Is your significant other’s sibling in town visiting for the first time since he/she threatened to beat you up? Diffuse the tension building up in the living room by showing him/her the town and exposing him/her to some great original music tonight.
Begin the evening with the stars of the future at the McKenzie College Student Jam from 5:00-7:00 at the Black Diamond.
Maybe you’ll need a coffee with such an early start to a long evening. If so, be sure to catch singer songwriter Ian MacDougall’s alter ego Tom Fun’s alter ego John Turbo as he performs solo at Wentworth Perk from 6:00-8:00pm.
The Pit Lounge Battle of the Bands ends tonight in a noisy no holds barred sound off between progressive rockers Thought Machine and pop punk veterans Static In Action. The bands will each perform two alternating twenty minute sets starting at 9:00 and continuing until midnight before last year’s victors The Easy Bleeders perform for an hour to allow the competitors to bask in their glory and / or come to grips with their defeat. Cover is $3. At stake is a $1500 cash prize, airplay on the Giant 101.9 a full day of recording at Soundpark Studios and a spot in the ECMA campus kick off on March 4th. Second place finishers receive $500 cash and some Molson prizes. Wink, wink.
Governors Pub hosts an acoustic performance from the Colin Grant Band with 2010 East Coast Music Award nominees Carleton Stone Drives the Big Wheel opening the night with a subdued acoustic set beginning at 7:00pm. The Big Wheel returns after 10:00 and cranks the amps for their weekly Thursday night party.
By now you’ve likely realized you’ve forgotten your wallet somewhere along the way. So it’s time to head back to the Black Diamond for some acoustic blues with musician (vocals, guitar, harmonica, mandolin) and folklorist Pedro Narváez. Pedro has made St. John’s, Newfoundland his home for over thirty-five years and has played with many of the greats of acoustic blues including Sleepy John Estes, Yank Rachell, Big Joe Williams, Skip James, John Jackson, Johnny Shines, Bukka White, Fred McDowell, the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Dave Van Ronk, Pinetop Perkins and Denis Parker. In 1999 he produced a double CD of Skip James’s historic live recordings (the Bloomington [Indiana] concert, 1968) for Document Records. A singer-songwriter as well, Peter has had his songs published and produced by Alan Freed (as “Pete & Jimmy & the Rhythm Knights,”) Buffy Sainte-Marie, Steve Annan, Glen Tilley and Ron Hynes. He has recorded original compositions for the Castle, Takoma (Homegas [as “Peter Aceves”], produced by legendary blues guitarist, the late John Fahey; Terraplane, Rap City, and Small Wonder labels as well as for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio and TV. Blues begins at 10:00pm. Narváez will be accompanied by local musician and noted folklorist and author Richard MacKinnon on bass.
