Classic rock fans will want to go ahead and ‘jump’ on down to Youbou Community Hall to ‘dance the night away’ on April 20 as Youbou Community Music Fest follows up their CCR tribute with the enticement of the 1980s and some early Van Halen with Van city’s tribute band Fair Warning.
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“We decided to jump to a different era from CCR, change it up completely and bring in an ’80s band,” said co-organizer Heidi Kulzer. “We thought let’s try ’80s rock and see what demographics we capture. There is just so much talent out there, that it can make it a bit difficult to choose a band as we only have a limited amount of events we host per year.”
Van fans will be partying like it’s 1984. Fair Warning was first formed in 2017 by founding members Dave Groves and former bassist Marty Van Keith. The band currently consists of Groves on guitars, Glenn Regnier on drums, Mark Kenny on bass, and leading the charge with ’80s electric energy is Shawn Klatt on vocals as they bring to the hall the iconic music of Halen’s first six records — which still featured David Lee Roth. With costumes from the ’80s, epic striped guitars, and larger than life sound Fair Warning will be serving up more treats than the ‘ice cream man.’
Tickets are $40, and can be purchased at local businesses such as Youbou General Store, Daly’s Auto Centre, Youbou Bar and Grill, RE/MAX, Irly Bird, and Ed’s Coffee House. The real treat is that this time around $5 from every ticket sold will be donated to Youbou Heritage Church. YCMF’s first concert of the year on Feb. 17, raised $635 for the Lake Cowichan Food Bank.
“Giving back to a community we cherish feels like a very fulfilling accomplishment,” said Kulzer. “Making a difference in people’s lives with the food bank hopefully gave some people relief and knowing that there is a sense of comfort given by so many who contributed.”
Canadian rocker of Prism fame Henry Small who started the Youbou concerts with Kulzer and their team of dedicated volunteers last year has contributed to the good time of past concerts with an eruption of talent from his electric violin on stage, but with Small working on some big things to come with his own music, Kulzer suspects he will sit this one out.
“I don’t believe Henry will be joining in this time around; he has been focusing on his work at the studio and wants to get his new music out as soon as possible,” said Kulzer. “He has found some new musicians locally and a studio to work on his new album. It was a process settling in and starting from scratch, but once he started reaching out, he has found out there is loads of talent on this island.”
Kulzer said they have had a slower start this year then they had originally hoped for, and have a certain number of attendees they would like to see at each event to keep the concert series afloat.
“I am hoping to reach out to sponsors who may be interested in helping with the cost,” said Kulzer. “I do understand the challenges we all are faced with in this current economy. We all certainly are feeling it one way or another, this is why our group of people want to give back and bring some positivity to people. With keeping our costs at a minimum, we hope that it helps in getting people out to our events.”
The music itself should be enough of a draw to get people in the door, but Kulzer said that their April 20 event will have two draws during both intermissions where attendees can either win some band schwag, or cold hard cash. The winner of the 50/50 draw at the their CCR tribute concert walked away with $545 — a gentle reminder for those who enter that they should include their name on the back of their tickets.
“Giving back in such a way where we can all be together as a large group and enjoy an evening that brings lots of positive energy and watching people feeling happy and carefree even just for one night, is definitely rewarding,” said Kulzer. Bringing happy to people feels very fulfilling, and completing it with a donation to a community group just tops it off.”
Music lovers will have even more to look forward to and be happy about with the AC/DC tribute band TNT lined up for August, and just in time for Halloween weekend in full make up no less organizers are bringing in the Kiss tribute Alive N Kissing.
Fair warning, this night of Van Halen hits will be more fun than a Sunday afternoon in the park.
“I am hoping that at the end of the night, we can give the experience of a time warp moment where we were all so carefree listening to great rock music as younger versions of ourselves,” said Kulzer. “Music and songs for me always bring me back to certain places in time while evoking memories, and feelings — it’s a fun ride! The band will be dressed in their best ’80s memorable outfits, so everyone is welcome to dress for the times. It’ll be a blast!”