Sunday, March 31, 2013

Upper floors

Back in time to Babylon, September 15, 2012, for Tenement's super-hot set of freakout punk rock.

Amos listens to guitar.

Tenement at Babylon

Eric hits!

Tenement at Babylon

Guitar-flailing action!

Tenement at Babylon

Amos sings!

Tenement at Babylon

Jesse rounds out the trio.

Tenement at Babylon

Exra Amos!

Tenement at Babylon

Ready, set ...

Tenement at Babylon

Jump!

Tenement at Babylon

Bonus Eric!

Tenement at Babylon

Neck-bending action!

Tenement at Babylon

Head-flinging action!

Tenement at Babylon

The whole lot!

Tenement at Babylon

Up, over and out!

Tenement at Babylon

They're playing here and there (Minneapolis tonight!) and appearing on a shortly-to-appear Husker Du tribute.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Join the club

I've been to packed shows before, but for shear sardine-can quality I don't think I can beat my debut appearance at the Fun Boy Club House. The popular house-show venue  is Ottawa's premier Manse of Misrule, occupied as it is by various members of New Swears and their partners in debauchery. Friday night's show marked the conjunction of two events. The first was Allie Hanlon's brief return to Ottawa (she now lives in California) as her band Peach Kelli Pop is on trans-continental tour. The second was a reunion of The Girlfriends, progenitor of The New Swears and others. First time I saw the girlfriends, Wolfgang cracked me on the knee while swinging his guitar around. Last time was at Ritual in 2010 for the last Gaga Weekend. They were supposed to have a tape out for the show (this the reunion) but they didn't arrive in time. Maybe they'll have a second reunion show? I think this is the place!

Fun Boy Club House

And once again I'm going to skip on followup posts, so check out what's what after the jump ...

Friday, March 29, 2013

Shipping out

Back to Presed for something a bit different. Winnipeg indie-pop combo Boats is touring North America - they're five weeks in and have a week to go. Several dozen people squeezed into Pressed to check them out, along with local openers Grime Kings. Since the show backlog is building up at an unprecedented rate and I didn't take many photos last night (relatively speaking), I'm just going to skip a later followup and show off the best right now.

Grime Kings had already started when I walked in the door. I think they might have forgotten their keyboard stand at home ... Callum sings, everyone else takes a tuning break.

Grime Kings at Pressed

And now back to the regular tangly guitar noise.

Grime Kings at Pressed

More drums!

Grime Kings at Pressed

Extra Alex!

Grime Kings at Pressed

Grimey action!

Grime Kings at Pressed

Rhythm section action!

Grime Kings at Pressed

Singalong action!

Grime Kings at Pressed

On to Boats. Frontman Matt Klachefsky warned the crowd in advance that a cold was wreaking havoc on his voice. I thought he sounded okay, but perhaps his trademark highs weren't as high as usual. He still sounds like he could do voiceover work for gnomes, though. The shadowy figure at right is bassist Louis Levesque-Cote.

BOATS at Pressed

Singalong action with Ashley Roch and Rory Ellis! Drummer Luke Bergen is off to the right.

BOATS at Pressed

Louis sings!

BOATS at Pressed

Matt's a pretty active guy on stage.

BOATS at Pressed

Luke hits!

BOATS at Pressed

Extra trumpet!

BOATS at Pressed

Boats play Montreal tonight.


Thursday, March 28, 2013

Wednesday vs. Saturday

Pressed keeps on rolling out the rock'n'roll (and much else besides). Wednesday night The Cheap Thrills wrapped up their North American Tour at the eatery with support from Mother's Children.

Mother's Children even had a new tune to test on the crowd.

Mother's Children at Pressed
Mother's Children at Pressed, March 27, 2013

Pressed's sofa is perhaps not the best launch point for rock jumping.

Mother's Children at Pressed
Mother's Children at Pressed, March 27, 2013

The quintet keeps both pointy-booted feet solidly in 1972 with Dolls'n'Stones-loving rock'n'roll. Unfortunately their set was cut short since they were late in arriving, but it was very solid, with covers of The Faces' Stay With Me and Elton John's Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting).

Cheap Thrills at Pressed
Cheap Thrills at Pressed, March 27, 2013

And to our right ...

Cheap Thrills at Pressed
Cheap Thrills at Pressed, March 27, 2013

Their new CD, Thrilled? appears imminently.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

After sundown

Crusades are a band I've seen quite a bit of lately. They opened for Tenement in September, Fucked Up in January and had a show with Solids earlier this month. Thay're always good, but I'd say the Babylon show was particularly hot.

Dave sings!

Crusades at Babylon

Faceoff action!

Crusades at Babylon

Jordy hits!

Crusades at Babylon

Emmanuel frets!

Crusades at Babylon

Rhythm section action!

Crusades at Babylon

Extra Dave!

Crusades at Babylon

The whole lot!

Crusades at Babylon

The shouty bit!

Crusades at Babylon

They plan to record their next LP at the end of April.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Wrong is right

Julie Doiron's usual soft-spoken persona sometimes leads people to forget she's no stranger to volume. She's come through town on several occasions - solo, with band and as part of a group - and the raucous and sensitive moments just about balance out. As you'd suspect, her performance with a band that includes Eamon McGrath and a couple of Cancer Bats leaned quite sharply in the former direction.

The lady herself!

Julie Doiron & The Wrong Guys at Cafe DeKcuf

Here's two-thirds of The Wrong Guys: Cancer Bat stalwarts Jaye Swarzer and Mike Peters.

Julie Doiron & The Wrong Guys at Cafe DeKcuf

Eamon was over on a shadowy part of the stage.

Julie Doiron & The Wrong Guys at Cafe DeKcuf

Wrongful action!

Julie Doiron & The Wrong Guys at Cafe DeKcuf

Tattoed action!

Julie Doiron & The Wrong Guys at Cafe DeKcuf

Hair-shaking action!

Julie Doiron & The Wrong Guys at Cafe DeKcuf

Julie gets down on the mic.

Julie Doiron & The Wrong Guys at Cafe DeKcuf

She plans to hit Toronto in May, so perhaps she might drop in on Ottawa while she's in the vicinity.

Monday, March 25, 2013

To be a lover

Back near the beginning of September I went over to Cafe DeKcuf to see Julie Doiron. I've seen her play solo and sensitive, and loud with a group. This show was definitely on the loud side. Toronto combo Dearly Beloved opened things up. They too err on the side of volume, with plenty of that Detroit rock in the formula. Not such a surprise when you consider Rob Higgins of Change of Heart is one of the driving forces.

Here's vocalist Niva Chow and some shadowy bandmates.

Dearly Beloved at Cafe DeKcuf

Close-up action!

Dearly Beloved at Cafe DeKcuf

Rob sings!

Dearly Beloved at Cafe DeKcuf

Dave Kiner likes that MC5. And Wonder Woman!

Dearly Beloved at Cafe DeKcuf

Pushy action!

Dearly Beloved at Cafe DeKcuf

Tristan Avakian sings!

Dearly Beloved at Cafe DeKcuf

The shouty bit!

Dearly Beloved at Cafe DeKcuf

And so on!

Dearly Beloved at Cafe DeKcuf

The end!

Dearly Beloved at Cafe DeKcuf

Dunno what they're up to right now.