Slickity Jim’s Chat ’n’ Chew has been holding intimate weekend performances in its back room for the last couple of months, with Ford Pier and Tom Holliston appearing at the Main Street eatery on Friday (September 26). The restaurant is also transferring kitchen manager Mike Soret’s talents from the legumes back to the trumpet.

In the ’90s, Soret was the man who fronted foul-mouthed, much-loved Dixieland jazzers the Molestics. On October 4 he’ll be revisiting the Molestics catalogue at Slickity Jim’s with new band the Never Has Beens, something he feels ready to do after a significant life change.

“It’s the same old, same old but played slightly better because I quit drinking, which is remarkable. It’s amazing how much easier things are when you’re not spending all your time laying in the gutter,” Soret told the Straight, before congratulating himself on the poster he designed for the event.

“I just Googled ‘male models jazz musicians’ and got all these good-looking guys and put our names beside them,” he said. “And I called us ‘multi-Juno award winners’. Which could be not a lie. It’s a ‘multi-Juno’. Who knows what a ‘multi-Juno’ is? It’s not a Juno, it’s a ‘multi-Juno’.”

Good point. Slickity Jim’s proprietor Mike Zalman promised that the room will also introduce midweek comedy and cabaret in October. “It’s an intimate venue,” Zalman said. “You basically get 20 people in this room and it’s full. It’s a really good place for a lot of musicians that are starting out with new projects, side projects, people who live in the neighbourhood—like Ford Pier. It’s sort of insane to do that here, but it’s also fantastic.”