REVIEW: Cake takes the cake at Sonic Boom
When the End Times come, we’re going to need a house band – and that’s where Cake comes in. Imagine: all Cake, all the time. As it has been written somewhere: And the living shall envy the dead … Perhaps we’re making too much of this, but rarely has there been such a happy-sounding band […]
TODAY: Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at Symphony Under the Sky
It’s been said before and it will be said again: The average symphony orchestra “grooves” like a coal truck on a bad gravel road, which is to say it doesn’t. It’s generally much better at rendering Tchaikovsky than, say, Ellington. But this will be repeated, too: The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is not your run-of-the-mill coal […]
VENUE CHANGE: Cee Lo, Metric, Cake and more….are heading indoors
SONIC BOOM 2011 is moving inside! The annual modern rock festival happening Sunday, Sept. 4 celebrating the local modern rock radio station Sonic 102.9 FM has changed its venue to Northlands Expo from the outdoor Northlands grounds. The headliners will remain the same: Jane’s Addiction, Cee Lo Green, Metric, Social Distortion, Cake and more; and […]
TONIGHT: Chamber of Commerce Prez’s alter ego drums for Jefferson Starship
Classic rock fans ought to be used to that vague feeling of confusion seeing a favourite band that’s been around since the ‘60s – man, who the HELL is in the band now? The surprising answer for Jefferson Starship, playing Saturday at the Edmonton Rock Festival in Hawrelak Park, is this: the PRESIDENT OF THE […]
TRUE TALES OF THE FISH: Country Joe and the F***
Country Joe McDonald does not over-estimate his place in the pantheon of Voices of a Generation, as a leader in the Peace Movement of the 1960s, as a martyr for the cause of free speech in America, as a counter-culture hero for the great censorship debate that would lead us into a new golden age. […]
REVIEW: 2011 Edmonton Folk Music Festival a blast and a gas
Too big? Stop whining! The Edmonton Folk Music Festival isn’t big enough. We won’t be satisfied until they annex a block of Cloverdale and tear down the homes to make room for another stage, until they expand the beer garden all the way into the Dawson Forest, until they extend the event to 1,000 performances […]
Tim Robbins honks the good fight
I wish I could tell you that Tim Robbins fought the good fight, and the critics let him be. I wish I could tell you that – but the folk fest is no fairy-tale world. Folk fest life consists of routine, and then more routine. Every so often, Tim would show up with a fresh […]
Directions to folk fest: Turn left, head West
With the magic of the Google Maps, it is now possible to navigate a day of sessions at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival without a hitch. Friday evening’s folk route worked out just swell. Sessions continue all day Saturday and Sunday. (These directions are for planning purposes only. You may find that encounters with ex-girlfriends, […]
DAY ONE: No folk at the folk fest!
Thursday, Aug. 4 at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival: Read about Friday, Aug. 5 here. There was no actual “folk music” at the folk fest on opening night You say: What?! You read right. No. Folk. Now, don’t come back with the obvious “folk can be many things” argument to rationalize that any old sort […]
PREVIEW: A jaunt out with the little people at Folk Fest
Thank goodness Edmonton’s lowbrow summer festivals are out of the way. It’s such dreadful bore watching the rabble wallow in their corndogs and country western music. Ah, but with both the Big Valley Jamboree and Capital Ex behind us, the workers will be too tuckered out to taunt the polite, well-bred citizens attending the Edmonton […]
