Owl Acoustic Lounge co-oner Steven Foord  made a rare appearance on The Owl  stage, Saturday, July 30.. He was backed by drummer Brad Brouwer and bassist Paul Holden .

 He also played the Upside Downtown concert Series, July 28 outside Casa, but I missed that, so I was glad to have caught him at the Owl Acoustic Lounge.

 I missed an opening set by Tyson Ray Borsboom.

 Foord was tuning up as I arrived.

 It’s been a while since I saw him perform, so he had a lot of new, hypnotic, haunting, acoustic music.

 He started his set playing banjo on an old favourite  about zombies attacking a church called “ God‘s Not Coming.”

 He sang into two microphones for some of the more spooky numbers.

He continued in the dark gospel vein before singing a few new songs including the outstanding “Dragons of the Prairies ” about horses for which he switched to guitar.

 Another highlight was a new song about “the first time I administered Naxalone to a person.”

 Holden switched to electric bass for the last couple of songs including Foord’s haunting version of Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War.”

— by Richard Amery, L.A.Beat Editor

 The Owl Acoustic Lounge had a special treat for  their monthly poetry open mic, July 27. Quirky country style songwriters Carolyn Mark and Kris Demeanor stopped by to share some songs, trade guitar and piano licks and vocal harmonies.

 They took turns singing lead on their own songs while adding extra harmonies and instrumentation.

 They had new songs to share.

 Kris Demeanor sang one about the perils of drinking wine on an airplane.

 “The Queen of Vancouver Island” Carolyn Mark is always a joy to watch as she just looks happy to be on stage, grinning ear to ear throughout

 She mostly strummed her guitar but also took a turn on the Owl Acoustic Lounge’s on stage piano for one of Kris Demeanour’s songs..

Kris Demeanor told stories and sang a song about a hotel in Sicamous, B.C.

He added a harp solo to a song called “Last to Love.”

Carolyn Mark ended the night with crowd favourite “Get it Up,” with the audience singing along with the refrain. “ Get it up, get it in get it out, don’t mess my hairdo.”

—By RichardAmery, L.A. Beat Editor

August opens with a busy week following the long weekend.

 Big Wreck plays a rescheduled show at the  Enmax Centre, Wednesday, Aug. 3 . They had a couple big hits in the ’90s with “The Oaf” and “That Song.”

 Tickets are  $59.50, $49.50 and $40. The show begins at 7:30 p.m.

 The Owl Acoustic lounge has a comedy open mic, Wednesday, Aug. 3. 

 The Geomatic Attic presents a free festival— The Wide skies Music Festival  part 2 at  The sandman Signature parking lot, Wednesday , August 3 with Toronto via Edmonton alt country band Altameda, Kobotown and Blue and Gold featuring the Be Good Tanyas’ Trish Klein and Blues/soul musician Ndidi O.

Admission is free but donations are greatly appreciated to cover the cost of bringing in these world class entertainers.. Gates open at 5:30 p.m., the music begins at 6 p.m.

 Jenn Kype hosts the open mic at the Slice on Wednesday,  Aug. 3.

Thursdays are busy days in the summer.

 Check out Bailey Kate’s performance  outside Casa for the Upside Downtown concert series from 5- 7 p.m. in Rotary Square.

 After that, Dylan Delaney plays Festival square outside  of Telegraph Taphouse beginning at 6 p.m.

 Then, The Lethbridge Shakespeare Performance Society brings Hamlet to Galt Gardens at 7:30 p.m. Admission is by donation. If you miss it then, Hamlet returns to Galt Gardens on Friday evening  and Saturday as well.

There are several family friendly concerts this week.

 On Friday,  Aug. 5 the Casa community room features the lunch and listen children’s concert, at 12:15 p.m.. Favourites like  “We Don’t Talk about Bruno and “ A Part of your World” will be among the featured performances.

The Lethbridge  Girls Rock band Swap returned to the Slice after a two year hiatus, Saturday, July 23.

The band swap mirrors  the Lethbridge Girls Rock camp  in that band members are put together, usually have to learn an instrument, possibly write a song but definitely have to come up with a set in a week.

I was among several several community members who formed three bands, to  take part this year. This year we had two weeks to form a band, rehearse and come up with a 20 minute set.

 The result was on the Slice stage on Saturday. Most of the bands opted for a pop punk  sound.

 The first band, The Cabbage Patch  Skids , featured TJ Waltho playing bass lines on keyboards,  Amberlea Parker on drums, Sessions  guitarist Cody Grasdal and lead singer Sahlysse Federkeil.

 They were playing The Runaways’ “ Cherry Bomb,” as I arrived, and Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl,” which my band played in the last band swap and a couple L7 songs.

 Jiggle the Outlet decided on a more folk sound Alexanne Oke and drummer Jacob Avila traded lead vocals on their set which included “For What It’s Worth,” some ”’90s rock with Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta” and a solid version of an obscure Kinks song “ The Good Life.” Oke played a laid back, folky original song

Megan Schritt added subtle  guitar leads throughout.

Indy Can’t Save us, including me on bass, Dale Woodard on guitar, Garwin Poff on drums and lead singer Noah Hirlehey played a straight ahead pop punk including “Stacy’s Mom,”  our version of Metallica’s cover of Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page,” and a pair of Wales pop punk band Neck Deep songs including our cover of their cover of Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” which had a couple people dancing and Neck Deep’s “Kali Ma,” which was indeed inspired by the movie “Indiana Jones And the Temple of Doom.”

 I missed Silvana Campus and Aaron Trozzo’s warm up set.

 The event raised $500 in donations for Lethbridge Girls Rock Camp happening in August. More donations are welcome.

— By RichardAmery, L.A. Beat Editor