If anyone’s been champing at the bit to get back in front of a crowd, it’s Newfoundland’s Alan Doyle.
The perennial road warrior announced shows in Nova Scotia for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic at the Halifax Convention Centre Nov. 6-8. A fourth show on Thursday, Nov. 5, was added on Tuesday. The Nov. 6 and Nov. 7 shows are sold out.
Doyle had to postpone his spring and summer slate of shows for his fourth solo album Rough Side Out, released in February. Doyle’s shows will take place in the same downtown venue as Halifax alt-pop band Neon Dreams, which just added a second show on Thursday, Nov. 12 after its initial Friday, Nov. 13 show sold out within a week of its announcement. Those shows are part of a longer Atlantic bubble tour that will take the duo through New Brunswick and across Newfoundland, following the Nov. 13 release of the new album The Happiness of Tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Doyle's upcoming Maritime theatre shows with guest Kelly Prescott are still a go for January, with dates at Halifax's Rebecca Cohn Auditorium scheduled for Jan. 14 and 15 (honouring tickets for shows originally scheduled for Oct. 9 and 10), along with shows in Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John.
Having down time must be an unusual state of existence for Doyle; while Rough Side Out climbed the Billboard album and country charts without the benefit of touring with his Beautiful Beautiful Band, he raised more than $600,000 for Kids Help Phone through the A Dollar a Day Foundation, and completed work on his third book All Together Now: A Newfoundlander’s Light Tales for Heavy Times, which hits bookstore shelves and sites in November.
Doyle likens the upcoming book to a cozy St. John’s pub gathering, where friends are gathered close together spinning yarns and, as the author puts it, “you have to be as ready as an Olympian at the start line to get your tale in before someone is well into theirs already.”
The tale of the Alan Doyle show is that COVID-19 health protocols will be in place with physical distancing and wearing masks while not seated in place. A full list of protocols is available at the shows’ page at SonicConcerts.com.
Due to the restrictions on gatherings, seating for Alan Doyle and the Beautiful Beautiful Band is only available by table, in groups of four and six, ranging from $300 to $570 in advance, or $330 to $600 day of show. Tables can be purchased at ticketatlantic.com and sonicconcerts.com, or by phone at 902-451-1221 or 1-877-451-1221.
The Alan Doyle shows are all-ages, and licensed for those over 19 years of age with a valid ID.
