There’s a private party happening at The Carleton on Saturday, August 15th. Very hush hush, very, um, private…

Kiefer Sutherland (yeah, that Kiefer Sutherland) and his band, along with The Common Linnets (Netherlands), Bobby Cameron and The Carletones will be performing for invited guests only. HOWEVER, we’re going to run a contest to give away some tickets to those of you who (a) dig exclusive events and (b) like entering contests!

Here’s the contest blurb…

Build your Carleton VIP Profile and enter to win tickets to an exclusive event featuring Bobby Cameron, The Common Linnets, The Kiefer Sutherland Band, and The Carletones on Saturday, August 15. Text CARLETON to 770077 to learn how to join. Standard message & data rates may apply.

All of our musician friends are out of town tonight – along with pretty much everyone who mixes live music – so we won’t have live entertainment at The Carleton tonight (Friday, July 31st). HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come by. We still have lots of very yummy food and delicious drinks and the music in-house is always great anyway. The better news is that there’ll be no cover!

The mighty Carletones will be kicking it out as usual on Saturday night!

I feel a little sorry for anyone visiting Halifax over the past couple of weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I feel sorry for those of us who live here too but a rainy holiday is particularly galling. So what should one do when faced with a weather insult such as the one we’re experiencing?

There are lots of ways to amuse oneself indoors during the day in the city – museums, galleries and the like – but in the evening, you can’t do better than catching some live music at The Carleton. And tonight we’ve got something very, very special happening!

One of the best songwriters/performers you’ll ever get the chance to see (anywhere) is in Halifax playing at our club. Lloyd Cole (from Lloyd Cole & The Commotions fame) will be on stage at 8 PM. You can read the listing – and buy tickets – at the link you’ll see if you cast your eyes to the left of this column. Dinner and a show of this calibre is the kind of memory you’ll keep with you forever – even if it did rain on your vacation parade.

I guarantee you there is nothing more compelling happening in this town tonight.

Weather’s maddening isn’t it? Just when you thought summer had finally arrived in these eastern climes, it decides to spend the better part of a week raining cats and dogs. Which sucks, but I should remind everyone that it doesn’t rain indoors and The Carleton is a great place to come in out of the pesky rain.

If you haven’t been downtown recently, you’ll see by the photo above that the Nova Centre folks have finally gotten around to putting up the promised “hoarding” around the site so now you can see this colourful display instead of the gnarly construction stuff going on behind it…

I’ll also remind everyone that our kitchen is REALLY good, and easy on the wallet, so you should come in for lunch and/or dinner this week (while the rain falls). You’ll be happy you did – and so will we!

It’s Friday night (July 17th) and whether you just got paid (as the song goes), or not, we’ve got cool doings happening at The Carleton.

Firstly, Happy Hour starts at 4 PM – just about the time the sun starts thinking about coming back to our corner of the street after making its way around the Nova Centre construction – so there are cheap cocktails and appetizers on our fab deck while you look across the street at the new hoarding on the fence of the construction site to try to figure out what it means…

Then… we’ve got Toronto‘s alternative rockers The Wooden Sky (with bassist Jon Hynes opening) on stage at 7:30 PM. Last night’s show was packed – and fantastic – and, believe it or not, there are still a few tickets left ($15 – you can get them by clicking on the show listing to the left of this post). If you decide to go, make sure you get there early for dinner to grab a great seat for the performance!

Later on in the evening we’ve got another great Toronto band – The Old Salts – taking the stage. They’ll be making live music after 10 PM and it’s only $5 at the door to get into the joint.

We like to think the weekend starts on Thursdays during the summer and do we have a night of entertainment TONIGHT (July 16th)!

Toronto’s The Wooden Sky performs at 7:30 (bassist Jon Hynes opens the show). Somehow there are still tickets left so your plan should be to come for dinner around 6 and then settle in for what will be a fantastic evening of indie rock/folk. The aforementioned tickets are only $15 and you can get them by clicking on the show just to the right of this post.

Later in the night, local Jessie Brown continues her Resonance Residency at The Carleton, along with special guests The Stogies and Mike Ryan from The Town Heroes. We’ll have live music on the stage around 9:30 and it’s $8 at the door to get in.

It’s an awfully nice night out there tonight (Wednesday, July 15th) and it’ll be a nice night on The Carleton patio and inside the club too! SW Ontario reggae/ska/party band Too Nice play the joint this evening.

Live music starts after 9 PM and it’s only $5 at the door to get in. If you dig reggae and ska classics, as well as stuff from The Clash and The Specials, you’ll have fun. If you don’t, you should!

I know it’s been taking its sweet time but it finally looks like summer has found its way to Halifax. That means any right-thinking human should be looking for a patio for lunch, dinner and/or after-work drinks. Fun Facts: The Carleton has great food, The Carleton has great drinks, The Carleton has a killer Happy Hour menu Monday to Friday from 4 PM to 6 PM, The Carleton is the only patio on Argyle Street with sun after 5 PM!

What are you waiting for!?!

It’s fitting that Steve Poltz (the best solo entertainer we’ve ever seen and Carleton mascot) is playing The Carleton on Sunday, June 21st – Father’s Day – because Steve loves his dad A LOT and that’s cool because Joe Poltz is awesome.

We think you should seriously think about taking your dad out to dinner and a Steve Poltz show for Father’s Day! It’ll change his life and he’ll thank you over and over and over again. Even if your kids won’t take you to the show, or if your dad has sadly passed already, you should come.

Saturday’s show is SOLD OUT now so this will be your only opportunity to see Steve for quite some time. He’ll be off touring Australia again and God knows where else before he makes it back to his hometown of Halifax. Spread the word, there’s nothing quite like a Poltz show. Will he actually wind up nekked? I wouldn’t put it past him…

If you’ve never seen Steve do the full meal deal version of his famous Jewel hit You Were Meant For Me before, check out this show we shot in my garage years before I opened The Carleton. Priceless stuff and just a hint at what his shows are like.

Tonight’s (Thursday, June 18th) show – the fourth in this year’s annual run of dates at The Carleton – is sold out but we’ve just released more tickets for tomorrow’s show (Friday, June 19th). The band didn’t need them for their guest list so they’re now up for grabs! Reminder that this is a special early show and gets underway at 7 PM!