Tired of Hallmark bringing you down with their traditional relationship themed cards? Let Feminist Twins help through their 4th Annual Non-Heteronormative Valentine Craft Night! This Tuesday, February 13, head over to Kind Space on Somerset West for a night of card and craft making for your fave queer(s). You’re encouraged to bring/donate craft supplies if you can.
This Thursday, February 15, the Canadian Museum of History invites you to the exhibition opening of Picturing Arctic Modernity – North Baffin Drawings From 1964. The exhibition features 50 original drawings created in the spring of 1964 by Inuit men, women and youth from the Nunavut regions of Clyde River (Kanngiqtugaapik), Pond Inlet (Mittimatalik), and Arctic Bay (Ikpiarjuk). See it until September 3, 2018.
This Thursday night, break out of that mid-winter funk and enjoy a night of live music at Pressed Café. There will be live performances by Ottawa alt rockers Almost Kennedy, Ottawa math/indie rock band Pointless Aesthetics, Montréal indie group Cheap Ohio and Ottawa indie rock/post punks Meadowlands.
The Legendary Ethnic Heritage Ensemble will be back in Ottawa this Thursday, February 15. The renowned Chicago group known for its unique brand of improv soul music will be performing live at the Mercury Lounge to mark Black History Month, and for the occasion internationally-acclaimed percussionist, composer, and band leader Kahil El’Zabar will be joined by Kahil El’zabar (multi-percussion /composition /vocals), Corey Wilkes (trumpet and percussion) and Alex Harding (baritone sax and percussion).
Featured in the Top 20 power couples in Quebec, Rosalie Vaillancourt and Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais will be making a stop at the Tonik in Gatineau this Thursday, February 15 to present Love, a stand-up show that mixes comedy, song, videos and even quiz questions. It’s a free event, make the most of it!
There’s an all-ages show going down at House of Targ this Thursday night that’ll feature live sets by Ottawa indie band No Hits, Ottawa alternative indie group O Neptune and Ottawa alternative indie project AVIV.
Metal heads, make your way over to Café Dekcuf this Friday night for an all-ages night celebrating heavy and dark music. For the occasion, you can expect performances by Berlin occult black metal band Occvlta, Ottawa old school heavy metal group Barrow Wight, Ottawa black metal project Occult Burial and Ottawa black metal band Endemise.
This Friday night at Black Squirrel Books, Montreal-based artist Ambivalently Yours is hosting a collaborative drawing and zine-making workshop, focusing on the hard feelings of loneliness, isolation, and invisibility. Afterwards, the main floor will open up for local women and gender non-binary artists to display and sell their work. DJs SeiiizMikk and Oh Jay will be spinning good vibrations all evening and a crafting table will be available for those who want to dance or draw…or both!
Hamilton, Ontario, 90s-infused indie rockers Basement Revolver will be hitting up Pressed Café this Saturday for a night of live music featuring Ottawa alternative garage rock project Empty Nesters, who’ll be celebrating a tape release, and Ottawa four-piece space rock band The Dant Danners.
If you enjoy orchestral pop, don’t miss Ottawa orchestral-indie band Loon Choir this Friday night at the 27 Club. For this show, the seven-piece collective will be sharing the stage with Toronto orchestral-pop group Common Deer and Ottawa indie space folk project MoutainEyes.
Jon Deck, one of Ottawa’s most active DJs and a former member of A Tribe Called Red, will be celebrating his birthday this Friday, February 16 at Kinki Lounge and for the occasion, he’ll be giving a live set alongside Toronto DJ Mensa.
If you want to check out a punk show to kick off your weekend, head over to House of Targ this Friday night to catch a stacked bill featuring Boston punks Doc Hopper, Ottawa punk rockers Steve Adamyk Band, Vankleek Hill punk rockers Audio Visceral, Montréal pop punks Laureate and Boston acoustic folk rocker Matt Charette.
This Friday, City at Night presents Sahra, which is Arabic for an evening party where people gather, mingle and dance. The term is also a variant of the name Sahara, which is of Arabic origin and means ‘desert’. The event strives to explore the melancholic, melodic, exotic and emotional nuances of deep house music through selections by Toronto DJ Mustafa Ismaeel, as well Deepar and Anrar.
This Saturday night, Ottawa psychedelic rockers The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol are celebrating the release of their latest album “Droneverdose” on Cardinal Fuzz. The group will be performing live at Pressed Café with special guest musician Mark Molnar.
Montréal band SUUNS will be back in the region this Saturday and this time around, they’re playing at the Minotaure in the Vieux-Hull in support of their latest album “Felt”, which comes out on March 2nd. The indie electronic/rock outfit will be sharing the stage with Montréal experimental electronic project Automatisme.
KNLO of Alaclair Ensemble fame will be hitting up the Petit Chicago this Saturday night in an effort to promote his debut solo album “Long Jeu”. The Quebec City-based hip hop artist will be performing live alongside Ottawa rapper Squerl Noir and locals Krk & Antwnn. KNLO is an incredible rapper so this is bound to be a solid show.
Over at the NAC this Saturday night, there’s a double bill featuring two singer-songwriters from Quebec. If you’re in the mood for a laid-back night of live music, you might enjoy Catherine Leduc, who first became known as the female half of boy-girl duo Tricot Machine, and is now working solo as a singer-songwriter. For the occasion she’ll be sharing the stage with Maude Audet, a Montreal-based artist signed to Grosse Boite who’ll be presenting her latest album “Comme une odeur de déclin” produced by Ariane Moffatt.
If you’re in the mood for a disco dance party (I mean who isn’t), you’ll want to head over to the Mercury Lounge this Saturday night for Disco Lab with DJ Lifeboogie and special guest DJ Magnificent bringing you an all-vinyl soulful boogie disco affair.
Winter blues got you down? Cheer up with a night on the dance floor! This Saturday night, Oh My Jam is back at Babylon, and this month, the popular dance party will feature music selections by DJ Craig Dominic.
Toronto native DJ/producer Carlo Lio will be live inside City at Night this Saturday and you can expect to hear a set packed with cosmic house and techno. Before Carlo Lio comes on, Ottawa DJ Steve P will be warming up the dance floor.
Naked Boys Reading is an internationally produced literary salon featuring unclothed men reading to you: a blissful combo of literature, book nerds, and, of course, nudity. This Sunday morning, they will be putting on a special Sunday brunch fundraiser at Live on Elgin in support of TotoToo Theatre—Ottawa’s queer community theatre company.
NYC’s Statiqbloom combines hard dance beats and haunting electronics with disorienting vocals to create a pulsing raw vision of music for today. The project will be giving an early show at Happy Goat Coffee this Sunday alongside Ottawa dark ambient noise band Wychdoktor.
If you’re up for an intimate show of live music this Sunday evening, head over to Pressed Cafe to check out Toronto soul/r&b singer-songwriter Mattie Leon, Ottawa singer-songwriter Patrick Rock and Ottawa folk pop singer-songwriter Amanda Lowe.
There’s an all-girl lineup featured at Bar Robo this Sunday evening and it’ll include live sets by Peterborough folk singer-songwriter Mary-Kate Edwards, Ottawa indie folk singer-songwriter Annie Martel and Ottawa/Peterborough lo-fi project Peackykine.
