This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
Last weekend’s Pirate Party at the Port of Orillia continued the trend growing in size for what was offered and how many people went to have a good time.
The mock battle Saturday afternoon had a good crowd ringing the field at Couchiching Beach Park and lots of cannon fire. I didn’t notice at first, but there were more than a dozen of the reenactors faking their demise on the field. That’s taking the reenactment to the end. I did not see them fall, or more likely if they were being faithful to the scene, flying through the air to their final landing place.
Then it was time for the Walk the Plank event. Councillors Janet-Lynne Durnford, Jeff Czetwerzuk and Jay Fallis appeared to be the only ones taking part until a fellow named Brandon Manthau showed up. After the event got started two more people, a fellow named Koy, and Bunny Leicht surfaced.
Brandon Manthau
Allan Lafontaine was the splashmaster. He asked who the crowd most wanted to see take the plunge and surprisingly Janet-Lynne got the loudest cheer.
Brandon said he decided to enter only that day and still managed to raise $350 in pledges for the Rotary Club of Orillia’s Aqua Theatre refurbishment fund and won the audience approval for best walk (or push, whatever you call it).
All three nights of live music drew huge crowds, but I want to focus on Monday afternoon’s Run With The Kittens two hour set. It started with the Orillia’s Got Talent contest winner, Evie Johnstone, doing a 4-song set. She is only 12 years old, but sings like someone much older. She sang something from Frozen and A Thousand Miles. She ended with a banger, Don’t Stop Believing, and she was fantastic. The audience gave her great applause with her earlier renditions, but since everyone knew her closer, the applause was more enthusiastic.
Then The Kittens played. This trio, Nate Mills, Jake Oelrichs and Nigel Hebblewhite has been a favourite of mine for a few years and being able to sit close and right in front of them for the whole thing revealed to me some things about why I like them so much.
A guitar, bass, and drums trio has a limited pallet of things they can do without keyboards, another guitar, some horns maybe– unless they all happen to be well-schooled musicians and creative free thinkers. Think of the mountain and variety of sound Rush puts out. There are a few other bands that can create room filling sound, but many of them have what I would call thin arrangements of their music.
Each person in a trio has to play like a lead guitarist, the bass filling in the outlines of a bass rhythm with all kinds of incidental notes, and the drummer likewise in order to get that – how do they sound so good impression.
Most of the time Nate’s guitar tone sounded like that of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet (Kids in the Hall), but he also used several effects to change the tone to suit the songs.
Nigel was all over the map with his bass playing, much like a guitar player would be, and he had a small array of keyboard instruments, one of which was a tablet-like thing with a touch screen, to play. He would dip the bass neck down and operate that unit with a tuning peg while he played the bass line.
Then there’s Jake. He’s my favourite of all the local drummers. We have a lot of very good drummers here in town, so if he’s my favourite you know he’s doing something special.
By the way, I may have mentioned it before; this band is almost all local; Nate is from Orillia, Jake is from Oro-Medonte – half way between here and Barrie, and Nigel is from Barrie.
I’m going to make a comparison to Neil Peart here in the sense that Neil had an ability to hear gaps in the music where a tasty drum fill should be and just how many notes he could pack in that would make sense. Jake is the same. He can lay down a groove and then add to it, and add more to it without changing the perception of what the groove is, and then do some kind of fill no one else would likely think of. He’s just fun to watch.
Run With The Kittens 
And he was trying out a new set of drums. Dave Campbell (who did not Walk the Plank), a drummer, pointed them out to me when I got to the gig. He said they were Pearls, which I questioned. They were clear red drums like the old Ludwig Vistalites (John Bonham has a set), so I said, “are you sure those aren’t Ludwigs with Pearl hardware?” because I did not know Pearl came out with them recently; they call them Crystal Beats. Both brands use clear acrylic shells.
Jake had not had them for long and was wondering how they’d sound outdoors. Loud. They were loud, but not out of balance with the sound of the band. They also didn’t sound thin. He did not have microphones on the set and in my experience, acoustic sound played along with amplified sound has some sonority issues – as in one can tell the difference between a sound coming directly to your ears from an instrument (even a piano) that is not passing through a PA along with other instruments that need a PA (like an electric guitar). My philosophy has been mic everything if you want the sounds to mingle properly.
Here’s another thing about this band, they are tight. They listen to each other and balance their sound very well. They act as one. Most telling is when Nate had to replace a broken string. Without talking to each other about it, Nigel and Jake started vamping on what turned out to be the intro to the next tune, playing it out like it was its own composition until Nate had the string replaced. He then came in and the band moved along with the next section of the tune as if they planned it. That’s musicianship.
I came away thinking if one tossed The Mothers of Invention, Primus, Shadowy Men, maybe some Rush into a blender you’d end up with The Kittens. It was the best two hours I enjoyed all month. Yes, they did play The Orillia Song to end the gig.
Concerts In September
Fall is shaping up with lots of concerts happening. I know, we still have some summer left, if the weather gods can get their act together.
A great concert is happening September 21 at St. Paul’s Centre. The Orillia Silver Band is returning to a very successful format they used in 2023, having pianist Kyung-A Lee as their guest performer. At that earlier concert she stunned everyone with Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Libertango by Astor Piazzolla the band matched with their usual stellar playing, and Neil Barlow’s accompanying arrangements.
Together the featured piece of music they will play this time is Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major. She will solo with works by Chopin, Glinka and Rachmaninoff, while the band will perform pieces by Peter Graham and Malcolm Arnold.
On paper this is an outstanding concert and I’m sure the performance will match. You can get tickets for the 3 p.m. concert online.
The Opera House has 14 clone band shows between now and Christmas. The only one I can vouch for is The Bowie Lives gig September 19, they do a great show.
The Medipac Travel Insurance and The Canadian Snowbirds Association has a free show with Derek Edwards, Amy Sky and Pavlo September 23. Further out Menopause The Musical is in October 1, The Old Dance Hall Players do Turkey Laughed Overs October 10, The Orillia Jazz Festival has two nights October 17 (Starts outside with the band Wide Arches and then moves inside with DJ Accomplice) and October 18 with the Oscar Peterson Centennial Quartet (Robi Botos (piano), Mike Downes (bass), Jim Doxas (drums) Ulf Wakenius (guitar – was a member of Oscar’s quartet for ten years) and Celine Peterson, October 24 is a fundraiser – Theatresports Improv Comedy: OSMH Versus, The Sharing Place, MAT does Jesus Christ Superstar starting November 6. You can get tickets for any of those online.
Anne Walker’s 3rd series of summer concerts at the Coulson Church (Horseshoe Valley Road) closes out September 28 with her own gig. She is also debuting her album, Sunny and Blue.
Joining her are Angie Nussey, Ray Dillard, Dave MacMillan, Neil Walker and Katie Lem. An extra element is a dance performance by Tara Butler to one of the tunes from the album.
You can get tickets for the 2 p.m. concert online.
The Orillia Youth Centre has a bunch of fundraising concerts happening. The Sadies with special guest Terra Lightfoot are lined up for Sept. 20 at St. Paul’s Centre; Kevin Seconds, Lenny Lashley’s Gang Of One, and Nixon Boyd play Oct. 10 at Creative Nomad, and Oct. 11 at the youth center; and Danny Michel with special guest Roger Harvey play at the youth center October22. Get tickets online.
The Shorts
- Gilbert Guitars has a workshop happening Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. with Shawn Crockard who will discuss the history of Les Paul and the guitar he made.
- The Coldwater Steampunk Festival is working on revitalizing its organizing committee and invites people to apply for some open positions. Check out what they need and how to apply online.
- Nate Robertson did the music for a film by Barbara Sternberg called Experimental Experience, Novel Senses and its being shown at Alleycats Music Sept. 17 at 7 p.m.
- There is one more Movie in the Park night at the Aqua Theatre Sept. 13 with The Rocky Horror Picture
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: Janet-Lynne Durnford at the 2025 Pirate Party
