Ska returned to House of Targ on Feb. 6 with a show featuring Montreal’s The Beatdown and local band The Sentries.
Between sets, old and rare ska tracks were spun on vinyl, and House of Targ’s usual humming and dinging of pinball machines filled the air.
The show was organized by underground music promoter Ska Jeff, a bartender at Targ and longtime ska fan.
“It started when I was 17, going to shows for a couple years. I wanted to get more involved in the local scene so I started a website called skattawa.com to promote the local ska scene,” Jeff said on his interest in the local scene.
“It sort of naturally turned into booking shows.”
Jeff said he was initially unsure how the show would go, as he has not organized many ska shows in recent years.
“We put up posters everywhere we could and hyped it up. It ended up getting over 180 people throughout the night. Everyone had a great time, people were dancing. There seemed to be a lot of regulars that really enjoyed it.”
Eric Scharf, a writer for local music blog Ottawa Showbox, called the night “a magical return” to Jeff’s Ottawa ska shows.
“The Beatdown are one of those are ska bands that even without the horn section can still get you moving, skunking, and feeling like you are on a beach,” Scharf said.
“It was a wonderful show, highlighted by the fact that the lead singer-guitarist dedicated One Night Band’s song ‘Crazy’ to Jeff,” Scharf said.
Jeff said the success of ska night has inspired talks of making the genre a more consistent element of House of Targ.
“We want to try and get more ska at Targ, because it was a very successful event and it was fun,” he said when asked about the potential for more shows. “Everyone was having a great time, so I think we’ll definitely try to do it again.”
