Live music 7 nights a week!
Sundays, 7:30pm - 11pm
Mon, Tue, Wed, 8pm - 11:30pm
Thursdays, 8:30pm - Midnight
Fri & Sat, 9pm - 12:30am
The Bard & Banker is one of the very few places in Victoria offering live music 7 nights a week with NO cover charge. We feature mostly local musicians from Victoria with others coming from surrounding islands and the mainland.
Sunday nights are "unplugged," drawing inspiration from the MTV Unplugged Series, where all the music was performed acoustic and interactive with the audience.
And with the baby grand piano on our stage, our entertainers have no bounds of musical repertoire. Playing from early evening to late night, there's plenty of time to pop in for a meal and some live musical entertainment or simply grab a night cap and catch up.
Playing Monday Feb 27:
Lola Parks
Lola Parks (aka singer-songwriter Sandy Powlik) is a natural talent based in Victoria, BC. From fronting a seventeen-piece Big Band early in her career, to being part of two original bands (rock, folk-funk), to performing solo – Lola Parks has recorded in both Canada and Nepal and she has performed for thousands of people to critical acclaim. She has performed at various festivals in BC, played major cities from Vancouver and Montreal to Colombo and Buenos Aires, as well as rural settings from a remote hospital in Zimbabwe and a healthpost in Haiti to a four-month residency at a rafting resort in northern Nepal. With her background in jazz, rock, folk and roots, her sound appeals to a wide audience and she has placed songs on both television and radio.
Lola has a lot of soul - she is smooth and funky, her onstage presence dynamic, her songwriting compelling, her sound ever-evolving, her voice immaculate. Recent highlights include playing Rifflandia again this year and opening for Toronto-based Matthew Barber, Montreal-based NEeMA, Israeli-born YOAV and Texas blues sensation, Ruthie Foster.
Lola Parks creates a dreamscape of sound, an aural portrait of human emotion and her songs hold nothing from an audience. Her lyrics display a masterful command of the language combined with honest, simple expression. More impressive than her songwriting skills, her voice is an instrument of pure beauty that rivals any contemporary female performer.
