Tag Archives: Ottawa Explosion Weekend
New Music: Honeymooning by Grime Kings
Ottawa Explosion Weekend Announces More Bands: Ton of Local Acts
One of the greatest weekends in Ottawa just got even better! Ottawa Explosion Weekend (June 12-15) just announced another round of bands coming to rock the capital, and many of them won’t have to travel to0 far. Continue reading
Ottawa Explosion announces first wave of artists
Sick poster by Curtis Delaney (http://pizzatrip.tumblr.com)
Ottawa Explosion has announced its first round of bands for OXW happening on June 12-15 this year. The biggest news was that Spectrasonic and Explosion teamed up to book ex-Ottawa noise-rock, post-punk band METZ. No, METZ doesn’t give a shit about your eardrums, and neither does Explosion. It’s an ear-abusive relationship with this festival and that’s why we love them. Their show at Babylon in April of last year was one of my personal favourites, as each member takes their role to an extreme. Drummer Hayden Menzies attacks his drum set relentlessly throughout the entire set, while vocalist Alex Edkins busts arteries belting out words and Chris Slorach somehow makes noises come out of his bass that could easily get mixed up with a Boeing 747 jet engine. My mom went to Metz, France once. It has no semblance to the band. I will demonstrate this below: Continue reading
Call to Action: First wave of artist submission deadlines for festivals coming up
If you or anyone you know is in a band and haven’t begun applying for festivals yet, the first wave of deadlines is coming up. Most are pretty straightforward and require a bit of time to fill out, but not too long. Here are a few of the submission deadlines coming up, so don’t be a chump and miss out!
Passion Pit performing at RBC Bluesfest 2013. PHOTO: RBC Bluesfest Press Images
Ottawa Bluesfest
Submission deadline: January 31, 2014
Festival date: July 3-13, 2014
Apply here
Ottawa Folk Festival
Submission deadline: January 31, 2014
Festival date: TBA
Apply here
Ottawa Jazz Festival
Submission deadline: January 31, 2014
Festival date: TBA
Apply here
Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival
Submission deadline: January 31, 2014
Festival date: July 19-22, 2014
Apply here
Chinatown Remixed
Submission deadline: February 14, 2014, at midnight
Festival date: May 17th – June 17th 2014
Apply here
Photo: Ottawa Explosion
Ottawa Explosion Weekend
Submission deadline: March 1st
Festival date: June 12th – 15th, 2014
Apply here
Ottawa Showbox’s Favourite Shows of 2013
2013 was quite an amazing year for shows in Ottawa and for Ottawa Showbox. Check out some of our favourite live experiences from the past 12 months. They are in no particular order, but they were all awesome. With this many amazing shows over the year, 2014 has its work cut out for it, and we will be there to cover it.
Fucked Up @ Ritual Nightclub (Jan. 12)
This was by far the most mental night of the year for me, and it is still burned in my brain from last January. Damian Abraham and co. played some of their greatest songs from Polaris-winning Chemistry of Common Life and widely-loved David Comes to Life, as well as a few oldies too. I also got to meet Damian Abraham and get one of his famously great sweaty man hugs. – Matias Continue reading
Ottawa Explosion Day 4: Jetty Boys, Direct Hit and Dee Cracks at Mugshots
Ottawa Explosion Day 4: New Swears were quite the spectacle at Saw
With the rain pouring down it was a nice day for a white wedding with the New Swears!
Ottawa’s party boys all dressed in white garbage bags, started the show with Davey Quesnell (Pregnancy Scares/Steve Adamyk Band) dressed as a priest. He asked ”Audience will you take the New Swears as your band? News Swears will you take the audience as your fans? You may now kiss the band!”
Once the formalities were done it was time to get some beer, and they opened with ”See You in Hull,” which starts with ”didn’t make it to the beer store, so see you in Hull!” As they started rocking our faces off, inflatable animals and palm trees, confetti, silly string, rings, play money and more was launched into the crowd. Quite the spectacle!
The crowd was crowd surfing, moshing and all around rowdy the entire set. New Swears played with great energy and made a mess of everything. They separated the crowd for a wall of death, and then played the passive and slow jam ”Paradise.” They closed out the set with ”Rather be Dead” and then walked off away from the madness.
On day four I saw a lot of great acts at Saw Gallery. Teenanger from Toronto played before New Swears. Teenanger, have this sort of old school hardcore feel to them. The drummer was rocking a really nasty shiner on his right eye and the band played a great set. I really like the song ”Surveillance” and the anthemic ”Conflict of Interest.” The lead singer said ”it has been nice seeing so many friends at Explosion, it has been a Broverdose.” And I can’t not mention that they played ”Gnar” which is about amazonian psychedelic shrooms. They closed with the lead singer saying ”New swear up next, let’s get drunk!”
A band called Hollywood played in place of The Kidnappers from Hansburg, Germany. Hollywood was some great fun rock. The crowd loved the addition, as they were dancing and singing along. I really enjoyed the song ”Cold Ones.”
Sugar Stems, from Milwaukee, brought their very fun pop rock to Ottawa. Their light and upbeat music was a nice change of pace. I really liked the combination of voices, with female and male vocals who are very different from each other. I dug their new single ”Like I Do,” it is great and I recommend it.
I was lucky enough to see Chit Chat in at a private and intimate show at Vertigo Records the day before. They were excellent once again. The Ann Arbor rockers delivered a really rocking rendition of ”Will Never Know,” which is quickly becoming my favourite track of theirs along with ”Attitude.”
Ottawa’s very own Street Meat where not what I expected. Reading their name on the schedule I imagined a bunch of scruffy looking dudes, you know meat from the street. Instead it was two lovely ladies on vox, a drummer and an iPod. The whole set was dedicated the drummer’s daughter, who was front row and center and danced the the entire time. ”Sex Pose” and ”Lady Porn” did the trick for me. Check them out when they play around town, they are quite unique.
Thalidomy Kids, from Moncton, NB, capped off a three band run from New Brunswick. I truly enjoyed their opening song, ”Spirochaete.” Their dark punk sound was perfect for the gloomy rainy day we were having.
The psychedelic punk sounds of Astral Gunk shook up those who decided to come out early. The boys from Sackville, NB, were clad in Hawaiian shirts and shades. They played a great set that saw many instrument changes. The band just kept switching, bass player to guitar, guitarist to drummer, drummer to guitarist and vocals. Very cool and groovy band, I hope to see them play again.
Before Astral Gunk was Noise Hounds also from Sackville, as they are two of the members of Astral Gunk. This rocking duo of drums and guitar did a good job. They did not say much, but they did introduce their song ”Space Cadet” by saying ”This is our only song that matters, it is about falling in love with an alien.”
Ottawa’s one man punk explosion, ROBOTS!EVERYWHERE!, had the task of opening the day. Hung over like most of the crowd, Phil and his drum machine got the party started. He had a bunch of zombies, i mean fans, singing and dancing at 1 pm, no easy task. The sing-a-longs of ”I Miss my Best Friends” and ”Call Me Some, Looking for Some Time” were a lot of fun. He also changed the words in ”Taco Party” to ”Burrito Party” in honor of the delicious vegan goodies being sold at the back. The sweaty and always entertaining ROBOTS!EVERYWHERE! is worth checking out every chance you get Ottawa.
Something different about Saturday was that they had comedy between sets, hosted by local comedian Greg Houston. The comics tried hard but due to lack of crowd interest and sorry, but not being all that funny, where shown up by a first timer. Davey Quesnell (Pregnancy Scare/Steve Adamyk Band) mostly known for shredding on the guitar made his comedic debut. The funniest part was his excellent story about brother in law and Tim Commerford of Rage Against the Machine and now Black Sabbath. His brother’s nickname is Ozzie yet he had no idea who Black Sabbath was and simply drank beer and went golfing with Tim one time in the States. His brother still refers to the band as Black Tiger. Davey ended his stand up with some gospel for the crowd, ”The only scene that matters is the scene you are a part of.”
Day four of Ottawa Explosion Weekend was amazing and no rain could stop it.
Ottawa Explosion Day 3: Fresh Snow, The Yips and Del Bel at St. Alban’s Church
One of Ottawa’s oldest churches, St. Alban’s, played host to the eery and them ambient Friday night June 21.
Titled HOLY SMOKES!, the show was put on in partnership with the Arboretum Arts Festival & Wavelength Toronto.
The dimly lit church was the perfect venue for Fresh Snow‘s experimental noise rock. With a psychedelic video screen overhead where the band was projected upon, Fresh Snow whipped the crowd in a trance. This night was full of trance inducing music, you know the kind that has you flying in the clouds, not some EDM stuff. Dressed all in white, with two members wearing red balaclavas, and the band not speaking a single word, they blasted through an incredible set. They took organized chaos to the next level, with some moments of sheer beauty when the violin and keys would team up over the boisterous jamming of the others. They reminded me a little of Explosions in the Sky.
Ottawa’s The Yips brought their dark and dancey rock to the party Friday night. Their set was jam packed with things to write about, from standing on the amps to a moshing bass player, and that is the mild stuff. During their awesome song, ”PGLM,” two members of the New Swears decided to pick up local photographer, Ming Wu, and crowd surfed him (I may have helped). If that was not enough, as they launched into a new song, ”Blood,” the lead singer stabbed plush kittens and spread the bloody felines all over the bass player and the drummer before taking a bite. With the blood all around her mouth the band launched into the gloomy ”Vicinage.” Great songs and a great performance by one of Ottawa’s finest.
I arrived at the church just in time to catch Del Bel from Toronto. This dark atmospheric rock band has a singer, a trumpet player, violinist for a few songs, guitarist, drummer and a bass player who also plays keys. They were the perfect band to set the stage for Fresh Snow. Half their set was new songs and they were excellent. As for their older songs, I really liked the live performance of ”Beltone.”
After all the bands were done, DJ Matty McGovern (Shameless/Visions) and DJ Pat Johnson (Night Moves, Silkken Laumann) took over for a Punk Rock Dance Party.
Ottawa Explosion Day 3: Needles//Pins, Nervosas, Wyldlife, Thee Nodes and Voicemail at Saw Gallery
Thee Nodes at Ottawa Explosion. Photo by Andrew Carver
For Day three I once again returned to the stage outside of Saw Gallery for great shows by a bunch of bands.
Needles//Pins from Vancouver, British Columbia were awesome. The singer’s raspy voice teamed up with the trio’s energy makes for great sets. The set did not go off without a hitch though. As they began playing ”Green Eyes,” the guitarist broke a string. Davey Quesnell (Pregnancy Scares and Steve Adamyk Band) jumped to the rescue on got them a new one. Meanwhile the bass player encouraged everyone to ”Drink for a bit we will do this as fast as we can.” Songs like ”Best friend” and ”Pulse” are what Needles//Pins are all about. Great rocking songs with catchy choruses. It was very cool to see The Mandates by the stage singing along to every word. Needles//Pins play Saturday at 6:30 at Vertigo Records.
Columbus, Ohio’s Nervosas started their set by asking ”Hey Ottawa, are the local animals around? You know, the guys from the New Swears, we really want to hit their ramp.” Their distorted straight forward punk rock was excellent. I really liked the track they closed with, called ”Poison.”
Giving us a dose of old school New York style garage-punk rock with a modern edge was Wyldlife from New York City. These guys showed up to rock! Love the intensity and the lyrics of ”Sonofabitch,” and really got into the song ”Saturday Night” with the counting chorus and the clapping. The crowd was into them and they could feel it, the lead singer said ”Ottawa, you are making Toronto look bad, and that is a good thing.” They closed with ”Sidewalk Queen” and then gave out hotel info inviting people to come party later.
Thee Nodes from Montreal were complete insanity. Lead singer came out with his head mummified in toilet paper and wearing a suit. As the band set up he asked ”Are you ready to rock? That’s nice I want to cry.” The lead singer reminded me of Smeagle from the Lord of the Rings, very creepy and crazy. He constantly threw himself into the crowd and on the ground. At one point he was hanging upside down from the tent. So much energy and so much sorrow, a great example was their opening track ”Living Like a Corpse.” Quite the spectacle.
Kicking off the day was a band that formed last year at Ottawa Explosion, Ottawa’s own Voicemail. This is the second time I see these guys and really like what they are up to. Songs like ”Everybody Wants to Dance” and the rocking ”Riot,” are just so good live.
I left before Holy Cobra took to the stage to head over to St. Alban’s Church for more great music. You can check out that write up right here.
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