the Third Annual Accordion Noir Festival!

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 traveling 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!

THE SHORT VERSION

IN GREATER DETAIL

* Sunday, Sept 19th, the fun and games begin with another accordion parade from the sitting area at Napier and Commercial at 7 pm (corrected), winding up the Drive to our festival launch party at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive at 5th) -- with discounted admission if you turn up with the parade wearing a squeezebox!

* Monday, Sept 20th, and Tuesday, Sept 21st, we host more intimate solo performances from 8-10 pm at the Yaletown location (1391 Richards Street at Pacific) of Trees Organic Coffee. By donation.

* Wednesday, Sept 22nd, find your way to last year's mainstage venue, the WISE Hall (1882 Adanac at Victoria) to get a joyous earful of old favorites the Fugitives and Mark Berube. $15, 9 pm.

* Thursday, Sept 23rd, from 8-10 pm, we pop up at everyone's favorite anarchist bookstore, Spartacus Books (684 E. Hastings at Heatley), the site of our monthly squeezebox circle, for a serving of short films, a CD launch and some multimedia performance.

* Friday, Sept 24th, we transform the Grandview Legion Hall (2205 Commercial Drive, upstairs) into a squeezebox dance party featuring sets from: the jug band of the damned, the Creaking Planks; the Orkestar Slivovica; Maria in the Shower; and Mezamazing, the Balkan dance band that got the cops summoned to last year's festival. In accordion-bicycle solidarity (the two profoundest mechanical inventions of the 1800s), Critical Mass riders wearing their helmets will have a discount on admission.

* Saturday, Sept 25th, we pull out all the stops for the festival's mainstage performances at the Strathcona Ukrainian Hall (805 E. Pender at Hawks) with siren songs from Vancouver Island's Ursula, raving Turkish insanity from Something About Reptiles, and booze-fuelled wisdom from the whiskey rabbi Geoff Berner. 8 pm, $12.

* Sunday, Sept 26th, the festival goes out with a bang with a more intimate closing party at Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main Street at 28th), last year's /opening/ stage, with many friends from last year's festival rejoining us and a few new faces chiming in. 8 pm, by donation.

* BONUS! Monday, Sept 27th, accordionist and one-man-band par excellence Scotty Dunbar launches his double CD at the Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir at Seymour, upstairs) with T. Nile and friends. 8:30, $8/6 for Railway members.

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

MORE BIOS COMING ASAP!


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!

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