There are a couple of really cool shows happening this week.
 On Jan. 30, Corey Woods, best known as Rae Kwon of renown New York rap collective the Wu Tang Clan plays a solo show at the Blarney Stone at 9 p.m.

 Rae Kwon is touring on a  couple of new CDs, ‘The Lex Diamond Story,’  and the sequel to ‘Built 4 the Cuban Linx Part 2. Another Wu Tang Clan CD is in the works as well. Tickets are $30.

Jan. 29 will be an interesting night at Henotic. A new international art program called Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, begins at Henotic with special guest Demonika. Demonika is a Calgary based performance artist who will be posing  for Dr. Sketchy’s which includes artists and would be artists who  gather together to draw. It is a celebration of burlesque and  the process of art. Works aren’t judged, though artists can show them if they want. Admission is $15. On the same night,  Calgary’s Savk and  the Magnetic North will be performing at Henotic as well.

The Slice has a big rock show  on Jan. 29 with Lustre Creame, Under the White Dime and Asprinaut.

It is always entertaining to hear Shaela Miller play, like during her Monday (Jan. 25)  gig at the Penny Coffee House.
 It was an early evening gig for a good sized crowd who enjoyed  the music of Peter Gilligan and Shaela Miller who payed a lot of her favourites including ‘Half Way in Love,’ one of local musician Randy Shaver’s songs ‘Nothing,’ an older song ‘Lonely’  and her song ‘Loving Me’ which won the South Country Fair Songwriting competition last year.

Ever had your mind blown?
A good sized crowd  had their minds blown  by Shane Philip’s first visit to Lethbridge, Monday night (Jan. 25) at Henotic’s GCBC Lounge. The Vancouver Island based one band band sat  on stage behind three didgeridoos and surrounded by a plenitude of drums, djembes guitars and instruments.
 During his second set featured Philip played drums, guitar and didgeridoo solos simultaneously while singing beautiful melodies and lyrics inspired by Mother Earth.

Around midnight, Jan. 15 a cool performance  with Vancouver rapper Moka Only was just getting started with an energetic set at  the Blarney Stone for a sparse audience of approximately 65 people. I didn’t know what to expect, not being a huge rap fan, but Moka grinned ear to ear  and bounded all over the stage like a hyperactive puppy in warm leather winter jacket.

Despite the low numbers, they were all dancing in front of the stage.

Opening act SonReal joined Moka Only on stage  for a couple numbers as well as a couple other rappers.

Moka also showed he also has fairly soulful singing voice on a couple, especially on a version of George Michael’s ‘Faith.’

The audience was singing/rapping along with several numbers. He even covered a Fishbone song in the set and brought out a bugle for a couple more.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat editor