Hey there, it’s the first Thursday of the month. 

[Alarms start flashing everywhere, smoke fills the room, party music blasts from speakers]

It’s Georgia Straight print day!!!!

Oh, hold on. Sorry, I forgot that I set that automatically. Unfortunately, we’ve had some technical difficulties, and the print version won’t actually be out until Friday morning. No fear—I will not hold back the cover of the issue and some of the articles from you. Our cover subject doesn’t really fit the celebratory mood anyway.

That cover subject in question is the molten-hot punk band PISS, recently signed to Seattle label Sub Pop and blowing up across the world right now. We shot the foursome at the location of its first music video some two years ago. Pick up a copy of the latest issue at a box near you (on Friday!) to find out what’s happened to the band since then.

— Nathan
Editor in Chief

It’s been about 10 years since Kelsey Hamilton first signed up for an open mic night at the old Yuk Yuk’s on Cambie. “It was supposed to be five minutes, and I remember I did it on FaceTime to my boyfriend at the time, and it was four minutes,” she recalls. “I said, ‘Well, hopefully it’ll get to five with laughter.’ And he said, ‘Well, I wouldn’t count on that.’ But it did go well, I think. It hit five minutes, so there was some laughter at least.” It’s gone well enough that this weekend she opens for popular American comedian Lucas Zelnick at the Vogue Theatre.

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Embark on a whimsical adventure with returning favourite, Elf: The Musical, playing from Nov 12 to Dec 27 at the Stanley BFL CANADA Stage. Buddy doesn’t fit in with the other elves at the North Pole—and no wonder, since it turns out he’s human! Now he’s on a mission to New York City, determined to win over his new family with Christmas cheer, syrupy spaghetti, and heartfelt songs. Touching and hilarious, this show is the perfect gift for family and friends this season.

Lock in your holiday plans early and secure your seats from $39* at ArtsClub.com

Addiction and the fallout that comes from it is inevitably complicated, so it’s perhaps fitting that Kevin Kerr’s Epigone isn’t the easiest play to explain. “The play is a modern kind of Greek tragedy, but a very personal story as well—a kind of autobiographical piece,” Kerr says in an interview with the Straight. “I guess, in some ways, it’s like an inversion of the Greek tragedy Antigone, in that it deals with some of the same themes of responsibility to the dead, to siblings, and a question about how to contend with the appropriate rites of passage.”

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On November 11, Chor Leoni’s soaring voices return to St. Andrew’s-Wesley United for The Soul Flies Away, their 35th Annual Remembrance Day Concerts. Built around Don Macdonald’s beloved High Flight, the concerts promise reflections on the sacrifices of the past, conflicts of the present, and the hope for peace.

Hannah Georgas and Lyn Heinemann met around 2009, when both musicians were working with the same producer (Mother Mother frontman Ryan Guldemond). Over the last few years, even as Georgas lives in Ontario and Heinemann here, the pair have written and worked on songs together, creating a project called So Faint. The duo released an album last month and will perform for the first time in front of an audience this Thursday and Friday.

Experience Michael Milosh’s breathtaking vocals and lush R&B as he brings his acclaimed new album, JOY II, to the stage alongside a full ensemble of multi-instrumentalists. Catch RHYE live at Vogue Theatre on November 16. Grab your tickets today on AdmitONE.com.

Strange Fellows Brewing has renovated its Clark Drive tasting room and kitchen, adding a café, a refillable coffee program, and a menu that gives people more reason to linger after their morning caffeine kicks in. “Our curiosity around taste and process inevitably led us deep down the coffee rabbit hole,” Strange Fellows co-founder and brewmaster Iain Hill said in a release. “It wasn’t long before we had our own mini coffee roaster nestled among the fermentation tanks.

COMEDY: Nova Scotia writer and comedian J.J. Whitehead holds court at a casino. (November 5-8 @ Elements Casino, Surrey)

ARTS: The 2026 Contemporary Art Gallery Gala kicks off with a celebratory four-course dinner led by Published on Main’s Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson. (November 6 @ The Kent)

VISUAL ARTS: Jennifer Lefort’s Either-Or-And brings together painted textiles, digital embroidery, ribbons, and bent brass rods. (November 6-29 @ THIS Gallery)

MUSIC: You could leave your house in the afternoon and still catch Bobcaygeon, the Tragically Hip cover band, at Hero’s Welcome. (November 7 @ Hero’s Welcome)

LIVING: The Chinatown Storytelling Centre celebrates five years with an open house. (November 7-8 @ Chinatown Storytelling Centre)

MUSIC: Let's Collab Vancouver presents Hood Jamz, a multi-genre music and comedy event in the heart of downtown. (November 7-8 @ 118 West Hastings)

Want to know what else is happening in Vancouver? Check out our events listings.

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