Kevin Kane

Wandering Winnipeg near tonight’s The Northern Pikes gig at Club Regent with barneybentallofficial and wondering: who is this friendly fellow standing on the median of Regent Ave? Anyone here know? And why does it seem to be a tradition to stuff cigarette butts and packets of honey under his heels (see 2nd photo)? Is this some sort of mysterious ritual?? This has awakened my anthropological curiosity and I need answers!

See you tonight for my last Pikes show of 2026: I will unfortunately be absent for the October 9th show at OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino as Tom Hooper and I will be in Sudbury the kick off a run of TheGrapesOfWrath Acoustic Duo shows through Ontario, right on the heels of a trio of Quebec shows the weekend before and a couple of ***electric trio shows in mid-September (listed below). Hope you can make it out to one of these!

***SEPT 11 - Hamilton ON (Supercrawl Festival)

***SEPT 13 - Ladner BC (Barnside Harvest Festival)

OCT 1 - Quebec QC (Théâtre Petit Champlain)

OCT 2 - Lac Brome QC (Théâtre du Lac Brome)

OCT 3 - L’Entrepôt QC (Maison de la Culture Lachine)

OCT 9 - Sudbury ON (Knox Hall)

OCT 10 - Cobalt ON (Classic Theatre

OCT 11 - SOLD OUT - Ottawa ON (Red Bird)

OCT 12 - Kingston ON (Broom Factory)

OCT 13 - SOLD OUT - Blue Mountains ON (Studio 79)

OCT 14 - Blue Mountains ON (Studio 79)

OCT 15 - Waterloo ON (Maxwell’s)

OCT 16 - Gromley ON (Harmony Hall)

OCT 17 - Oakville ON (Oakville Centre For The Performing Arts)

A few pics of the Northern Pikes doing it for the hometown crowd at last weekend Rock the River, Saskatchewan's Classic Rock Festival in Saskatoon, where I’m clearly getting the audience to sing along with “WE DON’T NEED NO THOUGHT CONTROL!!”

A huge thank you to the organizers for having us, the crew, staff, all the other bands we got to hear and hang out with, and especially the amazing audience who came out to hear us. Hope I get back and play it again real soon! 

A fantastic weekend at the Rock the River Saskatoon festival in Saskatoon - good hangs with friends old and new and great performances and weather (except for that epic downpour that lasted for the exact duration of the SLOAN set 🤷).

Huge thanks to the festival staff and crew for making everything run like a quality vintage watch (and there’s a rumour…that I’m trying to start…that TheGrapesOfWrath may be there next year!)

Photo evidence of a few of the highlights:

1. The Northern Pikes full member convention, featuring original vocalist/guitarist Merl Bryck and the new guy IN THE SAME PHOTO!
2. Night one post-rain hangs with (L to R): me, Jeremy Taggart, Patrick From Sloan, guywhosenameiforget(sorry), Gregory Macdonald, allthingsbradfield, Chris Murphy, and R Y A N D A H L E
3. Some of the Pikes’ relatively health-conscious hospitality rider - it’s always fun (kind of like Xmas morning) seeing what other bands got (fun fact: The Tea Party get Sharpies (office supplies are very 2026!) which they shared with me, as did Sloan with their “just got back from trick-or-treating” bounty!)

Seems like yesterday…if I had gone back in time 40 years ago!

So great for D A N N Y 🫀 M I C H E L to find a few spare minutes - between his multiple performances and workshops at this weekend’s Lunenburg Folk Harbour Society festival in Lunenburg - to stop by the homestead and help me pretend to build* that mail-order shed I’ve been slowly assembling in dribs and drabs for far too long. Thanks Danny! Now get thee to your next soundcheck and hopefully we’ll see one another again real soon!

*not shown: imaginary pencils behind ears

Well hey there fellow Canadian heritage rocker Jeff Martin ( The Tea Party ): we shall see you at the Pigeon Lake Music Festival about an hour from Edmonton later today, where The Northern Pikes play just prior to you guys! The last time I saw Tea Party was on what have might been their first time out to Vancouver in the early 90s, when they closed a festival at the Plaza Of Nations and seemed genuinely taken aback by the response from the crowd. I have to admit that I was taken aback myself - I had seen a couple of videos on MuchMusic but was quite unprepared for how great of a live act they were. The Party and Pikes will also be performing together again in Saskatoon at the Rock the River Saskatoon Festival, along with CanCon buds Haywire, Sloan Music and limblifter. Rockin’ good times ahoy!

Nice to have reached the point where other people can jump in to sing my songs so ably for me! Well done, Dillon 👏🏻

📣 Thank you to everyone who came out to the Kane & Potvin show tonight at @riverside.rec and singing along to a ton of Grapes Of Wrath and Northern Pikes Classics! I was honoured to have Kevin Invite me on stage to sing lead on the Grapes classic “Peace of mind” with them. A total trip! Huge thanks to the staff at Riverside Entertainment and our sponsors Rewind 95.9 and Gig & Groove for all their help making the show a success!

Thank you to all who came out for the free TheGrapesOfWrath performance at Live In Lake Country - a great evening of music, food, and local vendors in a beautiful setting - and a HUGE thank you to all the staff, crew, and promo team. This was not a regular Grapes show as I had lost my voice, but we were all lucky to have Tom Hooper ready to handle all the vocal duties and banter like the true professional that he is 👏🏻

When the 3 of us were teenagers starting out in Kelowna, one of our biggest boosters back then was Bruce Mitchell, the music reviewer for The Kelowna Daily Courier newspaper. Bruce passed away not too long ago and my brother Brendan Kane (my go-to person for rare records - in fact, he’s currently selling a bunch of stuff for Chris and I) became involved in the liquidation of Bruce’s massive collection and happened upon a folder full of old Grapes posters, clippings, press releases, promo photos, and even a gig contract for a show in 1987! I hope to post some highlights of this stash in the future, but my first order of business was to cover my bed with it all and then roll around in it like Scrooge McDuck on a big pile of money (as one does).