Posts Tagged ‘reviews’
|Gogol Bordello and Darke Hall
Sunday, April 4th, 2010
Gogol Bordello
Heard these guys for the first time as I was leaving the Hawksley Workman concert at Darke Hall on March 19th. I didn’t get a good listen to it, as I was part of the steady stream of traffic headed to the main exit. The lyrics were catchy, and a quick youtube search after I got home was all I needed to find this video. I thought I would pass it on.
I also wanted to pass on my support for the continued use of Darke Hall as a concert venue. It is easily my favourite concert venue in Regina, followed by the Conexus Arts Centre, and then the Exchange. The hall is booked through the Conservatory of Performing arts at the University of Regina.
Here’s their description of the venue from their website.
Darke Hall offers the warm character only a classic property can deliver, plus the seating capacity of up to 610 persons (Main Floor 550, Balcony 60). The stage has an acting area of 24 ft by 24 ft. Details for rental must be finalized at least two weeks prior to your event.
No external food or beverage may be brought in; however, Aramark Food Services may be used as they are the University of Regina’s licensed caterers. Unfortunately the hall is not wheelchair accessible.
Rental rates are dependant on the type of group. All rates include 4 hours of technician services, basement lobby, kitchen facilities, backstage lighting and sound.
That description hardly does the place justice. It’s a large brick building full of atmosphere. At the front is a sizable stage silhouetted with huge pipes from a pipe organ. The building is tall and long, much like a classic church, complete with wood floors, and a balcony at the back. The seating is aged but comfortable folding theatre seats. The roof is lined with acoustic tile. In short, it’s full of atmosphere and more importantly, it has amazing acoustics. The hall easily handles loud rocky tunes keeping the notes clean and crisp just as easily as it handles completely acoustic vocals, guitar, and piano without any electrical amplification whatsoever. Even the wood flooring contributes to an audible foot tapping, a very unique form of crowd interactivity.
You’re probably wondering why I’m giving this hall such a great review and I didn’t spend a lot of time on the concert itself. That’s a good question, for those wondering how the concert was I can say that this was the 3rd time I’ve seen Hawksely Workman live, the second time in this same venue. As always the concert was amazing. If you have not seen Hawksley live I highly recommend it, if you don’t know who he is, go buy some of his albums, they are all great.
Now back to the hall, I want to see more concerts play in Darke Hall. At the Hawksley concert, a comment was made on stage about the hall being difficult to book. They suggested that we inform the Conservatory of Performing Arts how much us concert goers appreciate the venue, so that they keep it available for future public performances.
After a bit of searching on their website, I came across this email address: conserva@uregina.ca. I’m going to send them a quick email expressing my support for keeping the venue available for public concerts in the future. If you have similar feelings, please follow my lead.
Tags: music, reviews
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Paddock Wood Loki IPA
Friday, February 26th, 2010
I had the opportunity to taste this specialty brew by Saskatoon’s Paddock Wood Brewery. It’s good, very good even. Assuming of course you like beer, and more specifically the super bitter and hoppy India Pale Ale Style of brews. If you put together that IPA stood for India Pale Ale, and thought to your self “mmm, I do like Alexander Keith’s” this beer is not for you. This beer is a real IPA, for the indoctrinated hop head.
What I liked about it:
- Hoppie – I love the taste of hop flowers in my beer. This one does not dissapoint. I would consider it a double IPA or Imperial IPA myself based on the intense flavour.
- Bitter – 1 and 2 kind of go together here. It’s a pleasant and strong bitterness. It hits hard, and fades nice and slow leaving you with a sensation as close as a man can get to the female orgasm. Well, done.
- Smells like fowers – I like that.
- Sweet – has a caramel or toffee sweetness to it, everything seems to be in a good balance making this strong hoppie beer very palatable.
To sum up for those that have had the odd blast of other local IPA’s, I’d say it is on par with Regina Bushwakker’s brew Trephination Double and Winnipeg Half Pint’s Humulus Ludicrous. If that dosen’t mean anything to you, check them out when you get a chance. All the beer I’ve mentioned so far are seasonal, so you should drink them when you can find them.
That brings me to my next point, where did I have such a great beer. I managed to get some off the tap at Beer Bros 1821 Scarth Street, Regina. No telling how long they’ll have it in stock, but today is probably a good day for you to head down and give it a try.
Update May 27th, 2010
I took Tim Kramer’s advice left in the guest book, and went to the fainting goat restaurant last night. Loki was indeed on tap. I had it with the Duck Kabobs, an unbelievable pairing for this beer. I’ve had fantastic wine pairings before, but I’ve always found beer pairings a bit of a joke. Not so in this case, the beer and duck really played off each other, and there was definitely a flavor synergy.
Tags: beverages, reviews
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The Unforseen Journey of Nathaniel Dunbar and other tales of whimsical sadness – a quick review
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Today I had the privilege of viewing the entitled show at the Globe Theatre in Regina. The show was created by Melanie Hankewich vocals, typewriter, and ukulele & Jeremy Sauer piano, guitar and accordion (whom I once played in the Edgely Jazz band with. Don’t get us confused as he became a virtuoso musician, and I did not). Also present: Elizabeth Curry base and Jody Mario drums.
The Unforeseen Journey of Nathaniel Dunbar and other tales of whimsical sadness is part of the Shumiatcher Sandbox Series. It was performed at the same time as the main stage play but in the Shumiatcher theatre. For those that haven’t been, it’s a cozy little room with bar, tables, and individual chairs. The stage is at the front of the room, unlike the globe which is a theatre in the round. Though this is the first show I’ve seen in this room, I understand that it showcases young talent and experimental theatre. The decorations this night had a distinctively old feeling to them, bringing you back to the early days of jazz when still picture movies, and vacuum tube radios were the latest and greatest.
The show was amazing. It’s a musical event, that tells a fun story through music, costumes, props, and projected still images. The stage set a perfect atmosphere for the music, the still pictures and silent movies were spot on, the story was fun, and best of all the music was hard hitting. I listen to a lot of music, attend a reasonable amount of concerts and theatre; but few shows I’ve seen can hold a candle to this. It’s really hard for me to do any sort of justice to it with my poor command of the written language. All I can say is that I came out of the show wishing I could offer up my life savings to have one of the upcoming shows recorded and distributed on CD. Unfortunately, my life savings are woefully inadequate.
Thanks to the pamphlet handed out when I entered the theatre, I was able to find that both Jeremy and Melanie are members of the band the Continos. I did a quick google, but couldn’t come up with anything. I can say that I’m going to be watching for future performances, if you hear of any please let me know.
The show runs until February 6th. If you have a chance, I highly suggest picking yourself up a couple of tickets and attending one of the last performances. It’s about a 45 minute show, costs $20. I highly recommend it.
Here’s a Link to the review on Prairie Dog Magazine:
http://prairiedogmag.blogspot.com/2010/01/theatre-review.html
Tags: music, reviews
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