life with more cowbell

Little Creatures for Little Creatures rawked the house for PAWS last night at the El Mocambo, folks. And this music event rawked it big time. Such a good time for a very good cause. PAWS rescues and cares for homeless animals and is a no kill shelter. That’s right. For this one, we’re spelling it “rawk.”

Rawk veteran Tom Wilson, former lead singer of Junkhouse, kicked off the evening with a rawkin’ blues-feuled set you could feel in your chest, backed up Ray Farrugia on drums and Thompson Wilson on bass. Wilson served up some originals and some stories too – like how his dad, a Lancaster tail gunner in WWII came home from the war after being seriously injured and hooked on morphine, and came to hang out at the newly opened El Mocambo. Wilson is now working with two bands: Harlan Pepper (http://www.myspace.com/itsharlanpepper) and LeE HARVeY OsMOND (http://www.myspace.com/lhosmond). Keep your ears out for them.

Noah’s Arkweld took to the stage with some drivin’ indie rawk in a guitar, drums and keys combo, with Noah Mintz on guitar and lead vocals. At times playful – especially on Lily’s keys arrangements – love their tune about the guy who falls for a girl who works in a bakery, but he’s so shy he can’t talk to her and just keeps ordering cinnamon buns and butter tarts, and gets fat. Check these guys out here: http://www.noahsarkweld.com/

Angela Saini, on guitar and backed up on keys and vocals by Vanessa James-Locke (a third of Saini’s band, The Residence), rawked it kicky and soulful, treating the audience to some tunes from her Cakes & Callouses CD, as well as new song “Little Black Dress” (love it!) and one of my personal faves, the ballad “Raindrop.” http://www.angelasaini.com/fr_home.cfm

Sarahbelle has been rawkin’ it in the studio recently, working on her debut CD of mostly original tunes. I’ve had the pleasure of wrapping my ears around the first five tracks, and it was awesome to see her bring it onstage last night. Accompanied by Chris Ioannou of Little Creatures on guitar, she launched her blues-infused country mini-set with the sweet, romantic duet “Why O Why,” then went solo on the ballad “Miss Me.” Sarah introduced “Bad Girls” with the story of how the song came to be: in a dream in which Johnny Cash, a personal music hero of hers, invited her to write a song together. And that’s pretty high on the scale of awesome for awesome dreams. Just a sampling of this lady’s vocal range – from passionate to vulnerable to sexy rockabilly growl. You can find out what Sarahbelle’s up to via Twitter: @sarahbellemusic

Little Creatures rawked the house with their powerhouse sounds, fueled by Chris Ioannou’s vocals and guitar, kick-ass drummer Alison MacLean and Chris Sytnyk pounding it out on bass, inspiring fans to dance in front of the stage. Another band I’d only heard but hadn’t seen perform live – driving beats, gritty and passionate vocals with powerful harmonies – I like these guys a lot. http://littlecreatures.deezproduction.com/

Looks like I may have missed one final band last night – sorry to have missed them, but had to be mindful of the time, since I needed to get this post up this morning and head out to see The Lesser Blessed at TIFF today.

Kudos to all the musicians and folks who came out to support PAWS. For more info on PAWS, please check out their website and give them your support: http://www.pawscanada.org/