Latest news with #SalleWilfrid-Pelletier
Montreal Gazette
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Montreal Gazette
Friday on My Mind: It's a circus out there with jazz, Comiccon and Montréal Complètement Cirque
Friday on My Mind is a highly subjective, curated rundown of five of the cooler things happening in Montreal during the weekend. Violent Femmes Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts. Brian Ritchie, bassist for the fabulous folk-punk band Violent Femmes, goes way back with the Montreal International Jazz Festival. The band, which formed in Milwaukee in 1981, headlines Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier as part of fest. Their first set will be devoted to 1984 album Hallowed Ground, considered to be one of the first Americana records. Then they'll perform the self-titled 1983 debut LP from start to finish. That's the disc they're best known for; it features Gone Daddy Gone and Blister in the Sun. On the phone this week with Ritchie, who was in Prince Edward Island mentoring local artists, I told him I'd seen them at an epic 1985 show at the Spectrum and he began talking about his history with Montreal and the jazz fest. Violent Femmes played the fest at Metropolis in 2014. 'The first time I flew on a plane in my life was to go to Montreal and I went to the jazz festival,' said Ritchie. 'I think it was '79 or '80. Carla Bley and Archie Shepp were playing that year. So it's meaningful to me to play the festival. That was my first adult festival experience. They played at the Théâtre St. Denis. So I'm a little bit tender about the Montreal jazz festival. It's kind of like a full-circle thing.' Their first album it remains far and away the most influential thing they've ever done. The trio was then made up of Ritchie on bass, singer-guitarist Gordon Gano and drummer Victor DeLorenzo. Today the group consists of Ritchie, Gano, multi-instrumentalist Blaise Garza and drummer John Sparrow. Though they don't have a big catalogue of hits, their music resonates more than 40 years later. 'We still have kids getting into us,' Ritchie said. 'A lot of music (from back then) isn't still valid. It's just nostalgia. Whereas with The Cure or the Femmes, it's not just nostalgia. It's also excellent music.' He thinks Violent Femmes have endured 'because the lyrical perspective, at least in the songs we're most known for, is universal, yet it was a kind of vulnerability that Gordon was relating at a time when rock was very macho and very artificial. I think he was ahead of the times. Then also the music itself, with the way that we played with acoustic instruments and we didn't use any production trickery of the time, which would've dated it by now. Our recordings could've been made in the '50s or they could've been made now.' Comiccon Friday to Sunday at the Palais des Congrès. Comiccon spokesperson Jason Rockman reeled off names of some of the celebs attending the pop culture festival — and it was kind of dizzying. The guest list includes Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Andy Serkis from The Lord of the Ring movies; Famke Janssen from X-Men; former Montrealer William Shatner of Star Trek fame; Peter Weller from RoboCop ... and the list goes on. That's why 65,000 people show up every year. 'This is their pop-culture event of the year,' Rockman said. 'This is like their Super Bowl, this is their Game 7, it's a big big deal and it's fun to be part of something that makes people happy. This is an event that brings smiles to people's faces.' There are autograph sessions and photo ops, but Rockman underlines that most of the participants also take part in panels, talking about their lives and careers. Tickets: Montréal Complètement Cirque All weekend at various venues. With the jazz festival and Comiccon in full swing, it goes without saying that our city — festival hub that it is — just has to have another major fest on the go. Montréal Complètement Cirque kicked off Thursday and continues until July 13, another reminder that Montreal is the most notable circus-arts centre in the world. There are two shows at La Tohu: The Genesis from the Copenhagen Collective and La Noce d'Alfonse from Cirque Alfonse. But if paying indoor shows is not your cup of acrobatics, head down to St-Denis St. every night for al fresco circus action between Sherbrooke and Ste-Catherine Sts. from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. You can check out the Castellers de la Vila de Gràcia, Catalonian artists who construct giant human towers on the street. There's also the Cirqu'Easy bar at the corner of de Maisonneuve Blvd. and St-Denis. It's possible your bartender might be a circus performer. Tickets and information: Demons and Wonders All weekend at Cinémathèque Québécoise. Cinémathèque has kicked off a two-month series, Demons and Wonders, devoted to the big screen world populated by giants, fairies, ghosts, dragons and monsters of all kinds. Films this weekend include the Tim Burton classic Edward Scissorhands (Friday at 7:45 p.m.) and the 1982 fantasy cult hit The Dark Crystal (Sunday at 6 p.m.). Rolling Stone Presents Amplified All weekend at Oasis Immersion at Palais des Congrès. This is an immersive exhibition presented by Rolling Stone magazine and featuring The Who, Radiohead, Janis Joplin, Tame Impala, The Ramones and many more. You're in, right? Me, all it took was mention of The Ramones.
Ottawa Citizen
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Ottawa Citizen
Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor have a soft spot for Montreal
Blue Rodeo is one of the most famous bands to come out of Toronto, but the country-flavoured rock outfit's two frontmen, Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, both have strong connections to Montreal. Article content They spoke about those ties to our city in a recent Zoom conversation from their respective homes in the Toronto area. Blue Rodeo will headline a free outdoor show on the main TD Stage at the Place des Festivals, part of the Montreal Jazz Festival, Friday at 9:30 p.m. and the much-loved band — whose hits include Try, Diamond Mine, Lost Together, Hasn't Hit Me Yet and many others — will also be returning to play at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier in Place des Arts on Jan. 17 next year, on their 40 th anniversary tour. Article content Article content Keelor, who was born in Inverness, N.S., moved from Toronto to Montreal in 1963 when his dad was transferred here. The family moved to the Town of Mount Royal and 'it was like a paradise for a 10-year-old,' Keelor said. 'TMR was very youth-oriented, very sports-oriented. There were lots of activities for kids and I was a little goalie and they had a great intercity hockey team, the TMR Eagles. It was completely enchanting before I even knew what enchantment even meant.' Article content Article content Article content His parents moved back to Toronto in 1971 and Keelor stayed a year longer in Montreal to play hockey, moving back in with his parents in 1972. Article content 'I went to North Toronto, which is where I met my buddy Jim,' Keelor said. Article content Cuddy was born in Toronto but his dad almost immediately moved the family to the U.S., where they lived in different cities, following his dad's career path as a business consultant. They moved to Montreal West in '63, the same year Keelor arrived in TMR, and his mom vowed to never move again. Article content 'She'd probably moved 12 times at that point so she said she'd never move again,' Cuddy said. 'We loved Montreal West. I liked it, but it was very strict. The school we went to was Protestant but it was very parochial. They had a lot of rules. Then the summer of '67 came and I was a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan. I'd been born in Toronto but never lived there so I had this mystique about Toronto. And that was the last year that Toronto won the Stanley Cup, beating Montreal. Then Expo started. We all had passes. It was the new métro. I was 11 and completely independent. I had a paper route. I'd come and go to Expo all summer long. Then by the middle of the summer, my dad said we're moving to Toronto. For a month, my mom said no. I just thought this was the greatest time of my life. It was Expo, the Leafs had just won the Cup, and I'm actually moving to this city that I cherish. My mom declared that was her last move and it was her last move.'
