Swollen Members return with new directions

Swollen Members have had their fair share of trials and tribulations over the past few years, such as band member “Mad Child” Shane Bunting’s drug addiction, which had a strong influence on their previous album, Dagger Mouth. With all of that behind them, and with new album Beautiful Death Machine in their coffers, they are […]

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Local, Live, and Loud: March 20 – April 2

Friday, March 22 The Odds, The Archers Upstairs Cabaret, $20, 10 pm I think my favourite skit from Kids in the Hall was the one where Satan trades an endless supply of weed for a jean jacket. The guy ends up with dread-like dope growing from his head. Damn, those guys were some kinda funny. […]

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Play uses Charlie Brown to remind everyone to be happy

What is happiness for you? Or perhaps a better question is always this: what is happiness for Charlie Brown? “Charlie Brown says happiness is a happy pencil, because the girl he loves has nibbled on a pencil,” says Fran Gebhard, director of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. “Happiness is sharing sandwiches and a friend.” […]

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New Music Revue: Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg Tooth and Nail (Dine Alone Records) 3.5/5   Tooth and Nail, Billy Bragg’s first studio solo album in five years, is definitely a lot more listenable and thoughtful than past albums, but it doesn’t quite stand up next to the three Mermaid Avenue albums he did with Wilco, where they used Woody Guthrie […]

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Theatre: Ghosts of the Plaza looks at Victoria’s Plaza Hotel history

The play Ghosts of the Plaza has elements of comedy and drama, and it also has a musical number. However, that’s not all it has to offer. Between all that, it manages to incorporate a part of Victoria’s history into the show. “A history that hasn’t really been looked at,” says play co-writer Sarah Smith, […]

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Belfry presents Let’s Make an Opera to Victoria theatre audiences

Most people have never thought about being in an opera. Now, everyone walking through the Belfry’s doors can have a chance to do just that. Let’s Make An Opera & The Little Sweep is a unique piece by Benjamin Britten, a main player in 20th-century British classical music. It’s a play about the making of […]

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New Music Revue: Hollerado, KEN mode

Hollerado White Paint (Royal Mountain Records) 3.5/5   Sharing the stage with both Weezer and Jack White, Ottawa-based indie-rock band Hollerado have been sweeping the globe since debuting Record in a Bag back in 2010. Building steam over the past two years, their hit single, “Pick Me Up” from latest album White Paint does not […]

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Victoria artists flock together like birds of a feather

Star-crossed artists Julien Loiselle and Aram Heinze are teaming up for Birds of a Feather, an art exhibition about women, birds, the conflict between beauty and inner demons, and taking flight. The luck of the draw brought Loiselle and Heinze together when they started working together at Spinnakers Brewpub. “Once we realized we were both […]

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