25 YEARS AT THE SUN: Close enough for rock ‘n’ roll
I have seen The Tragically Hip 14 times, Blue Rodeo 13 times, Nickelback seven times and heard Four Strong Winds at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival 18 years in a row. I have reviewed approximately 400 concerts in the arena soon to be formerly known as Rexall Place. Ask me to remember 10 and I […]
REVIEW: Yukon Blonde pops the rock, rocks the pop
Yukon Blonde is the closest hope we have for the new Knack – and this is good news. The world could use more of these bouncy, major-key kinds of bands. Where did they go? They’re lurking and bubbling up from the indie scene, that’s where. Like Yukon Blonde. For a small but enthusiastic crowd at […]
Ozzy better, Black Sabbath coming back
Good news: Ozzy is feeling better, and Black Sabbath will make-up for the show they had to cancel in Edmonton. The new date is Wednesday, March 2, at Rexall Place. Tickets held for the original date of Jan. 30 will be honoured, and some tickets are still available; if you cannot attend the show, refunds […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Big Band Valentine
For the record, so to speak, Carol Welsman came out before Diana Krall – singing more or less the same sort of material with similar smoky style, both Canadian, both went to the famed Berklee College of Music, both jazz singers who both accompany themselves with decent chops on piano, both since moved to Los […]
SHOWS: James Taylor, LOG, bizarre Beyonce booking
Beyonce’s Super Bowl halftime show has apparently sparked some discussion about race relations in America – and good for her – but there was nothing “outrageous” about it. What’s outrageous is that she has been booked to perform at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium on Friday, May 20 – an ambitious move given her history in this […]
REVIEW: Corb Lund shows soul of Alberta
This whole country boy vs. city boy thing that Corb Lund has going – it doesn’t matter anymore. The fusion is complete. What a joyous homecoming it was at the sold out Jubilee Auditorium Saturday night, an olde-country hoedown hootenanny celebration of the Prodigal Son Returned, his only “crime” having secretly moved to Calgary recently. […]
Why are there so many phone songs?
At this moment in time, somewhere on or about the day of Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016, it is possible to hear three different songs called Hello on top-40 radio. Four if you count Lionel Richie’s Hello on the oldies stations. There’s Hello by Dragonette, who “just came to say hello, hello, hello, hello,” as opposed […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Bright Light Social Hour upon us
Much has been made of how the low Canadian dollar is impacting touring acts on both sides of the border – though last week’s spate of concert announcements may have us thinking differently. Regardless, it’s great to another great American coming our way, and in this case it’s all the way from Texas: The Bright […]
REVIEW: 54-40 gets intimate
I guess I picked the right (if differently spelled) Osbourne to go see on Saturday night – Neil Osborne, that is, from 54-40, leading his band in an acoustic show at Festival Place. Black Sabbath, meanwhile, was forced to cancel its Saturday show in Edmonton, and also Calgary Feb. 1, because Ozzy is suffering from […]
Eagles of Death Metal coming to Edmonton
Traumatized but undaunted, the Eagles of Death Metal are coming to Edmonton for the first time since the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of 89 concert-goers at their show, as well as the band’s merchandise man Nick Alexander. The band led by Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and his […]
