It felt great to be back on stage on Saturday, December 5th at The Brass Monkey in Ottawa. We were joined by our buds in Hard Labour and a new band to the scene – jazz-rock fusion band Finely Tuned Elephant who did not disappoint! These kids are GOOD! Covid-19 restrictions were in effect to keep everyone safe and there was a live stream available for those who didn’t feel comfortable going out or who couldn’t get a ticket once we got the maximum capacity for the club. We want to thank Skotti at the Monkey and Brad at Pandamonium Promotions for all their hard work in making this happen.
We can’t describe what it means for us to be able to do this again. It’s great to have music in the Capital again after having lost a few venues to the lockdowns already, and the Brass Monkey is in real trouble so we were ready to do whatever we could to help out. And we’ll do it again. It’s one thing to claim we’re not essential, and to state that we don’t need bars and music venues – as was heard often and loudly during the lockdown – but we saw the faces, these people were thrilled to be doing something other than Netflix for a change. And the staff at the Monkey was happy to earn a little money right before Christmas.
Music and the arts are essential to our mental well-being and to the health and vibrancy of our communities. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. We simply need to imagine what the pandemic lockdown would be like without movies and videos and music…it’s scary just thinking about it. The restaurants, gyms, art galleries and music venues we’re trying to help employ real human beings who have as much right to earn a living as anyone else. No one is un-essential.
It’s important to point out that our support for these fine people and places does not in any way put us at odds with the prevailing guidelines issued by Ottawa Public Health. We believe strongly in the protective measures suggested by those who really do know best, just as we have faith in the amazing music fans in the community to understand and respect them. We all know that if we want shows like these to keep happening we each have to do our part.
We’ll be back at the Brass Monkey on January 9th with Waste Deep and Sunday Riot Club and we hope some of you can make it out, and if you can’t make it out or have COVID concerns, this one will also be live-streamed. We’ve also been working on some new music and we plan to have another single released right around the show date so be on the lookout for that on our Facebook and Instagram!
Better days are coming friends, better days are coming.
As always, peace out.
Wyntr - Hard Rock from Ottawa 