2009 Festival | Vancouver Squeezebox Circle homepage

Sunday September 19th - Sunday September 26th, 2010:
the Third Annual Accordion Noir Festival!

  The CFRO Co-op Community Radio show and hit international podcast phenomenon Accordion Noir once again joins forces with preeminent Vancouver klezmerpunk ringleader Geoff Berner and the teeming throngs (or is that the thronging teams?) of the Vancouver Squeezebox Circle to present the third in an annual series of expectation-defying demonstrations of the humble squeezebox's unrealised potential -- trenchant, gritty, and with a much farther-ranging emotive palette than was ever dreamed of in Lawrence Welk's sepia-toned philosophy.

 Expanding to a week in its third year, the festival will again be offering something for everyone: a bevy of local rising talents skilled in the squeezely arts as well as foreign mainstage performers traveling to our humble hamlet just to show you what they can do with their accordions -- plus another free-reed film festival!

 Please note that on account of the festival principals either being itinerant musicians or locking themselves away to work on a text testimony of the true untold history of the accordion (the most complete work on the subject over the past 50 years!), ticket pricing and the full festival schedule of dozens of performers at a half-dozen venues has not yet been finalised... but rest assured these behind-the-scenes wheelings and dealings continue just below the surface at a brisk pace! We can tell you so far that the week will build and culminate with two big weekend concerts: the Orkestar Slivovica and year 1 headliners the Creaking Planks at the Grandview Legion Auditorium (2205 Commercial Drive) on Friday, Sept 24th, and the following night (Sat, Sept 25th) the grand festival mainstage at the Strathcona Ukrainian Hall (805 E. Pender) featuring the exotic Turkish antics of Something About Reptiles and of course Geoff Berner (see below for the first in a long series of performer bios...) and his band.

Geoff Berner (Vancouver, BC)

Geoff Berner cut his teeth writing pointed, punky songs for local outfit the Terror of Tiny Town before striking it out on his own with his axe Estella in 2000. Together they plumbed Belgian prisons, convalesced in Romanian hospitals and conquered Scandinavia, and the two of them will show us all what he has learned along the way.

 from a photo by Jessica Eaton

In the meantime, stay tuned to the weekly Accordion Noir podcast to get your fix!

Accordion Noir: Ruthlessly pursuing the belief that the accordion is just another instrument.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Accordion Noir: One Less Guitar                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Accordion Noir: Radio Free Reed                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Accordion Noir: Accordion crimes need a good reporter                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Accordion Noir: Proudly squeezing our boxes and pumping our organs since 2006.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Accordion Noir: Squeezing the last breath out of life!

This website does not use any accordion menus... but we couldn't resist bringing it up.
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