Let’s face it, nothing evokes the holiday season like Penguins. Especially Penguins that hop. So we’re happy to announce that good-times experts The Hopping Penguins will return to The Carleton – for a “holiday soirée” no less – on Saturday, December 14th. Show time and dance time is 8:30 PM.

Tickets and tables for early entry (by 7:00 pm) and seated dinner reservations are $30 + HST.  Those who are happy standing can arrive after 8:00 PM for $25+ HST.

Come out and join the Penguin family in celebrating the Holidays. You can expect the usual Two–Tone standards, some soul classics and a handful of Marley staples, but also look out for the revival of I Didn’t Know Santa was a Rastaman and other seasonal favourites!

Over four decades ago, fresh out of Halifax, the Hopping Penguins were labelled a ska band and set out coast-to-coast, performing to skanking hoards of skinheads and pork-pie-hats. While a vast array of ska–both British and traditional Jamaican styles–still predominates the HPs repertoire, the band has evolved its roots traditions to include a heavy dose of one-drop reggae, funk and soul to balance the frantic ska rhythms. It’s roots music, with a jazz aesthetic of freedom and improvisation, but without jazz pretence. It ain’t nuthin’ but the Blues…

Once touted by Much Music as “the best bar band in Canada”, the HPs continue to deliver consummate live shows for dancers and listeners alike. And after 42 years, the band is still a pretty good live band. A bar band sure, a cover band often, but a good live band, a party band with an infectious spirit of love and fun, an unaffected band with a broad palette of raucous dance beats and sweet reggae grooves.

Currently performing as a nine-piece, with two front men and a horn section, the HPs have a hard time finding a bar stage big enough and with a commensurate dance floor. Things get pretty intimate–just like with any family.