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BC Tour Report

Jonathan D. Lewis writes:

Well... or should I say Wells?

The Cave of Markos V 2007 Tour of Interior BC has come to a close. More Greek food consumed in 5 days than most people would eat in an entire year!

Lorenzo's Cafe, Ashton Creek: Lots of dancing women (and a few lucky guys). A great gig to get us warmed up.

Theos, Penticton: A 300-seat, yet still intimate, restaurant with a most gracious host, Nikos Theodosakis and family. Fantastic food, great company, and free-flowing Metaxa.

On the following morning, struggling through the haze of the previous evening's Metaxa, we were back at the restaurant. In the beautiful atrium, Nikos, also a director/filmmaker, shot a video for us. Watch for it in the upcoming months. I, for one, can hardly wait to see it! Another beautiful lunchtime meal, and then we were back on the road again.

Minos Restaurant, Kamloops: Realizing that in the very tight quarters of this cozy restaurant amplification wasn't going to work, we went acoustic. As we roamed through the restaurant, George, the owner, followed us, dancing, singing along, and ensuring a raucously fun time for all. Again, we were more than amply fed.

Sunset Theatre, Wells: Last, and certainly not least, we performed in this beautiful, historic theatre which is being lovingly restored by Karen and Dave Jeffery. Gorgeous acoustics, requiring only just a slight touch of amplification made this a very magical night. Eventually, we left the stage, speakers, and mics, and joined our audience. There was some great dancing... and I will confess to having danced my first zembekiko.

August Update

The Hipsters are taking a break from Pegasus August 15-29. We'll be back on September 5.

There are only five(!) copies of our first CD, Architects of Narghile, left for sale, in the world. Contact us if you want to buy one. We won't be reprinting it in yer standard CD format again, so act fast.

We'll be doing a short interior BC tour, though: Lorenzo's in Enderby, BC August 23. Theo's restaurant in Penticton, BC August 24. Minos restaurant in Kamloops, BC August 25.
The Bear's Paw Cafe and Sunset Theatre in Wells, BC August 26.

I haven't written anything about the Calgary Folk Festival yet - our concert was a litle disappointing; sabotaged by the stage crew we only got to play 30 minutes out of our scheduled 45. But the workshops, Vre Manga! Here's a nice review by an audience member of Brave New World, which was an enormous, sprawling jam with the Tuvan throat singers Chirgilchin and the Afghani-Canadian qawwali band Mushfiq Ensemble - http://www.calgaryfolkfest.com/users/news_view.asp?FolderID=2860&NewsID=130. The other show was with our good friend Geoff Berner and Montreal's Lubo Alexandrov (whose accordionist, Emil, knew all our songs and became a fast friend). Here's a note from someone who saw that show: http://nix-this.livejournal.com/49882.html . Many thanks to Kerry for inviting us back to this wonderful, utopic festival.

Our Calgary Folk Festival schedule

For those of you attending next weekend's Calgary Folk Music Festival, here's where you can catch the Rembetika Hipsters:

Sat 10:30 – 11:35 am Field Law stage 3 ‘Love, Lust, Liquor and Knives”
aka "The Balkan Band workshop". We host this workshop, with our pal, Vancouver's Geoff Berner and Montreal's Lubo Alexandrov and Kaba Horo. Another alternate title: One Degree of Brigitte Dajczer.

Sat 2:50 – 3:50 pm Broken City Stage 6 “Brave Old World”
A world music session also featuring Mushfiq Ensemble (Afghanistan) and Chirgilchin (Tuvan throat singers).
This should be awesome.

Sun 11:20 am – noon Sunterra Stage 5 Our concert.

See you there!

Some views from the North Country Fair

The weekend of June 22-24 saw us playing the North Country Fair. This year's fair seemed a bit smaller than in the past, albeit it was at a new location in Driftpile, Alberta. It was a fairly wet weekend but our spirits were not dampened one bit. Allen Baekeland put on an impressive yodelin' and pluckin' performance in his workshop "Twist of the knife".

The band played two Tribal Fusion belly-dance workshops; one at noon in the pouring rain, featuring "monsoon style" costumes such as rubber hip-waders, and a much sunnier one later in the day, hosted by Ben with guests Paul and Dave from Edmonton. Special thanks to Nancy, Paul and Dave from Vibe Tribe http://www.vibe-tribe.ca/

We had a great crowd at our mainstage performance, lots of dancing including a gorgeous sword dance by Nancy. One lucky little girl went home with free copies of both our CDs, just for being at the right place at the right time ;-).

Winnipeg Show Ticket Info

For the July 17 concert at the West End Cultural Centre:

The tickets are available now through Ticketmaster and the WECC box office.
$12 Advance $15 Door
Available at Ticketmaster and the WECC
www.ticketmaster.ca
http://www.ticketmaster.ca/venue/139414/ (is a direct link to our venue page)
our box office # is 204.783.6918

Here's what they say in the WECC newsletter:

What the heck is a Rembetika Hipster?

Rembetika was the music of the underworld in Greece after the turn of the century. When over 1.5 million refugees were relocated to Greece from Asia Minor in 1921, a rich and vibrant musical tradition grew out of the darkened corners of Athens’ slums, cafes, and hashish dens. Once despised by the upper classes and suppressed by the government, Rembetika was the music of outcasts: the blues of Greece. Like so many underground musical traditions, Rembetika is now embraced around the world and can be heard in its various incarnations, just about anywhere.

Enter the Rembetika Hipsters, a nationally-acclaimed Greek music group based in Calgary. Since 1996, their repertoire has included authentic Greek Rembetika songs, original Canadian compositions in Greek, Balkan & Middle-Eastern styles, contemporary belly-dance instrumentals and jazz-influenced bouzouki pop.

Since the Hipsters were going to be making a brief stop in Winnipeg, we thought "what better way to spend a Tuesday evening than with some amazing world music?" They play the West End on Tuesday July 17, tickets are $12 in advance at Ticketmaster and the WECC.

BBC documentary on Rembetika

A very informative hour-long feature on rembetika music, narrated by Anthony Quinn, has been posted on YouTube in 10 parts.
Here are the links to each part:

Part 1 (4:34)
Part 2 (4:40)
Part 3 (6:12)
Part 4 (3:51)
Part 5 (4:15)
Part 6 (3:17)
Part 7 (5:20)
Part 8 (4:48)
Part 9 (5:17)
Part 10 (5:10)