encoreNOW is a bi-weekly column by Paul Rellinger where he features upcoming music, theatre, film, and performing arts events and news from across the Kawarthas.
This week, Paul highlights Big Sugar at the Grove Theatre in Fenelon Falls, Michael Bell’s The Bowie Lives coming to Bancroft, comic Chris D’Elia’s tour stop at the Peterborough Memorial Centre, the 5th annual Big Band Day at Millennium Park, the Showplace return of Foley’s East Coast Pub, and Folk Under The Clock’s final season opener featuring Scotland’s Talisk.
Big Sugar featuring Gordie Johnson has a Fenelon Falls date
VIDEO: Big Sugar in Nova Scotia (2023)
During a music career that has spanned 36 years and counting, Gordie Johnson has consistently had a Midas touch, be that as a singer, guitarist, songwriter, or producer. Most every music project he has been involved with has flourished, including, of course, his day-one founding and leadership of Toronto-formed Big Sugar.
Twice nominated for a Grammy Award — in 2008 as co-producer of Taj Mahal’s album Maestro and in 2011 as producer of Warren Haynes’ album Man in Motion — Johnson has heard Big Sugar’s name announced as a nominee at five Juno Award presentations. Then there are the Winnipeg native’s numerous production and performance credits with the likes of The Trews, Joel Plaskett Emergency, Sarah Slean, Colin James, and Ashley MacIsaac.
But for all his contributions to other artists’ success, Big Sugar has been, and remains, Johnson’s calling card. Since the band’s debut self-titled album was released in 1991, 10 albums have followed, with 1996’s Hemi-Vision and 1998’s Heated certified as platinum.
As successful as those albums were, Big Sugar has released a deluxe vinyl version of its 1993 album Five Hundred Pounds and is on the road to promote it — a celebration of what Jack White describes as “the best blues-based record to ever come out of Canada.”
One of the stops on the 500 Pounds Theatre Tour is at The Grove Theatre in Fenelon Falls on Friday, September 6th, when Johnson, joined by bassist Anders Drerup and drummer Root Valach, will lead the band through its paces.
This is an excellent opportunity to get up close and somewhat personal with one of Canada’s most popular touring bands of the past three decades plus.
Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. concert at www.grovetheatre.ca cost $58.50 plus fees, but you best hurry — according to Big Sugar’s website, more tickets have been released to meet the demand and it’ll be sold out soon.
The Bowie Lives at Bancroft Village Playhouse presents singer Michael Bell in his element
VIDEO: “The Bowie Lives” promo
I have a confession to make that’s as embarrassing as it is hard to believe.
Before I caught The Bowie Lives concert at Peterborough Musicfest in late July 2022, I had no idea just terrific a showman longtime Peterborough musician Michael Bell is.
Sure, I had seen and heard Bell perform over the years, in clubs and on stages, and he was very good, but his tribute to the late British glam rocker is off the charts. It’s almost as if everything that Bell has done musically over the past decades was leading up to this gig.
Bell’s infatuation with Bowie goes back to his teen years. In the 1980s, he toured his ChangesAllBowie production, calling it a day in the early 1990s as he dedicated much of time to publishing The Wire.
When Bowie died in early 2016, Bell and Michael Beauclerc rejuvenated the tribute. Since then, the pair have toured the show extensively, joined at times by a number of local audience-familiar artists such as Sarah Jayne Riley and Dawson McManus.
On Saturday, September 7th, The Bowie Lives will headline at the Bancroft Village Playhouse. Expect, as I discovered at Del Crary Park on that summer evening, spectacular covers of Bowie’s biggest hits, from “Ziggy Stardust” to “Suffragette City” to ‘”Space Oddity” to “Fame,” to name but a few.
Bell was born to do this — the voice, mannerisms, and stage presence are spot on. A friend of mine caught The Bowie Lives at the Orillia Opera House and raved about the show. I was familiar with her reaction, having lived it myself.
Tickets to the 7 p.m. show cost $40 plus tax and are available at www.villageplayhouse.ca.
Comic Chris D’Elia bringing the funny to Peterborough Memorial Centre
VIDEO: Chris D’Elia Roasting Small Towns
One of the perks of my profession has been, and remains, the opportunity to get to do different things, most of which are a mile out of my comfort zone.
Such was the case more than a few years ago when Jon Bryan, then the owner of the former Mexicali Rosa’s, invited me to do a stand-up comedy bit at the Peterborough restaurant. The idea was I would make with the funny and write about the experience to promote a weekly live comedy showcase he was presenting.
Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the punchline as I discovered firsthand the sinking feeling that comes with not making an audience laugh. I didn’t just bomb — I imploded. Because I stacked the audience with family and friends who’d chuckle no matter what I said or did, I got a few courtesy laughs, but it was the most nerve-wracking experience of my life. Lesson learned.
Since that deflating night, my respect for those who stand alone on a stage with the sole goal of making their audience laugh has risen tenfold. It has to be the hardest gig out there and those who do it really well, like New Jersey-born Chris D’Elia, are truly gifted.
On Friday, September 13th, D’Elia will bring his Straight Outta The Multiverse tour to the Peterborough Memorial Centre. His comedic talents, which he’s called on to full effect via multiple TV show roles and big screen film appearances, will be on full display.
Having first performed stand-up comedy in 2006, D’Elia has also released two comedy albums in 2013 — Such Is Life and White Male. Black Comic. From 2012 to 2015, he was one of three hosts of the Ten Minute Podcast and, since 2017, has hosted his weekly podcast Congratulations with Chris D’Elia.
Now, because I don’t want nasty emails and phone calls saying I didn’t mention it, full disclosure. In 2021, D’Elia was accused of sexual abuse by a woman who was 17 years old at the time of alleged incident. D’Elia vehemently denied the allegation. He was never charged and the woman dropped her lawsuit a little more than a month after it was filed. That followed a 2020 allegation of sexual harassment, that again D’Elia denied, although he posted a YouTube video admitting “sex controlled my life.”
Tickets to D’Elia’s performance range from $32.20 to $62.50 plus taxes and fees. Order online at www.memorialcentre.ca.
Big bands bring their big sound to Peterborough’s Millennium Park once again
If you’re a fan of music of the big band variety, you want to be in Peterborough’s Millennium Park on Saturday, September 14th.
The 5th annual Big Band Day, presented by the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA), will see five bands — the Peterborough Concert Band, the Northern Spirit Big Band, The Marenger Band, Electric City Swing, and Knightshift — perform a free concert from noon to 5 p.m.
History with a capital H is prominent in the case of the Peterborough Concert Band.
Formed in the 1850s as the Rifle Brigade Band, it is the oldest continuously operating community concert band in Canada. When the Peterborough Lift Lock opened in 1904, the band is believed to have entertained those on hand. Among its past members are big band music luminaries Del Crary (namesake of the Peterborough park) and John Oosterbroek.
Meanwhile, Knightshift is a 16-piece ensemble with classic swing, jazz, and some rock ‘n’ roll and funk, in its musical arsenal. It’s led by conductor John Knight.
Each band performing rehearses hard in preparation for this annual showcase. Let’s give them a good audience. After all, there are worse ways to spend a late summer Saturday afternoon.
East Coast music and culture as close as Showplace’s lounge
Why go through all the fuss and muss, and expense, of travelling to Canada’s East Coast when the music of the region is as close as downtown Peterborough?
On Sunday, September 15th at 2 and 7 p.m., Foley’s East Coast Pub returns to Showplace Performance Centre, again taking up residence in the lower-level Cogeco Studio.
Foley family patriarch Hugh Foley will be in his usual fine form as a seanchai (a traditional Irish storyteller), regaling his audience with stories both fun and factual related to East Coast culture.
Oh yes, there’s music too. Lots of music, with songs by Lennie Gallant, Joel Plaskett, The Rankin Family, Rita MacNeil, Great Big Sea, and others performed very well by Foley’s Celtic Pub Band comprised of Fiddlin’ Jay Edmunds, Andrew Martin, Glen Caradus, Ron Kervin, Theresa Foley, Sheila Prophet, Norma Curtis and, for sure, a few special guests.
This event — it really is an event — gives full evidence of one undeniable fact: you don’t need a kitchen to have a kitchen party.
General admission tickets cost $30 ($15 for students) and are available at showplace.org.
Final season of Folk Under The Clock opens with a Scottish treat at Peterborough’s Market Hall
VIDEO: “Dystopia” – Talisk
Since 1986, the best in Canadian and international folk music has been brought to Peterborough, year after year, by Mike Barker, a huge fan snd promoter of the music genre who has since served as a juror with Juno Awards and the Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Now, 38 years after debuting Folk Under The Clock — most shows have been staged at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre with a few at Showplace — Barker has announced the 2024-25 edition of the series will be the last.
To close things out, Barker is presenting what he’s billing as the International Concert Series, a four-show slate that will open Tuesday, September 17th when Scotland’s Talisk takes to the Market Hall stage.
Formed in Glasgow in 2015, the trio is now comprised of Mohsen Amini, Charlie Galloway, and Benedict Morris. A must-have act for festivals worldwide, Talisk fuses concertina, guitar,and fiddle to produce a multi-layered sound that continues to earn it critical acclaim and the awards the come with that.
Of note, by securing Talisk for the final season opener, Barker is continuing a long tradition of bringing top folk music acts to local audiences — a long and impressive list that includes Tom Paxton, Stephen Fearing, Lennie Gallant, Harry Manx, Jill Barber, Alex Cuba, Arlo Guthrie, Bruce Cockburn. and the late Colleen Peterson.
Details of the final series concert in spring 2025 are forthcoming but I’m pretty sure Barker has some very special in mind for last call.
Tickets for Talisk’s 8 p.m. performance costs $45 and are available at www.markethall.org.
Encore
- Death and taxes aren’t the only certainties: there’s also Crash & Burn each and every Monday at the Black Horse Pub in downtown Peterborough. Recently, Rick and Gailie Young marked 19 years of their residency at the George Street pub. Incredible. Even when Rick was struggling with some health challenges a few years back, Gailie, with the help of good musical friends such as Paul Clark, made sure the show went on. While the duo is well known for its excellent covers of British Invasion classics, both are, well, so nice. There’s another certainty — you’ll never hear a bad word said in connection with either one. On a personal level, they’ve helped me hugely with benefits I’ve been involved with. Frankly, I can’t imagine Peterborough’s live music landscape minus their talent, dedication, and support of their fellow musicians. In that sentiment, I know I’m not alone.
- Guyestock is returning to Peterborough for a fourth year on Saturday, September 7th, featuring a full lineup of live music over nine hours starting at 11 a.m. Hosted by Guye Vandette at his Juliet Road property, with Catherine McGrath and Laurie Wood as co-hosts, the eight-act lineup includes The Hippie Chicks, The High Waters Band, and Mark Edwards. Admission is a $20 donation at the door. Bring a lawn chair and your cooler and enjoy what has become an end-of-summer staple for many.
