What’s up: MCO, Tarp, Heat & Harvest Festival, A Taste of Manitoba, Le Burger Week

Tarp releases EP

• The Handsome Daughter, 61 Sherbrook St.
• Friday, 8:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $15 at reallovewpg.com

On Friday at the Handsome Daughter, post-folk quintet Tarp marks the release of its debut EP Automatic Solar Light, a dream-like, four-song sensory response grounded in the group’s formative — and transformative — experiences at its unofficial headquarters in Marchand, 10 kilometres southeast of La Broquerie.

Formerly known as Heinrichs Maneuver, Tarp — Seth and Jaki Heinrichs, Joe Madden, Brian Gluck and Holly Ruth Stratton — was a standout at the final Real Love Summer Fest in July, performing a sweat-soaked Saturday afternoon set that showcased the group’s undeniable command of time and place.

Those sensibilities are captured well on Automatic Solar Light, which examines the reflective mechanisms of coping with grief, the ways in which built environments encapsulate personal memoir and the profound effect of separation.

“Do you know why I like writing, with my face pressed against the window glass?” asks Seth Heinrichs on Sheetbend, the EP’s longest track. We can only guess, but the results it yields are indelibly human and stirring.

Recorded at Unlimited Space, Automatic Solar Light was engineered, mixed and mastered by Corey Hykawy with production by Gluck. At the release show, which features openers French Class and Our Friend, Oscar, a limited run of 50 vinyl copies will be available ($40), with each record accompanied by an original collection of drawings by Seth Heinrichs.

— Ben Waldman

MCO Concert on the Veranda

• Seven Oaks House Museum, 50 Mac St.
• Saturday, 11 a.m.
• Free

Step back in time and enjoy an al fresco morning of music at the oldest house in Winnipeg.

The Manitoba Chamber Orchestra’s fourth-annual Concert on the Veranda will feature musicians from the MCO along with guests Jim Hiscott on button accordion and Papa Mambo’s Rodrigo Muñoz on guitar and percussion. Expect to hear classics from Beethoven and Piazzolla, as well as Hiscott’s own Caña, a piece he wrote for Muñoz and Papa Mambo, plus string trio and button accordion.

Attendees can bring lawn chairs or picnic blankets, and are welcome to stay and visit the museum, which is open until 4 p.m. Admission is by donation; $5 is suggested.

— Jen Zoratti

Heat & Harvest Festival

• St. Norbert Arts Centre, 100 Rue des Ruines du Monastère
• Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
• Admission $22

Set on the grounds of the St Norbert’s Arts Centre, this annual music and arts festival is a blend of live performances, art, food and culture.

Lean back and enjoy the dulcet tones of Winnipeg a cappella group Due North Voices, which will be belting out its take on pop favourites.

Also on the bill are West African drum and dance performers Drum Café, traditional Mexican band Son Del Norte and musical duo Jakobian Bones, making its debut.

Stacy Klassen of Sacred Flames Dance & Tarot will conduct tarot card readings.

Parking is free; bring cash for the bar.

— AV Kitching

 

A Taste of Manitoba

• Fort Gibraltar, 866 St Joseph Rd.
• Thursday-Monday
• Tickets: tasteofmb.com

Is 529 Wellington and Rae & Jerry’s and a little too rich for your blood?

It might not be, when tickets for Taste of Manitoba start at $2.

The five-day festival returns, bringing food booths from 20 Manitoba restaurants to the reconstructed 200-year-old Fort Gibraltar.

Some menu items cost more, or rather require more tickets (dishes range from two to 10 tickets). So, even though some of it’s a steal, you’ll want to grab a handful of tickets to properly indulge.

Alongside the Wagyu beef, crème brûlé and “fancy tots,” there are plenty of no-fuss offerings — think sliders, tacos and butter chicken — from restaurants such as Cibo Waterfront Café, Perfect Pierogies, Fionn Macool’s, Peasant Cookery and several others. Alcohol is also available.

Too bad no one’s serving pemmican — a mix of tallow, dried bison, elk, deer or moose meat and, if you’re lucky, berries, that many voyageurs at the fort would have subsisted or snacked on.

Next year, perhaps.

— Conrad Sweatman

 

Le Burger Week

• Various locations
• Sept. 1 to 7

The burgs are back in town. Le Burger Week returns Monday for its annual festival of patty-based creativity.

Approximately 140 Manitoba restaurants have signed up to participate in the 14th edition of the national weeklong competition.

Local eateries made a big splash last year, with specials from PVG’s Street Eats, Carlo’s Cucina in Gimli and Jonsey’s Restaurant and Lounge in Birds Hill ranking among the top five burgers in Canada.

Burger fans can visit leburgerweek.com to find a list of local participants and sign up to vote for their favourite creations. (Le Burger Week indicates their site will update with local details on Friday, but they have posted an early list of participating Winnipeg restaurants on Facebook.)

— Eva Wasney