What’s up: Punk rock prom, Our Lady Peace, Speaking Crow poetry, Chickadee, Bi-Sexual(ish) honky tonk, Women’s Day Concert

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/02/2025 (316 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Punk rock prom

• Little Brown Jug, 336 William Ave.
• Friday, 8 p.m.
• Tickets: $20 plus fees at Eventbrite

This year’s prom theme? Punk rock for a good cause.

Head down to Little Brown Jug tomorrow for a night of local music in support of the Trans Health Klinic, which provides gender-affirming care for transgender and non-binary Manitobans. Graduation attire recommended.

Friday’s musical lineup includes Tie Guan Yin — a two-piece, drums-and-cello punk-classical outfit — and emo mainstays Screaming at Traffic.

The evening will also feature drag performances by Zamarah Dee, Boo Dee, Lana Lanuit and Eris Chaotica.

Proceeds will be donated to the Trans Health Klinic, which will have a resource table at the brewery.

— Eva Wasney

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Our Lady Peace

• Canada Life Centre, 300 Portage Ave.
• Friday, 7 p.m.
• Tickets: $76 to $259 at Ticketmaster

In 1994, Our Lady Peace released its debut album, Naveed — an out-of-the-gate success that laid the groundwork for the band’s landmark 1997 sophomore album Clumsy and firmly established frontman Raine Maida as a singular voice in Canadian music.

Now, the rock band is commemorating its 30th anniversary with celebrations that began in 2024 with the release of OLP30 Vols. 1-3 — a trio of greatest hits packages that each feature a new song — and is now crossing the country on its Canadian OLP30 tour, which stops by Canada Life Centre on Friday. Expect to hear classics such as Clumsy, Superman’s Dead, 4 a.m. and Somewhere Out There.

Adding to the nostalgia factor, fellow ‘90s rock stalwart Collective Soul is the opening act, along with Vancouver indie-rock outfit Hotel Mira.

— Jen Zoratti

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Rosanna Deerchild at Speaking Crow poetry night

• St. Boniface Library, 100-131 Provencher Blvd.
• Tuesday, 6:30 p.m.
• Free

Speaking Crow, Winnipeg’s long-running monthly poetry event, facilitated by Plume Winnipeg, returns with an in-person gathering on Tuesday with celebrated Winnipeg Cree poet Rosanna Deerchild as the featured reader.

Deerchild’s most recent work, She Falls Again, was published in September 2024 by Coach House Books, and sees the O-Pipon-Na-Piwan Cree Nation author meld poetry, dialogue and prose in a work that explores the life of Sky Woman — an Indigenous matriarch trying to survive in Winnipeg. Deerchild, the host of CBC Radio’s Unreserved, also wrote about the Indian residential school experience in Canada in her 2021 poetry collection Calling Down the Sky.

The event starts at 6:30 p.m.; poets wanting to showcase their best three minutes of verse can sign up to read at the venue.

— Ben Sigurdson

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Chickadee at The Leaf After Dark

• The Leaf, 145 The Leaf Way
• Wednesday, 7 p.m.
• Tickets: $15 at assiniboinepark.ca

Winnipeg’s music scene doesn’t seem to find it awkward putting folk and jazz acts, prairie and urban vibes, on the same bill. This is what happens when you’re wedged somewhere between Calgary and Toronto, without the populations of either.

One act bringing these esthetics into harmony is Chickadee, formerly known as Freddy and the Fire Nation. The young jazz-folk quintet is led by bassist Fred Warner, originally a fiddle musician, and an artist inspired by acts such as banjo master Bela Fleck.

“I intentionally wanted to dive into (jazz school) so I could try to integrate the language, and then pull back afterwards to do something like this,” says Warner.

“The rename to Chickadee was a gut decision, as chickadees seem to pop up in interesting ways in my life, such as the name of the magazine I read as a kid or my dad’s signature whistle being a chickadee call.”

If you miss the chance to see Chickadee on Wednesday, they’re playing the Leaf again on April 16 and May 14 as part of Assiniboine Park’s The Leaf After Dark series.

— Conrad Sweatman

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The Inaugural Bi-Monthly(ish) Bi-Sexual(ish) Honky Tonk

• The Times Change(d), 234 Main St.
• Saturday, 8:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $15 at Eventbrite

Dig through the record crate at any Sally Ann and you won’t have a hard time finding vintage vinyl with a uniformly dressed country ensemble on the jacket: a personal favourite is the Funk Family, a down-to-earth rural Manitoba gospel group not to be confused with Moses Mayes’ fusion group the Funk Family Orchestra, which plays a reunion show at the Park Theatre on May 3.

The era of the small-town family country band might be over, but Mulligrub’s Kelly Campbell is spearheading a new initiative Saturday with the first performance by the Chosen Family Band, an ad-hoc, all-queer collective taking the stage at the Times Change(d).

Featuring Campbell, Riley Hill (Mulligrub), Ashley Au (Super Duty Tough Work), Sierra Noble and À La Mode’s Domo Lemoine and Ava Glendinning, the Chosen Family Band queerifies classic country songs and countrifies modern-day queer pop.

For example, in Shania Twain’s God Ain’t Gonna Getcha For That, the lyric “Baby, take a ride in my Cadillac” becomes “Baby, take a ride in my hatchback.”

“The reason being that 90 per cent of lesbians with cars have a Subaru or a hatchback. Some songs, like Rhinestone Cowboy, were already very gay and we didn’t need to change a thing,” says Campbell.

The evening’s festivities also include line-dancing called by pop vocalist Diaphanie and a queer songwriter’s round hosted by Mitch Makoons.

— Ben Waldman

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Women-led jazz symposium and Women’s Day Concert 4.0

• West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave.
• Thursday, March 6, 2 p.m.
• Full registration tickets start at $55; concert-only tickets $40 at winnipegjazzorchestra.com

Next Thursday, the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra hosts its annual celebration of International Women’s Day (March 8). The event, now in its fourth year, culminates in a concert featuring W2JO, Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra’s all-female-identifying arm, featuring music written by female composers including Maria Schneider, Joni Mitchell and Jocelyn Gould.

Jazz guitarist and Juno award winner Gould kicks off proceedings with a keynote speech at 2 p.m., followed by four instrumental and vocal creativity sessions at 3:15 p.m. with Monica Jones (sax), Nora Wilson (brass), Lindsay Woolgar (rhythm) and Karly Epp (vocals).

Jeni Taylor will present a jazz history session at 4:30 p.m. before the first part of the event ends with an exploration of intersectional feminism in music. There is an hour of free time for “on your own supper” (bag lunches recommended), before a Young Woman in Jazz concert at 7: 10 p.m. and the Women’s Day Concert at 7:30 p.m., at which Gould will perform one of her pieces.

Guests are encouraged to bring an instrument and everyone is welcome.

— AV Kitching