Photo courtesy Fenchurch! on Flickr
Sometimes I wish nature were more like a reality show. If it were, I would mount a vigorous Internet campaign to vote off the sunless doldrums of January and February, resigning them to the celebrity weather trash heap with other such has-beens as torridly-humid July and October of Incessant Freezing Rain. (Another plus: the inevitable post-fame meltdowns would involve, well, actual meltdowns.)
But since that’s not going to happen, the best I can hope for is escape. And as car payments and Cuban vacations are mutually exclusive, that leaves two options: (a) climate-controlled Ottawa establishments, preferably ones that serve beer, and (b) live music. Which is quite a nice segue into the Midwinter Music Preview, don’t you think?
Jan. 22: Think there’s been no good music since Pavement broke up? Then I probably don’t have to tell you Dinosaur Jr. play the Capital Music Hall this Friday.
Jan. 22-23: Tegan and Sara, whom we’ve already written about here, arrive in Ottawa for two sold-out shows at the Bronson Centre.
Jan. 24: Toronto folk-rock collective The Wooden Sky join local gal Jill Zmud at the GCTC for the third installment of the Ottawa Folk Festival’s Acoustic Waves concert series.
Jan. 29: Two more shots of folkiness: Kate Maki and Rolf Klausener (of Ottawa’s The Acorn) hit the stage at the Black Sheep Inn, while The Warped 45s bring their banjo-laden roots-rock to the Elmdale Tavern. And if you’re in the mood for an indie rock chaser, you can also catch By Divine Right that night at Maverick’s.
Jan. 31: Axl Rose and GNR – or, as we called them in Mr. Beck’s Grade 8 class, GNFR – play Scotiabank Place. I trust I don’t have to tell you what the “F” stood for.
Photo courtesy Jackson Chiu on Flickr
Feb. 4-7: Jenn Grant, Kyrie Kristmanson, Jason Plumb, Ruth Minnikin, and pretty much anyone who’s ever strummed an acoustic guitar are in Wakefield for the In the Dead of Winter Festival – the second year it’s been held at the Black Sheep Inn.
Feb. 6: I know two things about Mini Mansions: one, they’re the side project of Queens of the Stone Age’s Michael Shuman, and two, they’re playing Zaphod’s alongside That’s the Spirit this February.
Feb. 12: Here’s a novel idea for a night out: award-winning author Paul Quarrington (Whale Music, King Leary, and the upcoming Why Bloggers Who Make Cringeworthy Puns Should Be Drawn and Quartered) trades the pen for the microphone when he and his band, the Porkbelly Futures, hit the Elmdale.
Feb. 18-19: Owen Pallett, aka The Artist Formerly Known as Final Fantasy, aka Likely The Only Classically-Trained Violinist to Have Composed a Song About the Roleplaying Concept of Magic Points, spends two nights at the Black Sheep Inn.
Feb. 21: Calgary’s Woodpigeon brings their sweet Sufjan Stevens-esque pop to the Black Sheep for a Sunday afternoon matinee alongside Ottawa’s The Rough Sea.
Feb. 26: Super-exuberant indie rockers The Golden Dogs team up with The Balconies for a night of excitement at, where else, the Black Sheep.
Anything we’ve forgotten? Let us know in the comments section.
