Winnipeg music & culture since 1989

October 8, 2024September 11, 2024

Concert Review :: Noah Reid Live at the Winnipeg Folk Festival!

Bradi Breckman

On the second day of the 49th annual Winnipeg Folk Festival, Snowberry Field in Birds Hill Park was packed with festivalgoers braving the afternoon heat. Why? To see Noah Reid, of course. Having come to fame through his role in the hit comedy show Schitts Creek, Reid is now making his name as a musician. The Ontario-based singer/songwriter drew a crowd on his first-ever visit to Winnipeg as the temperature climbed to 30°, and the anticipation grew.

October 1, 2024September 11, 2024

Concert Review: YPP

by Kim Wiesner

The Shady Grove stage sounds like an ideal place to try and escape the blazing sun that heats this year’s Winnipeg Folk Festival. Festival-goers are planted under the trees along the edges and right up front under the stage’s hood, wherever can shield them from the rays, most with one of two items in hand: a fan or a lemonade.

September 27, 2024January 14, 2024

Show Review: Pop Punk Party 4! Live at the Park Theatre

Guitar player performing at Pop Punk Party at the Park Theatre.

by Bradi Breckman

On October 19, I had the pleasure of attending the Pop Punk Party at the Park Theatre. The show was held as a fundraiser for mental health awareness and suicide prevention in memory of Zach Huchall, who was tragically lost in 2016. The fundraiser was put on three years in a row before it was halted due to Covid-19. Thankfully, it returned this fall with a passion! The proceeds from this year’s show went to Klinic Community Health and the Robb Nash Project, totalling over $35,000 through ticket sales, silent auction tickets and donations.

September 24, 2024September 26, 2024

EP Review :: Long Fall :: Self-Titled

By Mykhailo Vil’yamson

It’s not unprecedented for an artist to put out material that moves from heavy to significantly more sedated – take, for instance, Dallas Green’s mid-to-post-Alexisonfire solo project City and Colour (or alternatively, the conventional yet banal trend of most musicians to progressively mellow over the years). However, it’s refreshing to hear a move in the entirely opposite direction in what is the debut EP by Long Fall, which is the brand-new punk outfit that’s fronted by none other than Nic Dyson.

September 20, 2024September 11, 2024

Concert Review :: Cluster Festival :: Pulse (with Debashis Sinha, Jason Tait, and Compost)

(June 6, 2024)

by maggie astrid clark

If—as Phil Elverum sang during his performance of an unreleased Mount Eerie song at the West End Cultural Centre (WECC) on June 26—recorded music is a “statue of a waterfall,” then concert reviews are poems about a blurry photograph of said statue. Words cannot capture the experience of a sound, let alone reconstruct a memory that is already fading from the mind.

September 17, 2024September 11, 2024

EP Review :: Fold Paper :: 4TO

By Mykhailo Vil’yamson

Ever wonder what you would get if you folded a piece of paper twice and then cut the creased lines? Me neither. But maybe I’ll do it sometime and make a pamphlet from those four double-sided pages about how much I dig Fold Paper’s debut EP 4TO. Until then, you’ll have to settle for what’s written here.

September 10, 2024September 11, 2024

Concert Review :: Charley Crockett

Burton Cummings Theatre

May 27th

written by Myles Tiessen

Two glowing letter “C’s” hung suspended high in the air behind Charley Crockett throughout the course of his nearly two-hour show at the Burton Cummings Theatre on May 27th. He let us know who the star was.

September 5, 2024September 13, 2024

Interview: Nuclear Man

At the Goodwill Social Club, January 29, 2024

by Seraphine Crowe

“A newly arrived punch to the ear, brought to you by a congregation of Real Hardcore Guys.”

Back in the arctic throws of January, I interviewed Nuclear Man, a recent addition to the local Hardcore punk music scene. The group played for the first time in October 2023, establishing an electrifying presence and releasing their debut EP shortly after. Since then, the group has supported local Hardcore punk acts and played with touring bands. Earlier in the spring, they were booked to play in Toronto and Montreal, demonstrating a devotion to leaving their mark- and maybe a few broken microphones.

September 3, 2024August 28, 2024

LUANA MOTH/C. Samms/Mutable Body

March 22, Handsome Daughter

blury photo of luna moth singing and dancing hand above head with guitar player

by Stiff Wiggle

The prairies have long been identified as fertile grounds for more than merely vegetation — music springs from our soil like so much sage and clover. Much has been said about the way our winters seem purpose-built for the intense woodshedding and creative hermitage which characterizes the habits of artists of legend. But there’s a flip to this that’s much less frequently considered. I feel that when you’re prairie-bound, inspiration can be hard to come by.

August 30, 2024August 28, 2024

Concert Review: Manitoba Metalfest

Hands in the air making rock sign during Manitoba Metal Fest — Photo by Nischal Karki

written by Sam Doucet

Black t-shirts peppered the landscape of South Osborne on the beautiful evening of May 10th as The Park Theatre hosted the latest edition of Manitoba Metalfest. The annual weekend gathering has been an eagerly-awaited occasion for Winnipeg’s metal community for many years — understandably, given its history of bringing in big-name bands to a city often overlooked on tour itineraries. It doesn’t take much to lure local headbangers to Metalfest — even if the lineup isn’t your scene, the festival’s raucous and jovial atmosphere is unparalleled. But this year’s iteration featured a few reasons for extra excitement.