Contest: Cafe Alt Concert Series Free Ticket Giveaway

Posted by Matias on March 27, 2014

Cafe alternatif, cafe alt, concert series, ottawa, bands, silver dapple, walrus, chair

We’re giving away a pair of tickets to the finale of Cafe Alt’s Concert Series tomorrow night (Friday, Mar.28), featuring the wondrous Silver Dapple (MTL shoegaze), Walrus (Halifax psych/experimental), and Chairs (MTL lo-fi psych/experimental). Cafe Alt is one of those neat little venues that we’re lucky to have here in Ottawa, and the Concert Series finale will be a great night of music. Continue reading →

Weekend Music Roundup: Mar. 7 – Mar. 9

Posted by Matias on March 6, 2014

Weekend Roundup, Ottawa, entertainment, music, concerts

For full event listings, click here. Continue reading →

Roberta Bondar’s Tape Release at Café Alt

Posted by Eric Scharf on March 24, 2013

Roberta Bondar brought their dark noise rock to Café Alt Friday March 22, for their tape release party .

Yes I said tape, as in cassette. If you have never seen Roberta Bondar, you are missing out on some of the best dark garage rock in town. Roberta Bondar, not to be confused with Canada’s first female astronaut, played powerful songs with flares of danceyness and pristine moments of organized chaos. Lidija Rozitis has an amazingly chilling voice that pairs so well with the sound the band pumps out. They blasted through a set full of great songs in front of a packed house, including one of my favourites, STD.

At the end of the set Lidija invited everyone to, “come party at the jail with The Yips, that is where we are going!”

Before Roberta Bondar, the crowd was treated to a no-holds-barred noisy rocking set by Hamilton’s WTCHS. Stopping only to take a sip of beer, this foursome let their music do the talking. Great rock and very tight transitions teamed up with eery backing vocals and driving drums make WTCHS a must see. Call me sexist or chauvinist if you must, but there is something about a female drummer that makes me weak in the knees, and she sure can whale. If you like non-stop no bs loud rock, check out this band.

Opening up the night was Couples, from Montreal. Their set started off with some slower tracks, but by their third song it was clear that they were only going to get better as they went on. As per the theme of the night, they played straight forward no filler garage rocking tunes. Lead singer, Adam Fiore, thanked the crowd for showing up for their early set. “If this was Montreal no one would be here, so thanks for coming out early.”

Café Alt has a great artsy feel to it with stained glass hanging in front of the overhead lighting and rocks with pieces of glass on them hanging from the ceiling deflecting light. They have a psychedelic colours and images playing on some projection screens and top it all off with $3.50 Kichesippi beers.

I just wanted to give a little shout out to whomever was playing the music between bands, great choices!

New Video: Roberta Bondar – Night Danger + Album Release Mar. 22

Posted by Matias on March 11, 2013

Yes, more new music. Last month Ottawa’s Roberta Bondar released a teaser video for the first new single from their upcoming full-length release from Bruised Tongue. The song itself is filled with moments of hectic intensity from the band and bellows from frontwoman Lidija Rozitis that provide the perfect preview of what to expect from the new material soundwise. The video was shot on location at the Kichissippi Brewery, and it uses some pretty interesting techniques by Hard Science that I fully do not understand… hence why I’m not in video production. But it really works especially given the nature of RB’s music, which involves a lot of experimentation with sounds, effects and instrumentation. RB will be releasing the album digitally and on cassette March 22, and have planned a shindig to celebrate the release on that night at Cafe Alt on campus at Ottawa U. Cheap beer, good music. Sounds good to me.

Here’s the video and some details about it!