Song. Dance. Eye candy.
And toe-tapping Old-World music from around the globe. What more could you ask from your perfect party band?
Want to pump energy into your most routine events?
Catapult your community gatherings into instant public attention?
Smash the ice at every function and get your guests up and dancing? Swell the ranks at your parades and festivals? Make your name as the supreme host in town? Turn your wedding, birthday, or any other party into a true occasion to remember?
Enter Toot-a-Lute. We’re just your ordinary crazy costumed musicians, toting the weirdest collection of instruments you never saw together before. You get about seven bands for the price of one, because none of us does only one thing. The costumes alone should keep people staring for an hour or three.
Men in lace and frock coats, women in all-out Renaissance and Regency dresses, all singing, dancing, and playing like there’s no tomorrow. We come bearing a slinky black saxophone, a button accordion, a fiddle, two clarinets, a mini tuba, a mandolin, tin whistles, and a bewildering variety of drums and percussion instruments.
Two matched dance leaders will lead you through easy-to-learn dances from another time and another world. Singers of every flavour, including fugitives from some pretty famous choirs and operas, will turn your event from satisfactory to smashing.
You can’t categorize the music we play. Old-world music from every corner of the globe, folk dance tunes that gets toes tapping and people hopping, romantic waltzes, cheery polkas, Irish country songs, simple yet graceful medieval court dances you can learn to do in two minutes, hauntingly lovely original melodies and a few oddball piece for unique occasions – we have something for everyone!
Amplification? We don’t need no reekin’ amplification! We can play outside with no electric power, under tents in the rain, in little coffee houses, big festivals, marching in parades, and standing on our heads (but that’s extra).
You’ll never be forgotten when you have Toot-a-Lute. To book us, e-mail Oliver at info@tootalute.org, or call 604-931-2050.
BurnBC Spring Fling
2008-04-18 21:00
2008-04-19 03:00
Etc/GMT+7
Waldorf Hotel
Hastings Street just West of Commercial.
Can't say it better than their website (BurnBC.com)
Date: April 18th
Location: Waldorf
Theme: Spring (Costumes Encouraged)
Tickets: $20 (Advanced tickets only) *** Not sure how rigid this rule is... - TaL ***
For Tickets:
Contact: Napalm Dragon
Phone: 778.885.4321
Email: NapalmDragon@BurnBC.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
NORTHWEST FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL
2008-05-23 17:00
2008-05-25 23:59
Etc/GMT+7
Seattle Centre,
Seattle, Washington
As most of us are travelling to this amazing festival in The Land of The Great Shrub anyway, we thought we'd don our costumes and do a couple of outdoor standing sets. Look for us amongst the thousands of other folky performers, perhaps near Bluegrass Hill, or Hurdy Gurdy Huddle, or near Klezmer Corner, but not too close to the Djembe popcorn machine, and definitely far away from Morris Alley with all those pesky bells and accordions.
JERICHO FOLK CLUB
2008-05-27 07:30
2008-05-27 10:00
Etc/GMT+7
Jericho Beach Sailing Centre
We return to the tiny but wonderful secret performance space above the sailing centre at Jericho beach. We will focus on more vocal and folky stuff, and all acoustic too! And we will dance, space or no space!
» calendar
St. Patrick's Day Parade, Pub Session, Street Dance
2008-03-16 11:00
Etc/GMT+7
Downtown Vancouver
See http://www.celticfestvancouver.com/parade.php for map
Once again, we took to the streets for the ever-growing annual St Paddy's parade. Of course since Vancouver is such a multi-ethnic city, the parade reflects that, so we only played "Tell Me Ma" 37 times. Our parade was led by Kris, Lisa, Barbara, and someone who's name I've forgotten, and Jaque the Gator. We were joined by stalwart Bryan Siver on snare to help us compete with the pipe bands.
Cabaret Politique
2008-03-07 09:30
2008-03-07 10:15
Etc/GMT+7
Cambrian Hall
215 East 17th
(1 block East of Main)
Vancouver
Yet another creative and enjoyable event by one of our favourite employers, the Workless Party. (www.worklessparty.org)
To quote their site: "...an event unlike any other event in the history of Vancouver politics. The Work Less Party, Civic Greens and COPE (organized) a cabaret for you."
We did a short stage set to get the evening warmed up and people dancing. Many great costumes, familiar faces, and talent, and a good time was had by all!
Seabus Pirate Party
2008-02-22 08:30
2008-02-22 10:30
Etc/GMT+7
see above
Thanks to the careful plotting and planning of the Vancouver Public Space Network and the brave assistance of several hundred pirates (easily identifiable by their eyepatches, parrots, peglegs, and "Aaaarrgh!!!"s), on this dull February evening we stormed the venerable Seabus, much to the surprise of the poor passengers and crew.
Lucky for them, the crew immediately surrendered to our onslaught of horns, fiddle, flute, squeezebox, mandolinish-Croatian-stringed--thingy, and of course our drums. Liberated from their imprisonment of mundanity, the passengers quickly rallied by our side, and we sailed into the sunset victoriously.
Beats on Broadway
2007-12-14 19:30
2008-12-14 19:30
Etc/GMT+7
Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House
800 East Broadway, Vancouver
Beats on Broadway
Start: 2007-12-14 19:30
End: 2007-12-14 21:30
Timezone: Etc/GMT+7
Location:
Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House
800 East Broadway, Vancouver
Description:
This monthly coffee house is another of the amazingly busy Earl Peach's ambitious endeavours. Hey, has this fellow ever gotten any community service awards? It is possible that he may cause more music to happen than any other single individual in this town.
Only four of us did this show, as many of us had other commitments during the busy holiday season, but that allowed us to concentrate on more sedate vocal pieces and holiday tunes of the Toot kind (i.e. no "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer").
Cafe Montmartre
2007-10-10 20:30
2007-10-10 23:30
Etc/GMT+7
4362 Main, Vancouver, BC
After a nearly three month hiatus while we individually gallavanted around Ireland, France, Latvia, Italy, Turkey, Serbia, Austria, and probably a few others, we converged on this little Main Street Cafe in full force, and to our amazement we still remembered most of our tunes despite not having practiced together since late July!
Although we did have some problems remembering what band we were supposed to be in and the names of our bandmates, not to mention which way around we're supposed to hold our instruments, we managed to pull off a fun show that had very few people running out with their ears covered.
Guca Trumpet Festival (Sabor Trubaca)
2007-08-08 14:00
2007-08-13 06:00
Etc/GMT+7
Guca, Serbia
After all was said and done, only one member of the band and an occasional dancer for Toot-a-Lute made it there (Serbia is a bit of a haul from Vancouver), but it was a most worthwhile journey! No mere words can describe this event, check it out at http://www.guca.co.yu/eng/index.php
Or, give us some time to work out arrangements for the hottest party tunes on the planet, and we'll play some of this music for you!