Since time immortal, high school bands have numbered a dime a dozen, delivering their raw sound to the masses in return for fleeting adolescent fame.

Rarer is a group of high school pals who stick it out, taking things to the next level well after receiving their diplomas.

Cobourg’s Ryan Hutcheson, Jed Atkinson, and Dan Farrell did the high school band thing. Working independently on lyrics set to music, Derrick Ballard was in the wings, eventually hooking up with the trio to form Gentlemen Husbands. That has since proven to be a most fortuitous union for the indie rock quartet, which headlines Peterborough Musicfest in Del Crary Park on Wednesday, July 20 at 8 p.m..

With Peterborough’s own Union City opening, the show marks the second consecutive double bill served up by the free summer concert series.

It was in 2008 that Gentlemen Husbands released its debut EP Something Along The Lines Of …, receiving rave reviews from music industry insiders in the process. Mixed and master in Los Angeles, the four-song EP brought club date invitations by the guitar case-full and more than validated the coming together which preceded it.

“We all listen to a ton of different music and aren’t afraid of blending genres or experimenting with those influences,” says Atkinson, the band’s bassist.

“At the end of the day, were just trying to write songs we would want to hear. Our mentality is that the song is the nucleus for everything and the only thing that really matters, so our job is to not get in the way of the songs and let them be what they want to be.”

That approach has clearly resulted in songs that others want to hear as well. Armed with close to 100 songs, Gentlemen Husbands hooked up with producer Gavin Brown, whose success with The Tragically Hip, Metric, and Billy Talent remains well documented. The result was the EP House of Cards, and the birth of signature tunes such as Wandering Eye and Do It In The Dark,

“I have a problem with the idea that a band can’t be liked by too many people or that anybody isn’t cool enough to listen them,” notes Ballard, the band’s lead vocalist.

Gentlemen Husbands has certainly practiced what Ballard preaches, having toured nationwide with Matthew Good as well as shared stages with the likes of The Tragically Hip, Ron Sexsmith, Arkells, and Matt Mays. The band is also remains a popular fixture on the festival circuit.

“You definitely haven’t wasted your Friday night with them,” raves Chart Attack out of Toronto. One can safely apply that assessment to a Wednesday night in The Patch.

Meanwhile, in bringing Union City to the Fred Anderson Stage, Musicfest is continuing its effort to bring homegrown acts to the mix.

Buoyed by the success of 2010 single “These Days” — it cracked the Top 100 on the American college radio charts — Matt Crowley (guitar/vocals), J. Kent Randall (keyboards/vocals), Ben Anderson (bass),and Mark Chamberlain (drums) inked a licensing deal with a number of American television networks.

The deal resulted in their music providing the backdrop for programs such as Keeping Up With The Kardashians and The Bad Girls Club.

In 2013, the band released a full-length CD, A Drop In The Ocean, online at unioncity.bandcamp.com, and is currently writing more material for an upcoming release.

“Shelter Valley” – Gentlemen Husbands

“Wandering Eye” – Gentlemen Husbands

“Love Lies Down” – Union City

Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 19 free-admission concerts during its milestone 30th anniversary season, each staged Wednesday and Saturday nights.

Overseen by general manager Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission is to “provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”

For more information on this concert and/or the 2016 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.

The summer season is always a unique time for the Peterborough Theatre Guild. Slotted between the annual musical spectacular and the beginning of the next season, the summer season always seems to be a bit low key and the shows risk slipping just under the radar due to competition from a plethora of local events that compete in attracting tourists.

With this in mind, it’d be criminal if the Guild’s current show went unnoticed. Directed by Steve Russell, A.R. Gurney’s What I Did Last Summer is one of the finest shows performed at the Peterborough Theatre Guild during the 2015-2016 season. A charming coming-of-age dramedy that manages to capture the romance and spirit of seemingly endless summers from days gone by, What I Did Last Summer may be one of my favourite shows so far in 2016.

First staged Off-Broadway in 1983, What I Did Last Summer is to the stage what films such as Summer of ’42 and The Last Picture Show are to the cinema. Taking place during the summer of 1945, the play focuses on 14-year-old Charlie (Quin Shearer) and his family and friends at an upper-crust vacation colony on Lake Erie. With the final months of World War II as the show’s backdrop, the Germans have already surrendered but the fighting in the South Pacific rages on.

Charlie is a good kid who is at that awkward age where he’s highly impressionable. With his father away fighting, Charlie’s mother Grace (Heather Ross) brings her daughter Elsie (Bethany Heemskerk) and Charlie to the same vacation spot they’ve always gone to over the past few years in an attempt to maintain a sense of normalcy.

Charlie is reunited with summertime pals Ted (Liam Parker) and Bonny (Lily Gordon), but things are not as they were in previous years. The days of reading comic books and selling lemonade are long gone; the three kids are a mess of hormones they do not fully understand.

In an attempt to look more mature to Bonny, Charlie calls upon local bohemian Anna (Marlys Kerkman), known by the community as “the pig lady”, for a job. Considered to be an “undesirable” by the local elite, Anna takes Charlie under her wing and becomes the boy’s unlikely mentor, teaching him life lessons that he won’t find on the tennis court or at dances and parties attended by prep school snobs. However, there is an unspoken past between Charlie’s mother and “the pig lady,” and soon a tug-of-war for Charlie’s time and loyalty begins between the two women.

Does Charlie belong among the society that his mother wants him to be a part of, or will he find the answers back in the woods? Throughout the show all of the characters involved will learn and change, making the summer of 1945 the most important summer of their lives.

Out of all the shows I’ve seen at the Theatre Guild this year, few have worked their way into my heart and mind as much as What I Did Last Summer. I’ll admit I’m a sucker for coming-of-age stories, but Steve Russell has assembled a wonderful cast for this show. Only being familiar with a few of the actors in the show, I became an instant fan of those I was not so familiar with.

Throughout the show the cast, with the exception of Marlys Kerkman, break the fourth wall and address the audience directly. These small vignettes allow each of the performers to not only have a moment in the spotlight, but to connect with the audience in a unique way. The result is that a bond is created between the characters and the audience, who begins to believe in and care about them.

I can only remember seeing Quin Shearer (who plays Charlie) on stage once before, in a non-speaking role. In What I Did Last Summer, Quin has a lot more to say and it is a great pleasure to see him in a role with plenty of emotional depth. Quin is a wonderful actor, and he is perfectly cast as a young boy in that awkward age between comic books and girls. Quin gives an endearing performance and is an instant hit with the audience. I can’t wait to see more of Quin on the stage in the future and am curious to know what his next project will be.

Meanwhile, Heather Ross is wonderful as Charlie’s mother Grace. A well-meaning but flawed woman, Grace is living with the pressures of a husband away at war while trying to maintain a household for two children who don’t seem to have the same values or vision that she has. Although she often misunderstands her son and his personal needs for her own, her heartbreak over Charlie associating with the dreaded “pig woman” is only natural — but it unwittingly makes her the show’s antagonist as she tries to keep hold of her son by any means necessary. Despite this, Heather manages to endear Grace to the audience, who may not agree with her actions but can sympathize with her motives.

Grace’s foil is the eccentric bohemian Anna, played by Marlys Kerkman. The polar opposite of Charlie’s mother, Marlys manages to diferentiate herself from all the other characters in the show in every way possible. Anna symbolizes all the wonderful characters who come into someone’s life when they are at an impressionable age, influencing them in ways that will change them forever. Both wise and misguided at the same time, Anna’s influence on Charlie takes many shades of gray, but the connection between Marilyn and Quin is perhaps the most endearing pairing in the show.

With that cute “girl next door” appeal, Lily Gordon is simply adorable in the role of Bonny and embodies every summer crush any teenager has ever had. But she is much more than just the romantic interest in the show. She gives a three-dimensional performance of a girl who is still very much a little kid, even if the boys she used to pal around with are looking at her a little different. Just as Quin endeared himself to me in this show, so does Lily and I hope it won’t be long before I see her again on the stage.

Perfectly cast in the role of Ted, Liam Parker is an incredibly versatile actor who I have been following for years primarily in musical theatre. It’s great to see Liam in a role of this caliber. A year older than Charlie and Bonny, Liam’s character Ted feels a widening divide between where he is emotionally compared to the other kids. Both Charlie’s friend and his foil, Liam Parker brings a lot of depth to the character of Ted. There’s an interesting dynamic between Ted and the other characters, who were once close friends but have become separated by just growing up.

I must give a shout-out as well to Bethany Heemskerk in the role of Charlie’s sister Elsie. Throughout the show Elsie says “this play is not about me” and she’s right. It isn’t. But Bethany is a delight to watch and she plays a perfect supporting character to a show of big personalities who often compete against one another. Elsie is one of my favorite characters and is instantly relatable to anybody who was never the centre of attention. Witty, sarcastic, and with her own subtle anxieties, Bethany shines each time she steps on stage.

Beyond the story and the actors, high praise goes to the production of the show, including the simple yet multi-functional set created by Greg MacPherson and the costumes assembled by Cynthia Wardrope. I also took notice of the carefully selected music that set the mood for the show, including songs by Bing Crosby, The Andrew Sisters, and Danny Kaye. These are fantastic touches that add to the overall production of the show.

What I Did Last Summer promotional video

The only thing wrong with What I Did Last Summer is that, when the show was over, I found myself wanting more. I wasn’t finished with these characters. What happened next summer … or the summer after that?

Although you get a sense of what happens to Charlie moving forward, I found myself wanting to know what happens to Bonny and Elsie and Ted and especially Anna. This cast made me fall in love with these characters and I wasn’t ready to let go of them as I left the theatre. Is it too late for A.R. Gurney to write a sequel?

What I Did Last Summer is one of the most endearing shows I’ve seen thus far in 2016. With so many events to go to in The Kawarthas the summer, make this show one of your priorities in July.

What I Did Last Summer runs until Saturday, July 23rd at the Peterborough Theatre Guild (364 Rogers St., Peterborough). Shows start at 8 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, July 17th. Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors, and $11 for students, and can be ordered by calling the box office at 705-745-4211 or online at www.theatreguild.org.

There’s a method to the madness that sees not one … not two … but three 2016 Peterborough Musicfest concerts feature country music at their centre.

Toss in the already delivered country-ish rock sound of Kiefer Sutherland and you can make a strong case for bumping that number to four.

Simply put, Musicfest general manager Tracey Randall has been smart to fully recognize that country music fans are fiercely loyal to the music genre they love so much. If it twangs and induces some fancy stepping, speaks to love found and lost, or a good ol’ Saturday night dust-up, it’s got their attention in a very big way.

That all aside, for Musicfest’s braintrust, it’s a simple case of “it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Over the past several summer seasons, country music acts have brought out some of the largest crowds to Del Crary Park. Emerson Drive and George Canyon come to mind quickly. So it is that this summer season’s first double-bill — Cold Creek County with opener The Reklaws — takes to the Fred Anderson stage this Saturday, July 16th at 8 p.m.

Formed in 2013 and signed to Sony Music Canada the following year, Cold Creek County — Brandon Scott (lead vocals/acoustic guitar), Trevor MacLeod (lead guitarist), John Lester (guitar/vocals), Justin Lester (bass/vocals) and Doug Oliver (drums) — has enjoyed a meteoric rise since, anchored by the success of its October 2015 debut album Till The Wheels Come Off and its first hit single, the rousing sing-along “Our Town”.

“Cold Creek County is a band that has all the pieces to the puzzle to succeed,” assesses Kevin “Chief” Zaruk, the head of Chief Music Management who co-manages the band with Oliver.

“They’re great people with a great drive. They can play, sing and write music that is current and relevant to the country world, and their dedication to putting on an amazing live show will surely transform into a large fan base that will follow and love this band.”

Zaruk’s assessment should not be taken lightly. Since 2006, his Vancouver-based entity has represented some of the biggest acts in Canadian country and rock music circles. Zaruk knows of what he speaks.

Others have quickly caught on. Named Country Group of the Year at the Peterborough-presented 2014 Wire Awards, Cold Creek County has opened for more than a handful of country music heavyweights such as Dallas Smith, Emerson Drive, Kira Isabella and Jason Blain.

In explaining the band’s success over such a relatively short time, Scott at www.coldcreekcounty.com points to band members’ shared roots: “We grew up with rock and country.”

The band’s name also speaks to its members’ upbringing or current presence in various central Ontario locales through which Cold Creek runs, including Brighton, Hastings, and Frankford.

And then there are the Lester brothers, sons of bluegrass music master Emory Lester, whose talent is clearly in their genes. That’s genes, not jeans, for those country music fans paying attention.

Meanwhile, in The Reklaws, Musicfest has landed a more-than-capable country music party mood setter for Cold Creek County.

Since being named CCMA (Canadian Country Music Association) Discovery Artists in 2012, siblings Jenna and Stuart Walker (reverse their surname and you have their stage name) have enjoyed considerable success since, a trajectory aided by the single “Kiss Kiss”, a Top 40 country radio hit, and last summer’s release of “Sun Drunk”, described as “the perfect crank-it-up-on-the-beach single.” That’s since been followed by yet another single, “Seeing Stars”.

The two middle kids in a farm family of seven from Cambridge, Ontario, Jenna and Stuart have been writing and singing songs from a young age. Clearly, it’s what they do and they do it well.

For the fourth time, The Reklaws are scheduled to perform at the upcoming Boots and Hearts Music Festival, the annual country music showcase in Oro-Medonte scheduled for August 4 to 7, 2016. In 2013 at that same event, the duo was named Best Emerging Artist.

“Our Town” – Cold Creek County

“Kiss Kiss” – The Reklaws

Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 19 free-admission concerts during its milestone 30th anniversary season, each staged Wednesday and Saturday nights.

Overseen by general manager Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission is to “provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”

For more information on this concert and/or the 2016 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.

At the Globus Theatre stage at Lakeview Arts Barn in Bobcaygeon, performer Leisa Way and the Wayward Wind Band are bringing to life and music of legendary country music singer Patsy Cline in Sweet Dreams: A Tribute to Patsy Cline.

Part performance and part concert, Sweet Dreams recreates the experience of an old-time country music show, when country music was still all about being country. Filled with stories, music, and tons of class, Leisa and the Wayward Wind Band create a very different type of tribute show that will connect with fans of classic country music and make fans out of those who may not realize they have a little bit of honky tonk in their hearts.

Sweet Dreams: A Tribute to Patsy Cline is one of seven musical tribute shows that Leisa has developed alongside the Wayward Wind Band. Starting her career as a teenager playing Anne Shirley in the Charlottetown Festival production of Anne of Green Gables, Leisa has performed for audiences all across Canada as well as 50 countries worldwide, and has entertained an eclectic cross section of notable people including Terry Fox, Wayne Gretzky, Ted Kennedy, and Queen Elizabeth.

A gifted performer, Leisa has a magnetic stage presence that’s both likeable and high energy. Sweet Dreams is the third time that Leisa has brought legendary musicians to life on the Globus Theatre stage. Local audiences may remember her in her Dolly Parton show in 2014, and playing Judy Garland in last year’s production of End of the Rainbow. It’s always a joy when Leisa, a wonderful performer full of zeal and spunk, returns to the Kawarthas.

While Sweet Dreams is indeed a tribute to Patsy Cline, Leisa is not a Patsy Cline impersonator and the show is not a dramatic presentation of Patsy Cline’s life. Instead of recreating Patsy Cline, Leisa recreates a moment in musical history and the idea of Patsy Cline. While she adopts the look and the sound of the legendary performer, she never fully adopts the character and instead maintains her own identity as Leisa Way. She performs the show as her own version of the queen of honky tonk.

Between songs, Leisa entertains the audience with stories and trivia about Patsy’s life. The stories are quick and entertaining, and the audience never gets bogged down in dates or information. While I knew the songs of Patsy Cline going into the show, I left knowing more about her life then I had before — but without feeling like I had been sitting in a history lecture. Leisa brings a sense of fun into each story that keeps them entertaining, then quickly segues into another song before the audience loses interest.

“Crazy” (Willie Nelson) performed by Leisa Way as Patsy Cline

But the audience is really coming to listen to the music and Leisa and her band puts on a great concert. Performing nearly two dozen Patsy Cline classics, as well as a few other songs of the era, Leisa takes the audience through Patsy’s early childhood as a young girl singing in Virginian bar rooms, to the stages of the Grand Old Opry, Carnegie Hall, and Las Vegas.

Although she’s isn’t doing an impersonation, Leisa’s performances of Patsy’s classics are flawless, and she hits each and every note and emotion in songs such as “Tennessee Waltz”, “Crazy”, “Walkin’ After Midnight”, and “Sweet Dreams”. Leisa beautifully recaptures the Patsy Cline magic that music lovers have adored for over 60 years.

The show couldn’t be possible without the talents of The Wayward Wind Band and this group is tight. Featuring musical director Bruce Ley on piano, Bobby Prochaska on bass, Sam Cino on drums, Fred Smith on lead guitar, and Nathan Smith on fiddle, The Wayward Wind Band are a first-rate group. Decked out in traditional western shirts, they help Leisa create that classic country experience and are far more than just a backup band. Each member of the group brings his own personality and expertise to the performances.

A special shout out goes to Nathan Smith who takes centre stage in the first and second half, entertaining the audience with his fiddle playing while Leisa does some quick costume changes. While watching Nathan play, I finally realized why country fiddling has become an entire subgenre of music all its own.

Nathan makes fiddling an art form, and the next day I found myself on YouTube watching hours of country fiddlers and immersing myself in a musical culture I was never exposed to before. If you haven’t experienced country fiddling before, Nathan’s performance of “Orange Blossom Special” is going to open your eyes and ears and turn you on to something completely new.

Sweet Dreams: A Tribute to Patsy Cline is a full concert experience that brings you back to that simpler time in country when the men were gentlemen and the women were ladies. When the songs were about hard living and harder heartbreaks and not about beer, pickup trucks, and freedom. A time when country music was still country.

It’s a love for the moment and the genre as much as it is for Patsy Cline. It’s a combination of music and storytelling by a superb band and a charismatic front woman. This show is infectious, and it’ll have you singing the songs of Patsy Cline in your heart long after you leave the theatre.

Sweet Dreams: A Tribute to Patsy Cline runs until July 23rd at Globus Theatre at the Lakefield Arts Barn, with dinner available before evening performances. For more information and tickets, call the Globus box office at 705-738-2037 or visit www.lakeviewartsbarn.com.

For more information about Leisa Way and her shows, visit www.waytogoproductions.ca. Leisa Way and the Wayward Wind Band CDs are also available for sale at the bar during the nights of the performances.

I’m not sure what’s more perplexing: getting angry about a remake of a movie about hunting ghosts, or trying to gender-politicize a movie about hunting ghosts.

Obviously both angles are pertinent, as the mere trailer for Paul Feig’s all-female reimagining of beloved ’80s franchise Ghostbusters quickly became the most disliked movie trailer in YouTube’s young history.

Since its announcement in 2014, the endeavour has proved to be an all-around cultural lightning rod for seemingly everyone to project their opinions on what is wrong with western pop media. The concept of the Ghostbusters team consisting of entirely women had the fanboys clutching their Wal-Mart fedoras in shock over what was surely a feminist conspiracy.

Why make them all women? So that we could have a brand new Sisterhood of the Travelling Coveralls, or a supernatural girl power take on the somehow-still-prominent trope of four single women living in New York? The bells of misogyny were rung loud and shrill at the smear campaign to plummet the trailer’s stock.

It is difficult to argue that the low rating was partially the responsibility of basement dwellers smashing the dislike button as if it was some sort of political act, but in honesty the trailer was terrible. And sometimes people just don’t like things because they aren’t worth liking. Any trailer is rarely a accurate harbinger for the feature it heralds. Though, for most comedies, one simply has to watch the two-and-a-half-minute clip to get the best jokes.

The Ghostbusters team seemed to take the opposite approach and fill their promotional piece with dud one-liners and half-finished special effects. It made me nervous. The film the internet wanted to fail looked like it had booked a first-class ticket to a truck stop bargain bin.

Incidentally, that trailer will always hold a special place in hell for me, as I was forced to watch the first third of it projected upside down, at half-speed, and on-loop for nearly 45 minutes while the projectionists desperately scrambled to right the technical wrongs of my AVX screening of the already impressively bad Batman v Superman.

But is the film itself any good?

Yes.

Crucially striking the intricate balance between silly and scary, the Bridesmaids team’s magic works once again. Katie Dippold and Paul Feig’s clever, effervescent screenplay is vividly brought to life by a shrewdly chosen cast of comics who are all more than game.

Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy capably do their thing that we’re all so familiar with by now, but their schticks are given some new life by being able to bounce off of each other’s nervous energy — and McCarthy is always a generous costar. Saturday Night Live standouts Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon round out the cast and imbue it with their larger-than-life presences. Though many have criticized the dynamics of the team as being racist: three educated white women and one sassy black subway worker.

In actuality, this decision has the opposite effect as Jones’ character has many of the best lines, is by far the most sensible, and generally becomes the cipher through whom the audience experiences most of the frenetic action. At one point, after a failed attempt to crowd-surf at a metal show, Jones looks up from the floor and — reading all of our minds — spits out “I don’t know if that was a race thing or a lady thing, but I’m mad as hell.”

It’s a great moment. Funny, well-delivered, acknowledges the anticipatory hate thrown at the film, and moves on.

That is one of the film’s key strengths: it is just the right amount of self aware. It does not pander to the past in a navel-gazing attempt at nostalgia (the cameos from the original cast are welcome and un-intrusive). Nor does it invert itself in post-modern irony. It is comfortably in the middle with a refreshing lack of sentimentality.

As for the plot, ghostly things are a-happening around New York and former spectre author Erin Gilbert (Wiig) is sought out for her expertise despite her attempts at now pursuing a serious academic career. She is begrudgingly reunited with her former colleague Abby Yates (McCarthy). Yates brings along her protege inventor Jillian Holtzmann (McKinnon) and while they’re investigating a haunted historical site, they finally encounter an actual ghost.

The apparition initially appears as elegant and wispy before covering Wiig in ectoplasm (the slime-like manifestation of tortured souls) which becomes a surprisingly effective recurring joke. Soaked and ecstatic that she’s had a real encounter, Wiig returns to the life of the paranormal.

The fledgling team hires a deliriously stupid himbo secretary (Chris Hemsworth displaying previously unknown comedic chops) and takes on fourth member Patty Tolan (Jones) after a ghoulish encounter with a dead inmate in the subway. The ghosts’ presences are being magnified by mysterious devices left along ley lines pointing towards a dreaded impending vortex at the city’s core. The Ghostbusters must figure out who is behind it and prevent the apocalypse.

A $150 million dollar budget is extremely high for a comedy, but it is clear that all of the effects are state of the art. From the ghosts themselves to the arsenal of imaginative weapons the team wields, the textured visuals are totally engrossing and often break the fourth wall drawing you further into the film’s neon clutches.

The occasional duff line sticks out brutally (“You shoot like girls!) but overall Ghostbusters is great engaging fun that is much better than it ever had any business of being. After the day is inevitably saved, the Ghostbusters look out over the familiar skyline to see “I ❤️‍ GB” spelled out across a cluster of skyscrapers. Indeed.

It is important to remember that the original still exists and, like most ’80s films, it isn’t as good as you think it is. And no, this movie will not ruin your childhood (if it does, then your childhood probably sucked to begin with).

Like anything in life, whether you’re for it or against it, you should probably experience it before you give your opinion on it.

Ghostbusters: the official trailer the internet hated

All photos courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

Every Thursday, we publish live music and performance events at pubs and clubs in Peterborough and The Kawarthas based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, July 14 to Wednesday, July 20.

If you’re a pub or club owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our Nightlife Editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com.