left in the brief set.


Jay Reatard and Billy Hayes (at rear), Babylon, April 16, 2008

None of these troubles prevented the audience from going crackers. There was lots of moshing and crowd-surfing and enthusiastic demands for an unforthcoming encore. A rocking set, but I liked the Gangbangs best.

• Show reminder: Born Ruffians, Young Rival and Giant Hand perform at Zaphod Beeblebrox.

You got it!

Phew. Emergency over. Anyway, after the bloody disaster that was Photobucket yesterday, it's good to move onto the bloody disaster that is The Sweet Janes today. But seriously - them Janes really tore it up for the Degeneration Overdrive fundraiser at Babylon. The guitar tandem of Todd and Rodney seemed a lot more ... hmm, co-ordinated isn't quite the word together. To hell with it, onto the pictures!

The future's so bright, they've got to wear shades. Scary thought: I was listening to Timbuk3 in my teens, and their first hit came out in 1986 ... were all of these guys even born then?



Chris Smith yells!



Jesse and Todd.



The whole shady lot!



Get down!



"Aaaaaah!"



Janes action!





Grady works the floor.



Grady must have bit something the wrong way, because by the end of the night he was starting to look like Gradyacula.



Grady channels his inner Roger Daltrey.



Todd leans into the microphone at left, Grady bleeds into the microphone at right.



Definitely one of the better sets I've seen from them.

• Show reminder: After far too long away, Starvin Hungry return to Babylon with the Phantom Shifters.

You want blood?

Well you ain't gonna get it here, courtesy of Photobucket, which seems to be @#$!ing up royally right now. If you want to see the Janes in action you'll have to head over to my Flickr account for now. Apologies, and hopefully this issue will be resolved shortly.



Just click on through ...

Bunch of degenerates!

Surveying the almost empty confines of Babylon as Dave Kerr of Evil Farm Children performed a solo set, I asked myself: Why such a cruddy turnout? Did all of Ottawa's rock fans slip on the sidewalk and hurt themselves? Did they all follow four-stroke to North Bay? Didn't want to be late for church tomorrow? I guess a few went to Mavericks to catch Anvil and company, but still, not good people! Anyway, enough sulking from me and on to the pictures.

Dave with his shiny hypno-Gretsch. As you can see from the banner behind him, this was a benefit gig for Degeneration Overdrive. See, you bad people have set back the cause of degeneration!



Arson Eagles rocked like crazy, Backyard Babies, early Hellacopters, Union 69 style.



By the time The Sweet Janes hit the stage there was about two dozen people in the audience; not a disaster, but still pretty cruddy.



You all missed Grady spitting blood, too!

Eve of destruction

Then it was The Sweet Janes to show off their own brand of rock destruction (and their new bassist, Messy Jesse Lee). They threw a cover of Redd Kross's Linda Blair into their usual punkoid trash.

Jesse at right, newish guitarist Rodney Royale at left, Grady down below.



Todd sings! Or just about.



Janes action!



Midnight snack time.



I think we have a possible entry for the first National Capital Rock caption contest.



Rhythm section action!



Why get up?



Janes action!







The whole lot!

Jets, Janes and Fits

I've been to some oddly matchups at venues around town. Last night was not one of them. Montreal's The Jet Five, The Sweet Janes and The Sick Fits all exude that 1970s Stones, Dolls and Stooges vibe, along with a few earlier and later rockers.

If The Ramones had preferred The Pretty Things to The Shangri-Las, they might have ended up sounding like The Jet Five.



Grady Finch - non-deadbeat lover of punks - and new bass guy Jess Winchester.



The Sick Fits - or at least Michael, K.J. and a dimly visible Rocky.



They too have a new member (Preston Gunn on guitar). But you're just going to have to wait for pictures of him, because it's getting late ...

• Show reminder: Sleeping Pilot, Embassies of Denmark, Army of Saint Joan and Mail Nurse perform at Babylon; TokyoSexWhale do a free gig at the Royal Oak; Jim Bryson and J.D. Bartlett play the Black Sheep Inn; and Dynasty and Dopamine shake their stuff at Zaphod's.

Back to the basement

There was some hope The Sweet Janes/Regulations show would be moved to Cafe Dekcuf. To tell the truth I was shocked that more people didn't buy tickets. Eight bucks is too much for The Regulations, one of the best punk rock bands around, plus local highlights The Sweet Janes? Phooey. Anyway, The Sweet Janes put on a swell but short set with Luke from The Million Dollar Marxists filling in on bass. This was the first set by them with new guitarist Rod Royale that I'd seen.

Grady prepares for some microphone stand abuse.



Luke and Rod.





Some joker has dubbed End Hit's basement "Mitch's Place" and declared it Ottawa's best venue.



Well, it's the only venue where the audience stands on the raised portion of the floor ...



This bounced flash picture turned out interesting.



Sweet action!



They finished off with a cover of Long Tall Sally. They're playing with The Rookers at The Dom on Remembrance Day. They've also got a show coming up at the A&A Speed Shop with a bunch of folks, including Toronto's Brutal Knights on Nov. 18.