Glen McMinn was 52 years old and feeling restless. Despite a thriving career as the founding partner and creative director of Halifax design firm Breakhouse, instead of enjoying his success, he found himself counting down the days, weeks and months until he would turn 64. The number chased him like a hangover in those years: […]
Arts + Music
Live theatre, art exhibits, comedy, literary, spoken word – The Coast guide to Halifax and Dartmouth, NS . The downtown, local arts scene – plays, writers, actors, artists and performers. Painting, sculpture, photography, stand-up, stage.
Posted inArts + Music
Customer Service’s new video for “Grad Day” is a punk rock triumph
In the earliest days of the 2000s, pop punk had something akin to a renaissance. Canadian bands like Sum 41, Treble Charger and Gob were at the peak of their powers—not just in terms of output, but in crossover appeal: Albums like All Killer No Filler, Wide Awake Bored and The World According to Gob […]
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Wintersleep returns to Marquee Ballroom this May
It’s been five years since indie rockers Wintersleep have been onstage together in Halifax. That hiatus ends May 11, when the JUNO award winners behind “Weighty Ghost” and “Amerika” take to the stage at the Marquee Ballroom. The band that got their start in Halifax in the early 2000s—playing the likes of the Seahorse Tavern […]
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See all the nominees for the 2024 East Coast Music Awards
The full list of nominees is here for the 2024 East Coast Music Awards, and Halifax is well-represented. A total of 48 different local artists, engineers, media personalities and venues made the shortlist for the annual celebration highlighting the best music from the East Coast. That includes six nominations for homegrown singer-songwriter Jenn Grant, on […]
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Halifax singer-songwriter Mat Elliott’s debut single is a dream-synth trip
Take the laid-back, bassline-riding funk of Tom Misch and sprinkle in a little psychedelic dreamwave for good measure: That’s the feeling you’ll get from Mat Elliott’s new single, “Two Years.” It’s a precursor to the Halifax-based singer-songwriter’s debut EP, South Endings, set for release in April. A project Elliott describes to The Coast as “a […]
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Classified gets nostalgic and tours around Halifax in video for new single, “All Wrong”
What do McLean Street, Cunard Street and Connolly Street all have in common? For Enfield’s Luke Boyd (better known as rapper Classified), they were the backdrops to some of his earliest days as an aspiring artist, when the “Oh… Canada” and “Inner Ninja” emcee moved from his small town to Halifax at age 19. In […]
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In fenced-off Meagher Park, one renegade poem keeps surviving its removal
Look beyond the chain-link fence at the corner of Chebucto Road and Dublin Street, and a story emerges. It’s there, scrawled in permanent marker, on a plywood board that would be easy to miss, if not for the fact that it keeps disappearing—then coming back again, albeit in different forms. One day, it’s a pamphlet; […]
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These are the 11 albums and EPs from Halifax artists you need to hear this year
The secret has long been out about Halifax’s music scene. Since the “Halifax pop explosion” of the early 1990s, industry ears and those looking to beat the crowd have turned to see what’s happening in our small Atlantic outpost. (Hell, The Coast’s first-ever issue included a profile of alt-rockers jale.) That attention has waxed and […]
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Ring in 2024 with these New Year’s Eve events
Well folks, another year is coming to an end but there’s still one decision left to make, how will you be saying goodbye to 2023? Luckily The Coast is here to help your planning. From comedy shows to concerts and every party in between, choose how you want to ring in 2024 with this guide […]
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6 books by Nova Scotia authors you need on your end-of-year reading lists
There’s a well-loved equation among bicycle enthusiasts that answers how many bikes a person should own: n+1, where the variable “n” is however many bikes you already have. Book lovers will know the same rule applies to the printed page—except the n, in this case, can also extend to however many books you currently have […]
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Propeller Arcade’s holiday telethon is just the feel-good thing for your weekend
Andrew Neville wears a lot of hats—poet, musician, This Hour Has 22 Minutes researcher and erstwhile podcast co-host, for starters—but he might never have worn a hat quite like this one. This Saturday, Dec. 16, he’ll be co-running the first-ever Propeller Arcade Family Christmas, a telethon-style fundraiser with a lineup of performers that sounds about […]
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Charlotte Cardin’s pop tour de force comes to Halifax
Pick a moment from Charlotte Cardin’s meteoric rise from Montreal songstress to global starlet—there are plenty of them. You could start with May 15, 2022. That was the night the 29-year-old took home four JUNO Awards for her album Phoenix—more than any other Canadian artist that evening, including The Weeknd, who had performed at the […]
