The Sheepdogs
Burton Cummings Theatre, 364 Smith St.
Friday, 8 p.m.
Tickets $47 to $119 at Ticketmaster
Tim Smith / The Brandon Sun files
The Sheepdogs are back in town Friday at the Burton Cummings Theatre.
They’re called the Sheepdogs, but the Roaddogs would have been an appropriate name for the band led by frontman Ewan Currie.
Since 2022, the Saskatoon rockers have played nearly 300 shows across North America, Europe, the U.K., and Australia, including an arena tour in support of Bryan Adams last fall. Now, they are on their Out All Night headlining tour in support of their latest album, Keep Out of the Storm, which will stop by the Burt on Friday.
Those who were quick on the draw for tickets know the band is also in town tonight to celebrate the Times Change(d)’s 25th anniversary. That show is sold out; limited tickets to the Burt show remain.
— Jen Zoratti
Maple-infused meals
Friday-Sunday and April 24-26; various times
St-Pierre-Jolys Museum, 432 Joubert St.
Tickets $70 to $165 at 3common.com
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press files
Taste of Maple celebrates the sweet, golden liquid with menus designed around the syrup.
The sap is flowing in St-Pierre-Jolys.
Wow! Hospitality Concepts is celebrating maple syrup season in the small francophone town with Taste of Maple, a series of dining events inspired by the sweet, golden liquid.
This weekend and next, diners can take a road trip to the St-Pierre-Jolys Museum, located about 40 kilometres south-east of Winnipeg, for brunch or dinner in the museum’s onsite sugar shack, or cabane à sucre.
Brunches are scheduled for April 19 and 26 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Tickets are $70 per person and include a family-style plated brunch and a small dessert.
Dinners run between 5:30 and 9 p.m., with a late-night party planned on April 25. Tickets are $165 and include a three-course, maple-inspired meal and live entertainment.
— Eva Wasney
Props N Hops
Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, 2088 Wellington Ave.
Saturday, 7-10:30 p.m.
Tickets $76 here
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press files
Al Simmons will entertain at Props N Hops.
Fasten your seatbelts, craft beer lovers — the fifth annual Props N Hops beer event is ready for takeoff.
More than 20 local brewers will be landing at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada on Saturday for a night of craft beer sampling in support of scholarship programs for Manitoba Air Cadets.
Participating brewers include Barn Hammer, Bookstore, Lake of the Woods, Good Neighbour, Interlake and Brazen, as well as Manitoba drinks producers Shrugging Doctor Beverage Co., Wooden Gate Cider and Dead Horse Cider.
In addition to a range of locally made drinks to sample, there will be finger food to enjoy and live entertainment (including Al Simmons) while wandering among the museum’s impressive collection of historic airplanes. There will also be a silent auction and 50/50 to help support Manitoba Air Cadets.
Tickets are $70 plus fees at wfp.to/iaM and include all samples and a commemorative glass; designated driver tickets are $30 plus fees.
— Ben Sigurdson
WMC McLellan Competition
Jubilee Auditorium, 173 Talbot Ave.
Sunday, 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $5-$40 at wmcwpg.ca
Supplied
Past WMC McLellan Competition finalist Jammie Lee performs with the WSO in 2024.
Classical music competitions can be a lot like sporting events.
Take the Banff International String Quartet Competition: it draws thousands of spectators from across the world up a mountain to watch young virtuosos attack and attempt to land some of the canon’s most demanding works in front of an international panel of judges.
Winners take home not just cash, but a career boost that can elevate them to the next level on the international touring circuit and music marketplace.
Winnipeg has its own ecosystem of music competitions — less high-stakes, perhaps, but tons of fun. One of these is the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg’s biennial McLellan Competition for Solo Performance, Manitoba’s only competition where finalists perform with full orchestra.
The competition’s latest edition has its final round on Sunday, meaning the three finalists — soprano Grace Budoloski, pianist Angela Suet Kee Ng and violinist Shion Tamashiro — will each perform a concerto or robust vocal program with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra inside the Jubilee Auditorium.
— Conrad Sweatman
Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra: An 8-Bit Big Band
Fresh off its Juno win for group jazz album of the year, the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra leaps through a green pipe to transport audiences into the musical galaxy of video games, filled with powerful mushrooms, rainbow roads and mustachioed plumbers.
To round out its 8-Bit Big Band, the WJO has added some star power: YouTuber Ben Kidd, a jazz studies grad whose 8-bit Music Theory Channel has more than 600,000 subscribers.
Transcribing video games by ear, Kidd gives digestible lessons in the scores that give franchises such as Super Mario Bros., Zelda and Animal Crossing their adventurous, soothing and dramatic soundscapes.
Check out Kidd’s video on the Wind Waker track The Great Sea is Cursed for a detailed dissection of Ganondorf’s Theme to gain further appreciation for the invaluable role music plays in enriching the gaming experience.
— Ben Waldman