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The week leading into Christmas is a good one for local music.
Jesse Plessis and Bente Hansen will be playing a variety of classical pieces at the Lethbridge Public Library on Dec. 21. Hansen and Plessis may be 20-some years apart in age, but when they get together they are like little kids — and best friends. They are excited about playing Mozart’s D Major Sonata and several Hungarian dances by Brahms plus some Appalachian Christmas songs from Persichetti. Hansen is well known for not only being a popular teacher at the University of Lethbridge where she teaches a History of Rock and Roll class, which is also a popular feature on CKXU, 88.3 FM, the university-based community radio station, but she is also best known as the piano behind most of New West Theatre’s musical revues.
Plessis is busy working on his master’s degree in music at the University of Brandon, but took his undergraduate degree at the University of Lethbridge, graduating a couple years ago
“I never taught him, but he approached me with this piece of music he composed and we just clicked,” Hansen said.
“It’s a duet, so it will be one piano and four hands.”
There is no charge for the concert that begins at 2 p.m..
Also on Dec. 21, the Lethbridge Jazz Society have its last big bash of the season with “Have a Jazzy Christmas” at the Gate. Dave Renter and the Contemporary Works Jazz orchestra will perform a variety of Christmas jazzy classics including Duke Ellington’s “Nutcracker Suite.” The show begins at 7 p.m. Admission is $10 for Jazz Society members and $15 for non-members.
Treeline and the Shaela Miller Threesome bring a little country to the Slice on Dec. 22. There is a $10 cover for the show.
If you want to dance your way into the Christmas season, Hippodrome is just the ticket on Dec. 23 at the Slice. Admission is $10 for that show as well.
If you are a Seinfeld fan, then Jesse and the Dandelions will help you ring in Festivus on Dec. 23 at the Owl Acoustic Lounge. I don’t think there will be any feats of strength involved, but there may be a festivus pole and possibly airing of grievances. There is no cover for the show which also includes Joel Bryant and Pete Watson.
If you want to rock and roll, Who’s Yer Daddy at at Casino Lethbridge on the weekend.
For a little classical music, Dale Ketcheson performs at the Mocha Cabana on Dec. 23
To ring in Boxing Day, Danielle Braund plays the Mocha Cabana on Dec. 26.
The week that was
This past week, everybody seemed to be playing new music beginning Dec. 15 at the Slice with Lustre Creame, Smokestack Jacks and Big Jim and the Twins. Smokestacks Jacks played a short but sweet set plagued with broken strings and guitar straps, but filled in the dead space with plenty of drum solos in a set which cooked, featuring plenty of new songs.
The band has maintained the basic drums-and-guitar formula that has made it so popular in Lethbridge. They played several new songs, then crowd favourites including “Whiskey” and “Fat Ass,” which had a cluster of people dancing in front of the stage.
Big Jim and the Twins, or John Greenshields backed by Lustre Creame’s rhythm section of Jeffrey Orriss on bass and drummer Chris Lipinski, took a turn for the psychedelic. Greenshields gave his wah wah pedal a workout in an upbeat set of stoner ’70s-style blues rock. Orris sang a really cool song with a wild, funky bass line. They wound down their set with a psychedelic version of “Ain’t No Sunshine.”
As they usually do, Lustre Creame played a strong set of progressive rock fuelled by plenty of intricate bass riffs and Aaron Trozzo, dressed as Wayne from “Wayne’s World,” playing his big double-necked Ibanez.
A good-sized crowd came to support Lethbridge artists collective Trap\Door during its fundraiser at the Owl Acoustic Lounge on Dec. 16. As local artists wandered through the crowd in white shirts and pants, offering the patrons a chance to turn them into walking art by writing on them. There were a variety of events including a silent art auction as well as performances by the Cedar Tavern Singers (Dan Wong and Mary-Anne McTrowe) as well as Steve Foord, a flautist Linda Spinnelli and improv troupe the Drama Nutz.
The Drama Nutz were entertaining, performing a variety of “Who’s Line is It Anyway” style improv games with the audience, though they basically had to pull teeth out of to get them to participate. But they made them laugh with games like good, bad and ugly advice columnist featuring cast members giving good advice, bad advice and downright ugly advice to the audience’s questions. The other game was a variation on song styles, which they called music critic, that had the cast singing a variety of songs about dentists in the ska, folk and reggae genres.
University of Lethbridge-based community radio station CKXU held a Christmas party at the Slice for volunteers, listeners, community members and anybody who happened to stop by on Dec. 16. It even included Santa “Matty V” Claus himself posing for pictures by the fireplace. Shane the Librarian, one of the DJs, provided the beats for the dancers and Jesse Northey and the Dandelions provided Christmas cheer in the form of unusual versions of Christmas carols. While they were singing a little off key (perhaps ironically performing bad versions of the carols) and added a little bit of an indie rock flair to them, they had the audience on their feet for plucky versions of all of their Christmas favourites and even John Lennon’s “So This Is Christmas.”
Winnipeg-raised, Toronto-based singer songwriter Daniel Sky retuned to Lethbridge for the third time in two months to play the Owl Acoustic Lounge for a decent-sized crowd, basically doubling the number at his previous poorly attended shows.
After a hot and loud set by Red Rum Triumph (aka Steve Foord and Kelsey Jesperson), Foord played a decent version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” with former Clapping Monkeys member Brock Jellison.
Sky began his set with a Bob Dylan song and played several songs from his two CDs. He got Jellison back on stage to harmonize on a couple songs and asked Jesperson to add some violin to a couple others.
He switched to several different guitars throughout his set.
He ended his set with a Tom Waits song, “Innocently Dreaming,” which included a few verses of the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold your Hand” and asked the audience to sing along with the chorus if they knew them.
Paul Kype and Texas Flood returned to the Slice, Dec. 17 to bring the blues.
I arrived in the middle of one of my favourite Kype originals “Freight Train.”
Lead guitarist Steeve Keenan sang several covers after that including “Night Moves.”
They brought a fan on stage to song the Cranberries ’ “Zombie.”
Another highlight was a pretty version of “Here Comes The Sun.”
They played a medley of Johnny Cash including “Folsom Prison Blues” which included a few bars of “A Boy Named Sue” then “One Way Out,” before launching into a version of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy.”
Highway 3 roots revue
The theme of the Highway 3 Roots Revue’s last show of their tour was travel.
Leeroy Stagger, Dave McCann and John Wort Hannam took turns playing brand new songs as well as old favourites for a good sized crowd at the Slice, Dec. 18, which brought an intense 14 date, 4,000 km tour all over Alberta to a close.
All three noted how happy they were to be back home, before taking turns sharing new songs and contributing extra vocal harmonies and sometimes harp to each others songs.
They donated five dollars from each ticket sold to the Lethbridge Food Bank.
The first song each musician played had the theme of travelling.
Leeroy Stagger introduced a new song called “Dirty Windshield” about how “time seems to move so slow buy when you get home, the hair gets greyer and the kids get older. Dave McCann followed that up by playing an excellent new up beat, folk rock song called “Mexican Sparrow.”
John Wort Hannam answered that with a new song of his own.
Then the three delved back into their back catalogue with Stagger playing “Long Way Home and McCann playing “Leaving this Town.” as Hannam played crowd favourite “ With the Grain.”
The quiescent crowd sat still, enraptured by the performances causing McCann to remark about how great it was for them to be “listening rather than partying.”
Stagger ended the first set by playing a highlight “ I Believe In Love” off his latest CD.
Lethbridge punk and garage rock bands have the lifespan of a fruit-flies, so I wasn’t going to miss the last ever gig from punk pop trio the Moby Dicks, Dec. 17 at the Owl Acoustic Lounge.
The Moby Dicks, featuring bassist Paul Lawton, guitarist Evan Van Reekum and drummer/ vocalist Joel Butler, have had a really good run of at least three years, some of the highlights being having recorded several singles and touring all over Canada, plus playing with B.A. Johnston.
So they went out in style with their usual set of fun filled, garage rock flavoured pop punk reminiscent of the Ramones, Buzzcocks and countless ’90s pop punkers.
They had a good sized audience crowded in front of their stage as they blew through most of their catalogue including crowd favourites like “Red Dog,” about the Red Dog Diner.
As happens a lot in the Owl, I couldn’t make out much of their lyrics, but the crowd was singing along anyway despite a few false starts and mis-cues.
They showed just how good they can be when they are not only playing sober but also have decent drums.
Before that, Floods drew a lot from the well of Black Flag, except tuning their instruments down, during their adrenaline fuelled, ear-splittingly loud set of upbeat hardcore punk with a touch of metal music.
They have a lot of potential, as the audience not only shouted along with the howling lyrics, but cleared the front of the stage for a handful of wildly flailing moshers.
The lead singer stripped off his shirt and leaped into the middle of the frothing crowd during the last song where he was immediately buried beneath a mass of writhing bodies.
Dec. 21
Lethbridge Public Library — Jesse Plessis and Bente Hansen 2 p.m. Cost?
Owl Acoustic Lounge—Solstice Psychic fair
Ric’s Grill— Ain’t Misbehaving with Bridgette Yarwood and Evan Schaaf
The Gate —Lethbridge Jazz Society presents Have a jazzy little Christmas featuring Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite 7 p.m., $10 jazz society members, $15 non-members
Dec. 22
Slice— Treeline with Shaela Miller Threesome $10
Good Earth — Renee Werenka and friends open mic
Dec. 23
Slice— Hippodrome
Average Joes— duelling Pianos with Cal Toth
Jimmy’s Pub— open mic with open mic with Cory Oryniak and Dave Tillsley
Ric’s Grill — Davidson Porter trio
Owl Acoustic Lounge— Festivus celebration with Jesse and the Dandelions, Joel Bryant and Pete Watson
Mocha Cabana— Dale Ketcheson
Front Row Pub— Tom and Curt
Wolf’s Den— open mic
Casino Lethbridge— Who’s Yer Daddy
Dec. 24
The Mix at Ric’s — Cal Toth
Dec. 26
Mocha Cabana— Danielle Braund
Owl Acoustic Lounge— open mic
Dec. 27
Slice— open mic
Bo Diddly’s— open mic
Dec. 28
Owl Acoustic Lounge— L.A. Beat open jam
Ric’s Grill— Bridgette Yarwood and Evan Schaaf
Dec. 29
Slice—The Record Holder with Mary-Anne McTrowe
Good Earth — Renee Werenka and friends open mic
Dec. 30
Mocha Cabana— Herb Hicks Jazz Quartet
Casino Lethbridge— New Year’s Eve with Hippodrome
The Mix at Ric’s— Scott Davidson trio
Jimmy’s Pub— open mic with open mic with Cory Oryniak and Dave Tillsley
Dec. 31
The Stone— The Dudes with the Phantom Creeps 9 p.m.
Owl Acoustic Lounge— the Necessities
Old York— Whose Yer Daddy $20
Casino Lethbridge— Hippodrome
Bo Diddly’s- Double Jack 7 p.m.-2 a.m. $15
Slice— Janni Lee Band $5
Owl — The Necessities
Scores South— Band Of Brothers cover-none
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