This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
Technical issues prevented publishing this column Friday afternoon.
By John Swartz
There will be lots of activity at the Aqua Theatre this weekend. Friday night Movies in the Park starts its summer run with Jurassic Park at 9 p.m. It’s free to attend, but the organizers will take donations for the Community Fridge project. You can get some popcorn or bring your own munchies.
The rest of the movie schedule is Back to the Future on July 24, School of Rock on August 7, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial August 21 and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse Of the Black Pearl September 4. Each has a rain date for the following Friday.
Saturday evening is the first of a series with Still Deciding and Seasons Change performing. They are skipping over Scottish Festival weekend (July 17 – 19) and having Chase Heaslip perform July 25, Songs and Stories (for kids) with Lacie Marchand August 1 (starts at 3:30 p.m.), a showcase of Orillia Youth Centre musicians August 8, Turbo Street Funk August 15 and three acts – Sleepy Jan, Consenting Adults and Nate Mills August 22. Showtime is at 6:30 p.m.
Also on Saturday from noon to 7 p.m. the Orillia And Area Black Community Association has their 4th annual Community Fest happening. There will be food, music, and activities for kids.
The Sunday Evening Band Concerts have already started. This Sunday is The Orillia Silver Band’s turn. The Orillia Big Band plays July 26, the Newmarket Citizens’ Band August 2, the Barrie Concert Band August 9, The Baytowne Big Band August 16 and the Simcoe County Band August 23. Concerts start at 6:30 p.m.
Scottish Festival
Next weekend is Scottish Festival for the 48th time. This year they are also celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Legion. On the Friday of the festival the Celtic Effect Band is playing the Ceilidh at the legion. You need a ticket for this one and they are available online. On Saturday at Couchiching Beach Park, where the noon-time parade will end, once the bands have been dismissed from the field there will be entertainment by a band called Strange Potatoes, and the 48th Highlanders Military band will do a concert at the legion at 2:30 p.m. Sunday the Kempencelts, the Pipes and Drums of Canada and the Toronto Signals Band (who are also celebrating their 100th anniversary) will play in the afternoon to close out the festival.
78th Fraser’s Regimental Re-enactment, will be doing their thing at 2 p.m. Things will go boom.
Also of note for the legion. Norm Johnstone is celebrating his 100th birthday at the legion, Thursday August 6 from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Norm is the last surviving person from the Fairmile explosion.
Leftovers
Not the shows reviewed here, but the timing. The Orillia Youth Centre had two fundraising concerts on successive days in June. The first was with Andrew Alli and Josh Small and the Big Bad Jug Band. This was a house concert and the evening was perfect for it.
Unfortunately Andrew and Josh didn’t make it because their connecting flights did not connect. Kevin Gangloff found out the night before they likely weren’t going to get here and contacted Spencer Burton who agreed to make the last minute drive from the Niagara Peninsula to play for us.
Spencer did a very entertaining set a few times roped audience members into his monologue setting up some of his tunes.
The Big Bad Jug Band is something to experience. There is little in common with this band and any other, except they play tunes. It’s the instrumentation, banjo, acoustic bass, harp and jug. Even the percussion is a collection of things that make sounds but are not drums. The song lyrics are satirical and you will laugh.
Big Bad Jug Band 
Weber Brothers
The next night at the Leacock Museum, The Ronnie Douglas Blues Band and the Weber Brothers had a concert. Josh and Andrew were also on the bill, but of course did not make it to town.
Ronnie and company just never stop playing some of the best versions of standards and originals. You say you aren’t into Blues? Well, I dare you to sit through one of their sets and say that wasn’t the best darn thing you’ve heard in ages.
Following them to the stage were the Weber Brothers. There is a reason they are popular with concert goers, they put on a great show. Lance Anderson was part of the band, as was Emily Burgess on second guitar. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ryan and Sam do a concert since I first saw them back in the late 90s at the Orillia Spring Blues Festival that I haven’t really enjoyed. The musician ship was off the charts (both bands).
The evening was overcast and it had rained earlier, but Ronnie and company chased the clouds off for most of the night. It did start to rain again at end of the Weber Brothers set.
The Orillia Silver Band also had a concert in June at St. Paul’s Centre. They opened with Overture to Raymond” by French composer Ambroise Thomas. I never heard of the tune or the composer before, but I found something new to put on the music box occasionally. It’s a very complex piece of work to play.
Three members of the band stepped to the front to play sol. Michael Fraser played euphonium for Philip Sparke’s Harlequin. that is composer tribute to the theatre. Jonas Feldman played cornet for William Himes’s Jubilance and Rita Arendz soloed on e-flat horn with Peter Kneale’s Variations on a Welsh Theme. Each demonstrated excellent playing with difficult music.
The band also did a couple of Glenn Miller tunes, In the Mood and Pennsylvania 6-5000. I’m not a fan of Miller’s music, except for In the Mood. That may be because of the arrangements and interpretations I’ve heard don’t have the zest of other big band music from the era. It always seemed to me like they were the day’s pop music for people unsophisticated, casual listeners. However, this time the renditions were not of that type, they had a little bit of edge to them.
The OSB played exceptionally, maybe a cut above any of their previous concerts, which are already a cut above most other bands. As noted above, the Silver Band is playing Sunday evening at the Aqua Theatre.
Nixon (The Other One)
Nixon Boyd’s log-waited album is out. Every Time We Turn A Corner is a collection of 11 songs, some of which we’ve heard him do with his solo appearances for youth center concerts. This time we get to hear them fleshed out with accompanying instrumentation, most of which he also played. He does have some others provide some backing.
I say long awaited because the drive the original master recording was stolen and he had to re-record the music. Back up your work, and then back that up.
Several times I caught myself thinking, this sounds like something Paul Simon might have written. It’s light, airy collection, middle of the road, and not like his previous work with Hollerado. He sang some of these tunes last year at Mariposa with a band behind him, but this doesn’t sound like that either.
You can listen and download the album on Bandcamp.
The Shorts
- There is a competition to create some art for the main doors to the Opera House happening right now. Whatever you come up with will be transferred to vinyl and applied to the doors. Proposals are due ny July 23 and you can find submission details online.
- Bleeker has a bunch of new tunes they’ve made videos for, and they just announced they will be opening for The Trews at Casino Rama for a Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital Foundation fundraiser in October. You can get tickets for that show here. The foundation is also running a 50/50 draw in conjunction with the concert and you can get a ticket online.
- The Port of Orillia Mardi Gras happens July 25 all day with the Orangeman playing music.
- The Orillia Museum of Art and History has two new exhibits The Many Faces of Paul Shilling: A Retrospective. and Awaken The Spirits. – art by Rama’s Drake Williams; other exhibits to see are a textile show, From Hand to Heirloom: The Art of Craft , and the permanent exhibit of Gordon Lightfoot’s personal effects… Cloud Gallery has their My Happy Place show happening… Peter Street Fine Arts has works by Molly Farquharson this month.
- Great Northern plays the legion July 11 at 7 p..m.; Tickets are $10 at the door… Quayle’s Brewery has Vince Therrien playing July 10; Rogan Mei plays July 11; Dave Shaw July 12; Jakob Pearce July 17 and Upbeat Groove July 18… The Hog ‘N Penny has Däv Dickenson playing July 10; James Gray plays July 11… Kensingtons has an open mic led by Timmy Kehoe every Tuesday night… The ANAF Club has No Filter playing July 11; Eddy Culjak is in July 12… Dave Shaw plays the Hog ‘N Penny June 27.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia)
