Obey Convention IV Day 2: Les Beyond / Chik White & Evan Cardwell, Chris d'Eon, Gown & Ryan Kirk, Amen Dunes and Paul Metzger 28/05/10

Day 2 show 1: Lost & Found Gallery. Missed first act, art on walls was good. I think it was Les Beyond who I caught (formerly of Shearing Pinx who are awesome). Uninteresting drone. I do think that with these kind of acts you need to have seen them a few times for them to be appreciated though, kind of build up a familiarity. Therefore lost on me.

Show 2: Bus Stop Theatre. Another early evening show of experimental acts. My photos are kind of crap. My brain is saturated with how many shows that I've seen as part of this that I can't go into details. I do remember thinking of Chris d'Eon when he first came on - oh, another white guy yelling tribal-like anthems with freak-folk shit going on in the background (go on, get into that authenticity argument) but after the first song it kind of became like 80s synth dance pop fun and I dug it lots. He played his laptop like a synth. Gown & Ryan Kirk were pretty great for half their set and pretty lost for the other half, I think it was an (half) improv thing but they seemed to be on a different page for a while, then it got all Western movie sounding and loud and good again. Paul Metzger was brills, he had this contraption that sounded like an old music box with rubber bands and an electrical banjo type thing (again, my terminology is astounding). It started out like a grim fairytale and went into full blown horror soundtrack. Cool indeed. I guess Amen Dunes was good but unmemorable.












http://www.myspace.com/lesbeyond
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzhr2gqsEWY&feature=related (Chik White & Evan Cardwell)
http://www.myspace.com/chrispdeon
http://radio3.cbc.ca/bands/Gown
http://www.myspace.com/paulmetzger // http://www.paulmetzger.net/
http://www.myspace.com/amendunes

Obey Convention IV Day 1: L/P, Fuck Montreal, The Robins, and Bad Vibrations at Gus' Pub, 27/05/10

Show 2. Everyone made their way over to Gus' pub - a grand spot I must say - for some good punk tunes after the experimental phenomena just witnessed at Khyber (good transitions). I don't remember what L/P sounded like enough to describe it here, but they were pretty cool. Fuck Montreal though were great. Great I say! My favourite of the evening I think. They don't stick to genres or conventions and have a video clip of them slaughtering chickens. Isn't that enough? Yes, yes it is. They sound like they could be on a No New York compilation.

The Robins did an awful Ramones cover to open but won favour back by being funny and 60 year old feet leaving the ground several times. Bad Vibrations gave off a lot of good vibrations and everyone went mental. I'm learning that that's a Halifax thing. Day 2 up when I get around to it.



















http://www.myspace.com/bitemylp
http://www.myspace.com/fuckmontreal
http://www.myspace.com/therobinspunk
http://www.myspace.com/bdvbes

Obey Convention IV Day 1: Buddha Box 2.0 and Pierre Bastien at Khyber Ballroom, 27/05/10

I missed the first guy and walked in to a crowded room: how nice it is to see a city (of only about 350 000!) pack out a good sized room. Every other show I've been to as part of this festival has been well attended too. Buddha Box 2.0 was inspired by a 200-piece guitar orchestra, this appropriation had 5 participants (4 guitars, 1 bass). They began sort of ambient/droney before getting into full-fledged drone feedback. It was really good but it kind of didn't go anywhere - it felt like they were just getting started when they finished and I wish it went a bit longer. Pierre Bastien (France) was, well, amazing. With real-time visuals (that were actually quite beautiful in themselves) he had a set-up of meccano machines, what looked a bit like a morse-code device, maybe a conveyor fan belt, and various other thingies (what expertise I possess!) along with some sort of trumpet. All I wanted to do was e-mail one of my old professors for a Sound + Culture class I once took raving about his genius. Standing ovation well deserved.

http://www.myspace.com/zacharyfairbrother
http://www.myspace.com/pierrebastien9 / http://www.pierrebastien.com/

Knifemare, Centretown Cripplers, and Bad Vibrations at Babylon Nightclub, 11/05/10

Tuesday night shows with actual good bands are tops. Something about being on holidays (holy days!) 'n all that. So I got there as Knifemare were playing their last song unfortunately and got no photos, but they sounded killer [bees] from where I was standing (the bathroom). Seemed like Centretown Cripplers took a while to warm to playing an actual live show with an actual audience, but once they eased up their songs were top fun - the last one and a half especially. Am I allowed to say they sounded a bit '70s garage-punk? Mayhaps it's the keys and guitars x3. I really enjoyed Bad Vibrations - the beauty about them is that they have the simplest set-up: no fancy pedals and a really basic drum kit and they're just 3 snot-nosed kids who want to play sweet tunes with the minimal shit that they have and have fun while they do it. An equation that seems to work. Looking forward to seeing them at Obey Convention IV again.

This was also my last show in Ottawa before leaving for bigger and better and scarier things so I'm feeling a little sentimental (or maybe I'm getting that confused with my terror that I'll be house-less for almost 3 months). It's been rad (mostly), the shows have all been fun - even if I hated a band here and there, and the people pretty friendly too. SO THANKS! Goodbye Capital.
(It feels so cheesy writing that down.)












http://www.myspace.com/knifemareworldwide
http://www.myspace.com/centretowncripplers
http://www.myspace.com/bdvbes