Blog Archives

In May when Brett Kissel announced the first country music drive-in concert in Edmonton, two Ottawa area fans knew they had to be there, no matter the cost.

A handful of lucky live music starved fans were treated to a special show featuring Amanda Rheaume and hosted by the National Arts Centre.

The 2020 Maple Blues Male Vocalist of the year recipient, Matt Andersen made a stop at the Shell Theatre in Fort Saskatchewan recently as a part of his Halfway Home By Morning tour and left people wanting more.

Before we sling some Silver with David Usher and the Moist boys (a band name I’d bet an unencumbered ride on the LRT was only bypassed for the shorter Moist due to it fitting better on album covers), I gotta’ give props to the new digs over at the Bronson Centre. No, waits, my apologies, the Bronson Centre Music Theatre.

If you haven’t been to the former 1920s nun run school  turned office space turned one O-town’s hidden gems of concert hubs, you owe yourself a visit. Heck, even the Wikipedia page will throw you as it mentions seats! Renos have removed those, opened up the floor space, added a few bars and turned it into a full-fledged zone to get your 90s alt rock on!

Shinedown dropped in on Laval QC with their Attention Attention tour playing their first time at Place Belle.

Say an airplane carrying a large polar bear were flying above the Nation’s Capital and, say, just say, said polar bear’s carrier were to jangle loose in a bad patch of turbulence that also opened the security hatch whooshing the bewildered bear out and sending it buffeting through the clouds. Now say, and we’re just saying here, that bear plummeted towards a recently upended truckload of beanbag chairs where it fell safe and snugly, shook off the air sickness and rolled into, say, the Rideau Canal where it slowly but surely swam its way towards,I dunno, City Hall? Stepping onto land with a mighty shake, say, and let me reiterate, I’m just saying, it were to sneak somehow undetected unto the grounds of the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, park itself behind those jerks who decided to chat all the way through, saaaayyyyy, a Norah Jones concert, and then, just then, suddenly realize how hungry it was and….

As a staple of Toronto’s music community for years, if you were looking for a collaborator, musician Lydia Persaud was your go to. Now she’s stepping forward with her debut album and she leaves no mystery of her intent when it comes to the title. Let Me Show You, she says.

Released in May via Next Door Records, she’s bringing her new songs to the NAC’s Fourth Stage tonight. Ahead of the show, we had a chance to chat up her influences, putting the new album together and shifting from her work with wild cover band Dwayne Gretzky to this solo tour.

Fun fact: According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, we here in The Great White North have about 1000 organized zoos housing an estimated one billion wild animals. Well, the Canuck Capital is about to get a whole lot wilder as, from the subways of New York, return the boisterous buskers Too Many Zooz!

Alright, I know my buddy Matty McKechnie has a new band called The New Band but, between you, me and that guy who doesn’t look at me sideways when I pour ten pounds of vanilla powder in my Bridgehead cup of java, I gotta’ say Graven and the O-town Scene is a pretty vanilla caked coffee sweet runner up.