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CKXU is reaching out to the community — literally — for CKXU Loves You VI.
As a build up to the CKXU (88.3 F.M.) show at the Slice on Feb. 11, the University of Lethbridge-based community radio station is hosting “hug booths” at Lethbridge College and the University of Lethbridge.
“We’re raising money so we can buy a new hamster to power our transmitter,” deadpanned Matt Valgardson, one of the organizers of the popular annual Valentine’s Day-themed fundraiser.
CKXU Loves You VI features local bands The Ketamines, Arcanis, Andrew Scott, the Photoshop Jerks and DJ Shane the Librarian, who will be playing a mix of love songs and anti-love songs.
“Arcanis is a metal band, so I can’t wait for them to put their spin on romantic classics,” said Valgardson.
“I’m also interested in the Photoshop Jerks. I’m hoping for some Adobe-related puns.”
There will also be some impressive door prizes donated by businesses such as Sexxxy Kitty, Showcase Comics, an $80 gift certificate from Jaded Body Arts and many others. There will be comic books and even a candy bouquet, not to mention a beer basket from Andrew Hilton.
“There will be something for everyone. I’ve been to the event as both a lonely bastard and with a lady by my side,” he said.
Advance tickets for the show cost $10 in from CKXU, Blueprint and possibly Boarderline, and $15 at the door.
Sultans of String
If you want to take a trip around the world, check out the Sultans of String on Feb. 11 at the Lethbridge Folk Club Wolf’s Den.
The popular Toronto-based string band blends a cornucopia of influences from around the world, including elements of jazz, gypsy jazz, Cuban rhythm, Arabic folk and any other kind of world music you can name.
Though the year has just begun, the band has already been on two-week tours of the United Kingdom as well as two weeks in the United States.
The Lethbridge debut is part of a two-week Canadian tour.
“Anytime you add a rhumba rhythm and flamenco guitar to a song, it just sounds better,” said Sultans of String violinist Chris McKhool.
Each of the band members brings a variety of influences from around the world to the table though all of the members are firmly rooted in jazz music.
“I bring gypsy jazz and Celtic folk, but when you throw everyone else’s musical influences into the blender and press purée, then out comes Sultans of String,” he said, raving about his talented bandmates.
They met through the Toronto jazz scene. McKhool was impressed by hearing guitarist Kevin Laliberté playing rhumba and flamenco music.
“I asked him what he was playing and we decided to form a band, I met the other members in a similar way. And one day we got a three-hour gig, but we didn’t know that many songs, so we just jammed and all of our influences came out,” he said.
The band has recorded three CDs of expressive instrumental music including the 2010 Juno Award-winning “Yalla Yalla,” and the most recent CD “Move,” which was released in September 2011.
The band looks forward to playing Lethbridge for the first time, particularly in the Wolf’s Den.
“We’re going to be playing music off the first three albums. It’s pretty exciting. We’ll be playing many styles of world music and we will be telling a lot of stories,” he said.
The show begins at 8 p.m. with opening act Prashant John of the band Tandave. Tickets are $20 for Lethbridge Folk Club members and $25 for non-folk club members.
Sarah MacDougall
Swedish born, Whitehorse based singer songwriter Sarah MacDougall is better known in Europe than in her home country, but she is taking a shot at touring Canada. MacDougall, plus lap steel guitarist Tim Tweedale and bassist MJ Dandenau will be making their Lethbridge debut at the Slice, Feb. 10.
“I have family in Sweden, so touring in Europe was a good way to go see them and have it paid for,” MacDougall laughed from Saskatoon, where she is on her way to Regina.
“Plus the drives are a lot shorter over there and you get paid better. The drives are so long in Canada, but it’s my home, so I wanted to tour it. Plus radio has been so good to me here,” she said.
Her third CD, “the Greatest Ones Alive is getting a lot of airplay on CKUA ( it reached number six on their charts in 2011) as well as Galaxie, where it was the number two album of 2011. It is also getting play on CBC, particularly the first single “Sometimes you Lose, Sometimes You Win.”
“ It’s a 10 song album and it’s an album album. I like to write albums instead of just songs. So I spent a lot of time choosing the songs that best fit together. We deleted a lot that didn’t,” she continued.
She said the theme of the CD is growing up. She spent about two years writing it, though there are a few older songs.
“I wrote it around the time I was turning 30. So in the songs there is a lot of nostalgia for childhood and trying to decide what to do with the rest of your life,” she said.
Sarah MacDougall is playing the Slice, Feb. 10, at 9:30 p.m.
There is a $10 cover.
Brocade
Calgary based roots/ rock trio Brocade are looking forward to making their Lethbridge debut at the Slice, Feb. 9.
While the three members, guitarist/ vocalist Todd Stewart, bassist Weeze Brown and drummer Nate Giebelhaus have been playing around Calgary and Vancouver in numerous other projects, they have just released their debut CD “Like You Were Here” as Brocade.
And while their CD is getting a lot of interest, they are known for their live show.
“Our live shows are getting awesome response. We hope the CD will get the same,” said guitarist / vocalist Todd Stewart.
They combine a variety of different influences into their original music. They include elements of alt country, pop, more modern roots rockers like Elliott Brood and even early ’70s rock like David Bowie and Mott the Hoople.
“I’m glad you picked up on that. Because I listen to everything,” Stewart said. He noted Brocade’s music is more mature than previous projects as the band members have matured and grown up.
“A lot of Calgary musicians write songs, then hire people to record them with in the studio. We wanted to create a real band dynamic,” he continued. He has played with bassist longtime friend Weeze Brown for many years, and while various musical projects were ending, they learned drummer Nate Giebelhaus was also ending a project in Vancouver then decided to add him to round out the trio when he moved back to Calgary.
“We wanted to show off a little bit of everything we listen to. I listen to a lot of ’70s music like David Bowie,” he continued adding the band doesn’t like to pigeonhole themselves.
For now, they are looking forward to Lethbridge.
“I’ve never played there before, but it seems like a lot of musicians come through Lethbridge. And we‘re the only band playing that night, so I’m looking forward to getting up on stage and showing people what we can do,” he said.
Tickets for the Feb. 9 show, which is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m., cost five dollars
While those are the highlights, there are a variety of Valentines Day themed events happening this week.
There are several shows, Feb. 14 including Heartbreak Valentines at the Owl Acoustic Lounge featuring the music of Eva Montgomery, Shaela Miller, Leigh Doerksen and Steve Foord. Dale Ketcheson is at the Mocha Cabana for Valentines Day. On the weekend, the Mocha Cabana features Karen Romanchuk and Kelly Tschritter on both Feb. 11and Feb. 12. If you like country music, Tom and Curt are playing HB’S Lounge, Feb. 11.
If you want to rock, Billie Vegas plays the Casino on the weekend as well.
There is also a jazz jam at the Slice with HBO3 (Paul Holden, James Oldenburg and Brad Brouwer), Feb. 13.
There are also a couple Valentines Day art shows happening.
Becky Johnston and Lorinda Peel are organizing “Heartbreak at the Owl,” Feb. 11. Numerous Lethbridge artists, poets and visual artists are helping out the YWCA Harbour House by creating art based on the theme of heartbreak. Donations will be accepted right up to the date of the event, Feb. 11, though sooner would be appreciated. Drop them off at Charisma, or to anyone at the Owl. Also on Friday, Univeristy of Lethbridge artist and MFA student Corinne Teissen Hepher is having a special performance art in the Parlour Gallery at 10:15 p.m.. “Hot Tail” includes performers Claöd Idia, Corey Makoloski and Mickey Wilson utilizing mechanical objects, toy parts, cyborgs and hybrid beasts to celebrate the uncanny, abnormal and grotesque.
Concert reviews
I have to quit saying “this show is the best of the year,” when I go to a blues show. However, I think a good couple hundred people taking in Steve Dawson’s Mississippi Sheiks tribute at Southminster United Church, Feb. 2 that this was one of the best of the year.
Del Rey, Jim Byrnes, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Steve Dawson backed by bassist Keith Lowe and drummer Jeff Hicks played their favourite Mississippi Sheiks songs.
Jim Byrnes was an affable host throughout the second half of the show and tipped his cowboy had to the applauding audience.
They each took turns singing lead and seamlessly shared solos on each song. Steve Dawson alternated between banjo, guitar and a Weissenborn guitar, with which he lead the group into the end of the night the Sheiks’ best known hit “Sitting on Top of the World,” on which Del Rey, Jim Byrnes, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Steve Dawson each took turns singing lines of the song.
Del Rey alternated between National Steel guitar and a shiny steel ukulele. I’d never seen her before this show, but was impressed by her thin, reedy, jazz tinged voice which was reminiscent of a Bessie Smith or Little Miss Higgins.
She lead the band through an encore, noting “there haven’t been enough train songs being played tonight.”
The week that was
Winnipeg singer/ songwriter Del Barber played to an intimate audience at the Slice, Feb. 2. He sang an assortment of heartfelt storytelling folk songs along the lines of Leeroy Stagger and Peter Katz. He sang appealing melodies and played some pretty fingerpicked guitar licks.
He dedicated a cover of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon” out to his mom. He called it a night with a couple upbeat originals.
Lethbridge has a pretty amazing and diverse music scene, and if the nine bands playing Lethbridge College Band Wars, Feb. 3 at the Barn was any indication, the scene will continue to thrive for quite some time.Young, up and coming rock group Vista Park won the event and took home $800 in cash.
While choosing the “best” band is the Devil’s work, when they all have their own unique sound and rocked in their own unique way, Vista Park, who ended up in the last slot of the night (slots were chosen by names drawn out of a hat) impressed judges Ray Burgess- CLRC The Kodiak; Bridgette Yarwood- The Living Luca; Bente Hansen- U of L Music Department; Cameron Skip- Communication Arts and yours truly from L.A. Beat and the Lethbridge Sun Times.
I had always heard great things about them but had never seen them before. I was impressed by their boundless energy, enthusiasm and musical chops, which are only going to get better with age.
They even tackled the Who’s “Baba O Riley, and while hitting Roger Daltrey’s high notes can be a challenge, the band did their best with them. They had the good sized crowd cheering and dancing and eventually called for an encore
Their keyboardist/ percussionist bounced and leaped all over the stage, the bassist played with soul and the band just gelled together through a set of mostly original classic rock tinged music.
The band was surprised to win the event as the lead singer noting “we just wanted to play a bar, we didn’t think we’d win.”
Because Berserker backed out of the competition to play a paid gig at the Slice, that left one last slot open at the end of the night for Vista Park to play their requested encore.
One of my favourites, Cosmic Charley ended up taking the second prize of $200.
The crowd was digging their funk fuelled Red Hot Chilli Peppers meets the Clash meets the Police free spirited groove, which had a lot of toes tapping and bodies moving.
They brought up their friend “Charley” up on stage to play some extra tambourine and got the crowd pumped up.
They had a fantastic, Strat powered west coast groove going on. And as always, the bass playing was impressive.
Lethbridge garage rock trio the Ketamines, who will be going to South by Southwest in Austin in March in part to having one of their songs used in a Target commercial, opened the night by the luck of the draw. Their performance was a lot more sedate than usual. But they had a great, delay drenched Stooges influenced garage rock sound throughout their tight set.
Lead singer/ guitarist Paul Lawton didn’t say much to the audience, being caught up in his own musical world. But they picked up the tempo and the energy levels by the end of their set.
One band I hadn’t heard before, Dead-Eye Strobe Lights played a solid set of prog rock influenced post grunge music. The keyboardist added extra percussion in the form of tapping a bottle with a drum stick. Their songs featured a variety of textures, different styles and tempo changes as lead singer Chris howled. Unfortunately the bass drowned out most of the band throughout their set.
For something completely different, Red Rum Triumph, aka guitarist/ vocalist Steve Foord and violinist Kelsey Jesperson, this time sporting unusual spooky black make-up, played a laid back set of original folk music.
“We’re bringing spoons to a gun fight,” Foord observed, noting the number of metal and hard rock bands they were competing against.
“We’re not a metal band.”
They did rock up their usually laid back set with with an unusual Bob Dylan cover then finished their set with a variety of originals, though they weren’t able to play their ‘zombie’ song due to time constraints, though the crowd was demanding it.
One of the aforementioned metal bands took the stage next as Lightworker played an intense set of detuned metal, which had a good portion of the crowd howling and even shouting along with them. The lead singer showed he could scream, growl and even sing in places. I couldn’t hear much of the lead guitar playing which was buried in the midst of an intense wall of sound. the lead singer jumped into the frothing crowd and rolled back onto the stage howling and bellowing.
Cosmic Charley followed that up with their more melodic, groove filled set.
Two Tubes, a guitar and drums blues/ garage rock duo along the lines of the Black Keys and the Pack A.D. came all the way from Regina to play their first ever gig at band wars. And for a first gig, it was very well done. They added a touch of blues a little garage rock and a lot of energy which only picked up by the end of their 20 minutes.
Lethbridge metal band Caste of Shadows were back on stage for their umpteenth Lethbridge College Band Wars. Their set wasn’t as crazy as it usually is, but they set a menacing tone for their set by dimming the lights as lead singer Chad Neufeld growled “For the next 20 minutes, you’re mine” and tore into a set of evil metal with elements of classic metal like Megadeth. As always, other than frenetic howling frontman Chad Neufeld, the guitar playing was the highlight of the show. I could hear every ferocious riff.
Diminished Fifth played one of their first shows at Band Wars.
Their lead singer strode across the stage, sounding like Joan Jett , singing with spooky power and passion. They began with a cover of “Sweet Dreams” which was more Marilyn Manson than the Eurythmics. Her band was taking it pretty easy considering they were playing upbeat rock. She sang a decent original she wrote about her father, then the band re-energized Bush’s ’90s hit “Glycerine.” Their last song was a highlight, though she didn’t say what it was.
It was metal night at the Slice, Feb. 3. Though I was a little trashed out from band wars, I did want to check out Berserker. As expected I missed Mr. Personal, Milwaukee Talkee and the Dirti Speshuls, but having seen them before, am sure they did a good job.
Berserker was in fine form with their set of ferocious, downtuned modern metal/ screamo.
Vocalist Jon Vornbrock bellowed out throat shredding vocals as the band kept step with big biting guitar riffs. They had a ferocious attack throughout and introduced a couple new songs as well as crowd favourites like “One Night Slam.”
One of many good things about rockabilly is it gets the pretty girls dancing.
Lethbridge rockabilly trio with Dino Caravaggio on guitar and vocals, Evan Herbst on stand up bass and vocals and Dean Wilson on drums were happy to oblige, Feb. 4 at the Slice.
They alternated sets with Calgary’s Buzz Elroy and the Hayseed Rockets.
The crowd of approximately 30 were warmed up by Bent 8 by the time i arrived in the middle of an entertaining set of original and classic rockabilly.
Caravaggio riped and roared, Herbst supplied unstoppable bass and Wilson kept the chugging train track rhthm steadily rocking.
Buzz Elroy And the Hayseed Rockets kept the energy high with an unstoppable rhythm and a whole lot of Texas twang and biting Telecaster riffs which put the audince right into the mood of ’50s Sun Records.
Bent 8 were just getting warmed up in their second set as Herbst did a neat trick by jumping into a cluster of dancing girls with his stand up bass during “Baby Please Don’t Go” and got one of them to hold a steadily throbbing E note on the bass while he left to visit Tyler Brownfield working the door then got a drink at the bar as Caravaggio experimented with a little feedback for a few bars as he returned.
Buzz Elroy didn’t do anything like that but made up for it with some charisma by looking and soundling like Buddy Holly and ever yodeled a few bars as his band kept step behind him.
Feb. 8
Slice — Free City Collective with the New Weather Machine $5
Owl Acoustic Lounge — L.A. Beat open jam
Ric’s Grill — Ain’t Misbehaving with Bridgette Yarwood and Evan Schaaf
Feb. 9
Good Earth Coffee House — Renee Werenka and Friends
Slice — Brocade
Feb. 10
Slice — Sarah MacDougall
Casino Lethbridge — Billie Vegas
Mocha Cabana — Karen Romanchuk with Kelly Tschritter
Jimmy’s Pub — Open mic with Cory Oryniak and Dave Tillsley
Ric’s Grill — Davidson Porter Trio
Average Joe’s — Dueling Pianos
Lethbridge Folk Club — open mic
Feb. 11
Mocha Cabana — Karen Romanchuk with Kelly Tschritter
Casino Lethbridge — Billie Vegas
Lethbridge Folk Club — Sultans of String with Phrashant John of Tandava
HB’S Lounge — Tom and Curt
Slice — CKXU Loves You
HB’S Lounge — Tom and Curt, $5
Ric’s Grill — Cal Toth
Feb. 13
Slice — HBO3 host jazz jam
Owl Acoustic Lounge — open mic
Feb. 14
Mocha Cabana — Dale Ketcheson
Owl Acoustic Lounge — Heartbreak Valentines with Shaela Miller, Leigh Doerksen, Eva Montgomery, Steve Foord
Slice — open mic with New Weather Machine
Bo Diddly’s — open mic with Double Jack
Feb. 15
The Slice — Keith Price trio
Owl Acoustic Lounge — L.A. Beat open jam
Ric’s Grill — Ain’t Misbehaving with Bridgette Yarwood and Evan Schaaf
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