Let there be light!

Prepare yourself to squint at the screen and say "What the (insert favoured profanity here) is that?!?", because here comes my pictures of the People For Audio performance at Irene's on March 31. I didn't want to disturb the visual side of the show so I confined myself to only two pictures taken with flash, only one of which worked - poorly. The music and video presentation was very entertaining. Though I preferred J'envoie's set, PFA's melancholy music for cinema had its own charm.

Here's the flash photo: Lap steel man Adam Fiore, drummer Bill Hesselink and guitarist-keyboardist Curtis Stone.



Other than that, all is darkness - well, mostly: Keyboardist Keiko Devaux was slightly illuminated thanks to the Christmas lights on her keys.



Adam, illuminated by the projector.



Keiko, likewise. I was hoping the image of the young boy on screen would show up as well, but no such luck.



Here's the man in charge of the visual side of the show: Scott Lewis (I think).



And now I'm going to give my new Olympus Fl-36 flash a great big kiss.

The third, man

Just back from my third Civic Duty evening at Babylon, another raging success with hot sets from Embassies of Denmark and Black Actors.





And of course, a shout out to Civic Duty DJs Jeff and Bryan.



As per usual, more to come.

Stag party

J'envoie brought some odds'n'ends to decorate Irene's stage, then put on a really sizzling set opening up for People for Audio. It put me in mind of Jack Johnson-era Mile Davis, even though there was no brass - there was a lot of percussion involved, however.

First, here's Pat Senecal on full-time drums.



Pierluc Clement takes a break from guitar to bang some cymbals.



A bit more tapping as Olivier Fairfield reaches.



Olivier does something ... not quite sure what from this angle.



Nathan Medema and lucky penguin at right.





Since it was his birthday, Rolf Klausener got up to dance around with the stag's head the band brought - it's a timeless Canadian ritual of spring, I tell you! As is the stuffed penguin.



Apologies for the dark photos - I was between flashes. You can click on the pics for bigger versions.

• Show reminder: Contrary to an earlier version of this post, this week it's actually Embassies of Denmark and Black Actors' night to fulfill their Civic Duty at Babylon (Banditas and Army of Saint Joan is next week ... I think!).

This is your President

Elliott Brood have been to town a few times since I first caught them at a Zaphod's gig in pre-blog days (they were the subject of an early post which touted an Irene's performance that I missed). The turnout at that show was good; nowadays they seem to be on the cusp of bigger things. Zaphod's was downright crowded, with people right up at the front, and a far more varied crowd than I recall from that August 2004 show. Pretty remarkable turnout when you consider the date was changed.

On guitar, banjo and ukelele, Mark Sasso.





Casey Laforet is an engine-drivin'-man-hat-wearing'-man.





Steve Pitkin; you may recall him from his Violet Archers stint just a few weeks ago.



The lighting of the lamp ... with a borrowed lighter.



It made its way around the crowd before heading back to the stage ...



"Oh, that is not a good idea." Mark was unenthusiastic about the candle-lamp ending up on his guitar stand. ("Let me know if it starts to burn ..." he added later.)



Steve keeps his eye on the banjo.



"I see you, Howie Tsui!"



The Acorn guitarist was invited on stage to help drum.



There were a lot of candles on stage that night, including on the birthday cake of a lady named Amanda.



And here's a few more photos to round things out:





There was quite a feeling of bonhomie at this show, what with the birthday wishes to Amanda (and Acorn supremo Rolf Klausener). They quickly filled a request to play President (35) (from their new album Ambassadors), and played covers of Ring of Fire and Powderfinger. Bigger things seem to be in store: They played Junofest, A European tour looms, and they had a full page colour ad in a recent issue of Magnet (accompanied by a quote from my Sun review of their CD). Can world domination be far away?!? EB will be back in Ottawa for Westfest June 10.

Fat chance

I am not normally a big ska fan, but since Skratch3 and Fat Bastard are both kind of abnormal I guess it's okay that I enjoyed myself at Zaphod's a couple of hours ago. As I walked in the opening act was just finishing off is first song. As you can see from their shirts, they're named Visgotor, after the Malaysian Godzilla ripoff of the 70s.

Just teasing - The Visitors are Skottie Lobotomy ... er, make that Skottie Magellan ... of The Creeps, Arctic-Cat McGwire and Kevo Polo. Like the Creeps, they share a love of The Ramones. They sing songs about going places. This was their first show.



Next up: Skratch3; this is three-fifths of them here: Luke Kinmond, Dic Dickerson and Todd Mason. Ben Payton and Woody round out the band.



And finally three-fifths of headliners Phat Bastard. Yvo, Gid and Jeff can be seen; drummer Jeff and trumpeter Andrew are just out of sight.



More on all these folks later - you can also click on the photos for bigger versions.

Dark as a dungeon

Things had been kind of quiet on the Golden Famile front - last time I saw them was at the Avant-Garde Bar (I'm talking about a full set, here - I did catch the last few seconds of their set opening for The Black Keys at CKCU's 30th anniversary shindig, but that doesn't count). They were in excellent form kicking things off for Elliott Brood at Zaphod's.

Darrell: "Sing along everybody!" (Goes into long and convoluted verse.)
Crowd: "Help! What? Etc. ..."



Nate.



Richard.



I like this picture of Casey, even if you can't tell what the heck she's doing.



Standing back a bit ...



More back-standing to catch a reddish Ryan Hough.





Well, that's everyone ... um, except Mike, who was sitting way in the back in Zaphod's deepest, darkest corner. My camera's batteries were giving me the "running low" warning so I didn't use much flash. Thus the slightly out of focus quality of some (er ...) of these pictures, which you can more fully appreciate if you click on them since I've decided to link 'em all to larger versions of themselves. Go wild.

• Show reminder: Torontonians Phat Bastard and Skratch3 skank up Zaphod's with local explorer-core outfit The Visitors.

"Everything was going so well"

It was an evening of "progressively harsher music" at Irene's. When I got there Fourth was just wrapping up their set of 1960s-inspired rock, then it was the Mighty Eagle Band's turn to turn up for some '70s-lovin' tuneage; finally, Harshey pumped out some 80ish punk rock.

Fourth holds forth!



Mighty Eagle Band ... again!



Harshey! I'm too sleepy to thing of anything else to say!



That's it for now ... don't forget to turn your clocks forward!

Double Eagle

It's not so long ago that I witnessed the Mighty Eagle Band tear it up on stage opening for Tricky Woo ... there they were again rocking out for another Civic Duty evening at Babylon. Not much more to add to that last post, except that I left a little early because I had to work the next day and I'm really liking the addition of Matt Rose on electric piano.

Speaking of whom ... I dig the way the piano looks without its lid.



Neal's shirt asks the eternal question, who is Shawn Jam Hill? No idea man, ask the guy with the hat.



Joey Vino.



And some assorted rock action ...









I'll say it again: I definitely need to get a new flash. Click for bigger version on the last picture.

• Show reminder: The notorious Blowfly talks dirty at Zaphod Beeblebrox; Harshey, Mighty Eagle Band (hey, I've heard of them!) and The Fourth play Irene's Pub.

Sound and vision

I've just dawdled back from Irene's - making a brief stop at The Aloha Room to see and be seen. J'envoie and People for Audio both put on super sets. Not too many photos from this show since the lights were low, the audience was right up to the stage (particularly for J'envoie) and I didn't feel like zapping away with the flash while PFA was showing their films - but here's a couple:

Olivier and Pierluc from J'envoie. Yes, that is the head of a giant toy penguin in the lower left corner. They brought ... stuff.



I believe this is Adam Fiore in silhoette. I have many fine, well-lit photos of his right elbow.



A lovely show.