Hamilton (OH) – Not everyone loves a white Christmas. Unless it happens to be the white sands of a tropical beach.
That’s the kind of hot holiday the Sunburners Party Band plans for the Fitton Center’s Fitton Family Fridays audience with its December 6 show – Calypso Christmas.
“We like to ask, ‘What if Santa came and picked you up and dropped you off in the Caribbean,’” said Scotty McEvoy, who plays steel drums and serves as the band’s emcee. “What would that sound like, look like, feel like? We’ve been calling it ‘The fête you can’t forget.’”
What a fête it will be.
“The kind of music we play is obviously pretty popular in the summertime, but you don’t hear a lot of it this time of year,” McEvoy said. (More on that later.) “We started this as Island Christmas Holiday about 10 years ago. Over the years, we’ve written seven or eight island-influenced original Christmas songs.”
For example, guests can anticipate a tune called “North Pole Daydream” about an elf who isn’t entirely enamored of making toys in a frigid workshop.
“The other part of the show is the Christmas classics you know, but we give them a tropical twist,” McEvoy said.
Imagine a mashup of LeRoy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” mixed with Harry Belafonte’s “Bana Boat (Day-o)” and the theme from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
“We’ve crafted a cool, curated show that takes you all around the islands,” McEvoy said. “And we finish with a big audience participation sing-along. Kids come down and play some of the instruments with us. It’s a lot of fun.”
Fun being the point of the band, which formed in 2011. McEvoy met several members as students in the percussion department at Northern Kentucky University. He has a degree in music education and has worked as a marching band instructor at his high school alma mater - Walnut Hills - in Cincinnati.
McEvoy met Hamilton native Mark Becknell – who some may know through his own band, the Queen City Silver Stars - through teaching at Walnut. They’re the ones who helped the boys of summer put together a winter show. McEvoy and Becknell wrote the original tunes and did the arrangements - with support from rest of the ‘Burners – on the holiday classics.
“The Sunburners’ energy, you can tell we’re all best friends on stage,” McEvoy said. “We have a great time together and we love making music together. We go pretty hard from May to September; we usually play at least three shows a week in the summer.
“But we’re all dads now. We’re not teaching any more. Our wives and our kids are pretty glad the band is pretty much limited to that time of year. But we usually do one big Christmas show – maybe two - and that really helps us recharge. Nothing ever gets stale for us because each summer is a chance to start fresh.”
Tickets to Calypso Christmas are $8 for Fitton Center members, $10 for non-members (plus a $2 fee per ticket). They are available online right here, by phone at 513-863-8873, ext. 110 or in person at the Fitton Center box office. (Only about 30 seats remain as of November 22.)
Guests are invited to attend in tropical attire, seasonal holiday attire or both. There will be a photo booth available in the Monument Gallery to capture the memories of the outfits.
In addition to the Sunburners’ performance, the Fitton Center and the Hamilton Lane Library partner to co-host a closing-night reception for Environmentally Conscious, a found-object art exhibition in the Community Gallery, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
The Fitton Center for Creative Arts is located at 101 S. Monument Avenue on the Riverfront in downtown Hamilton, Ohio.
Building Community Excellence through the Arts and Culture
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