MUSIC

If Christmas music isn’t your thing, the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium lined up just the concert for you. Concert-goers filled the open pit and got ready to mosh as Toronto-based punk rock band PUP and British Columbia hip hop duo Snotty Nose Rez kids took the stage for a night of hard-hitting musical catharsis.

High school friends Jarret Schilke, Derek DeSa, and Bryan Johnston share a powerful bond and love of hip hop. With Johnston’s beats and Schilke and DeSa’s MC skills, the trio decided to put on a show at the Apollo in December of 2000. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Today marks a grand slam for Thunder Bay blues lovers; the blues will be coming back to the city on a major scale next summer. After a seven year hiatus, the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium (TBCA) announced that a summer blues festival will return in 2026 as they unveiled the lineup for the newly rebranded festival, now known as Blues in the Ballpark, which will now take place at Port Arthur Stadium next August 21 and 22, featuring a lineup of acclaimed international blues talent.

“It’s crazy. It’s like a small arena show,” says local musical artist EZRA, whose debut single “Slip Away” has amassed over 15,000 plays between streaming services since it was released last November.

For a musician, creating an alter-ego can allow for a creativity and freedom that their public persona doesn’t allow.

Here are three artists who took the alter ego path, with varying degrees of success.

Festival-goers in Thunder Bay had the time of their lives at the sixth Wake the Giant music and cultural festival this past weekend. Headlined by the Black Eyed Peas, this year’s festival marked the first-ever Indigenous headliner in addition to its first-ever ticket sell-out as 8,500 people filled Marina Park to participate in this special celebration of diversity, inclusivity, and culture.

It's hard to believe this is already Wake the Giant’s sixth annual edition, but what’s even more mindblowing is the lineup that’s in store for this September 6: Black Eyed Peas, Prozzäk, Neon Dreams, and Crystal Shawanda are just a few of the acts hitting the stage.

If it smells like teen spirit, looks like a party, and oinks like a pig, then it might just be the Tumblestone Music & Art Festival.

When Luke Warm and the Cold Ones were set to release their new self-titled album, they wanted a party, a celebration for all they’d accomplished. They wanted all their friends there—but they also wanted their families present, including young kids. The solution was hosting two shows on the same night, with an earlier slot for earlier bedtimes.

“For many Thunder Bay residents, no summer is complete without making the pilgrimage to Birds Hill Provincial Park for the Winnipeg Folk Festival. This year, as the festival celebrates its 50th anniversary, the four-day event remains a cherished tradition.”

-Adrian Lysenko

“Shattered Glass” comes from a place of experience and is about the times in life when everything seems to go wrong at once. The song is about romance and adventure and “that moment when it all falls apart.”

Miley Cyrus is forging a unique musical career in an age when it has never been more difficult to be relevant. Cyrus is also one of those generational artists who is improving with age. Her songwriting, singing, and soulfulness have bloomed in her late 20s and 30s. She may be as close to a Dolly Parton-level crossover star as we will ever see in the 2020s.