Posted on May 31, 2011
By Mike Ross
Culture, Front Slider, Music, TV and Radio
Before the concert of this decade – tonight at Commonwealth Stadium – there was the concert of the last decade. It’s 1997 (we seem to be missing a decade) and U2 comes to Edmonton to play not one, but two shows at the stadium on the band’s Popmart tour. Local media greet the band on […]
Posted on May 29, 2011
By Mike Ross
Culture, Front Slider, Music
Free advice for Lauryn Hill: Fire your soundman. Fire your bass player. Fire your drummer. Keep your backup singers. And for God’s sake, please chill out just a wee bit. These are really the only conclusions a discerning music fan can draw from Hill’s terribly disappointing show Saturday, May 28 at the Edmonton Event Centre. […]
Posted on May 26, 2011
By Mike Ross
Family, Front Slider, Music
When Ron Walker isn’t pow-wow dancing, he’s a youth worker who specializes in easing aboriginal kids through the culture shock of moving from small towns to the big city. More than 10,000 Slave Lake residents were put in that situation rather suddenly last week when a terrible forest fire destroyed a third of the town. […]
Posted on May 26, 2011
By Mike Ross
Music
Don’t upstage the headliner if you want to work in this town again. This is part of “Vegas rules,” in old school showbiz lingo, an unwritten code of performer conduct that discourages warm-up bands from attempting to blow their headliners off the stage. It’s just common courtesy. But sometimes it can’t be avoided – especially […]
Posted on May 23, 2011
By Mike Ross
Culture, Music, TV and Radio
A lonely man weary from an honest day’s work is driving down life’s highway in a big truck, smoke rolling out the window, an ice cold beer sitting in the console, the lights of his home town only a few miles away. He’s heartbroken after another man kissed his girlfriend while he held the man’s […]
Posted on May 20, 2011
By Mike Ross
Music
OK, people – let’s keep it clean. No cussing, no ‘hos, no guns, no murder, no drugs, no alcohol, no sex, no homophobia, no misogyny. The fourth annual Hip Hop in the Park – specifically Louise McKinney Park starting tomorrow (Saturday, May 21) at noon – is a family event. Moms and little kids and […]
Posted on May 19, 2011
By Mike Ross
Music
When people are constantly asking about your band name, chances are you have a silly one. Ask the Trews about their name. Go ahead. They won’t mind. The band whose name means “trousers” in Scotland – not to be confused with “pants,” which the Brits call underwear – opens for Kid Rock at Rexall Place […]
Posted on May 16, 2011
By Mike Ross
Culture, Front Slider, TV and Radio
Word on the street is that there will be … fewer words on the street. Edmonton’s two weekly magazines, VUE and SEE, are preparing to merge into one – according to businessman Bob Doull, who now owns both of them. He revealed the tentative plan on Monday. “There are lots of details to be worked […]
Posted on May 16, 2011
By Mike Ross
Music
Sorry, we don’t need any more neo-hippy sensitive new age singer-songwriters in Edmonton. The VW bus is full. Well, OK, just one more … It takes only a few notes to release why Jeff Morris was named both best live artist and best solo artist at the recent Edmonton Music Awards. It’s obvious. He has […]
Posted on May 12, 2011
By Mike Ross
Music, The Latest
Ben Sures would like people to know that he is not some angry protest singer, though he still wants to spread an important message: ‘We are all in this together.” This obvious but often forgotten truth could be the theme of his new album Gone to Bolivia – the CD release tonight at the TransAlta […]
Posted on May 11, 2011
By Mike Ross
Music
The road tales were fun. Now it’s time to conduct another microscopic examination of another seemingly trivial matter in the world of rock bands – the band name. This week’s guest: Men Without Hats, a new wave blast from the past this Friday at the Century Casino. The very process of naming a band goes […]
Posted on May 10, 2011
By Mike Ross
Music
Combine speed metal, gypsy melodies and a political stance just to the left of and slightly angrier than Wiebo Ludwig and we have one of the greatest, most creative, most original heavy metal bands that ever existed – System of a Down. Who knew such a wild fusion of styles would work, but it does. […]
