Mystery Girls - Maverick's, Ottawa, 19/8/2004

  by Andrew Carver

published: 10 / 8 / 2004

intro

At a hastily arranged last-minute punk show, Andrew Carver watches Wisconsin's the Mystery Girls and local acts BBQ and WOMD rock Maverick's in Ottawa to decidely mixed effect

Maverick’s has a nice space – a capacity of about 150, a square stage with room around the sides, a decent PA and barring an unfortunate support pillar about 20 feet back, decent sightlines – unfortunately, the management has more on its mind than rock’n’roll, so a last-minute show by Green Bay, Wisconsin’s the Mystery Girls was put on quite early; with doors at 6 p.m. and the show starting at 7. Despite a slight delay, Mark Sultan, late of the Spaceshits and Les Sexareenos, a.k.a. BBQ began his set about the same time most people were starting dinner. It’s his third show in Ottawa in as many months. He appeared at Bluesfest in July and opened for C’mon on June 18. His performance was much the same this time though his cover of the Rolling Stones 'Out of Time' was particularly appropriate this time around since the soundman rushed him through his set. He was followed by the alleged headliners. On their In The Red Records release 'Something in the Water', the Mystery Girls sound quite a bit like glam garage rockers the Makers circa 'Psycho Sexualis'. Live, they were far more raucous, only vaguely in tune, and seemed to stumble a bit through several songs, really only picking up speed for their last three numbers. They were vaguely reminiscent of the Pagans. Singer Casey was in rough voice, and was apparently attempting to do an eye-rolling Jim Morrison impression through much of the show. After they had screamed and thumped their way through their set, the more precise (relatively speaking) garage rock of locals Weapons of Mass Seduction was something of a relief. The soundman, however, rushed them through their set as well, and by 9:30 show time was over, and the staff of Maverick’s could turn their attention to something of far, far greater musical import was on the way – karaoke! At this point, there was a mass exodus of punk rockers from the venue (despite the low profile of the gig, unusual location and last minute notice, the turnout had been pretty good); I didn’t stick around either.

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