The event will be a revue, giving each artist a change to play an intimate “unplugged style” set. Come join in for a warm and festive evening, filled with some of the best music of the Pacific Northwest.
After four successful years of sold out shows at Victoria’s Alix Goolden Hall and Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre, the band will also bring the revue to Courtenay’s Sid Williams Theatre for the first time.
Jon and Roy Holiday Special
Friday, December 13th in Vancouver at The Vogue Theatre
Presented by the Vogue Theatre, The Georgia Straight and PEAK 102.7FM
Doors at 7:00pm; Tickets: $25 (all ages)
Tickets available at Zulu, Vogue Box Office and online
Saturday December 14th in Courtenay at the Sid Williams Theatre
Doors at 7:00pm; Tickets: $37 (all ages)
Tickets available at theatre box office (442 Cliffe Ave), 1-866-898-TIXX (8499) and online
Sunday, December 15th in Victoria at Alix Goolden Hall
Presented by Atomique Productions and The Zone FM
Doors at 7:00pm ; Tickets: $28 (all ages)
Tickets available at Lyle’s Place, Ditch Records and online
Victoria, BC folk-roots rockers Jon and Roy have been busy on the road since the June 2012 release of their fourth album Let It Go. The group toured with CBC’s Stuart McLean Vinyl Café and toured Western Canada with fellow Victorians Current Swell. They took home the 2013 Western Canadian Music Award for the Best Roots Group and wrapped up recording a new album this month, which is set for release in Winter 2014.
If you would like to attend the Jon and Roy Holiday Special at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver I have a pair of tickets up for grabs. Here’s how you can enter to win:
Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
RT to enter to win tickets to the @jonandroy Holiday Special from @Miss604 http://ow.ly/rE3mc
Since the concert event is this Friday I will draw a winner tomorrow evening. Contest ends at 5:00pm on Wednesday, December 11, 2013. The winner will receive two tickets to the Vancouver show.
Moist was a Discman staple of most good Canadian kids who grew up in Vancouver in the 1990s. Silver, Creature, and Mercedes 5 and Dime heavily rotated on CFOX while kids like me from Surrey would take the SkyTrain, then a bus, to all-ages shows at the Pacific Coliseum. We’d catch triple bills of our local favourites who also appeared each Friday night on TV in the Much Music Countdown.
“We never really broke up,” frontman David Usher told me over the phone today, “we announced it as a hiatus.” After 13 years Moist has regrouped and returned to the stage for a 6-city Canadian tour which lands in Vancouver on Wednesday, December 18, 2013 at the Commodore.
Photo courtesy of Live Nation
From 1993 to 2001, over the course of three multiplatinum albums, MOIST led the vanguard of the Canadian alt-rock scene, sold over a million records and toured relentlessly from sea to sea to sea, literally. After an exhausting decade, the band went on hiatus in 2001 to take a breath, pursue divergent personal and professional trajectories, build families and find their lives outside of MOIST. Now, twenty years after the start of it all and with renewed vigour and an irrepressible urge to rock, MOIST is back and “The Resurrection” is upon us. [Live Nation]
Usher said that they all decided that getting back together would be fun, on a whim, and before he knew it they were “in the sh*t, as they say.” “Every year it gets brought up and there’s always a reason not to do it. This year, I don’t know why, everyone was just really into it.”
“We have found something on stage that didn’t exist before. There’s still this energy… but there’s something new as well.”
They have already recorded a Christmas tune for CBC Radio 3, which make Usher chuckle being “half Jewish, half Buddhist” but it has shown that the group’s cohesiveness hasn’t skipped a beat.
One quick scan of YouTube to look up Moist’s video collection reminds one of just how prolific the band was during its time in the spotlight. Winning the Juno Awards for Best New Group of 1995, Best Video (Gasoline) in 1997, and various video and Canadian rock awards in the years to follow. “Doing this after so many years, I wasn’t really sure what to expect and how to feel about it.” It all seemed to come back together quickly for the group. “We’re pretty goddamn happy to be doing it again.”
David Usher alone has certainly kept busy, cranking out a new solo album every 2-3 years consistently since 1998 while living in New York and then returning to Quebec. He, along with Mark Makoway, Jeff Pearce, Kevin Young, and Francis Fillion (now on drums) have now already played a few shows in Ontario since resurrecting Moist and the reception has been extremely positive.
As for a new album on the horizon, Usher told me that they’re definitely writing songs and are “pretty committed to writing new material.”
During their hiatus, Moist was gone but not forgotten. David Usher was one of the first artists that I followed on Twitter after I joined the social network in March of 2007 — he joined in August of the same year. Referring to himself as an “uber geek” when I asked about social media and Twitter in particular, which didn’t exist when Moist was in its heyday, Usher said that he’s always been a first-adopter of tools. Like many of us who like the experiment with the ever-changing media landscape, he’s found the time to disconnect and also when to let the medium play its role.
You might be like me, attending your long-awaited first “19+” Moist concert at the Commodore, or you might just be getting acquainted with this Vancouver staple of the 1990s (through the previously-mentioned trove of YouTube gems). Tickets are still available online through Ticketmaster so be sure to scoop yours up. You can follow @DavidUsher and @MoistOnline on Twitter for the latest information tour updates.
Fort Langley is a lovely area to visit at any time of year — for antiques, festivals, and historic attractions — and this season is no exception. Visit the Fort Langley National Historic Site and spend some time in Fort Langley Village to enjoy activities and local shopping.
Enjoy a traditional holiday atmosphere, crafts, and stories at Fort Langley from December 21, 2013 until January 5, 2014. At 11:00am daily hear fascinating stories about Fort Langley’s past with “Faces of the Fort.” From 11:00am to 3:30pm enjoy complimentary hot chocolate and at 2:00pm taste freshly roasted chestnuts and hear stories from the 1827-1830 Fort Langley journals. At 3:00pm join a Carolling Bonfire.
Heritage Holiday at the Fort is open daily from 10:00am until 5:00pm and will be closed December 25th, 26th, and January 1st. Admission fees are posted online. There’s also an earlybird sale on Annual Passes (save 20%).
Grouse Mountain is the Peak of Christmas in Vancouver with mountain-top ice skating, skiing, Santa’s reindeer and other snowy adventures with sweeping views high above the city.
A fire crackling in the outdoor pit, the scraping of skate blades on the ice, fresh powder falling from the sky, and the aroma of Beaver Tails wafting through the crisp mountain air. Once you purchase your lift ticket on the world-famous Grouse Mountain Sky Ride you have access to all Peak of Christmas activities, until December 24th, like visiting Santa’s reindeer Prancer, ice skating, Christmas movies in the Chalet, SOS Children’s Gingerbread Village, snowman crafts and tattoos, mountaintop sleigh rides and more.
If you would like to experience the Peak of Christmas at Grouse Mountain this season I have a family pass to give away that includes admission for 2 adults and 2 children/youth (under 18) and access to the Skyride, Holly the Jolly Reindeer show, antler making, sleigh rides, Gingerbread Lane, mountaintop ice-skating, Santa’s Workshop and more festive fun.
Here’s how you can enter to win:
Leave a comment naming your favourite snowy-day activity (1 entry)
Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
RT to enter to win @grousemountain #PeakofChristmas tix from @miss604 http://ow.ly/rB1aP
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 10:00am on Friday, December 13, 2013. Family pass is valid for the 2013 Peak of Christmas which runs until December 24, 2013. Follow Grouse Mountain on Facebook and Twitter for more information about events, activities, and conditions this season.
Everyone loves dreamy timelapse videos of Vancouver that illustrate a day in the life of our coastal city. Clouds dancing, water shifting, and lights twinkling. I found a few recent timelapse video uploads to Vimeo to share including the first one below where the creator captured one morning outside their window, every day, for a full year. Enjoy!
The holidays are upon us and that means it’s time for the 5th annual Jon and Roy’s Holiday Special! 
