CCAP
The Sound Of Stavanger
Geoff Berner
Geoff Berner - Norwegian Tour
24/04/12 13:13
GEOFF BERNER (Can) - Norway Tour
Click here for press release / presentation in Norwegian
Canadian singer/songwriter/accordionist Geoff Berner, aka the "Whiskey Rabbi" is touring most of Norway in May. Perhaps best known in this country for his many support gigs with Kaizers Orchestra, including the one last year at Oslo Spektrum Arena in front of 9000 people, Berner plays a strange kind of klezmer music, solo, with accordion. First brought to Norway years ago by Bergen favourites the Realones, he's built a strong cult following with his anarchic live performances.
His latest album "Victory Party" (Mint Records) recently won the "Pushing the Boundaries" category at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. "Pushing the Boundaries" is a pretty good description of what Berner does with Jewish traditional music.
May 3 - Kristiansand, Norway - Javel (Trashpop)
May 4 - Stavanger, Norway - Cementen
May 5 - Bergen, Norway - Chagall
May 6 - Bergen, Norway - Logen
May 8 - Bryne, Noway - Thime Stasjon
May 10 - Trondheim, Norway - Familien
May 12 - Oslo, Norway - Manefisken
May 13 - Halden, Norway - Siste reis
May 16 - Arendal, Norway - Cafe Lindvedske
May 18 - Alta, Finnmark, Norway - Barlia Pub
May 19 - Hammerfest, Finnmark, Norway - Verk
Geoff Berner playlist on Spotify
Click here for press release / presentation in Norwegian
Canadian singer/songwriter/accordionist Geoff Berner, aka the "Whiskey Rabbi" is touring most of Norway in May. Perhaps best known in this country for his many support gigs with Kaizers Orchestra, including the one last year at Oslo Spektrum Arena in front of 9000 people, Berner plays a strange kind of klezmer music, solo, with accordion. First brought to Norway years ago by Bergen favourites the Realones, he's built a strong cult following with his anarchic live performances.
His latest album "Victory Party" (Mint Records) recently won the "Pushing the Boundaries" category at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. "Pushing the Boundaries" is a pretty good description of what Berner does with Jewish traditional music.
May 3 - Kristiansand, Norway - Javel (Trashpop)
May 4 - Stavanger, Norway - Cementen
May 5 - Bergen, Norway - Chagall
May 6 - Bergen, Norway - Logen
May 8 - Bryne, Noway - Thime Stasjon
May 10 - Trondheim, Norway - Familien
May 12 - Oslo, Norway - Manefisken
May 13 - Halden, Norway - Siste reis
May 16 - Arendal, Norway - Cafe Lindvedske
May 18 - Alta, Finnmark, Norway - Barlia Pub
May 19 - Hammerfest, Finnmark, Norway - Verk
Geoff Berner playlist on Spotify
chaotic, raucous night of drunken dancing
04/03/10 09:26
Geoff Berner brings his klezmer trio to Norway!
“I want to drag klezmer music kicking and screaming back into the bars.”
That’s the goal of Canadian singer-songwriter-accordion player Geoff Berner, known in Norway for his performances at festivals, on NRK radio, and as support act for Balkan-Surrealist rock heroes Kaizers Orchestra.
In March 2010, he brings his klezmer trio of drummer Wayne Adams and violinist Diona Davies to Norway. These are the musicians who appear on each of his last 3 albums, the Whiskey Rabbi trilogy. This is a rare opportunity to see the full artistic vision: a chaotic, raucous night of drunken dancing.
For advance tickets, and showtime info, contact the venue.
March 3 - Trondheim - Familien
March 4 - Oslo - MIR, with Lasso (elastique)
March 5 - Oslo - MIR, with Lasso (elastique)
Advance Tickets go on sale at MIR Feb. 1!
March 6 - Bergen - Victoria Bar. Get there early! Show starts at 8pm!
Support Act: Pål & hans fantastiske djup-psykologiske ubalanse!
Advance Tix available at venue.
March 7 - Stavanger - Cementen
March 8 - Kristiansand - TrashPop / Charlie's Bar
March 10 - Arendal - Munkehaugen Kultursenter
Facebook event
Geoff Berner website
“I want to drag klezmer music kicking and screaming back into the bars.”
That’s the goal of Canadian singer-songwriter-accordion player Geoff Berner, known in Norway for his performances at festivals, on NRK radio, and as support act for Balkan-Surrealist rock heroes Kaizers Orchestra.
In March 2010, he brings his klezmer trio of drummer Wayne Adams and violinist Diona Davies to Norway. These are the musicians who appear on each of his last 3 albums, the Whiskey Rabbi trilogy. This is a rare opportunity to see the full artistic vision: a chaotic, raucous night of drunken dancing.
For advance tickets, and showtime info, contact the venue.
March 3 - Trondheim - Familien
March 4 - Oslo - MIR, with Lasso (elastique)
March 5 - Oslo - MIR, with Lasso (elastique)
Advance Tickets go on sale at MIR Feb. 1!
March 6 - Bergen - Victoria Bar. Get there early! Show starts at 8pm!
Support Act: Pål & hans fantastiske djup-psykologiske ubalanse!
Advance Tix available at venue.
March 7 - Stavanger - Cementen
March 8 - Kristiansand - TrashPop / Charlie's Bar
March 10 - Arendal - Munkehaugen Kultursenter
Facebook event
Geoff Berner website
Anti Olympic & Norway Tour
16/02/10 13:08
GEOFF BERNER vrs THE OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES
As you all know the Winter Olympic Games is held in Vancouver / Whistler this year.
Now, Vancouver is a beautiful city, and we Norwegians love the Winter Games, but there is a dark side to the games.
Our Canadian friend Geoff Berner is one of many Canadians strongly opposed to the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. There are many reasons to the opposition, government funds are being used to host the games in stead of taking care of the rising social problems in the city of Vancouver being one of the most important issues.
A couple of years ago Geoff Berner wrote a song abut the Olympics, governments spending and more specifically: that the city closed the official investigation into the deaths of 700 children, they felt the money was better spent on the Olympic Games.
The song is called: «Official Theme Song For The 2010 Vancouver / Whistler Olympic Games (The Dead Children Were Worth It!)»
Official video on YouTube
Live Video on YouTube
MP3 / Free download
Lyrics
GEOFF BERNER - NORWAY TOUR
On a happier note, Geoff Berner accompanied by Diona Davies and Wayne Adams is coming back to Norway for a few gigs in February:
March 3 - Trondheim - Familien March 4 - Oslo - MIR March 5 - Oslo - MIR Pre-sale tickets go on sale at MIR Feb. 1!
March 6 - Bergen -Victoria Bar
March 7 - Stavanger - Cementen
March 8 - Kristiansand - TrashPop / Charlie's Bar
March 10 - Arendal - Munkehaugen Kultursenter
GEOFF BERNER - NEWSLETTER
Dear Everybody,
I hope you're enjoying the new decade so far. Or at least surviving it.
Thanks to all the lovely drunken dancers who came out to our shows throughout Europe in November and December. This was my dream and it came true, which is more than a person can reasonably expect from this unjust world.
I'm preparing for 2 separate tours, one on the Canadian Prairies, one in Norway. They're both with the Klezmer Trio! More drunken dancing! There's a nice link between the two territories: the virtuous social democrats of Norway have a major investment, by Statoil, the Norwegian national oil company, in the dirty nasty capitalist Mordor-like Alberta tar sands! Here's some info about that: www.tarsandswatch. I guess that the common ground between lefties and righties is a kind of gooey, dark bitumen. Just as I suspected.
I'm touring the Prairies with Rae Spoon. I want you to understand something very important: Rae Spoon's Polaris Prize-nominated album, recently released on vinyl, "Superioryouareinferior", is a perfect record. Every song on it has a majesty to it, a greatness, and they all work together as a whole to create a fierce melancholy, the fierce melancholy of a vast northern landscape. Catchy, too.
I am such a picky jerk when it comes to lyrics, and I know that a lot of you are, too. It's part of why I like you. So I hope that you'll remember to thank me for introducing some of you to this unique voice, inventive and piercing. Try this one from the song "My Heart is a Piece of Garbage. Fight, Seagulls, Fight."
"And the Calgary Tower stands up in the sky Like a giant fist that sticks up with all of it’s might. And the Calgary tower is shining in the night Like the mast of a ghost ship on its inaugural flight."
If you've never been to Calgary, trust me, love it or hate it, it's pretty darn hard to muster an elegaic tone about it. Maybe only Kris Demeanor is comparable. Rae Spoon. Come see him play on a double bill with me on the Canadian Prairies.
"Let the Devil in your heart, You will never be alone." Don't cheat yourself: go to this link and hear Rae Spoon
You're welcome.
I also want to let you know about the big Apocalympic Cabaret I'll be hosting in Vancouver, at the height of the Olympic madness. It's a benefit for PIVOT legal society and the legal defense fund for arrested protesters. That's Saturday, Feb. 27 at the WISE Hall in Vancouver. Organized by Neworld Theatre.
Get in touch with the event organizer, kenji, at kenji@neworldtheatre.com, if you'd like to volunteer to take tickets, decorate, etc. We still need more Burlesque dancers, too.
More about that next month. If you're interested in protesting the Olympics, please look up Olympic Resistance Network.
Did you hear? We had a little run-in with Nazis in Denmark!
Here's what happened:
1000fryd is a sort of youth club/culture centre/community house in Aalborg, a small city in the north of Denmark.
It used to be a squat. That is, the punks took over a big old abandoned building in the middle of the city, put it in more-or-less working order, and made it into a place that people could go to if they were a bit different, a bit not buying the general awfulness of mainstream monoculture.
In a brilliantly subversive maneuver, before the city could get around to shutting them down, the 1000fryd people managed to actually buy the building. So it's a permanent space in the centre of Aalborg that belongs to the punks and weirdos. Nice.
Here's a shocker for you: Nazis don't like that. Funny how the likes/dislikes of civic governments and skinheads so often co-incide.
So every now and then, the Nazi skinheads like to come by 1000fryd and cause trouble. Once or twice, they even got in and broke up the place. Mostly, though, the punks are ready for them, and keep them out. The punks are brave.
Diona and Wayne were out having a lackadaisacal smoke with the nice people, after our fun, packed, fun-packed show where everyone got drunk and danced. I wasn't out there. I was in the bar, drinking, where musicians belong. I believe that my beliefs are clearly on the record on that subject.
Some skinheads came by. They were genuine, honest-to-goodness White Power skins, right down to the white laces on their Doc Martins.
They started singing their little songs, all about hating people and being white and stuff, I suppose.
The punks started singing their little songs about how the Nazis should fuck off and how they lost the war and all. The tension was building.
Some regular mainstream culture nice-dressing young fellows came up the street. They were drunk and also big and sporty, so they didn't alter course when they found themselves walking into the makings of a rumble.
Being regular, mainstream-culture-presumably-Nickelback-loving, nationalist-party-voting fellows, they of course instinctively sided with the Nazis.
As they walked past, the biggest fellow, who I will call "Horst", decided, out of nowhere, to sucker-punch Wayne in the chest, knocking him to the ground.
Sensibly enough, and in a rebuke to those who say that the coming generation represents a decline in moral values, the punk kid next to Wayne picked up a beer bottle and threw it at the the big closet Nazi. Well done, youngster!
Unfortunately, in an affirmation of people's concerns that physical education programs in the schools lack the necessary rigor, he didn't throw the bottle hard enough to knock the guy out, but instead only made Horst angry.
Horst turned around and marched back towards the smattering of punks. The punks tensed for a confrontation.
But rather than use his steroid-enhanced strength to engage in a cinematic fist-fight with the skinny punks, a fight which he might have won but would have inevitably got him at least a little hurt, Horst chose an alternate strategy: He reached over to the nearest bicycle, which was conveniently leaning against a wall (Danes love their bikes), picked it up over his head, and hurled it at Diona. Then he and his friends ran away as the mass of punks, queers and weirdos came out of the bar to defend 1000fryd.
Wayne and Diona were mostly unhurt. DD got a scrape on her nose but mostly blocked the bike with her hands. Her hands were unhurt. Thank God.
Some valuable lessons we can learn from this episode:
--Every day, we discover new ways in which Smoking is more dangerous than Drinking.
--Some Canadians wrote in to me when I first reported this incident on facebook and asked, "What caused the fight?" and also "Did the police catch them?" Haw haw haw. Canadians can be very funny sometimes.
--Diona is indestructible. Maybe immortal. Doctors mistakenly diagnose her with cancer, a giant Nazi throws a bicycle at her, she just keeps going. Don't let the military get ahold of her DNA, or they might construct a secret regiment of invincible violin virtuoso super-soldiers!
--People who say that Europe is just a wheelbarrow-full-of-euros-per-carrot away from another Holocaust maybe ain't just whistlin' Dixie, as my old colleague Bugs Bunny used to say. After this incident, the minaret referendum in Switzerland, the bulldozing of the "jungles" in Calais, and the recent events in the boot of Italy, I respectfully suggest that Europeans might want to take a short break from talking about how xenophobic, ignorant and narrow-minded Americans are. Just saying.
But don't get mad, Europa. You know it's because I love you so much that you just make me crazy sometimes. Good luck!
As you all know the Winter Olympic Games is held in Vancouver / Whistler this year.
Now, Vancouver is a beautiful city, and we Norwegians love the Winter Games, but there is a dark side to the games.
Our Canadian friend Geoff Berner is one of many Canadians strongly opposed to the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. There are many reasons to the opposition, government funds are being used to host the games in stead of taking care of the rising social problems in the city of Vancouver being one of the most important issues.
A couple of years ago Geoff Berner wrote a song abut the Olympics, governments spending and more specifically: that the city closed the official investigation into the deaths of 700 children, they felt the money was better spent on the Olympic Games.
The song is called: «Official Theme Song For The 2010 Vancouver / Whistler Olympic Games (The Dead Children Were Worth It!)»
Official video on YouTube
Live Video on YouTube
MP3 / Free download
Lyrics
GEOFF BERNER - NORWAY TOUR
On a happier note, Geoff Berner accompanied by Diona Davies and Wayne Adams is coming back to Norway for a few gigs in February:
March 3 - Trondheim - Familien March 4 - Oslo - MIR March 5 - Oslo - MIR Pre-sale tickets go on sale at MIR Feb. 1!
March 6 - Bergen -Victoria Bar
March 7 - Stavanger - Cementen
March 8 - Kristiansand - TrashPop / Charlie's Bar
March 10 - Arendal - Munkehaugen Kultursenter
GEOFF BERNER - NEWSLETTER
Dear Everybody,
I hope you're enjoying the new decade so far. Or at least surviving it.
Thanks to all the lovely drunken dancers who came out to our shows throughout Europe in November and December. This was my dream and it came true, which is more than a person can reasonably expect from this unjust world.
I'm preparing for 2 separate tours, one on the Canadian Prairies, one in Norway. They're both with the Klezmer Trio! More drunken dancing! There's a nice link between the two territories: the virtuous social democrats of Norway have a major investment, by Statoil, the Norwegian national oil company, in the dirty nasty capitalist Mordor-like Alberta tar sands! Here's some info about that: www.tarsandswatch. I guess that the common ground between lefties and righties is a kind of gooey, dark bitumen. Just as I suspected.
I'm touring the Prairies with Rae Spoon. I want you to understand something very important: Rae Spoon's Polaris Prize-nominated album, recently released on vinyl, "Superioryouareinferior", is a perfect record. Every song on it has a majesty to it, a greatness, and they all work together as a whole to create a fierce melancholy, the fierce melancholy of a vast northern landscape. Catchy, too.
I am such a picky jerk when it comes to lyrics, and I know that a lot of you are, too. It's part of why I like you. So I hope that you'll remember to thank me for introducing some of you to this unique voice, inventive and piercing. Try this one from the song "My Heart is a Piece of Garbage. Fight, Seagulls, Fight."
"And the Calgary Tower stands up in the sky Like a giant fist that sticks up with all of it’s might. And the Calgary tower is shining in the night Like the mast of a ghost ship on its inaugural flight."
If you've never been to Calgary, trust me, love it or hate it, it's pretty darn hard to muster an elegaic tone about it. Maybe only Kris Demeanor is comparable. Rae Spoon. Come see him play on a double bill with me on the Canadian Prairies.
"Let the Devil in your heart, You will never be alone." Don't cheat yourself: go to this link and hear Rae Spoon
You're welcome.
I also want to let you know about the big Apocalympic Cabaret I'll be hosting in Vancouver, at the height of the Olympic madness. It's a benefit for PIVOT legal society and the legal defense fund for arrested protesters. That's Saturday, Feb. 27 at the WISE Hall in Vancouver. Organized by Neworld Theatre.
Get in touch with the event organizer, kenji, at kenji@neworldtheatre.com, if you'd like to volunteer to take tickets, decorate, etc. We still need more Burlesque dancers, too.
More about that next month. If you're interested in protesting the Olympics, please look up Olympic Resistance Network.
Did you hear? We had a little run-in with Nazis in Denmark!
Here's what happened:
1000fryd is a sort of youth club/culture centre/community house in Aalborg, a small city in the north of Denmark.
It used to be a squat. That is, the punks took over a big old abandoned building in the middle of the city, put it in more-or-less working order, and made it into a place that people could go to if they were a bit different, a bit not buying the general awfulness of mainstream monoculture.
In a brilliantly subversive maneuver, before the city could get around to shutting them down, the 1000fryd people managed to actually buy the building. So it's a permanent space in the centre of Aalborg that belongs to the punks and weirdos. Nice.
Here's a shocker for you: Nazis don't like that. Funny how the likes/dislikes of civic governments and skinheads so often co-incide.
So every now and then, the Nazi skinheads like to come by 1000fryd and cause trouble. Once or twice, they even got in and broke up the place. Mostly, though, the punks are ready for them, and keep them out. The punks are brave.
Diona and Wayne were out having a lackadaisacal smoke with the nice people, after our fun, packed, fun-packed show where everyone got drunk and danced. I wasn't out there. I was in the bar, drinking, where musicians belong. I believe that my beliefs are clearly on the record on that subject.
Some skinheads came by. They were genuine, honest-to-goodness White Power skins, right down to the white laces on their Doc Martins.
They started singing their little songs, all about hating people and being white and stuff, I suppose.
The punks started singing their little songs about how the Nazis should fuck off and how they lost the war and all. The tension was building.
Some regular mainstream culture nice-dressing young fellows came up the street. They were drunk and also big and sporty, so they didn't alter course when they found themselves walking into the makings of a rumble.
Being regular, mainstream-culture-presumably-Nickelback-loving, nationalist-party-voting fellows, they of course instinctively sided with the Nazis.
As they walked past, the biggest fellow, who I will call "Horst", decided, out of nowhere, to sucker-punch Wayne in the chest, knocking him to the ground.
Sensibly enough, and in a rebuke to those who say that the coming generation represents a decline in moral values, the punk kid next to Wayne picked up a beer bottle and threw it at the the big closet Nazi. Well done, youngster!
Unfortunately, in an affirmation of people's concerns that physical education programs in the schools lack the necessary rigor, he didn't throw the bottle hard enough to knock the guy out, but instead only made Horst angry.
Horst turned around and marched back towards the smattering of punks. The punks tensed for a confrontation.
But rather than use his steroid-enhanced strength to engage in a cinematic fist-fight with the skinny punks, a fight which he might have won but would have inevitably got him at least a little hurt, Horst chose an alternate strategy: He reached over to the nearest bicycle, which was conveniently leaning against a wall (Danes love their bikes), picked it up over his head, and hurled it at Diona. Then he and his friends ran away as the mass of punks, queers and weirdos came out of the bar to defend 1000fryd.
Wayne and Diona were mostly unhurt. DD got a scrape on her nose but mostly blocked the bike with her hands. Her hands were unhurt. Thank God.
Some valuable lessons we can learn from this episode:
--Every day, we discover new ways in which Smoking is more dangerous than Drinking.
--Some Canadians wrote in to me when I first reported this incident on facebook and asked, "What caused the fight?" and also "Did the police catch them?" Haw haw haw. Canadians can be very funny sometimes.
--Diona is indestructible. Maybe immortal. Doctors mistakenly diagnose her with cancer, a giant Nazi throws a bicycle at her, she just keeps going. Don't let the military get ahold of her DNA, or they might construct a secret regiment of invincible violin virtuoso super-soldiers!
--People who say that Europe is just a wheelbarrow-full-of-euros-per-carrot away from another Holocaust maybe ain't just whistlin' Dixie, as my old colleague Bugs Bunny used to say. After this incident, the minaret referendum in Switzerland, the bulldozing of the "jungles" in Calais, and the recent events in the boot of Italy, I respectfully suggest that Europeans might want to take a short break from talking about how xenophobic, ignorant and narrow-minded Americans are. Just saying.
But don't get mad, Europa. You know it's because I love you so much that you just make me crazy sometimes. Good luck!
I Reach for My Accordion in the US, Vancouver and Europe
27/08/09 12:33
Latest newsletter from our Canadian friend Geoff Berner
Dear Everybody,
I hope you've been enjoying the lazy, hazy crazy days of summer. I have been enjoying mine. I've played some lovely summer festivals here in Canada, and just generally basked in the very warm weather. Now it's time to go down the coast of the U.S., play Accordion Noir Fest Sept. 12, and then head for Europe September 24.
Of course, there is the occasionally literally hazy day here in British Columbia Canada, on account of most of the province being on fire and everything, but my friends and I have just learned to sit back, pour a drink, and enjoy the irony as the local papers devote their front pages to editorials against the evils of bicycles getting in the way of the commuting cars. Tra la la!
The Artswells festival in particular was a terrific time. I guess because it's not only a music festival, but a general Arts festival, there's an overall feel of a gathering of people who are just open to the Life Artistic. In particular, I recommend the One Minute Play Festival, the festival within the festival, hosted by the inimitable Paul Crawford. He concluded the proceedings with a stripteasing auction of his own clothes, in order to raise funds for the non-profit group that runs the festival.
Although I didn't enter the contest, Paul awarded me a special Olympic Gold Medal, in honour of the work I've done in the past year or so to promote the Vancouver Whistler 2010 Olympic Games, as you know. I was very flattered, until I bit the medal to see if it was Real Gold, only to find that it was Pure Plastic. Further examination revealed the words "Budweiser--King of Beers!" engraved on it. Still, a medal is a medal, and I wear it proudly.
Another part of what's nice about playing these festivals is the chance to re-encounter old friends. It was at Artswells that I got the news that Tolan McNeil and Dave Lang are moving back to the infamous Chambers Towers, in Victoria, home of the lovely and talented Carolyn Mark. These three have lived together before, and the results were creative and actual industrial-grade dynamite, so I'm looking forward to what comes out of the re-convening of this infamous crew, especially the products of the basement studio.
Recently, Tolan has been living in Powell River, a small mill town on Vancouver Island. He commented on the experience in this way: "Yeah, for a while, I was putting the 'pow' in Powell River. But then after a while, I was just putting in the 'O well.', you know?"
Even more recently, Tolan was arrested by private security, or "rent-a-cops", for riding down the Bow River on an inner tube, through the middle of Calgary, with nothing but a six pack of Lucky Lager to hide his nakedness. Apparently, the Calgary Police were very polite to him when the rent-a-cops handed him over to their custody. They even gave him a green plastic garbage bag (or "bin liner" as you Europeans say). I guess this sort of thing is a common occurence in Calgary. Good times, good people.
I've got a bunch of stuff to tell you about. It's kind of all about accordion playing, so if you're not into the accordion, you should just skip right down into the tour dates, I guess.
I'm doing this big Monsters of Accordion Tour, starting in Seattle, all the way down the West Coast to Los Angeles, and then concluding with the fabulous Accordion Noir Festival, in Vancouver, at the WISE Hall. All of this will be in conjunction with my American pal Jason Webley, who is a swell guy, a clever songwriter, and an incredibly charismatic performer. You've probably already heard of him.
This Accordion Noir Festival is going to be a glorious Lost Weekend Blowout. The main even is Saturday evening, with me and Jason co-headlining, but there's a whole bunch of other stuff going on which is described below. I really hope you'll come, and if you own an accordion, do bring it down. We're going to try for an accordion orchestral version of "The Dead Children Were Worth It". More details below.
Then in late September, it's back to Europe. 9pm Records is putting out something I'm very proud about: A re-issue of my first album, "We Shall Not Flag or Fail, We Shall Go On To The End", with a bonus of my very first EP, "Light Enough to Travel". Both of these have been unavailable for some time, even though people still request a lot of the songs at shows.
The whole concept of "Flag or Fail" was to make a full, eclectic singer/songwriter album with no bloody guitars on it whatsoever, and to use accordion in place of where the guitar might go. It was a risky experiment, but it worked. Its release signaled the beginning of the period in my life when I've earned my living through music alone. This period continues. Knock wood, and thank you for supporting what I've been doing.
So I guess the next couple of months are really all about doing a big Victory Lap for my accordion, Estella, the little chrome and black box that's been on all my records. When I began playing and touring, Estella was often a target of derision. In the late nineties, it was still considered very uncool to play the accordion in many circles. Every interview I did seemed to begin with the question, "So--why the accordion?" Now, thanks to people like Jason Webley, the hosts of Accordion Noir, and many others, the accordion has returned to its rightful place in the peoples' hearts as an instrument of romance and emotional power--even aggression.
In honour of these developments, Jason and I have written an Accordion Anthem, called "I Reach For My Accordion". Hopefully, you'll be hearing it soon, if we see you at the shows. If you do come out, please do come up and say hello.
Yours,
Geoff
Here are the dates:
Aug 26th - Seattle, WA - The Triple Door
Aug 27th - Portland, OR - The Crystal Ballroom
Aug 28th - Eugene, OR - Wow Hall
Aug 29th - San Francisco, CA - Slim's
Aug 30th - Los Angeles, CA -Synchronicity Gallery
Aug 31st - Sacramento, CA - Luigi's
Sep 1 - Ashland, OR - The Black Sheep
September 12 - WISE Hall - MAIN DAY Of ACCORDION NOIR FESTIVAL:
Workshops and Concerts. Full Day: $20. Just the concert: $15
Workshops begin 4 pm, go to 7:30, Featuring:
* Accordion maintenance and repair with Rickey Mann
* Accordion songwriting with Andy Fielding
* Accordion history with Bruce Triggs
* Accordion Film Festival!
Concerts: 8:30 to 12:30
Story, from P.E.I.
Jason Webley from Seattle
Geoff Berner
WE STILL SHALL NOT FLAG OR FAIL TOUR of EUROPE, 2009:
Sept. 24 - Hamburg - Klezmerfestival @ Goldbekhaus
Sept. 25 - Annaberg-Buchholz - Alte Brauerei
Sept. 26 - Chemnitz - Exil
Sept. 28 - Wien(Vienna) - Chelsea
Sept. 30 - Salzburg, Austria - Denkmal
Oct. 1 - München - IG Feuerwache
Oct. 4 - Vinelz, Switzerland - Alte Landi
Oct. 5 - Zürich, Switzerland - El Lokal
Oct. 7 - Mainz - Hafeneck
Oct. 8 - Trier - Varieté Chat Noir
Oct. 9 - Saarbrücken - Sparte 4, with Wax Mannequin!
Oct. 10 - Köln (Cologne) - Bauwagenplatz "Wem gehört die Welt"
Oct. 11 - Castrop-Rauxel - Bahia de Cochinos
Oct. 12 - Osnabrück - Unikeller
Dear Everybody,
I hope you've been enjoying the lazy, hazy crazy days of summer. I have been enjoying mine. I've played some lovely summer festivals here in Canada, and just generally basked in the very warm weather. Now it's time to go down the coast of the U.S., play Accordion Noir Fest Sept. 12, and then head for Europe September 24.
Of course, there is the occasionally literally hazy day here in British Columbia Canada, on account of most of the province being on fire and everything, but my friends and I have just learned to sit back, pour a drink, and enjoy the irony as the local papers devote their front pages to editorials against the evils of bicycles getting in the way of the commuting cars. Tra la la!
The Artswells festival in particular was a terrific time. I guess because it's not only a music festival, but a general Arts festival, there's an overall feel of a gathering of people who are just open to the Life Artistic. In particular, I recommend the One Minute Play Festival, the festival within the festival, hosted by the inimitable Paul Crawford. He concluded the proceedings with a stripteasing auction of his own clothes, in order to raise funds for the non-profit group that runs the festival.
Although I didn't enter the contest, Paul awarded me a special Olympic Gold Medal, in honour of the work I've done in the past year or so to promote the Vancouver Whistler 2010 Olympic Games, as you know. I was very flattered, until I bit the medal to see if it was Real Gold, only to find that it was Pure Plastic. Further examination revealed the words "Budweiser--King of Beers!" engraved on it. Still, a medal is a medal, and I wear it proudly.
Another part of what's nice about playing these festivals is the chance to re-encounter old friends. It was at Artswells that I got the news that Tolan McNeil and Dave Lang are moving back to the infamous Chambers Towers, in Victoria, home of the lovely and talented Carolyn Mark. These three have lived together before, and the results were creative and actual industrial-grade dynamite, so I'm looking forward to what comes out of the re-convening of this infamous crew, especially the products of the basement studio.
Recently, Tolan has been living in Powell River, a small mill town on Vancouver Island. He commented on the experience in this way: "Yeah, for a while, I was putting the 'pow' in Powell River. But then after a while, I was just putting in the 'O well.', you know?"
Even more recently, Tolan was arrested by private security, or "rent-a-cops", for riding down the Bow River on an inner tube, through the middle of Calgary, with nothing but a six pack of Lucky Lager to hide his nakedness. Apparently, the Calgary Police were very polite to him when the rent-a-cops handed him over to their custody. They even gave him a green plastic garbage bag (or "bin liner" as you Europeans say). I guess this sort of thing is a common occurence in Calgary. Good times, good people.
I've got a bunch of stuff to tell you about. It's kind of all about accordion playing, so if you're not into the accordion, you should just skip right down into the tour dates, I guess.
I'm doing this big Monsters of Accordion Tour, starting in Seattle, all the way down the West Coast to Los Angeles, and then concluding with the fabulous Accordion Noir Festival, in Vancouver, at the WISE Hall. All of this will be in conjunction with my American pal Jason Webley, who is a swell guy, a clever songwriter, and an incredibly charismatic performer. You've probably already heard of him.
This Accordion Noir Festival is going to be a glorious Lost Weekend Blowout. The main even is Saturday evening, with me and Jason co-headlining, but there's a whole bunch of other stuff going on which is described below. I really hope you'll come, and if you own an accordion, do bring it down. We're going to try for an accordion orchestral version of "The Dead Children Were Worth It". More details below.
Then in late September, it's back to Europe. 9pm Records is putting out something I'm very proud about: A re-issue of my first album, "We Shall Not Flag or Fail, We Shall Go On To The End", with a bonus of my very first EP, "Light Enough to Travel". Both of these have been unavailable for some time, even though people still request a lot of the songs at shows.
The whole concept of "Flag or Fail" was to make a full, eclectic singer/songwriter album with no bloody guitars on it whatsoever, and to use accordion in place of where the guitar might go. It was a risky experiment, but it worked. Its release signaled the beginning of the period in my life when I've earned my living through music alone. This period continues. Knock wood, and thank you for supporting what I've been doing.
So I guess the next couple of months are really all about doing a big Victory Lap for my accordion, Estella, the little chrome and black box that's been on all my records. When I began playing and touring, Estella was often a target of derision. In the late nineties, it was still considered very uncool to play the accordion in many circles. Every interview I did seemed to begin with the question, "So--why the accordion?" Now, thanks to people like Jason Webley, the hosts of Accordion Noir, and many others, the accordion has returned to its rightful place in the peoples' hearts as an instrument of romance and emotional power--even aggression.
In honour of these developments, Jason and I have written an Accordion Anthem, called "I Reach For My Accordion". Hopefully, you'll be hearing it soon, if we see you at the shows. If you do come out, please do come up and say hello.
Yours,
Geoff
Here are the dates:
Aug 26th - Seattle, WA - The Triple Door
Aug 27th - Portland, OR - The Crystal Ballroom
Aug 28th - Eugene, OR - Wow Hall
Aug 29th - San Francisco, CA - Slim's
Aug 30th - Los Angeles, CA -Synchronicity Gallery
Aug 31st - Sacramento, CA - Luigi's
Sep 1 - Ashland, OR - The Black Sheep
September 12 - WISE Hall - MAIN DAY Of ACCORDION NOIR FESTIVAL:
Workshops and Concerts. Full Day: $20. Just the concert: $15
Workshops begin 4 pm, go to 7:30, Featuring:
* Accordion maintenance and repair with Rickey Mann
* Accordion songwriting with Andy Fielding
* Accordion history with Bruce Triggs
* Accordion Film Festival!
Concerts: 8:30 to 12:30
Story, from P.E.I.
Jason Webley from Seattle
Geoff Berner
WE STILL SHALL NOT FLAG OR FAIL TOUR of EUROPE, 2009:
Sept. 24 - Hamburg - Klezmerfestival @ Goldbekhaus
Sept. 25 - Annaberg-Buchholz - Alte Brauerei
Sept. 26 - Chemnitz - Exil
Sept. 28 - Wien(Vienna) - Chelsea
Sept. 30 - Salzburg, Austria - Denkmal
Oct. 1 - München - IG Feuerwache
Oct. 4 - Vinelz, Switzerland - Alte Landi
Oct. 5 - Zürich, Switzerland - El Lokal
Oct. 7 - Mainz - Hafeneck
Oct. 8 - Trier - Varieté Chat Noir
Oct. 9 - Saarbrücken - Sparte 4, with Wax Mannequin!
Oct. 10 - Köln (Cologne) - Bauwagenplatz "Wem gehört die Welt"
Oct. 11 - Castrop-Rauxel - Bahia de Cochinos
Oct. 12 - Osnabrück - Unikeller
The Karaoke Strip Bars of Finland
11/06/09 08:13
The latest newsletter from our Canadian friend Geoff Berner
Dear Everybody,
I hope the summer is promising good things for you. It's promising many fun shows for me, including a nice run down and up the coast of the U.S. with Jason Webley.
I toured Scandinavia and Ireland recently. It was very enjoyable indeed. More people keep coming to the shows! More people are covering the songs I worked so hard to write! I like that. Here is my report from the road:
--Advice: Let's say that you are in Tampere, Finland on a Tuesday night. Someone tells you that in this city there is a bar that is a Karaoke Strip Bar. You might want to ask, "How does that work? Do the strippers strip as they sing karaoke? Or do the customers sing Finnish karaoke as the strippers strip?" But it's better if you don't.
And don't, just out of curiosity, jump in the cab with them to go find out. The results will be disappointing. I will not say more. Although I will add that Finnish karaoke is the most compellingly melancholy of national karaokes.
--Swedish people can be very emotional about obeying traffic lights. My friend Magda and her daughter Sara biked through a red light in quiet Gothenburg, when there was no traffic coming from miles around, and a Swedish man on a bicycle physically blocked her path in order to give her a lecture about how dangerous it was to teach children to disobey traffic lights. Scary.
--In Ireland, the people working on the train spontaneously sang Elvis songs and laughed a lot. This did not occur in Scandinavia. Since the Scandinavians are the only people left in the world who are not broke, they should spend some of their extra money on studying the Irish so they can learn how to get their train employees happy enough to sing. What could the secret be?
But let's not have them sing "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen, please. There are many foul things being done to that song in Europe these days. It is a good-hearted song that never meant anyone any harm, but it has been worked a bit too hard lately and deserves a little quiet time at home.
--I love Norway, as you know. I bow to no one in my love of Norway. So when I seem to criticize, you know that it's out of love. But in Norway, it is illegal to buy a double whiskey. Or a double vodka. The bartender may not pour 2 shots into one glass. This is for your protection. I'm sure that many grateful letters are written to the Norwegian Government on this subject. You may purchase two separate glasses, each with a shot of liquor. I'm not sure if you go to jail if you pour one of them into the other yourself, though. Anyway, no one sings on the trains, but they are also not broke. Did the early Vikings raid Ireland in search of doubles? Or were they kicked out of Norway for singing too loud?
--Here's a fun story to read aloud to any kids thinking of joining the military: My host in Stockholm told me that when the Swedes had a rapacious empire with a big army, the soldiers did a lot of looting, which meant that they traveled with a lot of stolen goods. He said that before each battle, to avoid being robbed of the wealth that they had stolen, the Swedish soldiers would swallow their most valuable coins, to be retrieved later. So when the Swedes were defeated at one particular battle, local children ran through the fields of corpses, slitting the bellies open to find the gold.
--In Copenhagen, the place called Christiania, the Free City, the squat city, still stands. It is a wonderful place. Go there. I got to play there. I hope that one effect of the drop in real estate prices will be that the money-minded conservative people will stop their aggressive drive to shut down the squats in europe and turn them into condominiums. In some countries, I say "condominiums", and people don't know what I mean. Then I explain, and they say, "Oh, you mean horrible soulless expensive flats for rich people." Yes. Condominiums.
--In Belfast, the Menagerie is open again. Hooray! It was not made into condominiums. It closed down a long time ago, when the police found the pesky detonators (darn! how did those get there?) Be sure to visit there if you're in town. It's a lot more fun than a Finnish Karaoke Strip Club. Northern Ireland remains, as it has always been, a safer place to stroll than most of America, where it is now legal, thanks to a recent federal credit card law, to carry a concealed weapon in the National Parks. Funny Americans, I love you! See you soon!
Upcoming Shows:
June 13 - Galiano Island, BC - The Hall (with DD and Wayne!)
June 19-21 - Driftpile, AB - North Country Fair (with DD and Wayne!)
July 17-19 - Vancouver, BC - Vancouver Folk Festival (with DD and Wayne!)
July 25 - Chilliwack, BC - Evangeline's Barbeque and Contemporary Soulfood, 9381 Mill Street Doors: 9pm Show: 9:30pm Tickets: $10 in advance at The Book Man, $12 at the door.
July 31-August 3rd - Wells, BC - Artswells Festival
Monsters of Accordion Tour, Jason Webley headlining:
Aug 26th - Seattle, WA - The Triple Door
Aug 27th - Portland, OR - The Crystal Ballroom
Aug 28th - Eugene, OR - Wow Hall
Aug 29th - San Francisco, CA - Slim's
Aug 30th - Los Angeles, CA - TBA
Aug 31st - Sacramento, CA - Luigi's
Sep 1 - Ashland, OR - The Black Sheep
Sept. 12 - Vancouver, BC - WISE Hall - ACCORDION NOIR FESTIVAL, with Jason Webley, me, and a bunch of other accordionists, including you. Bring your accordion(s)! Tickets will be purchasable soon.
EUROPEAN TOUR (More Dates To Follow)
Sept. 24 - Hamburg, Germany - Hamburg KlezFest
Dear Everybody,
I hope the summer is promising good things for you. It's promising many fun shows for me, including a nice run down and up the coast of the U.S. with Jason Webley.
I toured Scandinavia and Ireland recently. It was very enjoyable indeed. More people keep coming to the shows! More people are covering the songs I worked so hard to write! I like that. Here is my report from the road:
--Advice: Let's say that you are in Tampere, Finland on a Tuesday night. Someone tells you that in this city there is a bar that is a Karaoke Strip Bar. You might want to ask, "How does that work? Do the strippers strip as they sing karaoke? Or do the customers sing Finnish karaoke as the strippers strip?" But it's better if you don't.
And don't, just out of curiosity, jump in the cab with them to go find out. The results will be disappointing. I will not say more. Although I will add that Finnish karaoke is the most compellingly melancholy of national karaokes.
--Swedish people can be very emotional about obeying traffic lights. My friend Magda and her daughter Sara biked through a red light in quiet Gothenburg, when there was no traffic coming from miles around, and a Swedish man on a bicycle physically blocked her path in order to give her a lecture about how dangerous it was to teach children to disobey traffic lights. Scary.
--In Ireland, the people working on the train spontaneously sang Elvis songs and laughed a lot. This did not occur in Scandinavia. Since the Scandinavians are the only people left in the world who are not broke, they should spend some of their extra money on studying the Irish so they can learn how to get their train employees happy enough to sing. What could the secret be?
But let's not have them sing "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen, please. There are many foul things being done to that song in Europe these days. It is a good-hearted song that never meant anyone any harm, but it has been worked a bit too hard lately and deserves a little quiet time at home.
--I love Norway, as you know. I bow to no one in my love of Norway. So when I seem to criticize, you know that it's out of love. But in Norway, it is illegal to buy a double whiskey. Or a double vodka. The bartender may not pour 2 shots into one glass. This is for your protection. I'm sure that many grateful letters are written to the Norwegian Government on this subject. You may purchase two separate glasses, each with a shot of liquor. I'm not sure if you go to jail if you pour one of them into the other yourself, though. Anyway, no one sings on the trains, but they are also not broke. Did the early Vikings raid Ireland in search of doubles? Or were they kicked out of Norway for singing too loud?
--Here's a fun story to read aloud to any kids thinking of joining the military: My host in Stockholm told me that when the Swedes had a rapacious empire with a big army, the soldiers did a lot of looting, which meant that they traveled with a lot of stolen goods. He said that before each battle, to avoid being robbed of the wealth that they had stolen, the Swedish soldiers would swallow their most valuable coins, to be retrieved later. So when the Swedes were defeated at one particular battle, local children ran through the fields of corpses, slitting the bellies open to find the gold.
--In Copenhagen, the place called Christiania, the Free City, the squat city, still stands. It is a wonderful place. Go there. I got to play there. I hope that one effect of the drop in real estate prices will be that the money-minded conservative people will stop their aggressive drive to shut down the squats in europe and turn them into condominiums. In some countries, I say "condominiums", and people don't know what I mean. Then I explain, and they say, "Oh, you mean horrible soulless expensive flats for rich people." Yes. Condominiums.
--In Belfast, the Menagerie is open again. Hooray! It was not made into condominiums. It closed down a long time ago, when the police found the pesky detonators (darn! how did those get there?) Be sure to visit there if you're in town. It's a lot more fun than a Finnish Karaoke Strip Club. Northern Ireland remains, as it has always been, a safer place to stroll than most of America, where it is now legal, thanks to a recent federal credit card law, to carry a concealed weapon in the National Parks. Funny Americans, I love you! See you soon!
Upcoming Shows:
June 13 - Galiano Island, BC - The Hall (with DD and Wayne!)
June 19-21 - Driftpile, AB - North Country Fair (with DD and Wayne!)
July 17-19 - Vancouver, BC - Vancouver Folk Festival (with DD and Wayne!)
July 25 - Chilliwack, BC - Evangeline's Barbeque and Contemporary Soulfood, 9381 Mill Street Doors: 9pm Show: 9:30pm Tickets: $10 in advance at The Book Man, $12 at the door.
July 31-August 3rd - Wells, BC - Artswells Festival
Monsters of Accordion Tour, Jason Webley headlining:
Aug 26th - Seattle, WA - The Triple Door
Aug 27th - Portland, OR - The Crystal Ballroom
Aug 28th - Eugene, OR - Wow Hall
Aug 29th - San Francisco, CA - Slim's
Aug 30th - Los Angeles, CA - TBA
Aug 31st - Sacramento, CA - Luigi's
Sep 1 - Ashland, OR - The Black Sheep
Sept. 12 - Vancouver, BC - WISE Hall - ACCORDION NOIR FESTIVAL, with Jason Webley, me, and a bunch of other accordionists, including you. Bring your accordion(s)! Tickets will be purchasable soon.
EUROPEAN TOUR (More Dates To Follow)
Sept. 24 - Hamburg, Germany - Hamburg KlezFest
New shows added to Geoff Berner tour
07/04/09 08:17
New message from Geoff Berner
Dear Everybody,
Well, the advance tickets sold out for the Thursday show at Sound of Mu. We'll still sell a few at the door, but lately I've found that the anxiety of having sold out a show and having to turn friends away is just as stomach-grinding as the anxiety of the old days when nobody showed up. So we've added an extra show for Friday, April 10. Lasso will play again, and Oslo's own accordion songstress Guro von Germeten will join the bill. If you decide to come to both, I promise I'll play different songs.
Also, sorry I forgot to mention the Aarhus show in the last message. What kind of person forgets Aarhus? Unforgivable. I'm playing at the University Bar there, on Monday, April 27.
April 6 - Kristiansand - Charlie's
April 8 - Trondheim - Blaest
April 9 - Oslo - Sound of Mu, with Lasso, 21:00 Advance Tickets may be purchased at Sound of Mu.
April 10 - Oslo - Sound of Mu, with Lasso and Guro von Germeten 21:00. Advance Tickets may be purchased at Sound Mu.
April 15 - Helsinki, Finland (11 am) Live performance on Radio Helsinki
April 15 - Helsinki, Finland - Bar Loose, with Mäkkelä
April 16 - Tampere, Finland - Kulttuurikahvila Hertta, with Mäkkelä
April 17 - Sein joki, Finland - Rokkikellari, with Mäkkelä
April 18 - Stockholm, Sweden - KGB
April 20 - Göteborg, Sweden - Mitt Andra Hem, Andra Långgatan 29
April 22 - Malmö, Sweden - Bodoni
April 24 - Aalborg, Denmark - 1000fryd, with Dusty Awe
April 25 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Selina Bar, with Dusty Awe
April 26 - Odense, Denmark - Studenterhus (EARLY AFTERNOON SHOW!!! 16:30!)
April 27 - Aarhus, Denmark - University Bar
May 1 - Belfast, Northern Ireland - Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, with Jinx Lennon
Dear Everybody,
Well, the advance tickets sold out for the Thursday show at Sound of Mu. We'll still sell a few at the door, but lately I've found that the anxiety of having sold out a show and having to turn friends away is just as stomach-grinding as the anxiety of the old days when nobody showed up. So we've added an extra show for Friday, April 10. Lasso will play again, and Oslo's own accordion songstress Guro von Germeten will join the bill. If you decide to come to both, I promise I'll play different songs.
Also, sorry I forgot to mention the Aarhus show in the last message. What kind of person forgets Aarhus? Unforgivable. I'm playing at the University Bar there, on Monday, April 27.
April 6 - Kristiansand - Charlie's
April 8 - Trondheim - Blaest
April 9 - Oslo - Sound of Mu, with Lasso, 21:00 Advance Tickets may be purchased at Sound of Mu.
April 10 - Oslo - Sound of Mu, with Lasso and Guro von Germeten 21:00. Advance Tickets may be purchased at Sound Mu.
April 15 - Helsinki, Finland (11 am) Live performance on Radio Helsinki
April 15 - Helsinki, Finland - Bar Loose, with Mäkkelä
April 16 - Tampere, Finland - Kulttuurikahvila Hertta, with Mäkkelä
April 17 - Sein joki, Finland - Rokkikellari, with Mäkkelä
April 18 - Stockholm, Sweden - KGB
April 20 - Göteborg, Sweden - Mitt Andra Hem, Andra Långgatan 29
April 22 - Malmö, Sweden - Bodoni
April 24 - Aalborg, Denmark - 1000fryd, with Dusty Awe
April 25 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Selina Bar, with Dusty Awe
April 26 - Odense, Denmark - Studenterhus (EARLY AFTERNOON SHOW!!! 16:30!)
April 27 - Aarhus, Denmark - University Bar
May 1 - Belfast, Northern Ireland - Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, with Jinx Lennon
Everywhere in Scandinavia, and the Key to Bruno, Saskatchewan
01/04/09 08:02
The latest newsletter from Geoff Berner:
Dear Everybody,
First of all, I want to alert you to the fact that now it's finally time to hit Scandinavia with the new album. It's out on the Checkpoint Charlie Audio Productions label on April 1st, no joke!
I'm coming your way if you live in Scandinavia. Oslo! Helsinki! Stockholm! Göteborg! Copenhagen! Aarhus! and much, much more, dammit. If I'm not coming TO your town, I'm going to be somewhere awfully NEAR it, at least by Canadian standards. Look below to see.
The Canadian tour's all wrapped up, and I'd like to thank you all for coming. Had a lot of sold-out shows, went to a lot of fascinating places, and saw my whole country, except for the North.
I love playing the major cities, but sometimes the most interesting shows are those small town shows we plug in for the early part of the week. That's where you go off the beaten track a little bit.
On the last leg of the tour, a big highlight was our visit to Bruno, Saskatchewan, population 571. Bob Wiseman booked the show, and drove us there from Winnipeg. His GPS device told us to take a turn off the highway onto a road that didn't exist. We eventually found an icey dirt track that took us into town, across beautiful white open prairie.
The show was put on by Tyler at "All Citizens". Tyler is a hip (and more importantly, very nice) artist from Vancouver, who somehow found his way to rural Saskatchewan, and realized that it was where he really belonged. Sort of a "Lawrence of Saskatchewan" story. He sells clever, cool art on consignment, to the bemusement of most Bruno-ites. But he seems very comfortable and well-integrated there, having furnished much of his place from the closing of the town convent, when the Last Nun (a pal of Tyler's) retired.
Before the entertainment began, the Deputy Mayor of Bruno gave a short speech, thanking Bob and I for making the effort to come to Bruno, and presenting us with the Key to the Town. It's an actual key, hand-crafted from wood, with our names on it. Follow this link to see a photo by of us receiving it:
Bob and I have agreed to share custody of the key on a semi-annual basis. It's my understanding that, legally speaking, having the key to a city or town means that you can go in any door within the town limits, locked or not. So Bob and I both realized that it would probably be wrong for one man to wield so much power all year long.
So if you see me in Scandinavia, and I look all puffed-up and full of myself, that is why.
The tour dates are below.
Take care, and enjoy the Spring!
Yours,
Geoff
April 2 - Stavanger, Norway - Cementen
April 3 - Voss - Vossajazz Festival
April 5 - Bergen - Logen
April 6 - Kristiansand - Charile's
April 8 - Trondheim - Blaest
April 9 - Oslo - Live Performance on NRK National Radio, the Harald Are Lund Show, 19:00
April 9 - Oslo - Sound of Mu, with Lasso, 21:00 Advance Tickets may be purchased at Sound of Mu.
April 15 - Helsinki, Finland (11 am) Live performance on Radio Helsinki
April 15 - Helsinki, Finland - Bar Loose, with Mäkkelä
April 16 - Tampere, Finland - Kulttuurikahvila Hertta, with Mäkkelä
April 17 - Sein joki, Finland - Rokkikellari, with Mäkkelä
April 18 - Stockholm, Sweden - KGB
April 20 - Göteborg, Sweden - Mitt Andra Hem, Andra Långgatan 29
April 22 - Malmö, Sweden - Bodoni
April 24 - Aalborg, Denmark - 1000fryd, with Dusty Awe
April 25 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Selina Bar, with Dusty Awe
April 26 - Odense, Dendmark - Studenterhus (EARLY AFTERNOON SHOW!!! 16:30!)
May 1 - Belfast, Northern Ireland - Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, with Jinx Lennon
Dear Everybody,
First of all, I want to alert you to the fact that now it's finally time to hit Scandinavia with the new album. It's out on the Checkpoint Charlie Audio Productions label on April 1st, no joke!
I'm coming your way if you live in Scandinavia. Oslo! Helsinki! Stockholm! Göteborg! Copenhagen! Aarhus! and much, much more, dammit. If I'm not coming TO your town, I'm going to be somewhere awfully NEAR it, at least by Canadian standards. Look below to see.
The Canadian tour's all wrapped up, and I'd like to thank you all for coming. Had a lot of sold-out shows, went to a lot of fascinating places, and saw my whole country, except for the North.
I love playing the major cities, but sometimes the most interesting shows are those small town shows we plug in for the early part of the week. That's where you go off the beaten track a little bit.
On the last leg of the tour, a big highlight was our visit to Bruno, Saskatchewan, population 571. Bob Wiseman booked the show, and drove us there from Winnipeg. His GPS device told us to take a turn off the highway onto a road that didn't exist. We eventually found an icey dirt track that took us into town, across beautiful white open prairie.
The show was put on by Tyler at "All Citizens". Tyler is a hip (and more importantly, very nice) artist from Vancouver, who somehow found his way to rural Saskatchewan, and realized that it was where he really belonged. Sort of a "Lawrence of Saskatchewan" story. He sells clever, cool art on consignment, to the bemusement of most Bruno-ites. But he seems very comfortable and well-integrated there, having furnished much of his place from the closing of the town convent, when the Last Nun (a pal of Tyler's) retired.
Before the entertainment began, the Deputy Mayor of Bruno gave a short speech, thanking Bob and I for making the effort to come to Bruno, and presenting us with the Key to the Town. It's an actual key, hand-crafted from wood, with our names on it. Follow this link to see a photo by of us receiving it:
Bob and I have agreed to share custody of the key on a semi-annual basis. It's my understanding that, legally speaking, having the key to a city or town means that you can go in any door within the town limits, locked or not. So Bob and I both realized that it would probably be wrong for one man to wield so much power all year long.
So if you see me in Scandinavia, and I look all puffed-up and full of myself, that is why.
The tour dates are below.
Take care, and enjoy the Spring!
Yours,
Geoff
April 2 - Stavanger, Norway - Cementen
April 3 - Voss - Vossajazz Festival
April 5 - Bergen - Logen
April 6 - Kristiansand - Charile's
April 8 - Trondheim - Blaest
April 9 - Oslo - Live Performance on NRK National Radio, the Harald Are Lund Show, 19:00
April 9 - Oslo - Sound of Mu, with Lasso, 21:00 Advance Tickets may be purchased at Sound of Mu.
April 15 - Helsinki, Finland (11 am) Live performance on Radio Helsinki
April 15 - Helsinki, Finland - Bar Loose, with Mäkkelä
April 16 - Tampere, Finland - Kulttuurikahvila Hertta, with Mäkkelä
April 17 - Sein joki, Finland - Rokkikellari, with Mäkkelä
April 18 - Stockholm, Sweden - KGB
April 20 - Göteborg, Sweden - Mitt Andra Hem, Andra Långgatan 29
April 22 - Malmö, Sweden - Bodoni
April 24 - Aalborg, Denmark - 1000fryd, with Dusty Awe
April 25 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Selina Bar, with Dusty Awe
April 26 - Odense, Dendmark - Studenterhus (EARLY AFTERNOON SHOW!!! 16:30!)
May 1 - Belfast, Northern Ireland - Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, with Jinx Lennon
Geoff Berner new album on iTunes!
26/03/09 12:12
Klezmer Mongrels is being officially released in Scandinavia by CCAP monday 30th March, distributed by Bonnier Amigo Music. Cat # CCAP084. For those who just cant wait for the cd to find its way to the record stores, or who prefers digital files anyway, the album is now available as downloads on various sites. 
The Scandinavian Tour kicks off at Cementen Thursday 2. April.
Geoff Berner@ Cementen Facebook event
The Scandinavian Tour kicks off at Cementen Thursday 2. April.
Geoff Berner@ Cementen Facebook event
Vancouver, Prairies, Scandinavia, Pirates
27/02/09 09:53
Here´s the new letter from our Canadian friend Geoff Berner. His new album "Klezmer Mongrels" is out in Europe, it has just been released in Canada and will be released in Scandinavia though CCAP by the end of march. Geoff Berner will be performing at Cementen here in Stavanger 2. April to kick off his Scandinavian tour.
Dear Everybody,
The Eastern bit of the Canadian tour is over. I am ready to play Vancouver and the West, and then go to Scandinavia in April. I don't know if I'm ready for Belfast yet, but I have some time to get ready, and I am hopeful.
On Monday, I flew over 5000 km from St. John's Newfoundland to the other coast of Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia. Roughly the distance between Amsterdam and Kazakstan. I told you Canada was big.
I did manage to keep my feet dry and avoid Tim Horton's (except once), and I was prevented from going insane by my dear friends and collaborators, Wayne Adams and Diona Davies. I must say that I am very lucky indeed to have such warm and talented friends. Also, we are really tight now, and if you're coming to the Vancouver show at the Biltmore, you will witness an absolutely smoking band, let me tell you.
We were also lucky with the turnout. The quantity and quality of people who came out was astounding on this tour. Especially in Toronto, which is particularly amazing. Toronto is famous for its cold, stand-offish audiences. Ours did a spontaneous conga line. We thought we had stepped across a threshold into a New Dimension. Shows in Montreal, Halifax, St. John's Nfld., and Peterborough also achieved chaotic madness velocity. And there were no bad shows, either.
One of our favourite shows was one that was cancelled.
Like Cossacks, we fought our way through a classic Canadian blizzard, from Sackville to St. John, New Brunswick. We were determined to show the East Coasters that even though we come from the warm, wet west coast, where it never freezes but never ever completely dries out, in spite of that, we were hardy and tough enough to make the show happen. The Show Must Go On, is the showbiz circus freak's motto, as you know.
Unfortunately, the folks at the Blue Olive felt that the size of the snowfall meant that The Show Must Be Postphoned Indefinitely. This was understandable, but momentarily disappointing. Still, it did make us feel hardy and tough that we'd out-weathered the New Brunswickers.
I knew just what to do. I dialled up Leanne Laracey, and asked if we could come over and play at the Pirate's House on Clarendon Street instead. And of course, being a Pirate's daughter, she agreed.
"Get the fuck in here, Berner, you fucker!" he shouted, when we ploughed into his driveway. Jim Laracey--sailor, carpenter, music producer, maniac, a giant shaved-head teddy bear monster of a man. "If I'd known you were coming over tonight, I wouldn't be half in the bag already, but I didn't, so I am! Get the fuck in here!" We obeyed, and admired the poster on his kitchen wall that announced, beside a picture of him shouting, "To the Staff: Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves!"
Many people magically appeared, and danced the night away beside us in the living room. No mics, no stage, just music and fun and rum in a cozy house under a large layer of snow.
I don't really think we'll ever agree to play anywhere else in St. John but the Pirate's House from now on.
After the Vancouver show on Friday, I'll be hitting the prairies. I'll miss my trio on this one. But I will have the consolation of travelling with a person of True Genius. Bob Wiseman.
Ask anybody about him, and they'll tell you, "Bob Wiseman is a bloody genius!" He's one of these people who really anger me for their annoying ability to play every single intrument on earth and make it sound musical and great. He's also very funny, damn him. He's been in several of the great Canadian bands of all time: HIdden Cameras, Blue Rodeo, and, my personal favourite, Sluttarded. You miss him at your peril, people.
Assuming that I survive Edmonton Saturday Night, I then go home, play some Island shows, and then it's off to Scandinavia.
Dates are still plugging in for the Scandinavia tour, but I'll list what's confirmed so far. If anyone knows of a Pirate House in Scandinavia or Ireland, I am open to suggestions.
Here are the dates
Friday, February 27th: Vancouver - Biltmore Cabaret, with Whip of the UFO opening, and Joey Only's Outlaw Band Closing.
FULL TRIO SHOW! We go on about 10 ish.
PRAIRIES. DOUBLE BILL WITH BOB WISEMAN
March 12 - Saskatoon - Lydia's
March 13 - Regina - The Exchange.
March 14 - Winnipeg, MB - Ellice Theatre, Doors 7:15 Show 8:00
Tickets $12 advance at Music Trader, Ticketmaster, and the West End.
THERE'S NO BOOZE SOLD AT THIS SHOW AND IT'S EARLY. SO REMEMBER HOW WRONG WRONG WRONG IT WOULD BE TO SMUGGLE IN A FLASK FOR THE SHOW AND THEN MEET ME and MATT ALLEN LATER AT TIMES CHANGE! OK?
March 16 - Bruno, SK - All Citizens
March 18 - Twin Butte, AB - The General Store
March 19 - Lethbridge AB - The Slice
March 20 - Calgary - The Ironwood
March 21 - Edmonton - The Artery. You better believe there will be booze at this show.
ISLANDS TOUR
March 26 - Saltspring Island - Mahon Hall, with Ora Cogan
March 27 - Victoria, BC - Logan's, with Lily Fawn and her lullaby band.
SCANDINAVIAN/NORTHERN IRELAND TOUR
More shows to come!
April 2 - Stavanger, Norway - Cementen
April 3 - Voss, Norway - Vossajazz Festival
April 5 - Bergen, Norway - Logen
April 6 - Kristiansand, Norway - Charlie's
April 8 - Trondheim - Blaest
April 9 - Live on National Norwegian Radio (NRK) The Harald Are Lund Show
April 9 - Oslo - Sound of Mu, with Lasso. Limited tickets available at Sound of Mu
April 16 - Helsinki, Finland - TBA, with Mäkkelä's Trash Lounge (solo)
April 17 - Seinäjoki, Finland - Rokkikellari, with Mäkkelä's Trash Lounge (solo)
April 18 - Stockholm, Sweden - KGB
April 19 - Gothenberg, Sweden - TBA.
April 22 - Malmo, Sweden - Bodoni
April 24 - Aalborg, Denmark - 1000fryd, with Dusty Awe
April 25 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Selina Bar
April 26 - AFTERNOON SHOW: : Odense, Denmark - Studenterhus
April 30 - Belfast, Northern Ireland - Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival
May 1 - Belfast, Northern Ireland - Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival
Dear Everybody,
The Eastern bit of the Canadian tour is over. I am ready to play Vancouver and the West, and then go to Scandinavia in April. I don't know if I'm ready for Belfast yet, but I have some time to get ready, and I am hopeful.
On Monday, I flew over 5000 km from St. John's Newfoundland to the other coast of Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia. Roughly the distance between Amsterdam and Kazakstan. I told you Canada was big.
I did manage to keep my feet dry and avoid Tim Horton's (except once), and I was prevented from going insane by my dear friends and collaborators, Wayne Adams and Diona Davies. I must say that I am very lucky indeed to have such warm and talented friends. Also, we are really tight now, and if you're coming to the Vancouver show at the Biltmore, you will witness an absolutely smoking band, let me tell you.
We were also lucky with the turnout. The quantity and quality of people who came out was astounding on this tour. Especially in Toronto, which is particularly amazing. Toronto is famous for its cold, stand-offish audiences. Ours did a spontaneous conga line. We thought we had stepped across a threshold into a New Dimension. Shows in Montreal, Halifax, St. John's Nfld., and Peterborough also achieved chaotic madness velocity. And there were no bad shows, either.
One of our favourite shows was one that was cancelled.
Like Cossacks, we fought our way through a classic Canadian blizzard, from Sackville to St. John, New Brunswick. We were determined to show the East Coasters that even though we come from the warm, wet west coast, where it never freezes but never ever completely dries out, in spite of that, we were hardy and tough enough to make the show happen. The Show Must Go On, is the showbiz circus freak's motto, as you know.
Unfortunately, the folks at the Blue Olive felt that the size of the snowfall meant that The Show Must Be Postphoned Indefinitely. This was understandable, but momentarily disappointing. Still, it did make us feel hardy and tough that we'd out-weathered the New Brunswickers.
I knew just what to do. I dialled up Leanne Laracey, and asked if we could come over and play at the Pirate's House on Clarendon Street instead. And of course, being a Pirate's daughter, she agreed.
"Get the fuck in here, Berner, you fucker!" he shouted, when we ploughed into his driveway. Jim Laracey--sailor, carpenter, music producer, maniac, a giant shaved-head teddy bear monster of a man. "If I'd known you were coming over tonight, I wouldn't be half in the bag already, but I didn't, so I am! Get the fuck in here!" We obeyed, and admired the poster on his kitchen wall that announced, beside a picture of him shouting, "To the Staff: Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves!"
Many people magically appeared, and danced the night away beside us in the living room. No mics, no stage, just music and fun and rum in a cozy house under a large layer of snow.
I don't really think we'll ever agree to play anywhere else in St. John but the Pirate's House from now on.
After the Vancouver show on Friday, I'll be hitting the prairies. I'll miss my trio on this one. But I will have the consolation of travelling with a person of True Genius. Bob Wiseman.
Ask anybody about him, and they'll tell you, "Bob Wiseman is a bloody genius!" He's one of these people who really anger me for their annoying ability to play every single intrument on earth and make it sound musical and great. He's also very funny, damn him. He's been in several of the great Canadian bands of all time: HIdden Cameras, Blue Rodeo, and, my personal favourite, Sluttarded. You miss him at your peril, people.
Assuming that I survive Edmonton Saturday Night, I then go home, play some Island shows, and then it's off to Scandinavia.
Dates are still plugging in for the Scandinavia tour, but I'll list what's confirmed so far. If anyone knows of a Pirate House in Scandinavia or Ireland, I am open to suggestions.
Here are the dates
Friday, February 27th: Vancouver - Biltmore Cabaret, with Whip of the UFO opening, and Joey Only's Outlaw Band Closing.
FULL TRIO SHOW! We go on about 10 ish.
PRAIRIES. DOUBLE BILL WITH BOB WISEMAN
March 12 - Saskatoon - Lydia's
March 13 - Regina - The Exchange.
March 14 - Winnipeg, MB - Ellice Theatre, Doors 7:15 Show 8:00
Tickets $12 advance at Music Trader, Ticketmaster, and the West End.
THERE'S NO BOOZE SOLD AT THIS SHOW AND IT'S EARLY. SO REMEMBER HOW WRONG WRONG WRONG IT WOULD BE TO SMUGGLE IN A FLASK FOR THE SHOW AND THEN MEET ME and MATT ALLEN LATER AT TIMES CHANGE! OK?
March 16 - Bruno, SK - All Citizens
March 18 - Twin Butte, AB - The General Store
March 19 - Lethbridge AB - The Slice
March 20 - Calgary - The Ironwood
March 21 - Edmonton - The Artery. You better believe there will be booze at this show.
ISLANDS TOUR
March 26 - Saltspring Island - Mahon Hall, with Ora Cogan
March 27 - Victoria, BC - Logan's, with Lily Fawn and her lullaby band.
SCANDINAVIAN/NORTHERN IRELAND TOUR
More shows to come!
April 2 - Stavanger, Norway - Cementen
April 3 - Voss, Norway - Vossajazz Festival
April 5 - Bergen, Norway - Logen
April 6 - Kristiansand, Norway - Charlie's
April 8 - Trondheim - Blaest
April 9 - Live on National Norwegian Radio (NRK) The Harald Are Lund Show
April 9 - Oslo - Sound of Mu, with Lasso. Limited tickets available at Sound of Mu
April 16 - Helsinki, Finland - TBA, with Mäkkelä's Trash Lounge (solo)
April 17 - Seinäjoki, Finland - Rokkikellari, with Mäkkelä's Trash Lounge (solo)
April 18 - Stockholm, Sweden - KGB
April 19 - Gothenberg, Sweden - TBA.
April 22 - Malmo, Sweden - Bodoni
April 24 - Aalborg, Denmark - 1000fryd, with Dusty Awe
April 25 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Selina Bar
April 26 - AFTERNOON SHOW: : Odense, Denmark - Studenterhus
April 30 - Belfast, Northern Ireland - Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival
May 1 - Belfast, Northern Ireland - Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival
Canada Touring From Soup to Nuts, and Fonyo
30/01/09 09:15
Here´s the new letter from our Canadian friend Geoff Berner. His new album "Klezmer Mongrels" is out in Europe, it has just been released in Canada and will be released in Scandinavia though CCAP by the end of march. Geoff Berner will be performing at Cementen here in Stavanger 2. April
Dear Everybody,
Happy January. Yesterday, January 27th, was the official release date in Canada for my new album, "Klezmer Mongrels", on Jericho Beach Records. Hooray! Here's a featured rave review in Exclaim! magazine, Canada's music bible.
The Main Thing for me right now is a big tour of Canada, "from soup to nuts", as they say, playing in each of the 10 provinces, through February and March.
In honour of the upcoming tour, I've included below a brief list of helpful tips for musicians planning to tour in Canada. Even if you're not from Canada, or planning to tour Canada, I hope you'll find it both instructive and illuminating.
1. Canada is very, very big. Not as big as Space, but close. No matter how much you prepare yourself for, say, the distance between Thunder Bay and Winnipeg, you will still be surprised by how far it is. Not just the first time, but every time. People in Holland or Victoria, BC will say "That is very far away" when they actually mean a distance that is less than the diameter of the city of Calgary. Come to think of it, the entire length of Holland is less than the diameter of the city of Calgary.
The result of this is that, especially traveling on the Canadian prairies, you will, sooner or later, be overcome by a paralyzing sense of melancholy. A kind of Melancholy Xtreme, you would call it, if you were in advertising. This is the kind of feeling experienced by the German tank crews as they rolled across the steppes of Russia, at first elated by the speed of their progress, then slowly unmanned by the sense of their individual insignifcance in the vast landscape. The final stage of this is the growing, overwhelming belief that you and your band may have in fact already died in a horrible crash, and that your ghostly shades are now doomed to drive the infinite highway, with no hope of rest, until the End of Time.
So keep an eye out for that problem.
2. Detailed, itemized comprehensive budgets are an absolute MUST to never, ever do. Don't give in to the temptation to add up all the costs, such as gas, regular people food, beer, food for the drummer, the inevitable transmission replacement on the poor, beleaguered vehicle that was just minding its own business, ferrying you to band practice and back, but which is now forced to carry tube amps up and down the Rockie Mountains.. DO NOT compare such costs against projected revenue. The end result of this confrontation with reality will inevitably be a stunned head-shake, followed by cancellation of the tour. An essential rule of being a Canadian Touring Musician is: Ignore Reality, and Worry About That Later.
3. The most important thing to plan on a Canadian tour is how to keep your feet warm and dry. Problems arise on every tour. These problems can be overcome, with some combination of ingenuity, charm, money, refusing-to-give-a-fuck, and ambulances. But every problem's surmountability is inversely proportional to the sogginess or frostbittenness of your toes. Wet feet will rob you of your ability to get along with your bandmates, the audience, the venue staff. Wet feet will rob you of your very mind, that which makes you who you are. They will steal your soul.
4. Speaking of soul-stealers, avoid the Tim Horton's fast food chain whenever possible. Apart from the fact that everybody knows that the coffee is full of nicotine, there's a more important reason: because they are everywhere. They have them where you start the tour, they have them where you'll be playing, they have them on every single street corner in the City of Hamilton, as mandated by a 2002 civic bylaw. The creeping sameness of Canadian life needs to be fought, not out of some high self-righteous impulse to strengthen the nation, but for the sake of your own personal sanity, Canada Touring Musician. In a short time, the sameness will drive you mad, until you are seized with a howling need to drive the van through the plate glass window and drown the retirees in the garden vegetable soup. That need never goes away.
What it comes down to is that eating at Tim Horton's on the road will soon make you feel like you are at work, not on a grand adventure into the unknown. What's fun about that? Instead, eat at weird places that have all the apostrophes and quotation marks in the wrong "place" on the signs and menu's. Eat the special. Chat up the waitress. Find out about where you are, and how it's different from where you're from. Otherwise, you'll struggle to keep your head above the the bland sameness.
Also, 5. Don't play Red Deer. No earthly good can come of it.
Good Luck.
Alright, the tour dates are below, but just as a P.S.:
My year begins with my first piece of theatre. It's a 20 minute musical, happening in Vancouver, as part of the pUSH festival, this week. It's called "Distant 2nd: the Steve Fonyo Story". It's a CanRock Musical about the other guy who ran across Canada on one leg. I know that you non-Canadians think I'm making that up. But then, you thought that when I described poutine to you. Check the pUSH festival website for details.
Okay, here are the dates. If you're Canadian, odds are, I'm on my way to your town. Scandinavian (and Irish) shows for April will be up next month.
ONTARIO and MONTREAL, with Forest City Lovers
Feb. 5 - Guelph, ON - Ebar
Feb. 6 - Toronto, ON - Tranzac
Saturday, Feb. 7 - Peterborough, ON - Spill Cafe
Feb. 8 - Waterloo - The Starlight (this was changed from the 9th)
Tues., Feb. 10 - Hamilton, ON - The Casbah
Feb. 11 - London, ON - London Music Club
Feb. 12 - Kingston, ON - The Artel
Fri., Feb. 13 - Wakefield, PQ - Black Sheep
Feb. 14 - Montreal, PQ - Casa Del Popolo
EAST COAST. VARIOUS ARTISTS OPENING:
Feb. 17 - Charlottetown, PEI - Baba's, with "Story." opening
Feb. 18 - Sackville, NB - Strutz Gallery, the john wayne cover band opening.
Feb. 19 - St. John NB - The Blue Olive, with Karen Palmer opening.
Feb. 20 - Halifax, NS - Gus' Pub. Amy Honey opening, The Whiskey Kisses closing.
Feb. 21 - St. John's, Newfoundland - The Ship, with The Pathological Lovers
Feb. 25 - Victoria, BC - The Royal Theatre, opening for Hawksley Workman
Friday, Feb. 27 - Vancouver - Biltmore Cabaret, CD RELEASE PARTY! with Whip of the U.F.O. opening and Joey Only Outlaw Band closing.
Feb. 28 - Calgary, AB - Mac Hall, opening for Hawksley Workman
PRAIRIES. DOUBLE BILL WITH BOB WISEMAN
March 12 - Saskatoon - Lydia's
March 13 - Regina - The Exchange.
March 14 - Winnipeg, MB - The WECC
March 16 - Bruno, SK - All Citizens
March 18 - Twin Butte, AB - The General Store
March 19 - Lethbridge AB - The Slice
March 20 - Calgary - The Ironwood
March 21 - Edmonton - Artspace.
ISLANDS TOUR
March 26 - Saltspring Island - Mahon Hall, with Ora Cogan
March 27 - Victoria, BC - Logan's, with Hank & Lily
APRIL 2-MAY 1
SCANDINAVIA! IRELAND! STAY TUNED!
Dear Everybody,
Happy January. Yesterday, January 27th, was the official release date in Canada for my new album, "Klezmer Mongrels", on Jericho Beach Records. Hooray! Here's a featured rave review in Exclaim! magazine, Canada's music bible.
The Main Thing for me right now is a big tour of Canada, "from soup to nuts", as they say, playing in each of the 10 provinces, through February and March.
In honour of the upcoming tour, I've included below a brief list of helpful tips for musicians planning to tour in Canada. Even if you're not from Canada, or planning to tour Canada, I hope you'll find it both instructive and illuminating.
1. Canada is very, very big. Not as big as Space, but close. No matter how much you prepare yourself for, say, the distance between Thunder Bay and Winnipeg, you will still be surprised by how far it is. Not just the first time, but every time. People in Holland or Victoria, BC will say "That is very far away" when they actually mean a distance that is less than the diameter of the city of Calgary. Come to think of it, the entire length of Holland is less than the diameter of the city of Calgary.
The result of this is that, especially traveling on the Canadian prairies, you will, sooner or later, be overcome by a paralyzing sense of melancholy. A kind of Melancholy Xtreme, you would call it, if you were in advertising. This is the kind of feeling experienced by the German tank crews as they rolled across the steppes of Russia, at first elated by the speed of their progress, then slowly unmanned by the sense of their individual insignifcance in the vast landscape. The final stage of this is the growing, overwhelming belief that you and your band may have in fact already died in a horrible crash, and that your ghostly shades are now doomed to drive the infinite highway, with no hope of rest, until the End of Time.
So keep an eye out for that problem.
2. Detailed, itemized comprehensive budgets are an absolute MUST to never, ever do. Don't give in to the temptation to add up all the costs, such as gas, regular people food, beer, food for the drummer, the inevitable transmission replacement on the poor, beleaguered vehicle that was just minding its own business, ferrying you to band practice and back, but which is now forced to carry tube amps up and down the Rockie Mountains.. DO NOT compare such costs against projected revenue. The end result of this confrontation with reality will inevitably be a stunned head-shake, followed by cancellation of the tour. An essential rule of being a Canadian Touring Musician is: Ignore Reality, and Worry About That Later.
3. The most important thing to plan on a Canadian tour is how to keep your feet warm and dry. Problems arise on every tour. These problems can be overcome, with some combination of ingenuity, charm, money, refusing-to-give-a-fuck, and ambulances. But every problem's surmountability is inversely proportional to the sogginess or frostbittenness of your toes. Wet feet will rob you of your ability to get along with your bandmates, the audience, the venue staff. Wet feet will rob you of your very mind, that which makes you who you are. They will steal your soul.
4. Speaking of soul-stealers, avoid the Tim Horton's fast food chain whenever possible. Apart from the fact that everybody knows that the coffee is full of nicotine, there's a more important reason: because they are everywhere. They have them where you start the tour, they have them where you'll be playing, they have them on every single street corner in the City of Hamilton, as mandated by a 2002 civic bylaw. The creeping sameness of Canadian life needs to be fought, not out of some high self-righteous impulse to strengthen the nation, but for the sake of your own personal sanity, Canada Touring Musician. In a short time, the sameness will drive you mad, until you are seized with a howling need to drive the van through the plate glass window and drown the retirees in the garden vegetable soup. That need never goes away.
What it comes down to is that eating at Tim Horton's on the road will soon make you feel like you are at work, not on a grand adventure into the unknown. What's fun about that? Instead, eat at weird places that have all the apostrophes and quotation marks in the wrong "place" on the signs and menu's. Eat the special. Chat up the waitress. Find out about where you are, and how it's different from where you're from. Otherwise, you'll struggle to keep your head above the the bland sameness.
Also, 5. Don't play Red Deer. No earthly good can come of it.
Good Luck.
Alright, the tour dates are below, but just as a P.S.:
My year begins with my first piece of theatre. It's a 20 minute musical, happening in Vancouver, as part of the pUSH festival, this week. It's called "Distant 2nd: the Steve Fonyo Story". It's a CanRock Musical about the other guy who ran across Canada on one leg. I know that you non-Canadians think I'm making that up. But then, you thought that when I described poutine to you. Check the pUSH festival website for details.
Okay, here are the dates. If you're Canadian, odds are, I'm on my way to your town. Scandinavian (and Irish) shows for April will be up next month.
ONTARIO and MONTREAL, with Forest City Lovers
Feb. 5 - Guelph, ON - Ebar
Feb. 6 - Toronto, ON - Tranzac
Saturday, Feb. 7 - Peterborough, ON - Spill Cafe
Feb. 8 - Waterloo - The Starlight (this was changed from the 9th)
Tues., Feb. 10 - Hamilton, ON - The Casbah
Feb. 11 - London, ON - London Music Club
Feb. 12 - Kingston, ON - The Artel
Fri., Feb. 13 - Wakefield, PQ - Black Sheep
Feb. 14 - Montreal, PQ - Casa Del Popolo
EAST COAST. VARIOUS ARTISTS OPENING:
Feb. 17 - Charlottetown, PEI - Baba's, with "Story." opening
Feb. 18 - Sackville, NB - Strutz Gallery, the john wayne cover band opening.
Feb. 19 - St. John NB - The Blue Olive, with Karen Palmer opening.
Feb. 20 - Halifax, NS - Gus' Pub. Amy Honey opening, The Whiskey Kisses closing.
Feb. 21 - St. John's, Newfoundland - The Ship, with The Pathological Lovers
Feb. 25 - Victoria, BC - The Royal Theatre, opening for Hawksley Workman
Friday, Feb. 27 - Vancouver - Biltmore Cabaret, CD RELEASE PARTY! with Whip of the U.F.O. opening and Joey Only Outlaw Band closing.
Feb. 28 - Calgary, AB - Mac Hall, opening for Hawksley Workman
PRAIRIES. DOUBLE BILL WITH BOB WISEMAN
March 12 - Saskatoon - Lydia's
March 13 - Regina - The Exchange.
March 14 - Winnipeg, MB - The WECC
March 16 - Bruno, SK - All Citizens
March 18 - Twin Butte, AB - The General Store
March 19 - Lethbridge AB - The Slice
March 20 - Calgary - The Ironwood
March 21 - Edmonton - Artspace.
ISLANDS TOUR
March 26 - Saltspring Island - Mahon Hall, with Ora Cogan
March 27 - Victoria, BC - Logan's, with Hank & Lily
APRIL 2-MAY 1
SCANDINAVIA! IRELAND! STAY TUNED!
Portland 6pm, Dutch radio, and the Hungarian Ambassador to Japan
11/12/08 08:49
The latest newsletter from our Canadian friend Geoff Berner
Dear Everybody,
I hope you're making it by okay in these difficult times.
Things are still going well at Berner Industries. My November show at Paradox in Tillburg is going to be broadcast on National Radio on the 13th of December, 21.00-24.00 in a program called De Zaterdag van Zes" (Saturday on 6): www.vpro.nl/programma/dezaterdagvanzes. The show went so well, I'm thinking of releasing it at some point, partly just to be able to say "Geoff Berner Live at Paradox", like some kind of accidentally incredibly accurate pidgin English statement about my career.
I am making a rare little trip down to the U.S.A. this weekend. I thought I should reward you nice Americans for your recent good electoral behaviour. IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT FOR ME TO EMPHASIZE HOW EARLY THE PORTLAND SHOW IS! 6PM! Really! But that will give us more time to have drinks and chat later, so that's good, no?
Touring the "Klezmer Mongrels" album, I am particularly sensitive to stories of odd cultural mixing. If any of you have any, I'd be happy to read them.
I have to tell you this story that the brilliant photographer Fumie Suzuki, who lives in Budapest, told me.
This crew of Hungarian graffiti artists went to Japan last year, with the aim of working their way from the very North to the very South of Japan, tagging public spaces in their particular Hungarian graffiti way.
They thought it would be a fun project to blog and photo their work for their Hungarian site, in this distinctive new setting for them.
Unfortunately for them, public tagging is not a particularly popular sport in Japan. According to Fumie, it's unheard of, and considered incredibly, offensively anti-social by pretty much everyone. As a result, while the Hungarians believed that they were sneakily spray-painting while in cognito, they were, in fact, causing a massive sensation in the Japanese national media, who were running pictures of the offensive scrawls on the front pages of the newspapers, which, I suppose, the Hungarians weren't bothering to glance at, as they toodled along the north/south axis of the country.
After a few days, the oblivious Magyars were easily caught. As Fumie says, "I wouldn't want to be the Hungarian Ambassador to Japan on that day."
I hope my little trip to America won't be like that.
Dec. 12 USA/Seattle - The Tractor, opening for The Squirrels Christmas Show
Dec. 13 USA/Portland - Mississippi Pizza Pub, EARLY SHOW, 6PM. Future Historians play early short opening set.
JANUARY 27: KLEZMER MONGRELS RELEASED IN CANADA!
ONTARIO and QUEBEC, FOREST CITY LOVERS opening:
Feb. 5 - Guelph, ON - Ebar
Feb. 6 - Toronto, ON - Tranzac
Saturday, Feb. 7 - Peterborough, ON - Spill Cafe
Feb. 9 - Waterloo - The Starlight
Tues., Feb. 10 - Hamilton, ON - The Casbah
Feb. 11 - London, ON - London Music Club
Feb. 12 - Kingston, ON - The Artel
Fri., Feb. 13 - Wakefield, PQ - Black Sheep
Feb. 14 - Montreal, PQ - Casa Del Popolo
EAST COAST. VARIOUS ARTISTS OPENING:
Feb. 17 - Charlottetown, PEI - Baba's
Feb. 18 - Sackville, NB - Strutz Gallery
Feb. 19 - St. John NB - The Blue Olive
Feb. 20 - Halifax, NS - Gus' Pub.
Feb. 21 - St. John's, Newfoundland - The Ship.
Friday, Feb. 27 - Vancouver - Biltmore Cabaret
PRAIRIES. DOUBLE BILL WITH BOB WISEMAN
March 12 - Saskatoon - Lydia's
March 13 - Regina - The Exchange.
March 14 - Winnipeg, MB - The WECC
March 19 - Lethbridge AB - The Slice
March 20 - Calgary - The Ironwood
March 21 - Edmonton - Artspace.
ISLANDS TOUR
March 26 - Saltspring Island - Mahon Hall, with Ora Cogan
March 27 - Victoria, BC - Logan's
APRIL:
Scandinavia! Shows will include all Scandinavian capitals and a bunch of other places. Booking is in process.
Dear Everybody,
I hope you're making it by okay in these difficult times.
Things are still going well at Berner Industries. My November show at Paradox in Tillburg is going to be broadcast on National Radio on the 13th of December, 21.00-24.00 in a program called De Zaterdag van Zes" (Saturday on 6): www.vpro.nl/programma/dezaterdagvanzes. The show went so well, I'm thinking of releasing it at some point, partly just to be able to say "Geoff Berner Live at Paradox", like some kind of accidentally incredibly accurate pidgin English statement about my career.
I am making a rare little trip down to the U.S.A. this weekend. I thought I should reward you nice Americans for your recent good electoral behaviour. IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT FOR ME TO EMPHASIZE HOW EARLY THE PORTLAND SHOW IS! 6PM! Really! But that will give us more time to have drinks and chat later, so that's good, no?
Touring the "Klezmer Mongrels" album, I am particularly sensitive to stories of odd cultural mixing. If any of you have any, I'd be happy to read them.
I have to tell you this story that the brilliant photographer Fumie Suzuki, who lives in Budapest, told me.
This crew of Hungarian graffiti artists went to Japan last year, with the aim of working their way from the very North to the very South of Japan, tagging public spaces in their particular Hungarian graffiti way.
They thought it would be a fun project to blog and photo their work for their Hungarian site, in this distinctive new setting for them.
Unfortunately for them, public tagging is not a particularly popular sport in Japan. According to Fumie, it's unheard of, and considered incredibly, offensively anti-social by pretty much everyone. As a result, while the Hungarians believed that they were sneakily spray-painting while in cognito, they were, in fact, causing a massive sensation in the Japanese national media, who were running pictures of the offensive scrawls on the front pages of the newspapers, which, I suppose, the Hungarians weren't bothering to glance at, as they toodled along the north/south axis of the country.
After a few days, the oblivious Magyars were easily caught. As Fumie says, "I wouldn't want to be the Hungarian Ambassador to Japan on that day."
I hope my little trip to America won't be like that.
Dec. 12 USA/Seattle - The Tractor, opening for The Squirrels Christmas Show
Dec. 13 USA/Portland - Mississippi Pizza Pub, EARLY SHOW, 6PM. Future Historians play early short opening set.
JANUARY 27: KLEZMER MONGRELS RELEASED IN CANADA!
ONTARIO and QUEBEC, FOREST CITY LOVERS opening:
Feb. 5 - Guelph, ON - Ebar
Feb. 6 - Toronto, ON - Tranzac
Saturday, Feb. 7 - Peterborough, ON - Spill Cafe
Feb. 9 - Waterloo - The Starlight
Tues., Feb. 10 - Hamilton, ON - The Casbah
Feb. 11 - London, ON - London Music Club
Feb. 12 - Kingston, ON - The Artel
Fri., Feb. 13 - Wakefield, PQ - Black Sheep
Feb. 14 - Montreal, PQ - Casa Del Popolo
EAST COAST. VARIOUS ARTISTS OPENING:
Feb. 17 - Charlottetown, PEI - Baba's
Feb. 18 - Sackville, NB - Strutz Gallery
Feb. 19 - St. John NB - The Blue Olive
Feb. 20 - Halifax, NS - Gus' Pub.
Feb. 21 - St. John's, Newfoundland - The Ship.
Friday, Feb. 27 - Vancouver - Biltmore Cabaret
PRAIRIES. DOUBLE BILL WITH BOB WISEMAN
March 12 - Saskatoon - Lydia's
March 13 - Regina - The Exchange.
March 14 - Winnipeg, MB - The WECC
March 19 - Lethbridge AB - The Slice
March 20 - Calgary - The Ironwood
March 21 - Edmonton - Artspace.
ISLANDS TOUR
March 26 - Saltspring Island - Mahon Hall, with Ora Cogan
March 27 - Victoria, BC - Logan's
APRIL:
Scandinavia! Shows will include all Scandinavian capitals and a bunch of other places. Booking is in process.
London. Its Just A Wave
24/11/08 10:32
The latest newsletter from our Canadian friend Geoff Berner:
Dear Everybody,
I'm on my way into England, playing London Tuesday night, at the Black Gardenia. At midnight, it's my birthday, and the next day I fly home home home! So for me, there's lots to celebrate.
I've been very happy with the tour. My German label 9pm tells me that the reviews have been great for the new album (I'll take their word for it), and I just played on national Dutch radio. The turnout has been great overall, with many shows actually selling out. It seems that now more than ever, people want to hear New Jewish Drinking Songs.
But I think that for the Canadian tour, in February/March, I'll be trying to bring back the idea of the "sliding scale" for admission cost, where guests can pay, maybe 5 bucks if they're unemployed or working for minimum wage, and 15 if they're doing okay. I always liked that system, and I've found that people rarely abuse it. I think that live music is really a human right. But that's just my opinion, of course.
The Canadian tour is pretty much booked, with only a few little holes here and there. In the East I'll be bringing the full album trio of me, Wayne Adams and Diona Davies along for that, and that means we're hoping for some fun, silly dancing and merriment.
I'm very pleased at the disproportionately large number of physicists coming to my shows lately. A whole bunch of them ("mass" of them? "quantum" of them?) came to the Berlin show, for instance. Then of course there's D and his crew of frighteningly thirsty nuclear physicists. Another 3 came to the Braunschweig show and one fellow informed me that, although they used to think that light had a dual nature, that's all over now and it's just a wave. So I think non-physicists can now take a break from talking about the dual nature of other stuff, like God. Whatever it is, it's just a wave, man. Keep up the good work, folks.
Tough economic times are breaking out all over. In Trier, (birthplace of Karl Marx) for instance, the Bank of Luxembourg phoned the Chat Noir, the venue I played, and said they'd like to cut the costs of their private Christmas party in half, starting by ditching the contracted musicians (oh dear). The Bank has just received a big bailout from the government, so they felt that having live musicians would be "unseemly".
Tom, the promoter, suggested that they just have a trio in black play funeral music, but apparently the Bank didn't find that very funny. When he then suggested that the Bank economize by ordering the 3rd class menu for the guests, the one without the caviar, the Bank didn't laugh at that either, apparently. I suggested a Grapes of Wrath, Depression-themed folk band playing old labour anthems like, for instance, "The Banks Are Made of Marble". Tom will get back to me.
Nov. 25 UK/London - The Black Gardenia, 93 Dean Street,
Soho, near Tottenham Court Road Tube Station
LITTLE PACIFIC NORTHWEST JAUNT
Dec. 12 USA/Seattle - The Tractor, opening for The Squirrels Christmas Show
Dec. 13 USA/Portland - Mississippi Pizza Pub, EARLY SHOW, 6PM. Future Historians play early short opening set.
CANADA
Feb. 6, 2009, TORONTO, ON - TRANZAC CLUB: CANADIAN RELEASE PARTY for "Klezmer Mongrels", with Forest City Lovers.
Feb. 27, 2009, VANCOUVER - THE BILTMORE: VANCOUVER RELEASE PARTY for "Klezmer Mongrels".
MORE DATES TO COME. SCANDINAVIA IN APRIL.
Geoff Berner website
Geoff Berner MySpace site
Geoff Berner Facebook
Dear Everybody,
I'm on my way into England, playing London Tuesday night, at the Black Gardenia. At midnight, it's my birthday, and the next day I fly home home home! So for me, there's lots to celebrate.
I've been very happy with the tour. My German label 9pm tells me that the reviews have been great for the new album (I'll take their word for it), and I just played on national Dutch radio. The turnout has been great overall, with many shows actually selling out. It seems that now more than ever, people want to hear New Jewish Drinking Songs.
But I think that for the Canadian tour, in February/March, I'll be trying to bring back the idea of the "sliding scale" for admission cost, where guests can pay, maybe 5 bucks if they're unemployed or working for minimum wage, and 15 if they're doing okay. I always liked that system, and I've found that people rarely abuse it. I think that live music is really a human right. But that's just my opinion, of course.
The Canadian tour is pretty much booked, with only a few little holes here and there. In the East I'll be bringing the full album trio of me, Wayne Adams and Diona Davies along for that, and that means we're hoping for some fun, silly dancing and merriment.
I'm very pleased at the disproportionately large number of physicists coming to my shows lately. A whole bunch of them ("mass" of them? "quantum" of them?) came to the Berlin show, for instance. Then of course there's D and his crew of frighteningly thirsty nuclear physicists. Another 3 came to the Braunschweig show and one fellow informed me that, although they used to think that light had a dual nature, that's all over now and it's just a wave. So I think non-physicists can now take a break from talking about the dual nature of other stuff, like God. Whatever it is, it's just a wave, man. Keep up the good work, folks.
Tough economic times are breaking out all over. In Trier, (birthplace of Karl Marx) for instance, the Bank of Luxembourg phoned the Chat Noir, the venue I played, and said they'd like to cut the costs of their private Christmas party in half, starting by ditching the contracted musicians (oh dear). The Bank has just received a big bailout from the government, so they felt that having live musicians would be "unseemly".
Tom, the promoter, suggested that they just have a trio in black play funeral music, but apparently the Bank didn't find that very funny. When he then suggested that the Bank economize by ordering the 3rd class menu for the guests, the one without the caviar, the Bank didn't laugh at that either, apparently. I suggested a Grapes of Wrath, Depression-themed folk band playing old labour anthems like, for instance, "The Banks Are Made of Marble". Tom will get back to me.
Nov. 25 UK/London - The Black Gardenia, 93 Dean Street,
Soho, near Tottenham Court Road Tube Station
LITTLE PACIFIC NORTHWEST JAUNT
Dec. 12 USA/Seattle - The Tractor, opening for The Squirrels Christmas Show
Dec. 13 USA/Portland - Mississippi Pizza Pub, EARLY SHOW, 6PM. Future Historians play early short opening set.
CANADA
Feb. 6, 2009, TORONTO, ON - TRANZAC CLUB: CANADIAN RELEASE PARTY for "Klezmer Mongrels", with Forest City Lovers.
Feb. 27, 2009, VANCOUVER - THE BILTMORE: VANCOUVER RELEASE PARTY for "Klezmer Mongrels".
MORE DATES TO COME. SCANDINAVIA IN APRIL.
Geoff Berner website
Geoff Berner MySpace site
Geoff Berner Facebook
Geoff Berner on the road again
22/10/08 14:36
Our Canadian friend Geoff Berner will be touring Europe again this month. Here´s a message from Mr Berner as well as his tour dates.
(By the way, the album in question will find its Scandinavia release through CCAP in the beginning of 2009)
Dear Everybody,
As I write this, just out the window, I can see the coverall-clad men and women of Berner Industries finishing the inflation process on our Trans-Atlantic Corporate Zeppelin. I picked it up at a recent Manhattan auction. They're practically giving them away these days. And hydrogen commodity prices are dropping nicely, as well.
I'll soon be lugging my accordion up the rope ladder into the cabin, and effortlessly floating my way towards the great old continent of Europe, where I'll be playing in 7 countries: Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK. Whoa.
My friend Dave Lang, the brilliant Canadian songwriter, reminds me to "enjoy the crossing and don't forget - no throwing the empty champagne bottles out the window this time - the captain says they're needed for ballast or you'll just go up up up up until the beeswax melts." I've made a note of that to the social director.
The crew and I should get there just in time to play the first show in Dresden, on the 21st.
And I'll be bringing copies of the new album, "Klezmer Mongrels", the crowning achievement of my Whiskey Rabbi trilogy! All those songs I've been trying out on you the last year or so. I can finally say, "here you go," and hand them to you. And wait till you see the cover, by Kelly Haigh! It's, well, really something.
You can see the cover, and LISTEN to MP3's from the new album, at my website
I'm looking forward to sharing all this with my friends out there. Maybe we'll have a drink or two, as well. Who knows?
The album is being officially released in Europe on October 24, on the 9pm label, but you can go bug your local independent record store to stock it any time. You can also order it yourself from kioski.de People outside continental Europe will have to wait to buy it until early 2009. But if you figure out a way to get ahold of it before then, I won't be angry at you.
Here are the dates. 9 countries in 2 months. In 2009, I'll play Canada in Feb/March, Scandinavia and Northern Ireland in April. I look forward to seeing you there, too.
KLEZMER MONGRELS EUROPEAN TOUR, October/November 2008:
Oct. 21 DE/Dresden - Projekttheater (Jiddische Musik- und Theaterwoche)
Oct. 22 DE/Berlin - Kaffee Burger
Oct. 23 DE/Hamburg - Astra Stube, with Dusty Awe
Oct. 24 DE/Leipzig - Galerie KUB
Oct. 25 DE/Hildesheim - Folk n Fusion Festival
Oct. 27 DE/Osnabruck - Unikeller
Oct. 28 DE/Bremen - no*ok
Oct. 29 DE/Braunschweig -Studio Ost
Oct. 30 DE/Hannover - Feinkost Lampe
Oct. 31 DE/Dusseldorf - Solaris 53
Nov. 1 DE/Mainz - Hafeneck
Nov. 2 DE/Trier - Variete Chat Noir (with Micke from Sweden)
Nov. 3 DE/Augsburg - Der Pavian
Nov. 4 DE/Furth - Kofferfabrik (with Micke from Sweden)
Nov. 5 DE/Munchen (Munich) - Cord
Nov. 6 Switzerland/Schaffhausen - Fassbeiz
Nov. 8 Hungary/Budapest - Csendes Art Bar
Nov. 10 A/Wien (Vienna) - Chelsea
Nov. 11 A/Feldkirch - Sonderbar
Nov. 12 DE/Castrop-Rauxel Bahia de Cochinos
Nov. 13 DE/Leverkusen-Opladen - Cafe Topas
Nov. 14 DE/Koln (Cologne) - Bauwagenplatz
Nov. 15 NL/Roelofarendsveen - Splotsz, with Perestroika Soundsystem
Nov. 16 NL/Tilburg - Paradox 15:30 EARLY SHOW!
Nov. 17 BELGIUM/Liege - "Cafe Le Surlet", 8:30 pm
Nov. 18 NL/Amsterdam - Nieuwe Anita
Nov. 20 NL/Haarlem - Patronaat
Nov. 21 NL/Vaals - 't Vereinhoes, Koperstraat 21
Nov. 22 NL/Middelburg - Kaffee 't Hof
Nov. 25 UK/London - The Black Gardenia, 93 Dean Street, Soho, near Tottenham Court Road Tube Station
Dec. 12 Vancouver - Benefit for Theatre Replacement, Venue TBA
Dec. 12 USA/Seattle - The Tractor, opening for The Squirrels Christmas Show
Dec. 13 USA/Portland - Mississippi Pizza Pub, EARLY SHOW, 6PM. Future Historians play early short opening set.
Feb. 6, 2009, TORONTO, ON - TRANZAC CLUB: CANADIAN RELEASE PARTY for "Klezmer Mongrels", with Forest City Lovers.
(By the way, the album in question will find its Scandinavia release through CCAP in the beginning of 2009)
Dear Everybody,
As I write this, just out the window, I can see the coverall-clad men and women of Berner Industries finishing the inflation process on our Trans-Atlantic Corporate Zeppelin. I picked it up at a recent Manhattan auction. They're practically giving them away these days. And hydrogen commodity prices are dropping nicely, as well.
I'll soon be lugging my accordion up the rope ladder into the cabin, and effortlessly floating my way towards the great old continent of Europe, where I'll be playing in 7 countries: Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK. Whoa.
My friend Dave Lang, the brilliant Canadian songwriter, reminds me to "enjoy the crossing and don't forget - no throwing the empty champagne bottles out the window this time - the captain says they're needed for ballast or you'll just go up up up up until the beeswax melts." I've made a note of that to the social director.
The crew and I should get there just in time to play the first show in Dresden, on the 21st.
And I'll be bringing copies of the new album, "Klezmer Mongrels", the crowning achievement of my Whiskey Rabbi trilogy! All those songs I've been trying out on you the last year or so. I can finally say, "here you go," and hand them to you. And wait till you see the cover, by Kelly Haigh! It's, well, really something.
You can see the cover, and LISTEN to MP3's from the new album, at my website
I'm looking forward to sharing all this with my friends out there. Maybe we'll have a drink or two, as well. Who knows?
The album is being officially released in Europe on October 24, on the 9pm label, but you can go bug your local independent record store to stock it any time. You can also order it yourself from kioski.de People outside continental Europe will have to wait to buy it until early 2009. But if you figure out a way to get ahold of it before then, I won't be angry at you.
Here are the dates. 9 countries in 2 months. In 2009, I'll play Canada in Feb/March, Scandinavia and Northern Ireland in April. I look forward to seeing you there, too.
KLEZMER MONGRELS EUROPEAN TOUR, October/November 2008:
Oct. 21 DE/Dresden - Projekttheater (Jiddische Musik- und Theaterwoche)
Oct. 22 DE/Berlin - Kaffee Burger
Oct. 23 DE/Hamburg - Astra Stube, with Dusty Awe
Oct. 24 DE/Leipzig - Galerie KUB
Oct. 25 DE/Hildesheim - Folk n Fusion Festival
Oct. 27 DE/Osnabruck - Unikeller
Oct. 28 DE/Bremen - no*ok
Oct. 29 DE/Braunschweig -Studio Ost
Oct. 30 DE/Hannover - Feinkost Lampe
Oct. 31 DE/Dusseldorf - Solaris 53
Nov. 1 DE/Mainz - Hafeneck
Nov. 2 DE/Trier - Variete Chat Noir (with Micke from Sweden)
Nov. 3 DE/Augsburg - Der Pavian
Nov. 4 DE/Furth - Kofferfabrik (with Micke from Sweden)
Nov. 5 DE/Munchen (Munich) - Cord
Nov. 6 Switzerland/Schaffhausen - Fassbeiz
Nov. 8 Hungary/Budapest - Csendes Art Bar
Nov. 10 A/Wien (Vienna) - Chelsea
Nov. 11 A/Feldkirch - Sonderbar
Nov. 12 DE/Castrop-Rauxel Bahia de Cochinos
Nov. 13 DE/Leverkusen-Opladen - Cafe Topas
Nov. 14 DE/Koln (Cologne) - Bauwagenplatz
Nov. 15 NL/Roelofarendsveen - Splotsz, with Perestroika Soundsystem
Nov. 16 NL/Tilburg - Paradox 15:30 EARLY SHOW!
Nov. 17 BELGIUM/Liege - "Cafe Le Surlet", 8:30 pm
Nov. 18 NL/Amsterdam - Nieuwe Anita
Nov. 20 NL/Haarlem - Patronaat
Nov. 21 NL/Vaals - 't Vereinhoes, Koperstraat 21
Nov. 22 NL/Middelburg - Kaffee 't Hof
Nov. 25 UK/London - The Black Gardenia, 93 Dean Street, Soho, near Tottenham Court Road Tube Station
Dec. 12 Vancouver - Benefit for Theatre Replacement, Venue TBA
Dec. 12 USA/Seattle - The Tractor, opening for The Squirrels Christmas Show
Dec. 13 USA/Portland - Mississippi Pizza Pub, EARLY SHOW, 6PM. Future Historians play early short opening set.
Feb. 6, 2009, TORONTO, ON - TRANZAC CLUB: CANADIAN RELEASE PARTY for "Klezmer Mongrels", with Forest City Lovers.
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