WHAT’S GOING ON: Lots
In the ongoing task of creating lists-as-articles, or “listicles,” to promote the local live entertainment scene, journalists have come far in two months – from scrounging for info on shows that turned out to have been cancelled, to there literally being too many live shows to list. You can’t win.
Let’s start with music. The biggest draw of the summer is expected to be at Commonwealth Stadium on Sunday Sept. 4 for a big whammy kabammy hair-metal fest featuring Motley Crue (who signed a goddamned CONTRACT promising they’d never play again, and yet here they are), along with Def Leppard, Poison, and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Betcha Joan will blow all those old farts off the stage.
Rogers Place is gearing up for major music events: Just announced: Alanis Morissette (top photo) with Garbage opening on July 28. This celebrates 25 years since Alanis’s huge album Jagged Little Pill made the world scratch its collective head in wonder over the fact that none of the lyrics in Ironic actually qualify as “ironic.” This itself is ironic.
Coming right up at Rogers is Imagine Dragons on April 13, Chris Stapleton with the wonderful Elle King on May 11, Avril Lavigne on May 19, TV comic Trevor Noah on June 18, crooner Shawn Mendes on July 5, Lumineers (who are much better live than record) on Aug 7; the great and rightful Pink Floyd flag-waver Roger Waters Sept 13; the dependable Foo Fighters on Sept 27, and then finally godammit it’s been a long wait, the legendary Rage Against the Machine on March 15 – fucking 2023, if we’re still around.
Listy enough for you?
Other shows of note include Mother Mother May 2 at the Jube. Check out their new track Hayloft II, which tells the story what happened after the events in Hayloft 1. So pop did end up killing his daughter’s boyfriend, prompting daughter to run away and take drugs before getting a gun of her own, prompting dad to exclaim, “My baby’s got a gun, I’d better run” to no avail because then he gets shot by his daughter, which leads to the slow refrain at the end, “She’s not a bad kid, but they had to do it. She had to crack. She had to kill pop.” Hell, that’s dark – and another great example of an artist reworking and remixing one of their own older songs, kind of like Elton John and Dua Lipa recently did with Rocketman in the new hit single Cold Heart, which is much less dark.
Alberta’s favourite cowboy singer next to Ian Tyson, Corb Lund will stage an old-fashioned three-night stand at the intimate Starlite Room May 5-7; and Primus – love the band, some of the fans not so much – comes June 10 to the Edmonton Expo Centre to stage a tribute to Rush.
Festivals Ahoy
The Edmonton Folk Festival returns (Best News Ever) and on March 1 announced five of the headliners: The War on Drugs (above), Allison Russell, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Lord Huron, and Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats. Full line-up comes out May 25, tickets on sale shortly thereafter.
Coming soon is an interesting event put together by former CKUA broadcaster Peter North. Dead Ends Live March 18-19, at McDougall United Church and the nearby Chateau Lacombe is a festival dedicated to the music of the Grateful Dead – an amazing tribute for a band whose only hit most people don’t even know (Touch of Grey). But it wasn’t about that, was it? It’s about the “jam band” spirit the Grateful Dead promoted and that still thrives in the corners (and garages and basements) of the world. A lot of crack jammers are taking part in this event, including The McDades, Mark Hummel, and guitar whiz Gordie Matthews. This event even got a plug from the official Grateful Web tribute page.
Local promoter and GigCity hockey columnist Brent Oliver is spearheading the next Winterupption YEG festival, March 27-April 9 at various venues in the downtown area. Notable acts include Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Eamon Mcgrath, The Provincial Archive, Miesha and the Spanks, Tzadeka and many more, most of them local.
This will be the second year for the Together Again concert series, being held at Northlands in August. Friday, Aug. 19 is country night with Paul Brandt, Johnny Reid and more; Saturday, Aug. 20 features classic rock with Burton Cummings, Kim Mitchell, Chilliwack, and Lee Aaron; and it winds up Sunday, Aug. 21 with Barenaked Ladies, Sam Roberts Band, 54-40, and more – including Edmonton’s own reformed Mollys Reach (read 2017 free-form interview with the entire band here).
Also Lots Going On in Theatre
If the folk fest is back, it stands to reason all the other festivals will come back, too – including the mighty Fringe theatre festival in August. Plans are in the works.
Meanwhile, most of the major theatre companies are back in action. The Citadel Theatre runs the comedy Peter Pan Goes Wrong until March 20, and opens Jane Eyre on March 19. The Mayfield Dinner Theatre hosts Nashville Outlaws – dedicated to the music of Willie, Waylon and Johnny Cash – until April 1. The Varscona Theatre stages a Shadow Theatre production of Cottagers & Indians (photo above) until March 27.
Have I left anything out? Of course I have.
For more on live theatre, consult Liz Nicholls, who was the theatre critic at the Edmonton Journal for many years, and continues her extensive coverage of the Edmonton scene on her blog, 12thNight.ca.
