{"id":34188,"date":"2024-02-08T16:50:47","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T21:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34188"},"modified":"2024-02-08T16:50:49","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T21:50:49","slug":"shuffle-demons-bring-80s-classics-new-sounds-to-cultural-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/shuffle-demons-bring-80s-classics-new-sounds-to-cultural-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Shuffle Demons bring 80s classics, new sounds to Cultural Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Shuffle Demons burst onto the Toronto scene in the 1980s with a unique blend of jazz, funk, and palpable fun. Now, as they near their 40th anniversary, they\u2019re bringing their special brand of music to Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Saturday, February 10, in a concert hosted by the Aurora Cultural Centre, the Shuffle Demons will take over the Wirth Theatre stage at St. Andrew\u2019s College as part of the Centre\u2019s Voices of the World concert series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCanada\u2019s best-known \u2018Fashion Assassins\u2019 bring their virtuosic jazz and funk playing stage antics for a show like none other,\u201d says the Centre. \u201cA hit at festivals all over the world, the Shuffle Demons are a crowd pleasing, full-on musical group that backs up wild stage antics with phenomenal playing by some of Canada\u2019s most talented musicians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shuffle Demons came together in 1984 as Toronto buskers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They quickly gained a following and by the next year their outdoor performances brought huge crowds to a number of locations throughout the city, particularly outside the Eaton Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their sounds were soon embraced by CITY-TV, and their popular song, Spadina Bus, was adopted as a theme for their Speakers Corner series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWord really got out that there were these crazy people doing songs on the street,\u201d lead Rich Underhill tells The Auroran. \u201cWe played Expo \u201986 and released a video just after that. We played and did about six sets a day for six weeks\u2026 and we didn\u2019t really know, but our agent booked us on a tour of university colleges on the way back and, wow, it was suddenly exploding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As their popularity grew, Underhill says it was heartening to see so many people embrace their jazz fusion, especially the saxophone, and they went from strength to strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a hiatus, the Shuffle Demons reunited to mark their 20th<\/sup> anniversary and the juggernaut continues in this, their 40th<\/sup> year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe chance encounters and the chance musical directions really feel like you\u2019re living in the moment,\u201d says Underhill, noting this weekend\u2019s performance will feature fan favourites as well as material off their latest album. \u201cI often say that making music and improvising is a little bit like jumping off a cliff with your bandmates, making a parachute on the way down and landing safely. That is the excitement I try to get the audience to feel. Anything can happen, things can go wrong, but we\u2019re going to make our way out of it and it\u2019s going to be a fun and interesting journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shuffle Demons will be hosted by the Aurora Cultural Centre at St. Andrew\u2019s College this Saturday, February 10, at 7.30 p.m. Doors open at 6.45.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For further information, including ticketing, visit auroraculturalcentre.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Shuffle Demons burst onto the Toronto scene in the 1980s with a unique blend of jazz, funk, and palpable fun. Now, as they near their 40th anniversary, they\u2019re bringing their special brand of music to Aurora. This Saturday, February 10, in a concert hosted by the Aurora Cultural Centre, the Shuffle Demons will take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8Tq","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 15:45:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}