Deep thoughts

Back in the middle of October I headed over to the House of Targ for some metal action, headlined by crushing Austin trio The Well. It was a dreaded five-act bill, fortunately shortened to the less-dreaded four-act bill when one of the bands had to back out. In addition to Texans, you had a trio of Ottawa bands, starting off with sludge outfit Opium Winter. Here's frontman Josh and guitarist H. Figurine!



Bass action with Nicholas, who I last saw a decade ago performing with The Unavowed!



More Nicholas, and fellow Unavowed vet Chris on drums!



Chris hits!



Guitar action!



Gripping action!



More Chris!



Extra Nick!



Singalong action!



Next up Black Galaxy; I've seen them a few times in the last year, so without any more preamble, here's Jimmy!



Guitar action with Dave!



Bass action with Mark!



More Dave and Jimmy!



Extra Mark!



Josh hits!



Dave sings!



The Aphelion are one of the sharpest outfits in the city, and as usual the put on a great performance. Here's Evan, also handling bass duties this time around.



Percussive action with Nathanael!



Keyboard action with James!



Extra Evan!



More guitar with Tyler!



Peak action!



Singalong action!



More James!



Bonus Nathanael!



The Well really crushed it, here's some drinking action with Lisa and Ian!



Bass action with Lisa!



Guitar action with Ian!



Lisa sings!



Ian sings!



Singalong action!



Jason hits!



More Lisa!



Extra Ian!



Texan action!



Bonus Jason!



Even more Ian!



Even more Lisa!



Good stuff all around.

No swearing please

Gimme an M! Gimme and E! Gimme a T! Gimme an A! Gimme an L! That spells metal, in case you were too busy surreptitiously listening to Judas Priest on your Sony Walkman during English class. There aren't a huge number of straight-out metal shows in Ottawa (last night's offering from Metallica notwithstanding), or at least not of the somewhat old school style I favour, so it was good to get a quadruple dose at this Rainbow show back on August 4. Locals The Unavowed opened things up. I was surprised to find that the last time I'd seen them in May 2007 at their debut show at Zaphod's ... time flies when you age, I guess. On the other hand, I seem to recall Nicholas asking me if they'd changed much in the interveing years. I dunno. This may be a sign that volume causes brain damage.

The shadowy figure of Nicholas from The Unavowed.



Singer Dan and bassist Carey.



More Nicholas and drummer Chris.



Singalong action! Can you tell it's a wee bit dark for my camera?



Time for the other side of the stage, and more Carey!



Darn microphone stand.



Rocking action!



Chris in the red.





Allright, time to break out the flash ... the whole lot!



Bending action!



Monitor-standing action!



A little more focus would have done wonders for this shot ...



Oh well - this one turned out sharpish.



And some final headbanging action!



As before, a no-frills metal throwdown.