Ryan Problems - North Bay Acoustic Folk Rock

Bull & Quench w/ Dany Laj, B.A. Johnston

Ryan — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:17:58 +0000

We’ll be playing a show at The Bull & Quench in North Bay this Saturday with Dany Laj, from Toronto and Hamilton’s B.A. Johnston. This show is put on by Solvent Magazine. The last time I played a show with B.A. he declared that I had the voice of an angel and the body of a hairless cat. Well, I’ve just got to say to B.A. that I’ve been working out since then!

Anyhow… admission is just $7 we are supporting two great out-of-town acts. Heres the event page on Facebook. This is a busy week for North Bay’s music scene as Wax Mannequin is playing at The Opera Bakery Cafe with Spooky Ruben on Saturday night. Theres also a show Friday night with Another Round, The Lightmares, Subterraneans and Broads In Daylight.

I hope to see you at the new Cecil’s Acoustic Jam Night this evening. We’re very excited that Cecils’ is opening up to hosting more local talent. We are playing at 1am, music starts at 10 with different artists every half hour.

Annual Ugly xMas Sweater Party

Ryan — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:16:20 +0000

It is that time of year again. Jack Frost’s nipples are at your nose, folks are dropping Yule Logs left and right, and Ugly Sweaters are in full swing. I couldn’t find my good shirt tonight, but I’m hoping whatever I dig up will suffice. I hope to see some friendly faces at this show and I will let my internet friends how it all goes as usual.

This will be the first show I play in a while as I recently fractured my finger. It is still not fully healed but I have high hopes for tonight after acquiring some extra backup. Jonesy Knoxville from TheKillingFeild will be joining Mike Favretto and I and taking charge of the low end.

I just made a facebook page about the Ryan Problems Band and I sure would appreciate you heading over there and clicking the “Like” button. There are some live tracks on the “Listen” tab of the page and if your ears are feeling extra hungry you can feed them a little more at my SoundCloud page.

Photos from 100 Georges

Ryan — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:19:38 +0000

We had a killer time playing at The George on a Wednesday night. The show was organized in part by Old Shores and we shared the bill with the duo as well as Unaired Pilot, playing their first show together. There are always a lot of familiar faces when we play at 100 Georges, but this time a very good friend of mine was visiting. Cas made a nice few additions to my setlist pictured below.

Photos by @KayNegus, Kee_kee and Karron Pitt.

LJD Awareness Concert

Ryan — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:20:57 +0000

Last night we drove out to Timiskaming to play at an awareness concert for a local person who has been missing since March. The turn out was very diverse and the crowd was very welcoming. Spirits were high and we, alongside our hometown boys – Broads in Daylight, were happy to be a part of it all.

It was so great to play in a place I had never even been before. We had a little crowd of North Bayites and even got to see our friends in the Drama Addicts so there was no shortage of familiar faces.

August 17th @ 100 Georges W/ Audio/Rocketry & Fire Next Time

Ryan — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:34:36 +0000

Hello! We just finnished an awesome gig at 100 Georges with Audio/Rocketry and Fire Next Time from Edmonton, Alberta. I would have had a post about the show beforehand but we were waiting on confirmation until just a few days before.

Even though there was a slight lack of promotion we still had a very nice little turnout and the bands had a great time.

Joe Vickers contacted me about a month ago because he thought Ryan Problems would be a great fit for the show. I highly recommend checking out both the bands. Links are below.

Things are going great with Mike in the line up. We are looking at adding some new bands members and spending a little time recording at Hammond Studios while working on new songs.

Audio/Rocketry:http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/AudioRocketry

http://audiorocketry.bandcamp.com/

Fire Next Time: http://www.myspace.com/firenexttimemusic

Ryan — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:04:37 +0000

Moonlight Madness Downtown Walk

Ryan — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 23:44:01 +0000

The DIA gave me a call a few days ago to ask that Mike and I head and downtown and perform for their annual Moonlight Madness Sidewalk Sale. Over 40 local businesses will be having special sales and deals and you will be able to enjoy entertainment in the streets provided by myself and other local musicians. Here is the event page on facebook.

We hope to see some more familiar faces while we are out busking the streets again.

100 Georges w/ Wax Mannequin and Faraway Neighbors

Ryan — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 20:49:00 +0000

On July 13th Mike and I played a show at 100 Georges with the Faraway Neighbors opening for Hamilton Ontario’s Wax Mannequin. Wax put on an amazing show bursting at the seams with energy. Accompanied by what I can only assume was a record player and possibly looping devices he held the crowd’s attention and kept everyone dancing from start to finish.

The Faraway Neighbors were a great band to chill to. I had been missing out on these three multi-talented musicians up until now. They had highly instrumental and thoughtful grooves with a very spacy sound. It is really fantastic that the George is starting to open up to the idea of hosting up and coming local talent.

We had so much sharing the stage with these two awesome acts and, aside from a few botched harmonica solos, managed to hold our own and keep people smiling throughout our set.

Check out Wax Mannequin: http://waxmannequin.com/

Check out the Faraway Neighbors: http://farawayneighbours.com/

Summer Busking Performances

Ryan — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 19:47:31 +0000

On July 9th we played the first week of “Music From The Heart”, a weekly event that sees local performers busking the streets of downtown North Bay each Saturday. We had a great time and were treated well by both the organizers and bypassers. We also got a good deal of exposure through the local paper, Cogeco TV and Solvent Magazine.

Tony from Solvent made his was around visiting each of the first weekend’s buskers and produced this great video featuring all the performers and even some of the other coverage.

Downtown North Bay – Music from the Heart (July 9, 2011) from Tony Loeffen on Vimeo.

You can catch us busking at the North Bay Farmers Market – July 30th
and also at Music from the Heart – Downtown North Bay – August 6th

Iroquois Falls Stage Stars Fundraiser

Ryan — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:00:48 +0000

I went home to Iroquois Falls to play at a fundraiser for the award winning stage stars Competetive Dance Team. This is the second of their fundraisers that I have had the pleasure of playing at and both times they made it extremely worth the trip. The show was at one of my favourite Northern Ontario watering holes, The Station Restaurant and Bar in Iroquois Falls, Ontario.

This was a very special show because not only was it the first chance I have gotten to play in my home town in almost two years, but it was also the first road show I have played with my new band member, Mike Favretto. Mike is the first addition to the hopefully growing Ryan Problems Band. He is my right hand man and string expert. He plays the bass and some mandolin on my new songs.

A local photographer from Robert Jolin Photographix came out and documented the event with some fantastic high quality photos. Here is a sample photo from his online portfolio and you can also check out digital samples from the entire album at the link below.

http://robertjolinphotographix.zenfolio.com/stagestarsfundraiser

I am headed up North again for Canada Day weekend and we are looking for more shows around the Timmins, Cochrane, Iroquois Falls and New Liskeard areas. More dates will be posted soon but in the meantime if you can help us out with a show in your area please get in touch with me through the contact form or on my Facebook profile.