I stayed home during the week of Halloween, but I was back to my Ottawa jaunts on Friday. The Rainbow Bistro was one of the venue for the "new" Indie Week festival. I was told by an attendee/delegate, a federal employee by day and music lawyer by night, that this showcase moved around to different cities. What an odd way to run things. Turns out that it was actually a Toronto thing until the pandemic killed this music industry conference. Founder Darryl Hurs has revived it in Ottawa for an inaugural run.
It certainly had teething pains because The Rainbow was empty when I walked in and they were still doing soundcheck ($19.47). The audience grew later on, but its size was more in line with sparse Toronto shows than the typical full crowd Ottawa gigs. The first two acts were Asian-Canadians, a welcome trend that I have seen recently (Ley Vara, Lauryn Kovacs, Feura). MERV xx GOTTI was a solo sad boy (Jiujitsu, Soju) a la Lana Del Rey. I preferred songs about his parents or the one sung in Cantonese, a bittersweet number because Marvin was "losing his native accent". He had a big range though he mostly sang in a breathy falsetto. I briefly chatted with the singer of Heather is Growing, a Toronto transplant by way of Hamilton and Vancouver. She described her music as folk but it was more wistful pop. There were a few love songs but I enjoyed that she mostly focused on other things: being true to yourself (Lavender), and "touching grass in the age of AI" (Come Healing).
The big discovery for me, though to be fair I left before the final two acts, was Siobhan Bodrug. Her band was all accomplished youngsters. But sitting behind the keys was her father. He was also her producer and I wondered if pops had an influence over her sound (self-described as retro-modern). It was mostly energetic pop-rock (Monster, Stranger) but also some "urban lite" and ballads. Though she looked like Stacey's younger cousin when hanging out by the bar with her bandmates, Siobhan had a big presence on stage. This was someone who was comfortable playing live despite her young age. I'm guessing a background in an Arts high school. She had a big voice to back up that swagger. I overheard that there was industry presence for her set. They must be heartened to see that a small but vocal crowd ate up her set especially after a blistering cover of Uninvited (Alanis Morissette). There were chants for an encore but there was no time since Almyr Jules and Paul Wioda were up. I enjoyed her music but noticed that already there were some tropes like ending songs with an unaccompanied vocal. Was that due to Dad as producer? In any case, Siobhan was someone to watch after she releases her first album in January.
Speaking of which, the lawyer was heading over to Avant-Garde Bar later on to see his friends Goodnight Sunrise. I hope they were in it for the love of music because 15 years was a long time to be undiscovered/indie. They were briefly in the spotlight when they opened for Bon Jovi and, according to the friend, that was a payday 50 times bigger than any other gig Sunrise has played.
