Folk fest plays second fiddle to elements
Let’s just get all of our “Four Strong Winds” jokes out of the way in the sopping wet aftermath of the 38th annual Edmonton Folk Music Festival. A Mighty Wind, too. The 38th annual fest started on Thursday with an evacuation due to dangerous gusts of wind causing alarming flopping TV screens, and ended Sunday […]
Folk fest blown out by mighty wind
Before it was evacuated on Thursday night, people were having a blast at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. They were just getting warmed up with the furious fiddling hurdy-gurdy goodness of the Quebec supergroup called Solo; and a smokin’ set of Haitian samba from Lakou Mizik – and then Mother Nature stepped in. A sudden […]
Lady Gaga takes control in Edmonton
Just once it would be nice to see one of these superstar pop divas let down their ridiculous hair, loosen up and get real – but no, Lady Gaga, one of the best of them all, had to reinforce the pop diva stereotype and come off like a control freak at Rogers Place on Thursday […]
REVIEW: Phantom raises goosebumps
Thirty one years ago, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterpiece opened in London’s West End. It went to Broadway two years later. Based on Gaston Leroux’s novel of great intrigue and captivation, Le Fatôme de l’Opéra, the show was a hit. This edge-of-your-seat piece about the dark side of the human condition remains the longest running show […]
REVIEW: Bob Dylan blowin’ in the wind
Aside from the cool duds the band wore, nothing was dressed up for the Bob Dylan show at Rogers Place Wednesday night. The stage had a candlelit ballroom type of look, and there were no coloured lights. Just varying intensities of white. Of course, that was all that was required. Dylan is his own gimmick […]
Duran Duran wows Edmonton moms
Someone once said that video killed the radio star – and that Duran Duran was the first pop group to prove it. They were pioneers of MTV. Now the British group is a nostalgia act, while YouTube killed the video star and little kids are asking, “What’s MTV, Mommy?” But Mommy wasn’t listening. Mom was […]
RACISM: Is it awkward yet?
To the woman who demanded to see a white doctor in Toronto, to the men who brandished Confederate flags in a Muslim neighbourhood in Edmonton, to the people who hurl N-bombs on the streets, the #MakeItAwkward campaign doesn’t want to hate you. They just want to talk. Meeting hate with hate isn’t getting us anywhere. […]
Jazz fest a beautiful, scattered affair
It’s a pain in the ass to wrangle a night at the TD Edmonton International Jazz Festival and have it feel like an actual festival. If you didn’t know there was a jazz festival going on, you might not even notice, what with all the other festivals. We’re in festival gridlock season. Until July 2, […]
Jana O’Connor comedy a Teatro triumph
I haven’t laughed so hard at the Varscona Theatre … well, since the last play by Teatro La Quindicina. The current production of the screwball comedy Going, Going, Gone! at the Varscona Theatre until July 1 launches the writing career of a radiant new comic talent. Jana O’Connor is a long time member of the […]
REVIEW: Tool plays it cool
Tool is one of those shows where you feel like you saw the music and heard the lights. In other words, it was an amazing psychedelic rock concert at Rogers Place on Tuesday night, even if it took time to get there. The concert felt underwhelming at first, and not much different than Tool’s last […]
Folk fest to maximize ‘patron comfort’
“We’re really going to try not to annoy people this year.” That’s the word from Terry Wickham, longtime producer of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, whose annual press conference happened Wednesday. The performers for Aug. 10-13 were announced: The Decemberists, Brandi Carlile, Ricky Skaggs, Valerie June, City and Colour (pictured), and more, 64 acts in […]
REVIEW: Talking Turk a delightful entertainment
You remember Zoltar the Talking Turk. In the penny arcades of yore, he was the dapper Eastern-looking chap in the turban who sat in a glass booth. You’d put in your coin and Zoltar would jerk into life. A crystal ball would be lit by an eerie, red mystic light and the seer would forecast […]
