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Babylon's (Ottawa) new Thursday night


bradm

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Now that The Souljazz Orchestra won't be doing its Thursday night weekly show at Babylon in Ottawa, here's what the club will have in its place:

Starting Nov. 23rd every Thursday will be The Rock N Roll Pizza Party. DJs BE-Radd and Luke Nuclear will be spinning the greatest rock'n'roll songs ever known to mankind....expect lots off 70's and 80's punk..50's rock and rock-a-billy 60's psych and garage...dance to post-punk and indie and hear the best contemporary in all styles......

Oh, and I heard something about free pizza?

Apparently there also won't be a cover charge for it. I can't say I'm exactly thrilled by this.

Aloha,

Brad

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The only thing I can think of is that Babylon is trying to get spillover from Barrymore's (I've seen 50-100 person line-ups to get in to Barrymore's at midnight on a Thursday). I think the only way I'd get to one of these nights is as a warm-up for something else, because it's free; but I doubt it's going to start early enough to work as a pre-show thing, and it's not exactly close to any other venue I'd want to go to (if Babylon were in the Byward Market, it might be different).

Aloha,

Brad

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Part of me thinks that the reason they went with this is that there simply aren't enough bands in Ottawa that can do a two- or three-set night (call it at least two hours of music), week after week, without having it get seriously boring or repetitive. The Souljazz Orchestra are all educated musicians who can read charts, and were able to draw on a huge repertoire of material (covers and originals); I think most other bands in Ottawa would exhaust their repertoise after one or two weeks.

Aloha,

Brad

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Which actually leads to a question I ponedered on another thread: why does Hamilton seem to have a bigger and/or better music scene than Ottawa (nothing against Hamilton, mind you)? Or is that a can of worms we just don't have the time for here?

Edited by Guest
don't want to offend Hamiltonions...
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I'd argue that your statement seems uneducated... There are dozens of fantastic Ottawa bands... Many of them don't get talked of much on here, everyone is too busy talking about BNB or nero... :)

Relief Maps, the Soiree, Jetplanes of Abraham, Acres, M$M, Department of Foreign Affairs, the Acorn, Double Pumpers, Ukrainia, Reverb Syndicate, Hilotrons, Soft Disaster, Empiricals, Weapons of Mass Seduction, Black Boot Trio, Fiftymen, Golden Famile, Poorfolk, My Dad vs Yours, Crush Buildings, many many more plus all the punk and hardcore bands.

Ottawa has an awesome scene, IMO. I can go see good bands most nights of every week. (Although it gets difficult in the fall / winter due to hibernation)

AD

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If you're looking for some fun in Ottawa tonight, DJ D-Mass, who's been spinning on Thursdays before/between sets by The Souljazz Orchestra*, will be doing his last night at Babylon tonight, even if The Souljazz Orchestra isn't playing. With more time to stretch out, it should be even more fun.

Aloha,

Brad

* And who is also in Inglewood Jack with me.

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Thanks AD. It's nice that someone gives credit to the bands that are around in the scene but dont get talked about much. Being farely new to the city, and largely into the scene, any opinions or suggestions on bands to check out is much welcomed and appreciated. That's one thing about Ottawa, there are lots of great little niches, you just have to kind of search for them.

Steph

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I'd argue that your statement seems uneducated

Ah, touche. I'll consider myself a little better educated now... :)

Actually, I've heard of most of (but seen only some of, mea culpa) the bands you named, AD... to go off your list, I for one am going to miss Pianosaurus Rex since they're going on hiatus.

Maybe I'm just grumpy over Babylon... and you're right about the hibernation thing.

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Let's see if I can name some bands at the first Auberge NYE I went to, around '91 or so:

Freeway Band

Purple

4 Way Street

Incity Dreams

Spruce

Whethermen Groove Tube

Ottawa sure used to have a healthy jammy music community. Remember how packed Freeway shows used to be? Where did all those people come from? Where did they go?

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