If not for academic probation, Chris Locke might never have gotten into stand-up comedy. Before Run the Burbs, TallBoyz and the Baroness von Sketch Show, and longer still before his starring role in the Atlantic crime caper Who’s Yer Father?, the 45-year-old comedian was on thin ice after a year of general arts studies at […]
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.
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Wintersleep’s Paul Murphy has a new POSTDATA album and Halifax show
The first keyboard chords build with intensity before Paul Murphy’s tenor filters into the song’s frame. It’s a voice you’ve heard before: One that lights up that innermost part of your ear, like the first crackle of a needle on vinyl. A good voice—a great one, even. The kind of voice that commands JUNO accolades […]
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Dartmouth producer DK’s Atlantic Rap Vol. 1 offers a steady dose of boom-bap
What do you get when you take Nas’ Illmatic, Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s Mecca and the Soul Brother, and then bounce them off the walls of a Torbay, NL bedroom studio? The answer, in this case, is producer Darrell Kelloway (better known in rap circles as […]
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Tim Baker misses Halifax. And he misses you, most of all.
Tim Baker is searching for something. What it is, he hasn’t quite managed to pin down. It’s there, at the edge of his imagination, when he picks up a guitar to write a song or a verse, or when he sets off on a months-long tour of mostly sold-out shows across Canada, or Europe, or […]
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Every big show happening in Halifax (and beyond) in December 2023
Winter is fast approaching, and with it comes a full slate of holiday shows. But that’s far from the only thing on offer in December, with a star-studded lineup including last year’s JUNO winner for “Artist of the Year” and a pair of sold-out shows by former Hey Rosetta! frontman Tim Baker. As always, The […]
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Songwriter series aims to shine spotlight on women, non-binary artists across Maritimes
When Lisa MacIsaac was making a name for herself as a fiddler and singer in Creignish, Cape Breton, she was used to being the only woman in the folk bands she played with. That extended to festival lineups, where the JUNO-nominated artist found herself in concert rooms and on stages with very few faces that […]
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Sam Roberts Band chase reinvention—and find it—on The Adventures of Ben Blank
Sam Roberts can write a song anywhere. True story: The down-to-earth Montreal rocker penned his breakout hit, 2002’s “Brother Down,” while living under a friend’s foosball table. (“It’s a memory I’ve tried to repress for the past 20 years,” Roberts jokes, speaking with The Coast over Zoom from his Notre-Dame-de-Grâce studio.) Over a quarter-century-long career […]
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Jenn Grant brings Champagne Problems to Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
One of Halifax’s biggest album releases of the year gets its on-stage moment next Saturday: On Nov. 25, singer-songwriter Jenn Grant will perform at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium (6101 University Avenue) for the final leg of her three-month Champagne Problems tour. The album, a cross-country collaboration with the likes of Tim Baker, Dan Mangan, Basia […]
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How to mark Remembrance Day 2023 in Halifax
Looking for somewhere to commemorate Remembrance Day in the city this year? Here’s a guide to all of the official ceremonies happening in the Halifax Regional Municipality this Saturday, November 11. Remembrance Day at the Halifax Citadel Mark the holiday with Parks Canada at the Halifax Citadel starting at 11am. A 21-gun salute at the […]
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Rapper Kardinal Offishall is still ol’ time killin’ onstage—and has no plans of stopping
If Kevin Bacon can have his own six degree rule, then Kardinal Offishall is going to need one, too. There may be no rapper—hell, entertainer—in Canada with quite the same ties across pop music history. Who else but Kardi can say they were part of Rihanna’s first demo tape? Hand-packaged their breakthrough EP in the […]
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Candlelit concert series to raise funds for Dartmouth’s North Grove community hub
Hear pop music with a classical twist the weekend of Nov. 18-19. For two nights in a row, the Rostova String Quartet—a group of classically trained musicians from Dalhousie’s Fountain School of Performing Arts—will perform covers ranging from Leonard Cohen to Lady Gaga at the Sanctuary Arts Centre (100 Ochterloney Street, Dartmouth). The music spans […]
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Nelly Furtado to host 2024 JUNO Awards in Halifax
From “Maneater” to the Maritimes: One of Canada’s most celebrated singer-songwriters, Nelly Furtado, will host and perform at the upcoming JUNO Awards in Halifax. The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences unveiled the news at a special event at the Marquee Ballroom on Tuesday morning. Halifax will host Canada’s biggest night in music on […]
