Come one and all to the first edition of the Acoustic Afternoon Concert Series, this Saturday, January 9th (4pm) at the Rainbow Bistro.

Presented by Ottawa Tonite contributor and local character, Maxim Cossette. This “pay what you can” series will run every Saturday afternoon from 4pm- 7pm (except the last Saturday of the month) until the end of April. The aim is to bring you the best established and unknown, traditional and contemporary acoustic musicians from the Ottawa area.

Over the next few months, you’ll see Ottawa mainstays like Lefty McRighty and Amanda Rheaume, breakthrough artists like L. Poushinsky and Ken Voita  as well as underground heros and future folk stars like John Aaron Cockburn and Kara Askwith.

So come celebrate the first concert in this bound-to-be-stellar succession of passionate performances and unforgettable moments.

For more information and artists profiles go to  http://acousticafternoon.wordpress.com/

 See you at the party!

-Maxim

Thank you everyone for your interest in Ottawa’s local arts and entertainment scene. This has been an incredible 2 months since Ottawa Tonite was born!

We are REALLY looking forward to exploring what Ottawa has to offer in 2010 and we will be bringing you even MORE ways to see what’s happening behind the scenes, in the scene and also to hear what you all have to say about it.

Great new things are on the way in 2010! We appreciate you sharing this experience with us.

Best wishes to you for a fantastic, creative and prosperous year ahead! 

Cheryl Gain

Shining City by Conor McPherson
Directed by John P Kelly
Featuring Richard Gélinas, Tom Charlebois, Nancy Kenny & Garrett Quirk

Arts Court Theatre – 2 Daly Avenue – Ottawa, ON

November 17 to 28, 2009 – 8 p.m.

Sat/Sun matinees – 2:30 p.m. (No show on Sunday & Monday night)

Tickets: $25 – $20 students/seniors/underemployed
Pay-What-You-Can Matinee on Sunday, November 22nd

Box Office: 613-564-7240

Keep the Halloween chills going with the perfect November play!

Set in present-day Dublin, Shining City takes place in the disheveled office of Ian, a former priest turned therapist. Ian’s latest patient, John, is in trouble. His wife has just died tragically… and he is visited more than once by her ghost. John is now terrified to return home, but Ian has his own troubles, including a new baby and a crumbling relationship.

“Literally lifted the hairs on my scalp.” – London’s Evening Standard
McPherson is “the finest dramatist of his generation…” – London’s Daily Telegraph

Her 3rd CD, “Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter,” to be released with a live performance in Ottawa (at the Ecclesiax Church, 2 Monk Street) on Friday, Nov 13th with many special guests, and cookies too.

Ottawa’s excellent country crooner Trevor Alguire will open the show.

Doors open at 8:30, music starts at 9.

Tickets will be sold at the Monk St entrance. $10 per ticket, and $20 at the door gets you a CD too.

Like her previous releases and more than 100 live performances (with bands Red Fey, Hollow Water, and as a solo performer,) Poushinsky delivers deliciously interesting compositions about love and life that are musically textured and emotionally exposed. 

But there’s no self-indulgence here. 

Poushinky does not wallow.

With a subtle touch, Poushinsky navigates her audience through a raw emotional landscape with a quirky, flirty, even frolicky bounce.  The complex jazz-fusion instrumentation throughout “Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter” provides a sweetness to the vulnerable femme fatale vocals that are powerful.

Her band is first-rate, and includes many notable Canadian musicians, including:

Adam Fogo (upright electric Zeta bass and bass guitar); Craig Pederson (trumpet); Brian Simms (electric lead guitar and b.u. vox); Brendan Allistone (electric lead guitar and b.u. vox); Mike Schultz (trombone); Ashley Newall (bass guitar and b.u. vox); Evan Runge (violin); Kader Blaine (banjo and b.u. vox), Tim Watson (drums), and even Bova chips in with hand claps, back up vocals, and maracas. 
Now Poushinsky is taking her new material on the road in her CD Release tour, first to Ottawa, where she’ll recreate the CD in its entirety with 12 accompanying musicians at the Ecclesiax Church (on Monk St. in the Glebe); she’ll share the bill with Ottawa alt-country crooner Trevor Alguire. 

Then Poushinsky will take the show on the road and tour Southern Ontario with Dave Norris and Local Ivan for a series of double CD release parties that promise to be a true musical tour de force.

Ottawatonite will be sharing in the Ottawa performance and bringing some special moments from the show to YOU. Come on down to the Glebe on Friday November 13th and take in Lisa’s show, share in her spirit and cookies too!

To hear sample tracks from “Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter,” and a regularly updated tour calendar, visit:
www.myspace.com/lpoushinsky

I play a lot of shows, but I don’t play a lot of shows where I’m the leader and songwriter and front man.  I was nervous for 2 reasons,

A) I’m bad with mustering the enthusiasm to even want to play my songs and

B) I’m even worse with remembering words (especially when they’re my own). 

The only shows JJ and I have been in together were where we were backing up Eric.  So Eric’s opening for us was an obvious way to start, though it seemed to have the air of a distorted socialized “right of passage” even if such a passage is unseemly and unjustified in this situation, but it just had that air.

Mostly I felt that air because Eric was nostalgic in his set, inviting the many former band-mates, and current band-mates, in the audience to play along (this included in the “former category” JJ and myself).  For one more, potentially last, time we played those songs together.  Eric ended his set with his current band lineup.

 
I fell nonconfident in my approach to my set, my guitar, my unlearned songs, as my set start approached.
 
Philip Shaw Bova is my brother.  We have that innate chemistry that finishes each other sandwiches…sentences…  

He was joining me on drums, he has before, he will again.
 
Phil Victor Bova is our father, a looney charmer on the flirt with insanity, a bass player who gets it (read: rare), and a wizard without the hat.  I am excited by how Phil gets excited to play musicball.
 

The three of us have played together for other artists enough times that I knew in my head how they approach songs and I know very intimately how they play.  So I could hear in my head “our sound” before beat 1, and whatever nervous feelings I had during beat 1 were quickly dismissed by beat 2.  Game on.
 
We started and we stopped.  That’s how I felt the show went but we’d played for an hour, no rehearsal, all joy, no bummers, no train wrecks, acceptable banter and great musical moments.

Plus I WANTED to play every song AND I remembered almost all of the words, almost… 
 
Sure there were little mistakes, we never practiced, but they were easily offset by our cooperative charismatic musicianship.  Three dudes just playing the songs, no noodling, no ego, just songs, I felt great because the Phil’s had my back the whole time, I can’t thank them enough for that.

JJ Ipsen, Eric Vieweg @Cafe Dekcuf

JJ’s band is cool.  I disagree with a statement Eric prefaced the show with “they are all so good at their instruments, you’ll be sick”.  I observed them being regular sort of players, nothing fancy, no virtuosos or mind blowing solos, nor stunning technical precision; I feel they appear to be masterful because their best collective musical asset is clever orchestration (compliments of JJ). 

They knew their parts, when not to play, and when to push it home, basically copying what JJ did on his “dirty laundry” CD and bringing it live and to a bar near you (lucky you by the way).
 
The loosest guy in JJ’s band was J.J, you could tell he felt confident in his preparation of his band-mates enough to relax and let the band support him, relying on them to lead the songs, and never once did he take the amateurish position of pulling the band along by leading too forcefully, he let it happen because he knew it would happen right. 
 
I think a few touring nights of maturity will be a great asset for these dudes, they’re right at that cusp of being a “cool little band from just outside Toronto” to being “a Stylish Band from Toronto”, and just a little time will decide that advent.
 
I can’t wait to play musicball again.

Matt Ouimet’s Music can be found here: http://www.myspace.com/mattouimet

JJ Ipsen is here: http://www.myspace.com/jjipsen

Eric Vieweg on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/ericvieweg

All Rights Reserved by Creative Commons, photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/spine/

To that end, two restaurants quickly come to mind: Local Heroes and Wild Wings.

Local Heroes has been a fairly consistent restaurant, good wings, great wings actually, come in different sizes, giant mutant sized ones and normal size ones. At Local Heroes you are always greeted with a smile, the game is on, you can even get a shuttle to the game if the Sens are playing in town. Local Heroes puts on a great event on Super Bowl Sunday,  and makes you wanna go there again and again.

Not much can be said about Wild Wings, the selection is HUGE. If you are hungry enough you can even order 1000 wings for about $700, now ain’t THAT a treat? Large selection – nothing tastes that great, everything is frozen, and I can pass on the fried pickles, no thanks. Service? Well if a server rolls her eyes at you, odds are, not great service. That is all I have to say about that place.

Now, where else in Ottawa can you get a good pound of wings? I am gonna tell you where (and its not somewhere you are gonna think off).  The game was on, fans were on edge, asked for a beer, got it FAST, nice and cold.  Looked at the menu, yup, I’ll go for the wings. The wings came  plated with the usual boring salary and carrot and a lump of sour cream, but the wings where well cooked, juicy, the sauce was nice, not over the top, and the price was much better than I  expected.

Where is this place? What is it called? Introducing the Senate Chambers, located on the U.S.side of the Ottawa Airport. Airport food? Good? Yup. Is it worth buying a ticket to the U.S., getting a passport, going through customs just to sample a plate of wings? NOPE, but if you are ever on that side of the airport, give it a shot, you won’t be disappointed.

Where are your favorite Ottawa wings restaurants?