We’ve waited and waited and waited, and now the GaGa Weekend is finally here! Ottawa’s annual garage trashcan rock festival kicked off last night at the new home of the Rock and Roll Pizza Party - The Atomic Rooster.

Sedatives kicked off the night with Organist/GAGAman Ian Manhire’s Uncle on Bagpipes playing them into a wild rendition of “Cannot Calm Down”. From there on it was all new material (except for “Superstitious Minds”) and it was all insanely awesome. I don’t know the names of many of the new songs, but “Powerlines” and “Backlash” are both on their myspace page and are incredible. Word on the street is that the LP should be ready for August.

A terrible phone photo:

I post the photo not because you need to see what Sedatives look like (though you can make out Drummer Dave Williams, and Bassist Steve Adamyk) but to show the crowd of people that stuck around and watched a large majority of the show from the sidewalk outside the bar. The place filled up fast and the crowd really didn’t thin out much during the night. A damn good turnout for a local show - proving Ottawa isn’t as devoid of life as some may like to think.

Mother’s Children played second with what seemed like a louder, dirtier set then the last time I saw them (though it may just have been the makeshift stage setup). They do powerpop pretty well and have been managing to make a name for themselves over the last six months (opening for Paul Collins in Montreal!). A fun (but probably a little long) set.

The Visitors played last in support of their new 7″. I mentioned the new album a little while ago so I won’t rave about how good the new songs are again, but as expected they sounded great live.

All the bands had awesome new merch, so contact them if you are looking for anything. I didn’t pick up a Visitors 7′, but I will track one down this weekend - I did however manage to get an awesome Sedatives shirt.

Andrew Carver was there taking some great pictures as usual - you can see some of his initial photos at his blog. Also, Ben from Standard Issue put together a GAGA edition of the magazine with a full rundown of the bands, venues, reasons you should get off your ass and go, etc. It is only available in physical form at the GAGA shows, or you can read it online here.

Tonight is the house show with Nervous System, Holy Cobras, Savage Crimes, Uranium Comeback and The Beach Blankets. Grab a bag of beer and come out and have a time.

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