The party on Saturday at Nancy O's is going to be mad.
Mad as a hatter. With Alice In Wonderland set to go down the rabbit hole at Theatre North West and Halloween on the haunted horizon, the downtown social room is hosting a surreal event Lewis Carroll would have wanted to attend. It's the Mad Hatter's Tea Party complete with celebrity Tweedledee and Tweedledum performers.
Those would be musicians Lindsay Pratt and Naomi Shore, known together as Twin Peaks.
They are one of Canada's sharpest acoustic folk duos these days and they are closing out their 2016 tour calendar in Prince George before heading home to Fort St. John.
"It's been a great run, all summer long, so we need to end on a high note. We love Nancy O's and the Prince George crowd, so we want to make this a special show," said Pratt, on the phone from Vancouver where the band was taking part in the East Van Opry mini-festival.
Does a special Halloween theme concert involve some tailor made music? Some Alice songs or Halloween songs?
"Hmmm. That's been talked about. But let's not get ahead of ourselves," said Pratt coyly.
This week they posted an unplugged video for their song One Long Year and even the lyrics seem to map out the journey they've been on since releasing their most recent award winning album Trouble. There's a reference to long periods without sleep, and that's a theme in Pratt's conversation as well.
"We will be taking a much needed break. Nancy O's will be our last show for awhile after being on the road since May," Pratt said.
"We need to do a little self care after we go at the next tour - fancy things like sleeping and regular meals. It's hard on the body after awhile because it's so fun on the road, you suffer from long bouts of FOMO - fear of missing out - and musicians tend to be night owls anyway. It does a lot to add to your life, but it catches up eventually."
They got a lot of concert experiences this summer few other acts ever get. They got onto a Home Routes tour (the company that sets up house concert junkets for musicians who are so inclined to perform in people's homes instead of concert halls) and it took them across ultra-northern B.C. and into the Yukon.
The lessons learned on these stops at rarely attended towns are for more than just musical knowledge. Pratt is on the last leg of a social work degree from UNBC. All of that program has been done from Fort St. John, but because of the Twin Peaks schedule she pushed the last semester's schedule into a different place. She's about to become a Prince George resident for the winter-spring duration.
"You'll be seeing me at jams and open mics in your town, now," she said. "And, it's not just me, Naomi will be coming down in February because Twin Peaks is doing the Cold Snap Festival in Prince George, and we are excited about that. It's such a great lineup every year, and we get to be a part of it this time."
Who knows if anyone in the audience will wear a costume for the Cold Snap show, but everyone is encouraged to get togged up for the show Saturday night at Nancy O's. Showtime is 9 p.m. and cover charge is $10.
Tonight, Nancy O's hosts an open mic evening with Raghu Lokanathan as host. On Thursday the host is Eric Tompkins for a bluesy jazz jam.
