What’s up

Beers & Braids

• Sookrams Brewing Co., 479-B Warsaw Ave.
• Book now for July 27, 7 p.m.
• Tickets $41.85 from beersandbraids.ca

Tickets to this thrice-monthly event sell out quickly, so best get in there now if you’re a dad interested in learning how to plait a braid, twist and secure a ballet bun or create perfectly smooth and swinging high ponytails for your child.

Local makeup artist Ren Cherlet launched the classes early this spring after noticing single fathers in her circle were finding it difficult to do their daughters’ hair for extra-curricular activities.

For two hours, dads and/or father figures wield brushes alongside their brews as they tackle various hairstyles on mannequins. Each class at the brewery is capped at 20 people to ensure everyone gets enough time to learn and practise their newfound skills as Cherlet and her assistant walk around helping those who are struggling to master a specific style.

The sessions are so popular that next week’s class is sold out and there is currently a waitlist for the July 22 event. The ticket price includes one beverage. There are currently classes scheduled until November this year. Check the website for more information and event details.

— AV Kitching

---

Heated Rivalry listening party

• Argy’s Records & Entertainment Shop, 1604 St. Mary’s Rd.
• Friday, 6 p.m.
• Free to attend, visit argy.ca for details

If you’re not going to the cottage this weekend, grab your fellow loons and head down to Argy’s for a listening party celebrating the release of the Heated Rivalry soundtrack on vinyl and CD.

From the yearning club scene set to All the Things She Said by t.A.T.u. to the on-ice kiss punctuated by Wolf Parade’s I’ll Believe in Anything, the music in the award-winning gay hockey drama has become as iconic as the show itself.

Heated Rivalry is based on a series of romantasy novels by Haligonian author Rachel Reid and has been a global CanCon phenomenon since its première on Crave in November. A second season of the show is set to be released in 2027.

The soundtrack is available as a double LP or CD with songs by Feist, Wet Leg, Harrison, Cailin Russo and others, as well as tracks from the original score by Canadian singer-songwriter Peter Peter.

Friday’s local listening party will include a run-through of the record and limited-edition swag, such as a tote bag and bumper sticker. Attendees will be entered to win a grand prize pack featuring a poster signed by Heated Rivalry director Jacob Tierney and Peter Peter.

— Eva Wasney

---

Saturdays on Sargent

• Sargent Avenue between Lipton and Young streets
• Saturday, noon to 3 p.m.
• Free admission

The West End Biz is celebrating summer with a weekly weekend street party series that kicks off on July 11, highlighting the diverse array of area businesses and communities and featuring a range of activities for all ages.

Find the big balloon arches at each end of the 11 blocks between Lipton Street and Young Street, and you’ll have arrived at Saturdays on Sargent; running from noon to 3 p.m. each Saturday until the end of July, the event will feature a photo booth, face painting, a matcha pop-up bar, and live music and entertainment on four stages throughout the street party.

This week’s performers include Mark Reeves at Jeffrey’s Barber Shop (578 Maryland St.), Good Sky Women at X-Cues Cafe and Lounge (551 Sargent Ave.), Keri Latimer at Home Street Park (772 Home St.) and Papa & Epp in the park next to the Sri Sathya Sai Baba Centre of Winnipeg (790 Banning St.). Future performers include Sam Singer, JD Edwards and Jaxon Haldane on July 18 and Sol James, Romi Mayes and Jamie Buckboro on July 25.

Saturdays on Sargent is free for all ages, and organizers are offering a complimentary bike valet service (at 558 Sargent Ave.) for those wishing to arrive on two wheels. For more on what’s happening in the area on Saturdays and otherwise, see westendbiz.ca/visit.

— Ben Sigurdson

---

Live Band Karaoke

• WAG-Qaumajuq, 300 Memorial Blvd.
• Tonight, 8 p.m.
• $20

Live Band Karaoke insists they did it on purpose: schedule their upcoming show on the Winnipeg Folk Fest’s opening day.

“Yes, we’re coming for you Father John Misty, your ass is grass,” says guitarist and host Rory Ellis in a recent Instagram story.

The famous FJM plays the folk fest’s main stage tonight at 9:30 p.m. Winnipeggers skipping that can instead enjoy their 15 minutes of fame at Live Band Karaoke’s show on the WAG’s rooftop tonight, which runs a full three hours.

The band has, somehow, managed to memorize about 100 songs from the past 50 years or so of the power ballad cannon — and welcomes folks to take the mic and sing along with a real band rather than the usual canned backing tracks. Check their Instagram page (@livebandkaraokewpg) for a set-list, which ranges from the Beatles to Nirvana to Dua Lipa.

If you want to take centre stage, you’re encouraged to message the band first via IG. You can also sign up at the event at 7:30 p.m. Otherwise you’ll have a hoot from the audience, from the WAG’s Tyndall stone rootop sculpture garden.

— Conrad Sweatman

---

Maddie’s Secret

• Dave Barber Cinematheque, 100 Arthur St.
• Friday to Thursday
• Tickets: $12.50

You might not know John Early’s name, but you know his game. Since appearing in a 2012 episode of 30 Rock as Jenna Maroney’s bitchy son Jerome, the actor and comedian has been featured in dozens of alt-comedy gems, including the stoner anthology series High Maintenance, the Comedy Central totem Broad City, the Wet Hot American Summer series and in a leading role as Elliot in the absolutely bonkers cult series Search Party. In any project, Early’s presence is a signifier of both camp and brutally, hilariously applied self-awareness, and by all accounts, his directorial debut is no different.

In Maddie’s Secret — dubbed a “leaning tower of camp” by RogerEbert.com — the screenwriter Early stars as Maddie Ralph, who achieves overnight success as an online home chef, a development which leads her to spiral back into painful patterns of eating disorder cycles. With a supporting cast of internet comedy icons like Kate Berlant, Connor O’Malley and Eric Rahill, Maddie’s Secret will inevitably serve as a Rosetta Stone for a generation of comedy nerds.

— Ben Waldman

If you value coverage of Manitoba’s arts scene, help us do more.
Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project.