Hot time in the city

Wednesday is my only day off this week (curse it) so I flipped a coin to see whether I would go to Zaphod's or the Avant-Garde. The Loose Ties were playing as I walked in the dooe, and I almost immediately regretted not going to the Avant-Garde. Not because of the music, which was fine, but because Zaphod's AC seems to be on the blink.
This was the first show by Loose Ties; I don't know any of the musicians involved except for guitarist Peter who is (as you shall see) also in Hellbros. Since I only caught the last two numbers and can't find a web presence for this bunch, the only other thing I can say is they also have another female singer, a bassist and a keyboardist.



Next up were Hellbros themselves, who put on their usual first-rate performance. Nightwolf gets the hair-blowing effect not from his usual head-banging, but the fan on the left. This show also featured a higher than usual number of shout-outs to mom, since she was in the audience.



I'm going to assume that listening to Billy Idol and Queen during my malformative years (the 1980s, in case you had to guess) explains the sneaking appeal of St. Catherines combo Erick Von Erick and The Raving Psychos. They've got solid songwriting - actually as popsmiths go they're more than able. It's a little unfortunate that the song that sticks in the mind - the haplessly juvenile An Ode to Boobies in D Minor - is really silly. More to the point, EVE is a good singer. He also has a skinny mustache and leather gloves, so you can't say he's hiding his influences.



A swell evening - pity about the AC, though.

• Show reminder: Westfest and the Gaga Weekend both kick off, for more information, check out the post below.