Johnny Reid puts the soul in country
There was feeling of a Sunday church “revival” at the Jubilee Auditorium on Thursday night – and Johnny Reid was the preacher. It was obvious that this Scottish-Canadian country superstar was back in Edmonton to show his audience a good time. No expense was spared when it came to production of his Revival tour, named […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The Heat is on!
There was a seminal moment in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll, in some garage somewhere, where rockabilly musicians decided to play punk rock – or maybe it was the other way around. There may have been a fist fight. Hey, what if I used this upright bass to play Black Flag songs? How dare […]
PLAYBILL: Northern Light shines on Catholic sexual politics
The only girl in a Catholic family longs to be an “altar boy” in the latest offering from Northern Light Theatre – the second of three plays this season exploring the sexual identities of women set against Christian culture. The last one was heavy: The Testament of Mary, wherein long after the events that took […]
REVIEW: Santana parties like it’s 1969
It’s been 50 years, or close enough for rock ‘n’ roll, since Carlos Santana played Woodstock – and you get the feeling it’s just been one long glorious guitar solo ever since. This 70-year-old Latin-rock legend still likes to have fun. It sure looked like Santana and his stellar band were having a blast at […]
Outside Mullingar charming Irish blarney
John Patrick Shanley is an American playwright equally at home in whimsy – the Oscar-winning Moonstruck – or serious drama – the Tony-winning Doubt. In his new play Outside Mullingar, currently in production from Edmonton’s Shadow Theatre at the Varscona Theatre until March 25, he descends deep into Martin McDonagh’s patented Irish territory to attempt […]
Children of God an intensely powerful experience
The Citadel Theatre’s production of Corey Payette’s new work, Children of God, is the most unusual musical you’ve ever seen. It is a noble and surprisingly successful, an effort at marrying two of theatre’s most widely divergent aspects – the musical and a social drama so raw that it has traumatized an entire country. It […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The Dears darlings of indie rock
The Dears have been around almost as long as “indie rock” has been a thing, forming in Montreal in 1995 and releasing their debut album End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story in 2000. Their particular brand of rock music, both dark and orchestral, has found them fans across the continent, and three of their albums […]
REVIEW: Bahamas pretty heavy for soft rock
There’s a keen musical mind lurking behind the dark wit of the man who calls himself Bahamas. Or maybe it’s the other way around. During his show at the Winspear Centre on Monday night, Bahamas picked out a couple in the front row who’d told him they just got engaged to his song Lost in […]
PLAYBILL: Children of God about redemption
Why the Canadian government thought it was a good idea to forcibly remove indigenous children from their families and place them into what turned out to be thoroughly horrible “residential schools” remains a mystery. Or anyway, “to assimilate them into Euro-Canadian culture” is just not a very good reason. In fact, the act was nothing […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Bahamas or Dwight Yoakam, tough choice
You concert promoters need to get it together. You give us weeks of nothing but sporadic metal and classic rock shows during a usually dead time of year – and then on the same otherwise unassuming first Monday night of March you book two must-see acts in two concert halls at opposite sides of town. […]
