BY MEGAN WARREN
For ArtSpring
Spring is almost upon us, and ArtSpring’s March program is blooming right along with the snowdrops!
After this week’s jam-packed immersive experience with The Ostara Project, we’re welcoming two powerhouse acts that define the Canadian musical landscape, albeit in very different ways. Perennial Salt Spring favourite Michael Kaeshammer boogies his way onstage on March 19, followed by the highly anticipated visit of The Arrogant Worms on March 21. With tickets vanishing fast, these two nights promise to be the high-energy spark that shakes off the last of winter.
Michael Kaeshammer
If you’ve experienced a Michael Kaeshammer concert before, you know it’s something special. With a dynamite original repertoire that spans boogie-woogie, pop, jazz and a wholly original fusion of all three and more, this keyboard sensation refuses to be put in a box.
Given how quickly this concert sold out, Salt Springers are hungry for more Kaeshammer — and for good reason. In addition to a voracious global fan base, this piano man has won a Juno award and been nominated for six more. His tours have taken him to three Olympics and around the world, including nine resounding tours across China. This time, he’s touring hits from his most recent album Turn It Up, which he released in 2024.
As with his previous albums, Turn It Up is shot through with buoyant riffs and kaleidoscopic melodies dancing around an unwaveringly joyful lyrical base. For example, “(The track) ‘Turn It Up’ is about making the best out of a situation and coming out stronger on the other side,” says Kaeshammer. “My girlfriend and I hang out in the kitchen, forget about the day, and let the music take over. This is a song for people to do that to.”
From croony original tunes like “It Will Always Be You” (written for his partner Josephine) to explosive covers of beloved songs like Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” Turn It Up is a glittering example of Kaeshammer soaring past the role of “piano player” and landing somewhere closer to “piano whisperer.” As anyone who has seen him perform can attest, when Kaeshammer works the keys, even the air shimmies and shakes. We won’t need to ask him to turn it up.
The curtain goes up at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 19. To the first-time Kaeshammer listeners in the audience, trust us — you’ll never see a piano the same way again.
The Arrogant Worms
Thirty years in, Canada’s undisputed kings of musical comedy are still “singing songs and yammering on!” The Arrogant Worms are on the road west, and Salt Springers can experience their legendary wit at ArtSpring on Sunday, March 21 at 7:30 p.m.
While many millennials grew up on the cult-classic absurdity of “Carrot Juice is Murder” and “The Last Saskatchewan Pirate,” this trio is far from a nostalgia act. Mike McCormick, Trevor Strong and Chris Patterson have never stopped joyfully skewering our “big, dumb world” through song, maintaining a relentless creative pace that includes a new song every single month for their global fan base.
The Arrogant Worms made their humble beginnings in 1991 as a comedy troupe performing sketches and songs on the Queens University campus radio station. As they put it, “The early feedback on the live shows was clear: lose the sketches.” Over 13 albums and thousands of performances later, the Worms have achieved what they call “the mildest form of famous” — a career that has earned them the adoration of everyone from literary icon Margaret Atwood (who once told an interviewer that “Canada’s Really Big” is our national anthem) to astronaut Chris Hadfield (who appeared in their concert DVD with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra).
An Arrogant Worms show is a high-octane hybrid: part folk concert, part chaotic stand-up comedy and 100 per cent Canadian folly. ArtSpring audiences can expect a raucous, family-friendly evening of satirical earworms, brilliant banter and their signature “tuneful and silly escapism” which, in an era that feels increasingly nonsensical, seems less like a luxury and more like a public service.
As of Monday this performance was almost sold out, so book your seats while you can! Tickets are available at purchase.artspring.ca or our box office.