I'm a big fan of wild'n'crazy Japanese rock bands like Thee Machine Gunn Elephant, Teengenerate, Guitar Wolf and Electric Eel Shock. Unfortunately, not many of those bands have made the trip to Ottawa (I did catch the Electric Eel Shock at Zaphod's back in 2002 with Le Nombre, pre-blog); an exception are Zoobombs, who have made several trips to Canada since striking up a friendship with noted Toronto promoter Dan Burke, and frequently made side trips to Ottawa for gigs here and there. Despite their relatively frequent trips to the nation's capital, I never managed to catch any of their gigs. The band called it a daytwo years back, with mainman Don Matsuo embarking on a solo career. However, a chance encounter with one of the band's earlier drummers Bukka Billy, led him to get things together again. The band had a gig at CMW, so once again it's off to such hotspots as Peterborough and Bowmanville and yes, Ottawa, to reacquaint themselves with the local fanbase. They dropped in to the House of Targ for a rare Tueday show, which also featured an outing for the recently renewed Glorious Moonrockets. Here's Chris!
Chris sings!
Pat (of Face of Jam and Gutter Rocks fame) hits!
Coupe of Rat Tales, Black Stone Hearts and sundry others, and whom I completely failed to recognize without a headband - handles the low end.
Guitar-lifting action!
The whole lot!
Pat sings!
Hair-tossing action!
And so on!
Chris works the crowd!
Singalong action!
Rhythm section action!
Zoobombs put on a heck of a show; I'd say it was the best I've seen this year, if Divers hadn't blown me away completely a few weeks back. As it is, Don was wild from word go, and the rest of his band (which also includes his wife, Matta, and hired gun Machiko on bass) were super-solid. Here's Don, just warming up.
Matta works the keys.
Rhythm section action with Billy and Machiko.
Gripping action!
Billy hits!
Matta sings!
Feedback action!
Matrimonial action!
Extra Bukka!
And it's only song No. 3 (or thereabouts - the tunes ran into one another).
Back-on-his-feet action!
Extra Matta!
More Machiko!
Even more Billy!
Gesticulating action!
More gripping action!
More singalong action!
The end!
They're wrapping up their Canadian tour with a second show at Toronto's Silver Dollar tonight.
