Category Archives: Rock, Alternative & Punk

In it’s 35th year, the Ottawa Dragon Boat festival is an attraction for outdoor music revellers, beach enthusiasts and competitive dragonboat racers. The best part – it’s free. So, for anybody that may have missed it this year, put it on your calendar for next year as a must see event!

The Specials have been bringing their unique brand of funk, punk, dance, Rhasta and ska music to the masses since well before I was born, and they still have plenty more to say. The group preaches love and acceptance, and stands opposed to racial divide.

Multiple hit maker Train made a scheduled stop at the newly named Budweiser Stage on June 21, 2017. A huge crowd filled the outdoor venue and went on an hour and 45-minute journey with conductor Pat Monahan at the helm.

So Montebello’s Amnesia Rockfest 2017 was amazing! Another great lineup of talent, reaching all corners of the globe, and encompassing a variety of styles. Again another 100,000 or so people descend on this wickedly beautiful little village, and they run amuck. Music is coming from every corner and can be heard for miles. Artists from Germany, Mexico, and all over the United States and Canada take the stage, as dust rises from the dirty boots of thousands of punk rockers and metalheads, and I got to witness it all from a very unique vantage point.

Burlington’s Sound of Music Festival once again showed fans what they are made of with a packed weekend of talent, great food and gorgeous weather.

In the spirit of the Sixties the TD Toronto Jazz Festival kicked off in the new location of Yorkville last night with a performance by Randy Bachman of the Guess Who and B.T.O. fame.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of summer. Not just the sun and the warmth but most importantly, the festival season. When the festival lineup announcements start popping up in the spring, I get all giddy and start drafting a schedule of the ones I’ll definitely be attending that year.

A common saying you’ll hear frequently when living in Ottawa is that it is the city that fun forgot. I’d like to make a case for the exact opposite and all you have to do is take a look at the summer festival season.

It just might be the coolest – and coldest – photo shoot ever done by a Canadian rock band, shot in the dead of winter, and being released on the first day of summer dubbed “Northern Men”.

Warm temperatures brought massive crowds to the festival grounds in Sainte Aga-Pit, Quebec for closing night of Festival Country de Lotbinière featuring James Barker Band and Tim Hicks.