From Foo Fighters to the Bavarian Schuhplattlers – scary weekend ahead
Posted on October 25, 2011 By Albert Smith Front Slider, Music
After an entire exhausting week of comedy, it’s time to wipe that grin off your face and gird your loins for ROCK in the last week of OCTOBER. We shall call this combination ROCKTOBERFEST. There’s so much rock in town this weekend that even an attempt to render a joke in this usual spot would […]
Freedom or Death, Samantha Savage-Smith double up at The ARTery
Posted on September 17, 2011 By Andrea Scharner Front Slider, Music
Geez, The ARTery is rapidly turning into a buzz bin. Along with promoting visual arts, it’s a must-go venue for up-and-coming artists and Saturday night was a prime example of why, with buzz-heavy singer-songwriter Samantha Savage-Smith (that’s five, count ‘em, five s’s there) teamed up with equally buzz-heavy electro-soul duo Freedom or Death for a […]
WEEKEND MUSIC UPDATE: Library Voices fresh from the Farm
Posted on September 16, 2011 By Michael Senchuk Front Slider, Music
The fall concert season roars into Edmonton this weekend, with solid choices all around: FRIDAY, SEPT. 16 Expressionz Cafe Birthday Gala – The popular “school of life’s” annual bash will be hosted by comedian and musician Kevin McGrath, with other performances from The NEK Trio, Karen Porkka, and the Little Big Garage Band, 7 p.m., […]
Purple City: an Edmonton tradition no one tells you about
Posted on September 11, 2011 By Rob Drinkwater Culture, Family, Front Slider
If you went to high school in Edmonton, you almost certainly know about “Purple City.” It’s the name for the nighttime game that involves staring at the floodlights at the Legislature for about a minute, looking up and seeing everything turn purple. Everything. The lights of the Legislature, the office towers nearby, the Centennial flame […]
Maroon 5 a blue-eyed soul band in pop clothing
Posted on September 10, 2011 By Andrea Scharner Front Slider, Music
In a sense, Maroon 5 has been pulling off an enormous con job ever since hitting the scene early in 2002 with the band’s mega-hit This Love: it pretends to be a pop band, when it’s all about the soul music. The band, which played Rexall Place Saturday night, is topping the charts again with […]
THEATRE: Art imitates surreality in Die-Nasty Soap-a-Thon
Posted on September 8, 2011 By Mike Ross Comedy, Front Slider, Theatre
Strange things can happen to actors who go the distance at the annual Die-Nasty Soap-a-Thon – this year’s edition beginning Friday at 7 p.m. at the Varscona Theatre and running continuously through Sunday at 9 p.m. Disorientation, delirium, borderline psychosis, galloping coma, terminal giddiness, you name the symptom of sleep deprivation, you might just see […]
FESTIVAL CITY SCORECARD – let’s build a dome over Edmonton
Posted on August 30, 2011 By Mike Ross Culture, Front Slider, Music, Theatre
Consider that organizers of Sonic Boom might have actually been HOPING for lousy weather on Sunday, Sept. 4 and you’ll get a sense how ridiculous it’s been for outdoor festivals in Edmonton this summer. Let’s just build a giant dome over the city. It in fact turned out to be a beautiful day while an […]
TODAY: Eat! Drink! Dance! Italian festival at Giovanni Caboto Park
Posted on August 22, 2011 By Staff Family, Front Slider, Music, Theatre
Manhattan Island is about the only place in North America that can rival Edmonton’s city core for sheer cultural diversity packed into such close quarters – Chinatown down the street from Africa Village just a few blocks away from Little Italy. It’s an entire world within walking distance. This is the week to celebrate this […]
GUITAR FACE: Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Fest in full swing, also shuffle, at Hawrelak Park
Posted on August 18, 2011 By LH Thomson Front Slider, Music
It’s Bluesfest time in Edmonton, and this is one heavy blues town. With that in mind, here’s a primer of sorts on this weekend’s festival performers at Hawrelak Park, and some thoughts on the music itself.(Full lineup HERE.) I had the opportunity to play blues professionally for several years. It’s an interesting music that encompasses […]
Arts-based revitalization in jeopardy, say Alberta Avenue residents
Posted on August 13, 2011 By Rob Drinkwater Culture, Front Slider, Visual Arts
It had become as close to a ghetto as you’ll find in Edmonton, until a city-backed initiative began to turn things around. Now, Alberta Avenue residents say the remarkable transformation of their once-notorious neighbourhood into an arts haven is in jeopardy, based on hints they say the city is dropping that revitalization funding could soon […]
Fringe actors get their ‘one-minutes’ of fame at press launch
Posted on August 2, 2011 By Mike Ross Front Slider, Theatre
The funniest thing about the new fangled Fringe media free-for-all was watching the expressions on the faces of the actors who got cut off in mid-line with the ominous “THANK YOU!” from the side of the stage. Your minute is up. What? We’re done? Not so much as a “we’ll call you?” How exciting. It […]
PREVIEW: Rob Zombie and Slayer breathe a little life into Edmonton
Posted on July 31, 2011 By LH Thomson Front Slider, Music
Here’s a working theory on Rob Zombie: he’s about as far from the walking dead as you could get, frenetically jamming something new (and creative) into just about every minute of his day, as if he was trying to avoid losing a spare second of his life. “You can be in a rock band until […]
