Sam Odrowski
“Tour de Fort” has joined forces with From The Grind Up to stage a double headliner show at the new Rainy Lake Square this coming Tuesday (July 31).
The 11-piece brass-hop band, “My Son the Hurricane,” and the indie-folk rock band, “Shred Kelly,” are heading here for back-to-back performances.
A 20-year-old concert series, “Tour de Fort” is eager for its collaborative show in the square prior to kicking off the 2018-19 season in October.
“We are putting the emphasis on the double headliner, double bill,” said John Payne of “Tour de Fort.”
“We booked both bands separately and they’re both fairly accomplished acts,” he noted.
“They’ve both done large-scale tours and they’ve both opened shows and closed them.”
Each band will play a 60- to 90-minute set, with a short break in the middle for a sound change.
“The idea being is we want it to flow like a mini-festival and maybe perhaps down the road that can lead to an actual festival around here,” noted fellow organizer Ben Morelli of From the Grind Up.
This will be the first concert at the Rainy Lake Square being put on by an organization separate from the Town of Fort Frances.
“We’re really excited about that–to show people that they can put on events,” Morelli enthused.
He said the upcoming show will make for an interesting night, with each band having extremely different sounds.
“My Son the Hurricane” bills themselves as a “multi-horn, multi-drummer, multi-singer brass beast.”
The 11-person band features a full horn section, vocalists, and a couple of emcees to add a hip hop element to their music.
“I think hip hop fusions are something that’s making a bit of a resurgence again,” noted Morelli.
“I wouldn’t classify them as a hip hop act but they are a brass band with an emcee,” he added.
“It’s really high-energy and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
“Shred Kelly,” meanwhile, has more of a “Tragically Hip” type of sound.
“Their title track in their new album, you’d swear it was a ‘Tragically Hip’ song,” said Payne.
“It sounds like Downey,” he noted. “[They] phrase things to sound the same way.
“But it’s different enough that they’re not ripping them off,” he stressed.
Payne is enthusiastic about the show, noting none of the events “Tour de Fort” has held in the past will be at all comparable.
“It’s music that we haven’t had here in any series that I’ve seen,” he remarked. “Nothing even compares.
“It appeals to a much wider range than what we’ve got so it’s not a typical ‘Tour de Fort show,’ it’ll be a party,” Payne added.
“It’ll be a huge party down there.”
“My Son the Hurricane” initially contacted Morelli a couple of months ago to see if they could do a show at his Scott Street coffee shop.
“I let them know ahead of time [that] you have an 11-piece band and we have a 45-person capacity here,” Morelli recalled.
“But they were still down for it and they thought it would be a lot of fun.”
A short time later, a friend of Morelli’s had mentioned that “Shred Kelly” happened to be coming through the area on the same day and would work great as a double-headliner show.
After a few weeks passed, Morelli thought more about the potential to use the Rainy Lake Square for the concert and later contacted board members of “Tour de Fort” with his idea,
“So that’s how that came about,” he remarked. “It just so happened to be that the two bands were coming through town on the same day.”
Both “Tour de Fort” and From the Grind Up are eager for the show, and will be capping ticket sales at 200 to ensure there’s lots of space for people to move around in the square.
Tickets can be purchased for $30 from any “Tour de Fort” board member.
They also are available at From the Grind Up and the Rainy Lake Dental Centre.
“Both bands are on all streaming services,” noted Morelli. “And we do encourage people to check them out.
“We think they’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
