Rockers rock Edmonton Rock Festival
People like Kim Mitchell and Randy Bachman have played here so much that we take them for granted. These guys are world-class artists who’ve put a lot of rock standards on the scoreboard, but around here they’re just part of the landscape, ignored, sometimes even scorned by younger generations. If you miss them now, hey, […]
Team GigCity Fringe Rises!
Here’s a first: GigCity is going to be reviewing actual plays at the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival this year – led by esteemed local theatre critic Colin Maclean, who’s still gung-ho at the age of 80. In the past, we merely lurked on the periphery of Edmonton’s most interesting festival – with stories about […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The Rock must go on
The letdown for all the folkies from the Edmonton Folk Music Festival is indeed palpable. There are a number of well-heeled mavens in the city who believe, and it’s quite possibly true, that the vast majority of folkies don’t go to many shows the rest of the year. It makes sense. After all, 100,000 people […]
Folk Fest ends on a high note
That’s it, that’s all, folks. Here we are at the end of another iteration of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, and Sunday certainly closed out the weekend on a high note. There was an undeniable current of excitement resonating throughout the crowd on what turned out to be an ideal summer evening, with not a […]
Folk Fest vs. LRT: A hill to die on
There’s a mild controversy literally surrounding the Edmonton Folk Music Festival this year. Like a lot of Edmonton gripes, it’s over a bridge. Folkies may have noticed they can’t walk over on the Cloverdale footbridge anymore. The City has already started breaking it down to make way for the new LRT Valley Line, to be […]
Session acts upstage main stage at folk fest
Day Two of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival kicked off just in time for the after-work crowd to hustle down to Gallagher Hill and take in a slew of “Session” performances before the main stage acts got underway. The shorter schedule during the first two days of folk fest always feel like a primer for […]
Guitar Night at the Folk Fest
The first four acts of the 37th annual Edmonton Folk Music Festival have set the tone – for rocking out. Opening night contained at least twice the recommended daily dosage of electric guitar, and the folk fans didn’t mind a bit. After all, the folks know this weekend will be filled with fiddles, bouzoukis, dobros […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: What the Folk
Folk music is bleeding into the pop charts in record quantities. At this rate, it’ll be Bob Dylan at Newport all over again. So who is the next Bob Dylan? (Or Joni Mitchell, or Fairport Convention, depending.) The stars of tomorrow may well be found at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival Thursday through Sunday. Headliners […]
The Tragically Hip’s heartbreaking goodbye
Gord Downie is wrong about one thing: Courage does matter, and it couldn’t come at a better time. Without courage, he could never have mounted what may well be the last Tragically Hip tour ever – in the face of a devastating diagnosis of terminal brain cancer. The 52-year-old singer is obviously feeling well enough […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The Courage of the Tragically Hip
The Tragically Hip comes to Edmonton for likely the last time Thursday and Saturday – and rave reviews have been pouring in since the tour opened in Vancouver last week. That’s rather unsurprising given the nature of this tour. In May, singer Gord Downie was diagnosed with one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer. […]
