My Darkest Days to rock against breast cancer on Nickelback tour
“If there were no boobs, we wouldn’t have music videos,” declares Sal Costa, lead guitarist for My Darkest Days, which opens for Nickelback at Rexall Place Tuesday night. It sounds so crass. Yet it is absolutely true – if you’re making the kind of music videos that My Darkest Days (and also Nickelback) seem to […]
These are the Boomers in your neighbourhood: The legacy of Rockin’ Rick
Rick Shermack, better known as Rockin’ Rick, will go down in history as the man who invented Alberta’s most famous shooter. That’s right, China White was a rock band before it was a drink. It happened in St. Paul, Alberta, early ‘80s, Rick recalls during a recent interview in his office at Axe Music, where […]
Hayloft Acres a little patch of heaven for area musical farmer
Well, said the Musical Farmer, thumbs in his armpits, it’s plantin’ time again, time again to sow the seeds of lifelong ambition and grow another healthy organic crop of positive musical vibes to reap a bountiful harvest of good gigs – and high time to take this farming metaphor behind the barn and kill it […]
WHAT’S SO FUNNY: Lily Tomlin a character in more ways than one
You want to know who really runs Hollywood? It’s not the Jews. It’s the old ladies! A veritable matriarchy of mirth has seized a stranglehold upon the North American zeitgeist, fastened a feisty grip on the collective you-know-whats of the unsuspecting populace at the hands of power grandmas like Betty White, Joan Rivers and – […]
Elton John comes full circle for area ballet star in Love Lies Bleeding
Consider the Six Degrees of Elton John in Alberta Ballet’s production of Love Lies Bleeding, at the Jubilee Auditorium Thursday through Saturday. The ballet is based upon the life and music of Elton John, who is being played by dancer Kelley McKinlay, who grew up in Fort Saskatchewan, where he did not hang out with […]
ONE HIT TERROR: John Waite loses his cool
A recent interview with John Waite did not go well. Maybe it was because he didn’t like the suggestion that he’s a one hit wonder. Why is this considered such a bad thing? Playing Century Casino Saturday night, Waite, of course, is globally known for the massive 1984 hit single Missing You. Catching the 59-year-old […]
Ladies sure all that glitters is gold in female Led Zeppelin tribute
If the lady who’s buying the stairway to heaven finds the stores are all closed – stores that sell stairways to heaven, Rona, maybe – and she can still get what she came for when she gets there, that is, heaven, then why does she even need a stairway to heaven in the first place? […]
WHAT’S SO FUNNY: Tony Woods cuts through the you-know-what
Like many African-American comics, Tony Woods plays the race card from time to time – not that there’s anything wrong with that; Chris Rock does it all the time – but some of his best material involves what people in the comedy trade might call “cutting through the bullshit.” Hey, it’s a dirty job, but […]
Local journalist wins Calgary Folk Music Festival songwriting award
Kevin Maimann never planned to be a folkie. The local journalist and sometime GigCity writer – who was recently named editor of Sun Media’s free daily 24 Hours – is a metal dude who was “just fooling around” with an acoustic guitar. Now he’s won a Calgary Folk Music Festival songwriting contest. After a finalist […]
