It is a surprisingly busy week this week.

Beaches has restarted their Wednesday night open mic .

 Red Deer country band the Red Hot Hayseeds return to the Slice, Friday, July 10. The show begins at 9 p.m. There is a $10 cover.

And Theoretically Brewing has started their patio sessions season with live music on their patio. Blue and Lemba will be performing on Friday, July 10 beginning at 7 p.m. Admission is pay what you can.

There are two big fundraising concerts.
The Slice features a variety of local bands, Saturday, July 11. Folk metal band The Minstrels of Crevas begin the show at 8 p.m., followed by classic rock band the Andi Roberts Band, pop rock band the Waterfront at 9  p.m., punk band the Scallywags at 9:30 p.m, Hard rock bands SI at 10 p.m and QuickDraw at 10:30 p.m and alternative/classic rock band Fractures of Etalon at 11 p.m.. An open jam begins at  11:30-. Everybody will be playing 20 minute sets.

They will be playing to support local music venue the Slice. There is no cover, so patrons are encouraged to hoist a pint and have some of their delicious pizza.

The music begins at 8 p.m. sharp.  There will be a special jam session after beginning at 11 p.m. Singers are required to bring their own microphones. There will be a backline available. So all you have to do is bring your axe, mic and muse. Amps will be disinfected in between sets.

And Albertan raised, Australian born country star Gord Bamford is performing a special live drive in concert at  Exhibition Park, July 11 as well. Tickets are $65 or $110 for  VIP parking up front. It is a fundraiser for mental health organization s in Alberta.
 Bamford, who has numerous radio hits including “Heard it In a Song,” “Stayed ’til Two” and “Red Dress,” already sold out a Canada Day performance.
 There are numerous rules that must be followed.
Each vehicle may include a maximum of four people though exceptions will be made for large families. People sharing a vehicle should be from the same household or cohort. Windows can be rolled down and convertibles can have rooftops open. No crowd participation permitted. People are asked to remain in their vehicles for the entire concert. People hanging outside of their windows or sunroofs will be instructed to stay inside their vehicles by security and MC’s or they will be instructed to leave.
No food and beverage sales will be available onsite. No giveaways or handouts onsite. Guests will be instructed to bring their own food and beverage to consume within their vehicle. Guests will be asked to take all their garbage with them when they leave the event.

Average Joes has been the latest business casualty of Covid 19. While any local business closure hurts, Average Joes really smarts because Average Joes was more than just a sports bar, of which there are many in Lethbridge. It was the only sports bar to regularly double as a mid sized music venue, which featured up and coming rock, country, pop and alternative acts, not to mention many great tribute acts. A lot of people are sharing their favourite memories photos and videos on a new Facebook group called Average Joes Sports Bar Lethbridge Concert Memories which brings back a lot for me. 

Average Joes was the great mid sized venue that Lethbridge desperately needed and needs even more so now as both the overall population as well as the number of music fans are increasing.

 Average Joes announced the closure on social media, June 24, blaming a perfect storm of Covid resulting in the complete elimination of concerts, entertainment events and sporting events which attracted their main client base and lack of students.

“After much consideration, efforts, plans that fell through, pending sale of our rented home, Covid closure and many other impacts... Average Joe's will be keeping the doors closed. 
New ownership took over February 1st with all the best intentions and great potential but the unexpected provincial closure due to covid has cost more than expected & has stopped university students visits, sporting events, concerts and entertainment bookings, large gatherings and many others that affects our day to day business model. Lonny, AJs owner, has not decided whether when/if he will open at another location.
 It is an extremely hard decision to make considering he came out of a nice retirement in AZ to take on this opportunity. If anyone could have made AJs fabulous again, it would have been him. Enter covid and the story is different.
Thank you ALL for your support and patronage. Your kindness and hopes for us to reopen. We will miss you and our home sweet bar home,” according to their Facebook page

Time sure flies when you’re in quarantine. In a Covid free world, by the end of June, Lethbridge would usually be full throes in the middle of a busy festival filled summer.
Music lovers would be gearing up for The Rotary Dragon Boat Festival followed by Canada Day celebrations, which have also been cancelled, as well as the Lethbridge Jazz and Blues Festival celebrations, and Shakespeare in the Park would be finishing up rehearsals for their production of the Merry Wives of Windsor, which will be online this year.

 In the middle of all of the that, classical music lovers would be enjoying the Centric Music Festival at venues all over Lethbridge.

But this year,  three Centric Music Festival concerts are also going to be online beginning Sunday, June 21, with a live streamed concert by Toronto based pianist Younggun Kim, which takes place on the Centric Music Festival Facebook page  http://www.facebook.com/centricmusicfest/live/ at 2 p.m. MST.

The next concert, Livestream Concert II: Dances from the Old Country, features Montreal violinists Diane Bayard and Guillaume Villeneuve, who will be performing excerpts of 44 duos for two violins including works by B Bartok, S Prokofiev, C Gardel and traditional folk song Danny Boy.That concert will be broadcasted live, June 28 at 2 p.m. MST

 The third concert Summertime-celebrating Life and Season, features Vancouver violinist Teodora Dimova and pianist Perri Lo performing works by Mozart, Sibelius, J Massenet, G Bizet, G Gershwin and A Piazzolla. That concert will be July 5 at 2 p.m. There may be more concerts in July.

“It won’t be the same experience with the the musician feeding off of the energy of the audience in the same room. People want all of the experience,” agreed Centric Music Festival Executive and Artistic Director Ryan Kolodziej, noting Centric looking for alternate ways for musicians to get their music to the public.

 While the concerts will be live streamed, they will also feature local performers, who put their performances on video, which will be broadcast before the concerts.
 “We asked the performers to perform a 45 minute show, which gives us time to  feature local artists,” he continued.

When one thinks of small rural cities like Lethbridge, electronica music usually isn’t the first type of music to come to mind, usually one thinks of folk or country music.
However on July 3, Lethbridge electronica musician Tyler Vanden Dool releases his first official  EP of  ’80s pop inspired music “The View From Here,” which is about living in Lethbridge.

“It follows my first full length album so it’s my first official EP, though I released two pandemic EPs for charity, said Vanden Dool, 25, noting his parents were more into ’80s hard rock  like Def Leppard and Bon Jovi than ’80s electro pop.

“But I heard it on the retro radio station, 94.1, and I realized that was the direction I wanted to go, noting he took to the music of Depeche Mode, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (OMD)  and the Pet Shop Boys, who he is often compared to.

 “Then I got into bands like M83 and Chvrches who are influenced by ’80s music,” he said.
“I just liked the grandness of the sound,” he said, adding he also appreciates the willingness of artists in the late ’70s and early ’80s to experiment with their music.

He wrote, produced and recorded the EP at home, beginning last summer and finishing the last song in February. He had to replace  his computer, so  the EP was delayed while he learned the new  machine.