Ghandy, a tattoo artist here in Moncton finally got around to opening his own shop with his colleague Brad Dawe and decided he would have a party. He got 5 bands, a bar and a whole bunch of friends to get together and have a good time.

The mood in the building that night was absolutely fantastic. After a bit of a wait for their guitar player to show up, Moncton’s own(ly) rock-a-billy band “The Almighty Rock’n Rebels took to the stage, greased hair, stand up bass and all. They blasted through a quick set presumably from their new record. They sounded good and looked pretty good to boot.

Up after them was Ghandy’s new band, Shortsleeve. He joined them a while back and said about them “all they do is smoke and talk French!” They’re a great little punk band. Tight as all get out, and pretty catchy sometimes.

The Motorleague came on and knocked out a couple new tunes, and a couple old tunes. The ‘League are one of my favourite bands in Moncton right now and I’m REALLY looking forward to their new album, which is looking like it’s going to be called “Black Noise”, a play on their ep called “White Tape”.

Moncton punk rockers HOPE were batting clean up that night and came through in the clutch. I recognized one song from their short set, but I still found myself singing along with two others near the end of the song, which is a testament to their songwriting skills. Their professionalism and experience really shone through during this set.

Rounding out the top 5 that night was the Iron Giant. It had been a loooong time since I saw the Giant. They’ve been through 3 different guitar players in that time, finally settling on Shaun77 from Gallactus. I didn’t think it would make a difference, as most of the stage presence is taken care of by bassist PJ Dunphy and lead vocalist Chris Lewis, but their old guitar player, while he wasn’t a flashy mover was still quite a presence on stage. It made just enough of a difference for me to taken aback a bit.

All in all it was a good night. I got to catch up with 5 bands who I’d either heard but hadn’t seen, or hadn’t seen in a while. The bar next door was open so I got to catch a bit of a metal show, too and I had a few beers and got home with $0.25 more than I left with.