Jazz fest a beautiful, scattered affair
It’s a pain in the ass to wrangle a night at the TD Edmonton International Jazz Festival and have it feel like an actual festival. If you didn’t know there was a jazz festival going on, you might not even notice, what with all the other festivals. We’re in festival gridlock season. Until July 2, […]
REVIEW: Ryan Adams the real deal
Ryan Adams may be too country for rock ‘n’ roll, too rock ‘n’ roll for country and a bit too much of both to properly fit into the dreaded “alt-country” genre, but you’ll rarely find a more genuine personality on the whatever-you-want-to-call-it scene today. For an enthusiastic, beered-up crowd at the Jubilee Auditorium Friday night, […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Ruth B hits the A list
That’s quite the little song Ruth B came up with – by herself, in her bedroom in Edmonton, on her cheap Yahama electric piano. You may have heard her ode to Peter Pan on the radio: Lost Boy. Professional producers left the song mostly untouched from the her original homemade YouTube video she posted in […]
PLAYBILL: Shakespeare rocks
Some people say that maybe William Shakespeare wasn’t such a big deal after all, and therefore maybe his work shouldn’t be taught in schools at the expense of other worthy or more modern playwrights – or remounted again and again to promote 500-year-old sexual and racial morals in one Shakespeare festival after another. To those […]
PLAYBILL: No rewrites at Improvaganza
We’re all just making it up as we go along. Every moment of life is an act of spontaneous creativity, and every creative action starts with a decision made in the moment, which leads to another decision, and then an action and so on and so forth, until voila! Congratulations, you’ve written Les Miserables. Improv […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Tool time!
Tool is a good example of a band that doesn’t particularly care if people like them or not, yet they stick to their guns so hard it’s impossible to turn away. Therein lies the secret of art. Do it for love. Or hate, or whatever. Just make it a STRONG emotion. Please don’t bore us. […]
Punk artist reveals deep roots
The Blueberry Bluegrass & Country Music Festival is lucky to own the latest creations from Edmonton artist Spyder Yardley-Jones: a mandolin bigger than a bull fiddle, a towering acoustic guitar and a Brobdingnagian banjo. The fiddle next time. The heavy plywood sculptures will be paraded around Parkland County in an antique truck before being put […]
PLAYBILL: One Pride, many voices
It is that time of year again, when a young man’s (or young woman’s) fancy turns to love – even love that does not hesitate to dare to speak its name, to modernize an old saying a bit awkwardly. In our free country, of course, so many are daring, which is why we have the […]
Folk fest to maximize ‘patron comfort’
“We’re really going to try not to annoy people this year.” That’s the word from Terry Wickham, longtime producer of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, whose annual press conference happened Wednesday. The performers for Aug. 10-13 were announced: The Decemberists, Brandi Carlile, Ricky Skaggs, Valerie June, City and Colour (pictured), and more, 64 acts in […]
Beck coming to Edmonton
We’ve been waiting for this guy for a long time – the one and only Beck is finally coming to Edmonton. The allegedly eccentric artist whose anthem Loser catapulted him to instant cult stardom in another age will play the Jubilee Auditorium on Tuesday, Aug. 22. Tickets are $59.50 to $89.50 and go on sale […]
PLAYBILL: Nnnnnnnnext!
Here’s a fun tip for budding artists, a little “life hack”: The concept of “spring” may be used as metaphor for birth. You see, old life must rust or burn out or fade away to make room for new life, for the next, smarter generation to come. It’s the circle of … er, life! In […]
Chili Peppers keep it fresh in Edmonton
When a band on its day off in Edmonton hangs out on Whyte Avenue, instead of, say, West Edmonton Mall, they’re more likely to get a favourable review. It’s a FACT. Because Anthony Kiedis and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers were spotted in our city’s arguably coolest district on Friday (on their way […]
