Justin Timberlake forced to postpone Edmonton shows
Fans of Justin Timberlake are encouraged to hang on to their tickets for the postponed shows in Edmonton this coming Sunday and Monday – because he fully expects his “bruised vocal cords” to heal up in time for make-up dates in early 2019. How do you even bruise your vocal cords, anyway? By singing too […]
PLAYBOT: Redpatch tells untold (until now) WWI story
Edmonton First Nations actor Sheldon Elter can’t be in two plays at once – but one imagines he would’ve totally been up for Redpatch. He’s already starring in The Comedy Company (see below), another play about World War I. Coincidence? Not this time, Jasper. Remembrance Day is coming up. At the Citadel Theatre Nov. 1-11, […]
The Bone House will scare you out of your skin
In the dying days of Vaudeville, I attended a traveling production that scared the living daylights out of me – it lingers even now some 70 years later. A virtuoso storyteller told us of the terrors of the night that inhabit our world. As he talked, we realized that they were drawing near. Suddenly, the […]
Last waltz for Lynyrd Skynyrd in Edmonton
At so many shows over so many years one has heard the random lusty shout “PLAY SOME SKYNYRD!” – so many times that it’s become a running joke. But there is no joke when the real Lynyrd Skynyrd returns to play Edmonton one last time. They’re at Rogers Place on Tuesday, March 12, 2019. Tickets […]
Dierks Bentley returns to Edmonton with Burning Man
Last time country star Dierks Bentley came to down, he was “drunk on a plane” – for good reason, because the poor guy had just been stood up at his own wedding. Four years later, he’s touring on the strength of his new hit single Burning Man (no relation to the annual hippie happening at […]
Ready to tour again, Ariana Grande plays Edmonton
Sometimes it takes a while for the biggest music stars to come to town – and when they do, they start at the top. Ariana Grande is making her first appearance in Edmonton next spring, playing Rogers Place on Thursday, April 25. It’s just one date on her “Sweetener World Tour” behind her new album […]
PLAYBOT: Comedy Company, ten-HUT!
Long before trolls ruined the Internet for everyone, Edmonton hosted some Trolls of its own. These were good Trolls. Playwright and actor Neil Grahn is well known to us – a comic conspirator in the so-called Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, a legendary sketch comedy troupe that was Edmonton’s answer to Kids in the […]
Young the Giant brings Mirror Master to Edmonton
It’s a real trick to score radio hits and tour large halls in major cities and still be called “indie.” Enter Young the Giant, which will play the Jubilee Auditorium on Friday, March 1, 2019. The Southern California quintet is touring behind their fourth studio album, Mirror Master. Tickets start at $27.50 and go on […]
John Cleese, not quitting after all, returns to Edmonton
John Cleese is just about the coolest old guy we know. Aside from his abundant post-Python fame playing hilariously unpleasant dad characters in sitcoms like Speechless, he’s proven himself a potent liberal voice on social media – tearing apart stupidity and cruelty with his keen yet subtle wit. Just one example: On the current trend […]
Arkells, now an arena act, plays Edmonton in 2019
After years of “bubbling under” in the turbulent world of indie rock, Arkells is the latest Canadian rock band to ascend to the mainstream. The final confirmation is today’s announcement of their first cross-country arena tour. In the wake of today’s release of their new album Rally Cry, the band will play Thursday, Feb. 7, […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: They Might Be Giants stomp into Edmonton
The Gods of indie rock have smiled on Edmonton once again – They Might Be Giants is coming to town. At the Starlite Friday night, this unusual band has spanned genres and decades with the sort of introspective, esoteric, insufferably quirky and intelligent pop music that’s so hard to pin down it comes unravelled in […]
Edmonton lights up with legal marijuana
So, like every media outlet in Edmonton, I go to cover the first day of cannabis being legal in Canada – and literally the first guy I run into is Ibrahim Shurie, a youth worker with the Somali Canadian Cultural Society of Edmonton. He wants to know why there’s such a big line-up in a […]
