Frost, faith and fire

Many years ago I bought High On Fire's debut album on Man's Ruin. It was definitely one of the most hard-charging metal albums I'd heard. Shortly thereafter they came to town for a show at Babylon with Voivod that didn't get the audience it deserved - I think the promoters, who were also starting up a tattoo parlour, were kind of new to the concert promotion business. Also it was a cold night in a cold month. More than a decade has passed, and it's widely recognized that HOF is one of the hottest metal combos around. Thus, they were the headliners instead of the openers at an all-round kickass show at Capital Music Hall.

Opening act was Athens, Ohio metal combo Skeletonwitch. They were just starting to crank things out as I walked up the stairs at the Capital Music Hall. These dudes obviously like bands like Mercyful Fate and Exodus, and get some of their growl from black metal as well. They really motored through their set, stopping only to recommend the consumption of beer, pot and pussy between tunes.


Skeletonwitch at Capital Music Hall, July 23, 2010

Priestess filled the middle slot with their relatively more melodic metal take. I've already seen these guys a bunch of times ... I think they may be the out-of-town act I've seen the most of - heck, I've seen more of them than some local acts of similar vintage. They just keep on touring! This was a pretty hot set from them, and their projection backdrop was also working a bit better than it was at their Mavericks show with Early Man and Trigger Effect in November 2009.Unfortunately it was not such a boon in terms of photography.


Priestess at Capital Music Hall, July 23, 2010

Finally High On Fire appeared to steamroller everyone's eardrums with selections from their extensive catalogue of heavy metal thunder. Axeman Matt Pike kept up a never-ending barrage of his trademark sliding riffs while his mighty rhythm section served up a pounding backdrop. Unfortunately they didn't play an encore. Still, a mighty hot show. I'm hoping we don't have to wait another decade until they come through town again.


High On Fire at Capital Music Hall, July 23, 2010

Skeletonwitch and High On Fire are now off to Montreal for their inaugural Heavy Metal Fesival.

• Show reminder: Bloomistry, and Oceans are at the Raw Sugar Cafe; Horses, Orphan Choir, The Mudplots and Jersey Hurtt & the Skidkids rock the basement at 443 Kent St.; Danny Rebel & The KGB and The Living Sound System pop in to The Rainbow; Sandman Viper Command, The Panama, and Ornaments play Cafe Dekcuf; Captain Firebutton reunites at Mavericks; Irene's hosts Rudeboy; Uncle Sean and the Shifty Drifters and Marie-Josee Houle perform at the Elmdale House. Ska boys The Sidewalks and Dame Alexander are at the Avant-Garde.

Say uncle

Gaga Weekend on a aSaturday: Rock spectacle or endurance run? Well, both actually. Last year I missed sets by Germ Attak and others because I just couldn't rouse myself from slumber before about 1 p.m. This time I set my alarm clock early and got to Yogi's Meatlocker in time to see the kickoff, a crunchy set from Thunderuncle. As I mentioned way back when, the band is made of of veterans from the heavy end of Ottawa's musical spectrum: Middens drummer Joe Vienneau on guitar, Weapons of Mass Seduction's Kristian Thompson on another guitar, Harshey and elbeejay bassist Larry Russell, Manpower drummer Dave Dudley and Allrights drummer Jon Kiely on vocals.

Unshaven introduction action with Ian Manhire!



Singalong action with Jon and Larry!



The shouty bit!



Kris rocks the SG.



Dave drums!



More Larry, Dave and Joe!



More Joe!



Throaty action!



There are other horrible fisheye photos on my Flickr photostream. Here's some horrible video.



Speaking of heavy music ...

• Show reminder: High On Fire, Priestess and Skeletonwitch deafen the crowd at Capital Music Hall; The Cliks and Hunter Valentine rock Mavericks; Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People, The John Punch Band and That's The Spirit are at Zaphod Beeblebrox. P.E.I.'s The Sidewalks, The Living Sound System and Texas outift Bryce Clifford and Co. are at The Rainbow; The Mumbo Jumbo Voodoo Combo is at Irene's; the Elmdale House hosts The Old Crowns, Life Blown Open and Brett Caswell. Ghost Cousin and Joel Kuehn are at the Avant-Garde.

Fantastic journey

I'm a big fan of Kurt Vile, and was kind of bummed when work obligations meant I couldn't make it to his show at Babylon in February. Fortunately but a few short months later he's back with band, and psychsters Real Estate in tow to boot. Unfortunately heavy traffic between Toronto and here meant the openers were delayed, so local psychedelic chap Matt Oxley was drafted on short notice to play a short set.

His audience was small - maybe half a dozen folks in the place were paying serious attention as he zipped his way through some reverbed tunes. There was also some audience howling on the last song.


Crazy Ocean at Babylon, July 21, 2010

Real Estate finally found their way to the club a bit past 10 p.m. and soon enough were on the stage soundchecking. Don't let the low-fi haze fool you, these guys have some sharp melodies lurking behind their laidback demeanour.


Real Estate at Babylon, July 21, 2010

Kurt Vile played a killer set. His heavily reverbed, barking delivery reminds me a bit of Bob Dylan, while his sound makes me think he's playing woozy music underwater. He had a couple of his Violators with him - Adam, also of War On Drugs, and Mike Zeng - in addition to Mary who played a big pedal harp. They had a good chunk of the audience swaying along .


Kurt Vile at Babylon, July 21, 2010

That was one freaky show.

• Show reminder: Royal Canoe, Giant Hand and The Amalgamation play Zaphod Beeblebrox; Hartford, In Lights, The Bypass and Something You Whisper perform at Mavericks; NLX, Tara Holloway and Balthorpe Alabama are upstairs at Cafe DeKcuf; the elmdale House hosts Sun Moon Earth Magic, Jenn Flynn, Katie Leigh, Well Fournier, and Parish. Porter is at the Avant-Garde.

On the other side

For the final show of Gag Weekend's Friday, Zebrassiere's took the stage, and supplemented their beach party pop with some of the white stuff ...

Daniel helps Sarah apply some flour.



Meanwhile, Luke gets some elevation in his quest for news-type stuff.



"It's the only one-sided LP in Ottawa history ... and I would know!"



You really need the video to get the full flour effect ...



They're off!



And the crowd goes wild!



Jordy later told me that the whole flour thing came as a surprise to him.



Daniel rocks the low end.



The whole lot!



Rocking action!



Sarah warns Emmanuel not to do that!



Andy frets!



Flour-shaking action!



Sarah sings!



More Jordy!



And the crowd goes wilder!



Shouty action!



Sarah is given the microphone and gets a little carried away.



And that's it for the Friday ... coming soon, a vast horde of Saturday shots.

• Show reminder: Kurt Vile and Real Estate get fuzzy at Babylon; Shapes And Sizes and Braids perform at Zaphod's; Metavari and I Spell It Nature are at the Avant Garde; 5 Pounds of Pants plays The Rainbow; The Stephen Thomas Bandis at the Elmdale House.

People are strange

All right, enough of the Bluesfest stuff, let's go back to June and the Gaga Weekend, where punk rockers Strange Attractors are doing it 1977 style. All these folks are of course known to the Going Gaga crowd as members of The Statues, plus Eric from Ultra Violence Ray. Eric's a bouncy fellow and makes the band's Vibrators style punk jumpier still.

Jeff Houle feels the love from Ian Manhire.



Introduction action!



The whole strange lot!



Eric sings a bit!



Jeff sings a bit!



Everybody sings a bit!



Guitar-waving action!



Mitch rocks the kit.



Jeff works the microphone.



Audience support action!



 Flash update ... almost forgot the video!



Unsupportive audience action!



Rob action!



And that is that.

• Show reminder: Various musicians, including Shanker and Romps,  are holding a benefit for Kim the waitress at Irene's; Last Laugh, We Surrender, Currents, Royal Red Brigade, Klein96 and The Beer Barons play a Kids Help Phone benefit at Mavericks. Revolver and Jet Coaster hit the Rainbow.

It's all over, baby blue

Another year, another Bluesfest. In every year there's good and bad (or perhaps that should "mildly annoying"). This year the good consists of a bunch of awesome main-stage shows that actually interested me enough to plunk myself down in a crowd of thousands, something I'm normally loathe to do. The Flaming Lips put on a show I'll remember for a good long while, as did Arcade Fire. Iron Maiden were quite good, and I even found Rush enjoyable for an hour or so.
There were as usual some excellent side-stage concerts, with Blonde Redhead, Timber Timbre, The Rural Alberta Advantage, Bassekou Kouyate and Plants and Animals being particular standouts in my memory. As in previous years there were also the pleasant discoveries, like solo acoustic guitarists Matt Andersen and Bjorn Berge. The weather largely cooperated as well.
Less enjoyable was the SLR ban (rumour has it that it was triggered by the aforementioned Rush show). And despite a couple of good shows in The Black Sheep tent, I've got to say that unless they can do something about the acoustics they should either reserve it for comedy acts or revert to an outdoor stage. Good or bad, depending on your point of view, is that at no time did I find myself having to make an agonizing choice between acts (I still get a painful twinge from last year's Drive-By Truckers/Black Mountain decision). I suppose that's another way of saying this year's lineup wasn't as strong, but since I only rarely found a shortage of things to see or do I can't rightly complain, except to say  I did feel the world music lineup wasn't as strong as it had been in previous years. On to last night's entertainment, starting with locals Amos The Transparent.

Last time I saw Amos The Transparent was also at Bluesfest - back in 2007 - and since then there's been a few lineup changes. They really sounded like a rock band yesterday, as opposed to a music collective in the vein of Broken Social Scene. Here we have Dan Hay doing his best Jimmy Page impression.


Amos The Transparent at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 18, 2010

With one of those rare downtimes on my schedule I went to the main stage to see what this Trevor Hall chap was up to. He's a reggae guy from L.A., and is on tour with Jimmy Cliff. I thought he was okay, but didn't stick around.


Trevor Hall at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 18, 2010

I breezed past the Subway Stage where Paul Rishell and Annie Raines were just starting to cook on resonator and harmonica. I listened for a while then went over to the Black Sheep tent.


Paul Rishell and Annie Raines at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 18, 2010

There I found Occidental Brothers Dance Band International warming up. The Chicago band is dedicated to replicating the musical sounds of Ghanaian high-life. They've teamed up with Congolese singer Samba Mapangala for their latest project.


Occidental Brothers Dance Band International at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 18, 2010

They were fun enough, but I'd also heard good things about Slide To Freedom. They're a trio that blends eastern and western slide music, though to my unlettered ears it sounded more Indian than anything else.


Slide To Freedom at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 18, 2010

Hollerado was my next step, putting on a typically energetic set on the main stage, complete with confetti explosions (I'm going to guess they also caught the Flaming Lips' show) and a special guest appearance from mega-buskers The Dube Brothers for some twistin' tune.


Hollerado at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 18, 2010


Hollerado with The Dube Brothers at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 18, 2010

Jimmy Cliff proceeded to put on an electrifying set on the Claridge Stage. He definitely had the audience in the palm of his hand, swaying and singing along for every number.


Jimmy Cliff at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 18, 2010

Weezer finished the night off. Like Cliff, frontman Rivers Cuomo appeared to be having a lot of fun, at one point running off the stage onto the speaker stacks stage left, then taking off down the divider that runs from the stage to the sound tent, high-fiving people and singing all the way.


Weezer at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 18, 2010

Unfortunately it seems likely the SLR ban will stay for next year ... they might even start enforcing it. I'll either have to finagle a photopass or buy a superzoom; if I don't I'm going to go nuts thinking about all the photos I'm unable to take.