Gospel, Country and a little bit of Robots...

Day three of concert goodness actually didn't happen at the Dragonboat festival! Though there was a show happening there today, bands-I-already-love win out, so I was off to see the always entertaining Robots!EVERYWHERE!! at the fourth installment of the "4 in 1 acoustic sessions" , a series of acoustic concerts that happen in parks around Ottawa.

Due to a miscommunication about rain-change-of-venue (which led to our discovery of a previously unseen Canadian Navy monument, so that was interesting...) we missed the first band (André M. Bluteau) and arrived part way through the second.

J.M. Farr had a lovely deep voice. I feel like that sentence sounds odd, but I tried to figure out a different way of saying it and nothing else quite feels right. Seriously, his voice is lovely. And deep. But not that booming Graveyard Train kind of deep. The lovely kind. Alright, alright, I'm sure you get the idea...

photo credit: Ming Wu

As I said, we only got to hear a few of his songs, but the original material was beautiful, and the gospel numbers were perfectly pitched and wonderfully played. Each song was perfectly suited to the grey afternoon, cool and calm after this week's heat-wave. Its amazing how someone's voice can carry in such a wide open space, and yet still make you feel that kind of living-room-coziness usually associated with wooden rocking chairs and mugs of homemade beer...  J.M mentioned he was going to be in Ottawa for the summer, and I certainly intend to check out his full set sometime over the next couple of months.

Next up, and on the almost complete opposite of the musical spectrum, the aforementioned Robots!EVERYWHERE!! Now if you've read any of my other reviews of this band, you'll already know that I find Phil infinitely entertaining... today's performance was no exception. Beginning with apologies for his lateness (though we weren't late so much as almost late... still: "I'm sorry, I was in Peterborough and so hungover that my mom wouldn't let us leave without making me pancakes first..." makes it worth mentioning) and quickly transitioning to apologies for his out of tune guitar, one would think it was gonna be a bust, but one couldn't be further from correct (like my use of 'one' there? classy eh?).  Phil has a great talent for ... well for something! maybe for a range of somethings? Actually I'm not sure exactly what it is, he's just always really fun to watch. His songs are catchy, he doesn't take anything too seriously, and even when he messes up, its still entertaining. And Phil is always full of surprises. This time, it was using the infallible Josh Pruner as a makeshift playlist ("Pruner! What song is next?"), which  gave the whole thing a kind of 'mystery tour' meets 'choose your own adventure' feel. Continuing the adventure theme, we finished off the set in the kiddie pool. yep. Photo evidence below. I thought it would be difficult to top last time's Enrique Igalsius sing-a-long-pantomime/dance, but clearly I had forgotten the obvious: Phil is awesome.

photo credit: Ming Wu

Getting back to the quieter folksy theme; Landon AR Coleman took the stage with his acoustic guitar and selection of harmonicas ("I can never remember which one is the non-broken one..."). Playing several tunes off his album, he spent the between-song moments of re-tuning regaling us with stories  ("So yesterday I was trying to read in my room, and there was this plate of chicken...." long story short he fainted and fell into the plate of chicken. I love banter. No seriously, that sounds like sarcasm, but I really do enjoy good banter, especially when its one person having to banter with themselves. Fainting in chicken? That's golden).

photo credit: Ming Wu

Another lovely voice, suiting the grey afternoon to a tee, Landon played a few Dylan covers, stole a few lines from a Georgian poet ("Georgian like the country, not like... the other Georgian...") and otherwise just ambled through at an incredibly pleasant pace, leaving nothing wanting. This is the kind of folk music acoustic sessions were made for, and a nice slice of folk-bread to the salami of Robots!EVERYWHERE!! (Too much of a stetch? yeah I thought so, I just really wanted to make a Robots!EVERYWHERE!! salami sandwich metaphor... my apologies!)  Again in Ottawa for the summer, I certainly intend on checking him out again.

After a somewhat confusing start to the afternoon, the show was a really nice end to a fantastic weekend. Summer concert season is officially in full swing. Bring it on.

Robots! at the Manx

Its nice having friends who like bands. Its nice going to shows with other people who know all the words and sing along at the top of their lungs (I'm lookin' at you Pruner). Its also nice having friends in bands. Its especially nice when you actually really like the band of friends, AND get to go see those bands with the aforementioned other enthusiastic friends! (did you follow all that? Cuz I'm not sure I did...)

Anyways...

Robots!EVERYWHERE!! at the Manx. Take deux.

This time around I rushed over after class, thinking I had missed Phil's set all together but was pleasantly surprised to find that everything was running late and I was just in time. Excellent. Got a pint, even more excellent. Sat down on the comfy Manx benches. Excellent again. Robots!EVERYWHERE!! ? Excellent, as always.

I'm getting to the point where I'm not even sure what to write about Phil's shows... He is so consistently entertaining that I feel I could almost copy-paste the first half of my review: "The songs are catchy and clever, the crowd heckles hilariously, Phil takes his shirt off, something wacky happens, the show was awesome, then we all went home. Oh Robots!EVERWHERE!! I enjoy you so" ... hmmmmm... lets give that a try this time. Except, of course, with an expansion on the "something wacky happens" part. Which was this:

Phil: "Alright so I want everyone to stand up. No seriously guys, stand up!" (everyone stands up) "Alright now you all need to get into pairs and come up front here. Guys, c'mon. seriously, It'll be good I promise! Get up here!" (starts calling out pairs of people) "Pruner! Erin! get up here! Ok, Ok now stand in your pairs. Now, we're all going to slow dance."

And then he starts playing Enrique Ilarius' Hero. It was epic. But wait, there's more.

Phil: "Ok, now guys, get down on one knee. Girls stick your hand out. Guys grab her hand. Ok now sing along with me!!!" which we all did.

Then more slow dancing again.

Seriously, how does he pull this shit off? With class, that's how. Class and a whole lot of sweatiness.

"The show was awesome, then we all went home. Oh Robots!EVERYWHERE!!, I enjoy you so"

You Can Never Sit Far Enough Away to Feel Left Out at B.A. OR An Exercise in Sweatiness

A: "Oh B.A. ..."
Q: What was the phrase most uttered at Irene's Pub and Restaurant on Good Friday?

Its difficult to adequately describe the ridiculous excellentness (and the excellent ridiculousness) of a B.A. Johnson show.  I have tried on many occasions and done a reasonable job, but there is nothing like seeing it for yourself. This is gonna be an exceptionally photo-heavy post for just that reason- also because my friend Josh just got a new camera phone. (And not like Jemaine's either, one that takes honest to goodness photos...) Shall we begin?

We started off the evening with the musical stylings of the energetic and the ever-sweaty Phil Castiglione, aka Robots!EVERYWHERE!! As always, the hometown crowd sang and heckled with great enthusiasm as Phil sped through such gems as "Zombie Smooth" and "Red Hair Blond Hair" all the while battling with the magical exploding guitar (tenuously taped together for a super fast encore of 'Drunk at Work').

Robots!EVERYWHERE!! this time with magical exploding guitar!

I've seen Robots!EVERYWHERE!! three times in as many months and am consistently impressed by Phil's ability to get a crowd going. His speedy and clever punk tunes combined with his opposite-of-serious attitude are a sure-fire hit every time, and tonight was no exception.

Next up was Remi Royale, the king of awkwardly-shirtless kareoke. Energetic and entertaining, Remi never even graced the stage, instead spending the entire performance roaming the crowd, serenading unsuspecting audience members and gettin' us going with covers of everything from 'Sweet Caroline' to 'Don't Stop Believing.' Remi's set may have more in common with Vegas-inspired performance art than the acts one normals sees at a 'pub and restaurant'  but it fit perfectly at Irene's.

Remi Royale (courtesy of J. Pruner)

Time for B.A.!

For serious, B.A. is one of the most entertaining, funniest, and most inexplicably charismatic performers you will ever see. His songs are catchy and hilarious, he sweats up a storm, and he doesn't take himself seriously in the slightest. As always he was accompanied by a selection of Casio keyboards and an 'JPEG player' (aka discman) as well as the enthusiastic singing/shouting along of the excited crowd.  He started numerous songs by dancing on his chair, swinging the mic by the cord, then doing jump-splits onto the stage. At one point- while dancing around, just after playing the keyboard with his nose- B.A. shouted to a non-participatory guy in the front row (who was trying his darnedest to not make eye contact) "You can't ignore me! I'm right fucking here in a dolphin tank top."

Oh B.A. ...

It is about the music (it's always at least partially about the music!) but a B.A. Johnson show is also about the show: In addition to his standard captain's hat and neck kerchief, we were also treated to a seemingly endless parade of printed sweatshirts (I believe there were three, followed by one with the sleeves cut of, before hitting the tank top and t shirt) which B.A. stripped off as they (all) got too sweaty. That guy really knows how to get the ladies hearts pumping...!

B.A up close and personal (courtesy of J. Pruner)

But forget the ladies, it's the dudes who reeeeally love B.A... You can easily pick out the hard-core fans (including Phil- in the words of my sister "Watching B.A. is super entertaining, but watching Phil watch B.A. is almost even better!") not only from the enthusiasm of their reactions, but from the way B.A. so sweetly picks on them throughout the show... regardless, by the end of every song practically every person is singing along. With choruses like "I always knew that Jesus was from Hamilton" (appropriately appropriate for Easter weekend...) and "I hate squirrels, I hate you squirrels, everybody, go kick a squirrel, man I hate squirrels" its practically impossible to not join in.

B.A. does gymnastics (courtesy of J. Pruner)

Like Remi Royale, B.A. also spent a good chunk of his set roaming (or should I say running) around the audience, sitting in chairs, standing on tables and jumping off benches. At one point he even had someone hold his mic while he did an elaborate air-traffic-controller style cheer-leading routine while beltin' it out... Just a small pinch of the commitment and zeal he pours into every second of every show.

The traditional bathroom encore (courtesy of L. Carson)

Last, but certainly not least, we were all treated to the traditional encore-in-the-bathroom this time with three songs, capped off with the ever-entertaining 'Have Fun on Warped Tour.' B.A. perched on the toilet while the rest of us crammed in the [oddly smelly] girls' bathroom. It was a great view from the counter, and looking out over the cramped but enthusiastically singing crowd I couldn't help but think to myself "Who else could get twenty people to cram into a smelly bathroom and listen to a sweaty guy standing on a toilet, playing a guitar?"

Oh B.A. ...

Robots!Everywhere!! Everywhere.

I've always been interested in the impact a venue/an audience/a setting has on a performance. The Kee To Bala is one of my all time favourite venues, though the Black Sheep in Wakefield is quickly catching up, and Ottawa's Raw Sugar makes every show feel like its in someone's living room... I could literally go on for pages and pages about the highs and lows of various concert-houses across the country, but today I have for you an interesting story, a case study if you will of one band, two venues. Robots!EVERYWHERE!!, everywhere.

On Family Day, instead of visiting with my actual family, I headed over to Ottawa's Gem of a pub, The Manx, to see Phil perform an acoustic set with Larissa on Glockenspiel, and my good friend Tall Josh Pruner on guitar. Phil's usual gig involves a lot of drum machine, wonderfully messy guitar, and homage to B.A. Johnson- there was of course the presence of B.A.'s ghost in the form of a brilliant cover of 'My Heart is a Blinking Nintendo' but overall in the cozy basement pub, was more of a low key affair. It was great to hear Phil's always-entertaining lyrics, and watch the three friends just have fun Playing Songs.  I have always been a fan of loud punk music, but as I've gotten older I've also developed a taste for checking out the acoustic versions of the songs, taking a moment to really hear the lyrics in their entirely before hearing their quicker and messier cousins. I'm a lyrics gal, and understanding the words the singer is singing always makes me like the song more. With such gems as "I like talking to strippers like I'm a hockey player" Robots!EVERYWHERE!! is certainly no exception.

Last night, however, I caught Robots!EVERYWHERE!! in his natural habitat, as it were: Maverick's. You may remember me mentioning Maverick's as the worst venue in Ottawa (an exaggeration, I'm sure, but not a very far stretch) but I will admit that some bands just belong there. Not belong in that they are horrible, and so belong in a horrible venue- rather the opposite! They seem to fit there in a way that makes the venue itself better, that they make Maverick's somehow make sense. Cuff the Duke does that in a way that baffles and amazes me every time, and Robots!EVERYWHERE!! did a fantastic job of the same type.

I enjoyed the acoustic show, but this is clearly where you should experience Robots!EVERYWHERE!! In his full B.A. Johnson-style glory Phil sped through song after hilarious song (accompanied by enthusiastic audience sing-a-longs), performed numerous costume changes (continuously egged on by the self-same audience to "take it off!!!"), and played several super-speed encores.

Sometimes when you see a band do an acoustic set its like a while different group, it sounds nothing like them and you come away either disappointed, or wishing they always played acoustic. Other times you just wonder who the hell this is, and how they are even remotely related to their normal incarnation. With Robots!EVERYWHERE!! it was neither of these- Phil fit the music to the venue and to the audience without sacrificing anything of the Robots!EVERYWHERE!! experience.


Excellent job Sir, keep up the fine work.


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If you are a fan of entertainingly hilarious pop-indie-punk you should definitely check out Robots!EVERYWHERE!! for free!