There’s a particular kind of electricity that fills a room when synth pads and fretless bass lines from 1981 hit a modern PA system at full volume, and on Friday, October 16, 2026, that electricity is landing squarely in Waterloo, Ontario.
Maxwell’s Concerts & Events will host a co-headlining night featuring Spoons and Rough Trade, two acts that helped invent the Canadian new wave movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s in sound, look, and in Rough Trade’s case, politics.
If you grew up on MuchMusic reruns of “Nova Heart” or remember the controversy that followed “High School Confidential” onto Canadian radio, this is a show built for you. Alternatively, if you’ve never heard either band before, this is about as good an introduction to homegrown new wave as you’re likely to find in Waterloo Region this year.
Spoons and Rough Trade at Maxwell’s in Waterloo: The Show at a Glance
Doors open at 7:30 PM EDT on Friday, October 16, 2026, with music starting at 8:00 PM at Maxwell’s Concerts & Events, located at 35 University Avenue East in Waterloo, Ontario.
The event is licensed for guests 19 and older, and the room is capped at an event capacity of 680 patrons for this particular show.
Tickets are sold through Ticketscene, and the venue has indicated that general admission includes limited side seating for those who’d rather sit than stand for two sets of vintage new wave.
Online sales are scheduled to run right up until showtime unless the event sells out first, so if you’re the type who waits until the week of a concert to commit, it’s worth keeping an eye on availability rather than assuming tickets will still be there on October 16th.
What makes this pairing especially interesting is that it’s not a random package tour thrown together by a booking agency chasing nostalgia dollars. Spoons and Rough Trade both emerged from the same fertile late-1970s Ontario scene, both signed to independent Canadian labels rather than chasing major-label deals in the U.S., and both racked up Juno nominations and wins while pushing very different corners of the same genre.
There was Spoons leaning into shimmering, romantic synth-pop, and Rough Trade leaning into confrontational, sexually explicit art-rock.
Seeing them on the same bill is a genuinely instructive night in Canadian music history.
Spoons: Burlington’s Synth-Pop Dream Machine
Spoons formed in 1979 in Burlington, Ontario, built around two Aldershot High School students, Gordon Deppe and Sandy Horne, who had been dating and playing music together since their mid-teens.
Horne and Deppe met in the senior band at Nelson High School in Burlington, with Horne playing trumpet and Deppe playing saxophone before they discovered guitars. That teenage partnership turned out to be remarkably durable.
Deppe and Horne remain the only constant members of Spoons across the band’s entire history, even as keyboardists and drummers have rotated through the lineup over more than four decades.
The band’s early lineup rounded out with schoolmates on keyboards and drums, and by 1979 the newly formed group included Derrick Ross on drums and Brett Wickens on keyboards, with Rob Preuss later stepping in on keys when Wickens left for art school. What Spoons landed on, almost immediately, was a sound so polished and European-sounding that it confused their own countrymen.
Deppe has said that audiences often assumed Spoons were a British band because their sound so closely matched the U.K. new wave they idolized.
Having Horne as a female bass player was also unusual for the genre at the time, and it became part of the band’s visual identity as much as its music.
Spoons broke through commercially with a run of albums that still define Canadian new wave radio playlists today. Their 1983 record Talkback was produced by Chic’s Nile Rodgers and included the tracks “Old Emotions,” and “Tell No Lies.”
“Romantic Traffic” was released as a 1984 single co-written with Rob Preuss, and although the song was made for a movie soundtrack, it became one of the band’s signature songs. Bassist Sandy Horne has called that track’s video “the easiest video we ever did [and] our most effective.”
The band’s earlier album Stick Figure Neighbourhood, released in 1981 on Ready Records, contains “Nova Heart,” a song later recognized in Bob Mersereau’s book on the top 100 Canadian singles of all time, cementing Spoons’ place in the country’s musical canon well beyond their commercial radio run.
Spoons never really stopped. After a family-focused hiatus through parts of the 1990s, Deppe and Horne kept the band alive through reunion shows, and in 2010 they released Static In Transmission, their first collection of new original material in over two decades.
In 2019, the band released New Day New World, its first full studio album in eight years, built around a modernized take on their classic synth-driven sound, with the touring lineup rounded out by longtime collaborators Casey MQ on keyboards and Chris McNeill on drums.
Spoons remain an active touring act rather than a legacy act coasting on old hits with a setlist that mixes deep cuts like “Doomed” and “Bridges Over Borders” alongside the expected run of “Nova Heart,” “Romantic Traffic,” “Tell No Lies,” and “Old Emotions.”
Notably, Spoons already played Maxwell’s Concerts & Events once before, appearing at the Waterloo venue on November 19, 2025, which means this October’s show is very much a return engagement to a room where the band has already built a rapport with local audiences.
Rough Trade and Carole Pope: Canada’s Original Queer Rock Provocateurs
If Spoons represent the romantic, danceable side of Canadian new wave, Rough Trade represents its confrontational, taboo-breaking underbelly.
The band was formed in Toronto by multi-instrumentalist Kevan Staples and Manchester-born, Scarborough-raised vocalist Carole Pope, and its roots actually stretch back even further than most fans realize. Pope and Staples first began performing together in Toronto’s Yorkville folk scene under the name “O” before eventually settling on the Rough Trade name in 1973.
By the time the band solidified its classic lineup, it consisted of Carole Pope on vocals, Kevan Staples on guitars and keyboards, David McMorrow on keyboards, Terry Wilkins on bass, and Bucky Berger on drums.
Rough Trade’s defining moment arrived with “High School Confidential,” a song that did something almost no other track played on Canadian AM radio had done before. Written by Pope and Staples and released as part of the 1980 album Avoid Freud, the song was a rare Top 40 single explicitly about lesbian desire, aired in broad daylight on mainstream radio.
The song’s release didn’t come without controversy — some radio stations pushed for an edited version stripped of its more suggestive lyrics — but it climbed the Canadian charts anyway and earned a Juno nomination for Single of the Year. Pope originally intended the song to be sung from a male perspective, but changed course herself, later explaining that she hadn’t expected the shift to feel as significant as it did once she was the one singing it.
The band’s notorious 1980 Juno Awards performance, during which Pope made a suggestive gesture live on national television, became one of the defining moments in Canadian music broadcast history and helped push “High School Confidential” into wider cultural consciousness.
By the early 1980s, Rough Trade’s racy live shows, often featuring Pope in bondage-inspired attire, had already made the group one of Toronto‘s most popular weekly draws before the band ever signed with Bernie Finkelstein’s True North Records.
Rough Trade’s influence radiated well beyond its own chart performance. Pope has been cited as a key influence by artists including Peaches, who covered “High School Confidential” on her own 1995 album, and k.d. lang, who has said watching Pope’s fearless television performance shaped her own sense of what was possible as an openly queer artist.
The band picked up four Juno Awards during its run in the 1980s, and in 2020, decades after its initial success, “High School Confidential” was formally inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, with the ceremony recognizing the song’s role in ushering in what organizers described as a new era of sexual openness for LGBTQ+ and women artists.
In 2023, Pope and Staples were further honoured with induction into Canada’s Walk of Fame, marking the band’s 50th anniversary with a celebratory show at Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre.
The band’s story took a somber turn in early 2025. Kevan Staples, co-founder of Rough Trade, died on a Sunday in late March, and outlets subsequently reported Staples died on March 23 of cancer, at the age of 75.
Manager Bernie Finkelstein, who signed Rough Trade to True North Records decades earlier, remembered Staples warmly, saying “Kevan was the most elegant man in the music business, in my opinion.”
Pope herself described her longtime creative partner as “a bright light that will burn forever” in the days following his death.
A tribute concert celebrating Staples’ life and Rough Trade’s catalogue was subsequently held at Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre that November, drawing fans and fellow musicians to honour the band’s fifty-year legacy.
Rather than retreating from the spotlight, Pope has continued performing under the Rough Trade name while also building out a broader, deeply personal legacy project.
In April 2026, the documentary Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions, directed by Michelle Mama, opened the prestigious Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival as its world premiere selection.
The film traces Pope’s history alongside longtime musical partner Kevan Staples in creating Rough Trade, drawing a direct line from Pope’s early boundary-pushing work to contemporary queer artists like Peaches, who signed on as an executive producer, and Chappell Roan.
The documentary features never-before-seen archival footage, candid interviews, and a live performance, alongside conversations with k.d. lang, Peaches, Rufus Wainwright, Jann Arden, and Jeanne Beker affirming Pope’s place in queer and Canadian cultural history.
Pope has also continued releasing new solo material, including recent singles, and remains actively involved in developing Rough Trade: The Musical, a stage adaptation of the band’s catalogue that has been workshopped with Broadway actress Chilina Kennedy attached to star.
What to Expect on Show Night from Spoons and Rough Trade in Waterloo
Based on recent setlists from both acts’ tour dates, fans can expect Spoons to lean heavily on their commercial peak, opening or building toward “Arias & Symphonies” and working through staples like “Old Emotions,” “Nova Heart,” “When Time Turns Around,” “Waterline,” “Romantic Traffic,” and “Tell No Lies,” while mixing in deeper catalogue cuts such as “Doomed,” “Bridges Over Borders,” and “Take the World” for longtime fans who want more than the radio hits.
The band’s live shows have historically run for roughly 75 to 90 minutes and are known for tight musicianship and a genuinely warm rapport between Deppe and Horne, whose decades-long creative partnership still visibly anchors the group’s stage presence.
Rough Trade’s set, fronted by Pope, tends to draw heavily from Avoid Freud and the band’s mid-1980s catalogue, and audiences should expect “High School Confidential” to serve as an emotional centerpiece of the night, alongside “All Touch” and “Crimes of Passion.”
Pope’s live shows in the wake of Staples’ death have taken on an added layer of tribute and remembrance, with the band’s classic material now doubling as a living memorial to a creative partnership that spanned nearly six decades.
Given the renewed attention around the Antidiva documentary, there’s also a reasonable chance the set draws connective threads to that film’s themes of reclamation and legacy.
Given that this is a co-headline bill rather than a headliner-plus-support arrangement, expect both acts to receive full sets.
That’s two full-length sets from historically significant Canadian acts, in a room as intimate as Maxwell’s, is a genuinely strong value proposition compared to arena pricing for legacy artists performing abbreviated festival-length sets.
Tickets, Pricing, and How to Plan Your Night
Tickets for Spoons & Rough Trade are sold exclusively through Ticketscene at a general admission price of $39.50 CAD plus fees, with no VIP or reserved seating tiers listed for this particular date, though the venue does offer limited side seating on a first-come basis for guests who prefer not to stand.
The show is restricted to guests aged 19 and older, consistent with Ontario licensing requirements for a room serving alcohol at full capacity, so be prepared to show valid government-issued photo identification at the door.
Presale access through Maxwell’s mailing list opened on September 2nd, with general public on-sale following on September 3rd, meaning tickets have already been available for over a month by the time October rolls around — a useful reminder not to assume last-minute availability for a bill with this much built-in fan interest.
Doors open at 7:30 PM EDT, with the show beginning at 8:00 PM, and online ticket sales are set to remain open until 7:29 PM on the night of the show itself unless the event sells out earlier, which gives procrastinators a bit of breathing room but shouldn’t be relied upon given the room’s relatively intimate 680-person capacity.
Because Maxwell’s offers 250 free on-site parking spaces, driving to the venue is a genuinely convenient option for the show, though the venue’s central Uptown Waterloo location also makes it walkable or transit-accessible for anyone staying nearby or attending classes at the adjacent University of Waterloo or Wilfrid Laurier University campuses.
If you’re planning a full evening out, Uptown Waterloo’s restaurant strip along King Street offers plenty of dinner options within a short walk of the venue, making it easy to grab a meal before doors and settle in for a night built around two of Canadian new wave’s most enduring acts.
Get Your Tickets to See Spoons & Rough Trade on Oct. 16th at Maxwell’s in Waterloo
Spoons & Rough Trade at Maxwell’s Concerts & Events is a genuinely meaningful pairing of two bands that shaped Canadian new wave from opposite ends of its emotional spectrum, arriving in Waterloo at a moment when both acts have real cultural momentum behind them.
Spoons continue to tour and record with the same core partnership that built their signature sound over four decades ago, while Rough Trade’s Carole Pope carries her band’s boundary-breaking legacy forward.
At $39.50 for two full headlining sets in an intimate, well-equipped 680-capacity room just steps from Waterloo’s university campuses, this show offers exceptional value for both longtime fans who remember these songs from their original chart runs and newer listeners discovering Canadian new wave through recent documentary buzz and playlist rediscovery.
If synth-driven hooks, unapologetic queer rock history, and a genuinely important slice of Canadian music heritage sound like a good way to spend a Friday night in October, Waterloo is where you’ll want to be on the 16th.
Get your tickets to see Spoons and Rough Trade live on October 16th in Waterloo here.
