Punks' night out

I headed over to Targ on Friday night to check out the latest edition in the Punk Rock Covers series. This was No. 14, with sets featuring the songs of NoMeansNo, Personality Crisis, Avengers, Gun Club and Misfits. The show was also a benefit for Safety and Education for Trans Youth. First up some NoMeansNo with Chris and Mark from No Fuss, Tara from Lindbergh Babies and Joel from Bel Ann-Ana. Here's Mark!



Chris and Tara!



Joel sings!



More Tara!



Extra Joel!



More Chris!



More Tara!



Then I went off to eat some perogies; Winnipeg's Personality Crisis was the next act paid tribute. Here's Ken!



Dave hits!



Bass action with Karen (a.k.a. The Bella-Bombs' Turbo-Bomb).



More shouty Ken!



Guitar action with Devin!



Extra Karen!



More guitar!



More Dave!



Boom Creek did a fabulous job covering The Gun Club - they fit the role to a T.



Bass action!



Adam hits!



Guitar action with Ian!



And so on!



Bonus Neil!



More bass!



Even more Neil!



Clubby action!



Tara was back on stage to front The Avengers cover band, along with some Wire Cuffs folks (who will be back at Targ as a band covering Billy Idol this Friday).



Guitar action with Sarah!



Rhythms section action with Dave again and Janine (last seen playing with Porcelain Forehead) on bass!



Guitar action with Brendan!



Sarah sings!



More Tara!



Brendan sings!



Dave was brought in on drums with only one practice.



Even more Janine!



Blueish action!



Neck rounded the night off with their versions of The Misfits' hits; Kevin did the singing while Wire Cuffs' Callum manned the traps. Here's kevin doing some pre-set flexing!



Eye-shadowed action!



More Kevin!



Callum hits!



Singalong action!



Guitar action with Jeff!



More Johnny!



Another fine fundraising effort.

All aboard

Friday night, and another visit to the House of Targ, this time for some punk rock (with a bit of classic rock for good measure). Montreal's Mental Fix paid a visit to town, and Police Funeral and Dead Weights were duly recruited to round out the bill. Unfortunately, Police Funeral's drummer was injured so The Lindbergh Babies were recruited in their place. Then Toronto's Bella Clava jumped on ship as well (they're on tour and needed a Friday date), injecting a little more rock'n'roll in the punk equation.

Babies were up first; there's a lot of four-stroke in the group. Here's Ken and his button collection!



Jon Kiely is back on drums - thus, the group is in the market for a new guitarist.



Crimson ghostly action!



Bendy action!



Devil-locked action!



Singalong action!



Extra Jon!



Faceoff action!



This was my first time seeing Bella Clava; they've worked up a good reputation on the Toronto scene for their hard-rocking sound, a lot of which reminded me of 1970s cult act Fanny. Blog fans might also recognize singer/keyboardist/guitarist Caitlin from Ian Blurton's Public Animal as well. Here's Jody Brummell, also of The Shanks, a.k.a. the (Norman) Shanks, Flash Lightnin'.



Closeup action with Scott Suttie!



Caitlin Dacey sings!



Scott Hannigan handles the low end!



Doubleneck action!



Keyboard action!



Jody hits!



Bella action!



Extra Caitlin!



Scott sings!



Singalong action!



Caitlin busts out the guitar!



Jody sings!



Slide action!



Jody takes a pinball break!



Caitlin sings some more!



Fisheye action!



And now for the bands which were supposed to play the show in the first place: The Dead Weights like their anthemic street punk rock all gravelly and Leatherface-like. Here's Steve and Jonathan!



Bass action with Derek!



The shouty bit!



Percussive action with another Steve!



Rhythm section action!



Shoutalong action!



Closeup action!



Guitar action!



Mental Fix is a new band, and played a short set. They share most of the same musical DNA as Dead Weights; the band's resume includes Preying Hands, Whiskey Trench and Naughty Girls. Other than that I can't say much about them, except to praise their brisk, tough sound.



More guitar action!



More guitar!



Mental Fix seem to share the vocal duties around pretty freely.



Percussive action!



Singalong action!



A cool night out.