Madama Butterfly goes Back to the Future
A team from Edmonton Opera saw a time-travelling version of Madama Butterfly in England and liked it so much they decided to stage it in Edmonton for the company’s 50th anniversary. It opens Saturday, April 5 at the Jubilee Auditorium (also running April 8 and 10). That’s right, there’s a time machine. Time machines weren’t […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Storm the Bastille!
It’s no surprise that Saturday’s show with Bastille at the Union Hall sold out moments after its announcement. The band was named as the “British Breakthrough Act” at the 2014 Brit Awards and won’t be playing nightclubs much longer. Originally started as a solo project by London singer-songwriter Dan Smith, the band is best-known for […]
Classified keeps it real Canadian, really high
Like a lot of white rappers of a certain age, Classified, aka Luke Boyd, listened to Snoop and Dr. Dre when he was a kid. That stuff wasn’t easy to find in Enfield, Nova Scotia, where he came of age in the mid-1990s. Cassette tapes were treasured possessions. He and three other dudes comprised the […]
Local band raises money for Friedreich’s Ataxia
Although Edmonton musician Joel Kleine has a disease that keeps him in wheelchair, he will keep performing and making music as long as he can. “Music is my therapy,” he says, adding that whether he’s on stage, practicing with his band Bombproof the Horses, writing songs or making demos, music helps him forget his disability. […]
You can’t take the metal out of the Maimann
Kevin Maimann is a folkie with a metalhead inside screaming to get out – or is it the other way around? There is little doubt that the 27-year-old Edmonton Sun music columnist is a metal fan. As a teenager he braided his hair like the dude from Korn. He says he doesn’t consider himself a […]
We won’t get April Fooled Again
Edmonton baby boomers can still remember an epic April Fool’s Day joke played by 630 CHED, which in the early 1970s was the only radio station everyone listened to. The phone company, Ed-Tel, announced that it was going to blow all the dust out of the phone lines at precisely 7:30 am, so you’d best […]
(NO) RELIGION: Onward Atheist Soldiers!
What do members of the Society of Edmonton Atheists do at their meetings? Sit around and talk about how they don’t believe in God, while saying “Jesus, it’s cold outside!”? Not exactly. Many of them have lost something – and it’s more important than the Higher Power they don’t recognize. It’s the companionship of like-minded […]
COMMENT: Never apologize for selling Alberta to the world!
For decades premiers have been trundling Alberta about like a one-carnival pyramid scheme. The premiers themselves fully immersed in the aesthetic of grift: gold teeth, alligator skin shoes and beluga fat pomade. “I will never apologize for selling Alberta to the world!” was the resonating huckster mantra that the publicly-shamed plutocrat Alison Redford left us […]
Fleetwood Mac returns – with Christine McVie!
Fleetwood Mac sure seems to like Edmonton. The band is coming back to town for its aptly-named “On With the Show” tour – featuring Christine McVie for the first time in 16 years. They were just here last May, one short. Now they are complete. And there was great rejoicing. This is of course the […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: There goes The Neighborhood
How fitting that we’re still mired in “Sweater Weather” – since the authors of that hit song, The Neighborhood, play Edmonton’s Union Hall on Saturday night. Formed in 2011, the California band features the vocal talents of Jesse Rutherford, the bright guitar tones of guitarists Jeremy Freedman and Zach Abels, with drummer Brandon Fried. The […]
REVIEW: Great concert? Yes!
About 2,000 Edmontonians took a trip to a parallel rock ‘n’ roll universe for the duration of the Yes concert Monday night at the Jubilee Auditorium. Lucky for fans of the band – now spanning six decades since its inception in 1968 – this is exactly what they came for. How many bands in 2014 […]
Pax Arcana reunites after 20 years – for old time’s sake
A one-time band reunion can be just as sad as sex with your ex – great while it lasts, but you’re likely to feel just as empty afterwards because you have to break up all over again. “Hopefully we’ll be drunk after that,” says keyboardist Marek Forysinski on the expected mood after Pax Arcana’s comeback […]
