Drat patrol

Let's take a trip in the wayback machine to Irene's three weeks ago, and from their to about 1962, from whence The Von Drats musical inspiration hails. These striped hellions like their surf gnarly and their garage rockin'. Not much else to say except there was a super-enthusiastic crowd to make this set even more exciting. Good times all around.

Here we have Steve Von Drat, Leonard Von Drat and Dano Von Drat.



Over on keyboards, we have Dave Von Drat. There's also a Trevor Von Drat, but he wasn't around for this gig.



And over stage left we have Holly Van Drat on shakin'.



Steve plays some fuzzy licks.



Holly rotates somethin' fierce.



Shocking vocal action!



Singalong action!



Bending action!



Dave is in some kind of bag.



Dano gets fangy (you may have to click through to the big picture for the full effect).



Guest dancing action!



Leonard was in charge of most of the banter.



Big finish!



It was a whole lot of fun - a common experience at Irene's garage gigs, I find. As mentioned earlier, they'll be back in town at The Elmdale House for a show with Lefty McRighty and Buzz Deluxe May 29, and have a date but no locale for an Ottawa performance June 20.

• Show reminder: Parkway Drive, Stick To Your Guns and My Children My Bride already sold out their Babylon show weeks ago, so you might want to go to Cafe DeKcuf and check out The Brains, Machine Gun Dolly, Boxcar Cadavers, Nummies and The Victims instead, or The Hanson Brothers and The Creeps at Mavericks. Birthday Boys and We Surrender perform at Zaphod Beeblebrox; The Coggs are at The Rainbow; Brock Zeman has a show at Irene's; The Elmdale House Tavern hosts Ken Workman and The Union and No Barbers Required. Tanya Janca and perform at the Avant-Garde. Finally, Black Mountain, The Pack A.D. and Ladyhawk are at the Capital Music Hall.
  

Fill the dancefloor

There was rump-shaking aplenty at Irene's last night as The Von Drats, Shanker and Romps and Mississippi Grover attracted a dancing-room only crowd to their sweaty gig. When I walked in out of the snow and rain the door the window of Irene's was clouded with condensation and my glasses fogged over immediately. I had to follow the sound of Shanker and Romps kicking off their set with Big Fenders to make my way to the back of the pub. It was pretty muggy back there.

Along with paeans to the Arboretum (which I later heard Jason Vaughn of Cold Coffee and Salty Boots singing it in the bathroom downstairs), birdwatching and bicycles, the duo debuted their new and appropriately named tune Rocking With Romps.


Shanker and Romps, Irene's, April 4, 2009

Up next was Patrick Shanks' former Knurling associate Greg Watson, a.k.a. Mississippi Grover, with a fine selection of tunes documenting the living dead, the soon-to-be-dead living, voodoo, witch doctoring (a cover of the John Mayall tune) and Merle Travis' Roll On Mississippi.


Mississippi Grover, Irene's, April 4, 2009

The Von Drats closed things off with an active set of surf and instrumental tunes, some complaints over the Evil Farm Children's alleged demolition of Peterborough venue The Spill's only Nintendo machine and a cover of The Bag I'm In (Fred Neil, no doubt via some grotty garage gremlins or H.P. Lovecraft) and The Belairs' Mr. Moto (among others). Apart from the gogo-dancing of Holly Von Drat, there was also plenty of twisting on the dancefloor.


The Von Drats, Irene's, April 4, 2009

The audience demanded and received an encore. A fine way to spend a Saturday evening.

• Show reminder: The Darcys perform at The Rainbow with Kevin Bartman.