Grad Club Archives - Queen's Journal

Grad club successfully negotiates reopening with University

Written on September 15, 2020. Posted in News.

Though the Grad Club initially applied to reopen Aug. 19, it now anticipates reopening in the next week or two. “We will now be reopening the patio and the first floor,” Astrid Hobill, president of the Grad Club’s Board of Directors, said in an interview with The Journal. “We’re lucky in many ways...

Grad Club hosts charity dance party for Indigenous rights

Written on January 31, 2020. Posted in Arts.

A range of DJs will provide a soundtrack of an eclectic mix of pop, hip-hop, and dance favourites this Friday, all for a good cause. On Jan. 31, the Grad Club will host SOUTH NODE’s winter edition dance party to fundraise for and bring attention to the Likhts’amisyu clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation...

Fast Romantics is the happiest band in indie rock

Written on November 2, 2018. Posted in Arts, Music.

On Fast Romantics’ forthcoming album, front man Matthew Angus asks himself what it means to be truly happy. Next Saturday night, the indie rock band will bring that question to the Grad Club, while ushering in their newfound success as independent artists. Based out of Toronto, the band includes...

Cadence Weapon kicks off tour at The Grad Club

Written on September 25, 2018. Posted in Arts, Music.

When Cadence Weapon takes the stage at the Grad Club on Friday night, he’ll welcome criticism. Setting off on a North American tour, Weapon will be performing music from his self-titled fourth album, Cadence Weapon, released in January. He calls the music art-rap—music that’s open to study and analysis. Weapon’s...

Queen’s Poetry Slam returns full force

Written on October 19, 2017. Posted in Arts.

Run monthly, Queen’s Poetry Slam invites one and all to share their spoken word poetry in a scored competition. There are two rounds, allowing each poet three minutes for the chance to show off their best couplets and metaphors. With a small yet energetic crowd, the event had the vibe of an arts-inspired...

Romance of rural life still key for Old Man

Written on February 22, 2014. Posted in Arts.

While many dream seekers shift to big cities in the hopes of making it big, Old Man Luedecke had another idea. More than ten years ago the Toronto-raised musician moved to Chester, Nova Scotia and has been reaping the benefits ever since. “I was pretty certain that I wasn’t cut out for the city,”...

A visceral response

Written on February 13, 2014. Posted in Arts.

Next Friday’s show at the Grad Club will be a homecoming for Seoul. The Montreal ambient pop aggregate of multi-instrumentalists Julian Flavin, Dexter Garcia and Nigel Ward spoke over Skype about their sound and upcoming gigs. Flavin and Ward grew up in Kingston before moving to Montreal in 2008....

Destroyer quiets the crowd at Grad Club

Written on February 11, 2014. Posted in Arts.

Vancouver’s Dan Bejar, more famously known as Destroyer, came to the Grad Club Saturday night for a sold-out solo acoustic set. One might not first associate Bejar with the idea of the archetypal acoustic balladeer. His breakthrough album under the Destroyer name – 2011’s excellent Kaputt – was a...

Strummin’ in the Limestone again

Written on November 28, 2013. Posted in Arts.

Birthed from Craigslist, six-piece band The Strumbellas has had to fight for where they stand. After writing songs since childhood, member Simon Ward posted an ad on Craigslist a few years ago in the hopes of forming a band. “[I] probably had like 12 people come to my apartment and try out,” he said. The...

Music making for social justice

Written on November 22, 2013. Posted in Arts.

Think music rooted in social justice. The Kingston Soul Shakedown, an event run by a group of local DJs and dancers, aims to create a positive space for marginalized individuals. Ekta Singh, also known as DJ E, combined her social activism and love of international and independent music to help form...

A gong show for show-goers

Written on November 20, 2013. Posted in Arts.

Count yourself lucky if you managed to snap tickets to Said the Whale’s sold out show. For those who did, I’m sure they’d agree when I say it was an utter “gong show”. At least that’s how the band described their first official show in Kingston, which took place Friday night at the Grad Club. The...

Old habits die hard

Written on November 15, 2013. Posted in Arts.

Despite having toured for over five years, they have yet to make a pit stop in Kingston — until now. Well, sort of. “Once upon a time we played a house show in Kingston,” Tyler Bancroft, Said the Whale’s frontman, said. In 2009, the band sent out a tweet asking if anyone in Kingston wanted them to...

Kingston hits the spot

Written on November 8, 2013. Posted in Arts.

For Hannah Georgas’ family, musical talent doesn’t skip generations. Her father, also a musician, exposed her to music from a very young age. “My dad was an amazing blues-piano player … and songwriter,” she said. “I think that rubbed off on me quite a bit.” The singer-songwriter is currently on a...

Getting lost in the pines

Written on November 1, 2013. Posted in Arts.

They recorded in the pines — literally. The Montreal-based duo AroarA released their debut album In The Pines earlier this year and will be touring this fall, making a pit stop in Kingston on Saturday. “A friend let us use her house in the woods,” band member Andrew Whiteman said. “It challenged us...

A sentimental haze

Written on October 22, 2013. Posted in Arts.

An intimate crowd gathered inside the Grad Club this damp Saturday night to be warmed by the dreamy nostalgic sounds of DIANA and Silkken Laumann. Upon entering the venue I was met with the sound of Silkken Laumann, the three-piece Ottawa collective consisting of Adam Saikaley, Pat Johnson and Rolf...

Unique beginning

Written on October 18, 2013. Posted in Arts.

The making of DIANA, unlike most bands, came after recording an album. Joseph Shabason and Kieran Adams are the brains behind DIANA’s origins. The two joined forces, dabbling with their own writing abilities, before asking vocalist Carmen Elle to sing over their tracks. “[We were] making an album...

Ten years and counting

Written on September 27, 2013. Posted in Arts.

A post-classic rock band from Montreal, Plants and Animals is comprised of guitarists-vocalists Warren Spicer and Nic Basque along with drummer-vocalist Matthew Woodley. The band isn’t new to Kingston. Nic Basque, the band’s guitarist and vocalist, said he finds it tough to describe their music. In...

A voice for diversity

Written on September 17, 2013. Posted in Arts.

Lucas Silveira has a special association with Kingston – and its weather. The first time lead singer and guitarist Silveira and his band The Cliks came to play a show, they played in a pub while Kingston was enduring some of its favourite weather conditions. “I was having a hard time with a partner...

Inspiration from the classics

Written on September 13, 2013. Posted in Arts.

Canadian singer-songwriter Megan Hamilton’s art and lifestyle is going back to the basics. Hamilton said she found herself drawn to art from a young age, since the different mediums offered her an outlet for self-expression. While music was always a big influence on her life, she admits that she never...

Just getting started

Written on March 8, 2013. Posted in Arts.

When Grad Club Manager Virginia Clark encourages you to come see a show, you don’t say no. And I’m glad I got to see Half Moon Run live before they become a global success. Dressed to go to a concert Tuesday night, I forgot how warm it gets within the borders of the intimate crowds at the Grad Club. The...

Banjo vibes

Written on November 23, 2012. Posted in Arts.

Save the tissue boxes for someone else — Chris Luedecke’s heartbreak only needed the purchase of a banjo to be solved. It’s this broken heart that sparked Luedecke’s love for music. “I hitchhiked from Vancouver to the Yukon [in 1998] and I met a girl up there. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do...

Satisfying, if not epic

Written on November 16, 2012. Posted in Arts.

Gentleman Reg will turn to his record player of 70s rock before his phone book of famous musician friends for inspiration. His seventh album Leisure Life Part Three marks an auditory shift in direction, with a purposefully more synthetic sound than his prior work. “I wanted that sort of new wave vibe...

Golden gods

Written on October 30, 2012. Posted in Arts.

With a band name like Zeus, only gold will do. Band founder and guitarisst Mike O’Brien said the band has expensive taste in clothing. “We all wear gold-plated underpants. All the time. They’re really uncomfortable, but worth it,” O’Brien joked while we were speaking on the phone. The last time Kingstonians...

Musical muse

Written on March 30, 2012. Posted in Arts.

I arrived a few minutes early to meet Virginia Clark on Friday. With the familiar creak of the Grad Club door, I stepped around bodies and band gear to find her in the venue’s main space. Her back is turned, attention fixed on Rich Aucoin — the artist she’s booked for the night. He needs a piece of...

Chasing a creative ghost

Written on March 2, 2012. Posted in Arts.

Richard Terfry, better known as Buck 65, isn’t pretending anymore. “Over the years, I’ve grown to be comfortable with who and what I am,” he told the Journal via email. “Early on, I tried to be tough. Now, I mostly want to make pretty music.” Fall of 2003 marked the release of his single “Wicked and...

Friday night spinning

Written on February 16, 2012. Posted in Arts.

Cameron Willis, a staff member of CFRC, will be DJing on Friday night at the Grad Club to raise money for the station’s annual week-long fundraiser. The money raised composes 20 per cent of the radio station’s operating budget. “We’re trying to beat last year’s record of $25,000,” Willis said. Willis...

Walking for inspiration

Written on February 16, 2012. Posted in Arts.

For Kingston-based musicians Kris and Dee, inspiration starts in bed. “We’ll be in the pitch black, drinking coffee and start to work on a song,” guitarist and vocalist Kris Abbott said. “There’s a lot of clarity that comes out of that early-morning quiet.” Abbott started writing music with Dee McNeil...

Electronic rap hybrid

Written on January 27, 2012. Posted in Arts.

Cadence Weapon doesn’t like to rhyme on the spot. “I’m so into the written word, and I really like to visualize what I’m saying,” he said after I asked him to freestyle during our interview on Jan. 19. “You gotta see what I do when I’m really thinking about it … That’s the really good stuff.” Rollie...

Into the depths of Wildlife

Written on October 4, 2011. Posted in Arts.

Dean Povinsky wasn’t about to let surgery keep his band, Wildlife, from their most extensive cross-country tour to date. The guitarist and lead singer tore his Achilles tendon on stage during a July performance in Ottawa and has since undergone two surgeries. He said members of the band were all moving...

Tag: Grad Club

The Journal, Queen's University - Since 1873

Get the App

Get the App