H-fi society

I think of The Figgs as being contemporaries of folks like Sloan and The Smithereens. Their long service hasn’t brought them a large audience, it’s certainly sharpened their talents as performers. As mentioned earlier, they've backed Replacement Tommy Stinson and Brit New Waver Graham Parker, who they sound like. Their show at Zaphod's only attracted a few dozen people, mostly in the early-thirties-to-forties demographic, but provided a lot of bang for the buck. They played some new stuff and their was a fun singalong of The Beatles' Bungalow Bill.

Yeah, Mike Gent and Peter Donnelly have a microphone each, but why not use just the one?



Standing on the riser wins extra rock points.



Peter Hayes likes funny faces.



Low light action!



You can only wear a leather jacket on stage for so long.



Faceoff action!



I think Gent likes standing on things like amplifiers ...



... and monitors ...



Big pre-encore finish!



Peter sings a little ditty of his own devising: "I own a van ... that's why I'm in this band ...."



And so on!





A swell show. I'm not sure I believe their declaration they're going to move here, but hopefully they'll be back before then. I heard whisperings that some local pals hope to bring them back for a show like Irene's.

• Show reminder: The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir performs at Club SAW; The Jimmy Bowskill Band and Hemi Loco perform at Zaphod Beeblebrox; The Hammerheads bring the funk to The Rainbow; it's time for another honky tonk Saturday night at the Elmdale House with Ball and Chain and the Wreckers; Caledonia, Sarah Hallman and String Bone perform at Irene's; The band whose name is a symbol, Mono Hum, Blackball and Cosmic Cousins are playing outside Carleton University's Unicentre (this is an afternoon show from noon to five, and the weather is supposed to be nice); Dig It Up, Biipiigwan, Hunter City Madness and Jesus Mullet rock Mavericks.

Behind gold-plated doors

I deliberately asked for May 22 off so I could go and see The Figgs play a rare Ottawa show. Also a chance to see The BushPilots again, since I last saw them on the River Stage at Bluesfest in 2008. And just like then I arrived too late to see all but the last few songs. D'oh! However, it wasn't quite a repeat of that gig, since apart from being indoors this time, they also have a keyboardist, Tom Pechloff.

The whole lot!



Faceoff action, and extra Tom action as well.





Breezy action!



Shouty action! Rob also has a new hat, which belnds almost perfectly with the Zaphod's backdrop.



A more impressionistic photo.



And so on!





Maureen Hogan of Good2Go was once again invited on stage to tease Jeff and sing backup.





Those lights are warm.



Singalong action!



Their next show is at the Black Sheep Inn with Australian roots rockers The Re-Mains.

• Show reminder: Epyllion, The Scarlett Fever and From Day One perform at Zaphod's; MonkeyJunk boogie into the Rainbow; The Grass Mountain Hobos are at Irene's; Terry Gillespie performs at the Elmdale House.

This is modern life

Modernboys Moderngirls are a Toronto combo on a garage-soul kick. I can see them following in the footsteps of The Deadly Snakes, though some of their influences are a bit more modern than that lot's. They also covered Bruce Springsteen's I'm On Fire. Ming Wu also took a bunch of photos (which look much nicer). He had a second flash slaved to the one on his camera which went off simultaneously ... it also went off when my flash discharged, and for a while there I was starting to wonder if the new Mavericks stage's unpainted ceiling was having miraculous effects on my own photography.

Akira Alemany is a forceful frontman.



And here we go with some clapping from keyboardist Eddie Ruiter!



Bassist Juan Carlos Rivera is quite a livewire.





Chaaaaaarge! I'm definitely stealing Ming Wu's battery power in this photo ...



And this one ....



Drummer Brett Milius talks to the hand.



And so on!





They're a lively lot.



You can see Ming's second flash in the lower left corner ... mmmm, shadows!



Who says you need to play a bass right side up?



Big clapping finish!





There's was also some guitar discarding and jumping going on at the finale, none of which I managed to catch since my own batteries more or less gave up the ghost on the penultimate tune.

• Show reminder: The Dreadnoughts , Knives & Forks For Freedom and The Krapskraps, The Living Sound System and The Beer Barons rock Cafe DeKcuf; Marie-Josee Houle and Mathias Kom sock it to Zaphod's; Another Lost Hero, I Call This Safety, A Distance From and Fever Beard play Maverick's. The Wild Turkeys and Dustin Jones & the Rising Tide play the Elmdale House.

Let me draw you a picture

Next up were The Paint Movement. They were a pretty exuberant bunch on stage, and getting a baker's dozen of good shots were a cinch. They're also very capable musicians. An unconventional bunch, about the only thing I didn't fancy was the music. If you dig Broken Social Scene they might be a little more up your alley. For my tastes, they didn't rock hard enough and were just a shade too jazzy.

Guitarist Kevin Kralik fronts the crew and handles most of the vocals, Jason Loftman plays the saxophone and takes an occasional turn at the keyboard, Glenn Candy plays the drums andJason Haberman plays bass.



Kralik bends!



I'm a little dubious about the merits of a camouflage cymbal case.





Loftman toots his own horn.



Singalong action!



And so on!



Oh okay ... yet more singalong action!



Haberman shakes it.







More Candy!



And there they go.



They're currently headed out west, so if you're in a major (or not-so major) metropolitan area anywhere to the left of Thunder Bay on the map, chances are they're playing a club near you in the month ahead.

• Show reminder: Withering Pine Eric Vieweg performs at Zaphod Beeblebrox with Graven and Dave Norris and Local Ivan; Fish & Bird roll through The Rainbow.

Meaty, beaty, big and bouncy

The weather's been stinky of late, hasn't it? Unfortunately way too many people who should have known better failed to make it out to Zaphod's last night to catch wicked sets from Tokyo Sex Whale and Athens, Georgia psychedelic circus Dark Meat.

That is not to be mean to openers Mud Lake, a youthful quintet whose set I mostly missed. I did hear their good cover of The Who's Baba O'Riley, though.


Mud Lake, Zaphod Beeblebrox, June 1, 2009

Tokyo Sex Whale were up next and their stacks quickly pummeled Zaphood's into submission with one of their heaviest sounding sets to date. I don't recall any of their tunes coming off of their LP. The closer Sleep was definitely worthy of bearing the name of the acclaimed doom band.


Tokyo Sex Whale, Zaphod Beeblebrox, June 1, 2009

Dark Meat played a sonically hefty set as well. Their pyschedelic throb was alive and well, and actually sounded quite a bit more focused than on their album. Maybe that's what happens when you pare your band down to seven on the road. Unfortunately the picture below omits what makes them special, their horn section: There's a trombonist off to the right and a trumpeter off to the left, as well as a slim lady on piccolo.


Dark Meat, Zaphod Beeblebrox, June 1, 2009

A great show, unfortunately only close friends and relatives of the various bands made it out, and I'm guessing the audience topped out around two dozen.

• Show reminder: Laganza performs at The Rainbow. They like Neil Young and Bob Marley and come from Muskoka. Guy Del Villano performs at the Elmdale House.
  

Breaking news

Next up, The Centretown Cripplers, who seem to have a fairly fluid membership, with a central seven ... they're like the Acid Mothers Temple of Ottawa roots rock. I only caught a couple of songs because I was tad tardy getting to this gig - a ferocious version of Stepping Stone is what I mostly recall.

Shadowy men on Mavericks' new shadowy stage, David Banoub, Chris Cook and Matthew Wells handle the guitars ... you can also see a bit of bassist Devin Tomanry and drummer Jamie Warren in this photo.



Brendan Harrison on keyboards, off to the right.



Allright Mel Sturk percusses off to the left.


Guitar action!







Shouty action!



Singalong action!



At this point, do I really have to say they're playing at the Gaga Weekend? In this case it's the matinee show on Main St. June 13.

• Show reminder: You like bands with lots of members? Go see Dark Meat, at Zaphod's. Even better Tokyo Sex Whale, is on the bill, as is Mud Lake (which has more than a few members itself).