March concerts not to miss
The music industry has never recovered from the impact of the digital age on album sales. So if you want to make music and eat, you get on the road and tour, tour, tour.
It’s not nice to do in the winter. Spring is coming soon.
Hot on its heels is a convoy of musical acts.
There were so many choices that pairing down to five, “mustsee” shows in March and April was difficult.
Perhaps in recognition of the ravages of age on artists, this list may lean toward some of the legacy acts touring through town. Nobody is getting any younger:
1 Alan Doyle
When: March 10, 8 p.m.
Where: The Centre
Tickets and info: From $29 at ticketmaster.ca
The Great Big Sea frontman is one busy fella.
He’s penned an autobiography that’s quite a fine one.
He’s an utterly engaging interview — as anyone who heard him chatting on CBC Q will admit.
And Doyle has a new solo album out titled, A Week at the Warehouse.
His third outing without his wellknown band is full of more of the feel-good, folksy charm and strumalong songs that the Petty Harbour, N.L., musician is famed for.
2 Steel Panther
When: March 15-17, 8 p.m. Where: Commodore Ballroom Tickets and info: $39.50 at ticketmaster.ca
If ever there was a rock act that seemed as out-of-tune with the times as it could be, it would be Steel Panther.
Celebrating the legacy of the hair-farming Sunset Strip era that gave the world some of the worst music of all time, this Los Angeles crew plays it with passion right down to its stuffed codpieces and leopard-print spandex.
With a new album out, titled Lower the Bar, the Panther still has wellsharp claws as demand for its show has it playing three of them in a row. Never doubt that when you think the world has changed, everything is just the same.
3 Steve Miller Band and Peter Frampton
When: April 16
Where: Abbotsford Centre Tickets and info: From $39.50 at ticketmaster.ca
Dude, it’s That ‘70s Show. No, seriously, this double-bill puts two of the best-selling artists of that decade together playing something of an ultimate-hits show. So C’mon Take the Money and Run, Fly Like an Eagle,
I Want You to Show Me the Way. Do You Feel Like I Do? OK, no Joker. But there really are a lot of classics in Frampton and Miller’s catalogue.
4 Jean-Michel Jarre
When: April 17, 8 p.m.
Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre Tickets and info: From $55 at ticketmaster.ca
In 1976, legendary French electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre released his debut album, Oxygène.
Jarre’s lengthy synthesizer compositions were key in shaping what would go on to be ambient, New Age, electro-psyche and many other genres.
A four-time Guinness World Record-holder for the largest concerts ever performed and a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador known for staging performances at historical landmarks across the world, often to draw attention to key environmental issues, his concert tours are extremely rare and always unique. This pioneering artist continues to release music that can hold its own with contemporaries a third his age.
5 Five Alarm Funk with DJ Shub
When: April 20, 8 p.m.
Where: Commodore Ballroom Tickets and info: $25 at ticketmaster.ca
Let’s give it up for the locals. This big, swinging, pulsing unit of full-on funkification has been dishing out high-energy jams to keep the peeps permanently on the dance floor for years and just keeps on getting better. For fun, party-atmosphere generating, Five Alarm Fun are indeed on fire. Get there in time for the grooves dropped by opening act DJ Shub, too.