Seriously September

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Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler (CP)

It's the labour day weekend, the end of a summer of trashy beach reads, giddy Glee reruns on the tube and mindless blow-em-ups at the multiplex. Come Tuesday the holidays are over and we're all back to business. School starts, casual dress at work is again frowned upon and the overloaded family schedule resumes.

It's time to get serious.

There are signs of that already happening as the book world this weekend is in a Franzenfrenzy due to the today's publication of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, one of the most anticipated novels of the year and undoubtedly making a beeline for the bestseller list.

The lazy days of August have given way to the unusually hectic days of the September entertainment calendar. Typically a cultural shoulder season with limited opportunities, this September in Winnipeg is loaded with A-list concerts, provocative exhibitions, local firsts and significant new releases. All that and a performance by the Bay City Rollers in less than 30 days.

All these choices will have Winnipeggers boogieing down Broadway. Oh yeah, they will be doing that on the 11th anyway for the Big Dance on the boulevard, part of the Lights on Broadway Festival next weekend.

Here are a dozen of the hot ticket options fighting for your attention and money this month:

Sept. 8 - Aerosmith, MTS Centre, 8 p.m.

Seventies survivors Aerosmith will rock this way with a rejuvenated lead singer Steven Tyler, who cancelled a Winnipeg date last year due to injuries suffered when he fell off a stage in South Dakota.

11 -- Wanda Koop ...On the Edge of Experience, Winnipeg Art Gallery, to Nov. 21

Koop, one of the city's most prominent painters, is getting the star treatment with her fourth WAG show that hits the road for a Feb. 18-May 15, 2011, stop at the National Gallery of Canada followed by a national tour.

14 -- Justin Bieber, MTS Centre, 7 p.m., sold out

OMG, the tween and Twitter star, who has girls across the world swooning over him, is making his Winnipeg debut with a concert that sold out in one hour.

14 -- Mamma Mia!, Centennial Concert Hall, 8 p.m.

Just when you thought you had erased those infuriatingly catchy ABBA disco-pop tunes, a touring production of the international stage hit Mamma Mia! returns to Winnipeg to embed them again in our heads.

15 -- Yo Gabba Gabba!, MTS Centre, 6:30 p.m.

The stars of TV's hippest kids show are coming to Winnipeg for the first time to the delight of preschoolers and grown-up music fans who faithfully tune into watch the big name guests.

17 -- Bodies: The Exhibition MTS Exhibition Hall, to Jan. 9th

Over 200,000 people are expected to attend this controversial globe-trotting exhibition featuring human cadavers with their insides on display for the outside world to see.

19 -- Boardwalk Empire, HBO Canada, 10 p.m.

The opener of a new Prohibition gangster epic directed by Martin Scorsese and starring film actor Steve Buscemi suggests its might be TV season's most talked about debut.

23 -- Arcade Fire, MTS Centre, 7:30 p.m.

The Montreal indie powerhouse arrives as the natural successors to U2's world's biggest band crown and to show locals it is rock's most emotionally powerful live act.

24 -- Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, various theatres

Michael Douglas reprises his Oscar-winning role as convicted fraudster Gordon Gekko, the poster boy for shameless greed in the gimme-me '80s.

24 -- Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra season-opener: Mark O'Connor and Mahler -- Centennial Concert Hall, 8 p.m.

The first of the city's major cultural institutions kicks off its 63rd season with American fiddler Mark O'Connor showing off his distinctive blend of American themes with European symphonic styles.

25 -- Nuit Blanche

The first edition of this night time festival of the arts includes a midnight screening of Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg at the outdoor screen at Portage and Main, the unravelling of a 25-metre-long knit scarf on Esplanade Riel and a midnight-to-morning multimedia dance party at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

28 -- Le Noise

Neil Young's new solo record Le Noise (not Twisted Road after his recent tour that brought him to Winnipeg where he played numerous of its tracks) is produced by superstar producer Daniel Lanois, who claims there is nothing like the recording out there.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 4, 2010 C1