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 […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: 3 festival hacks you must try
1. Stay hydrated. Don’t forget that most alcoholic beverages contain water. 2. Choose wisely. Festivals are piled on top of each other at this time of year in Edmonton. There are three major ones this weekend alone: Interstellar Rodeo, K-Days and Taste of Edmonton. If you’re looking for a more “rural” festival experience, i.e., bush […]
INTERVIEW: Suzanne Vega in the alternative heart
The name of Suzanne Vega’s baby was part of an interesting coincidence that leads to some of the greatest alternative music albums ever made – including her own. Vega is one of the headliners of the Interstellar Rodeo in Hawrelak Park July 21-23. When she was married to the legendary producer Mitchell Froom, she had […]
Matchbox Twenty and Counting Crows meet in the middle
“Wow, I got totally out of control at the Matchbox Twenty concert last night!” is probably not something you want to admit today. This is not a band – like White Zombie or Insane Clown Posse or something – whose music you’d think would incite uncontrollable behaviour. Unless you count 40-year-old guys dancing in the […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: A different kind of ’90s love
Matchbox Twenty and Counting Crows were at the very pinnacle of the music scene in the 1990s, and the latter were particularly popular in Canada, with three songs reaching the top 3 during that time – Mr. Jones, A Long December, and Hanginaround. Round Here was another popular anthem that received significant airplay during that […]
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 […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Seven to rule them all
Every festival has its own “feel.” Now see if you can tell what the acts at the Seven Music Festival Saturday in St. Albert have in common: The Strumbellas, The Rural Alberta Advantage, The Provincial Archive, Paul Woida, The Elwins, Sykamore, Frazey Ford, and The Royal Foundry. Yes, they’re all white, but that sort of […]
Adam Lambert gives new life to Queen
Queen is never going to replace Freddie Mercury. He was one of a kind. But what about the rest of the guys in the band? What do they do when they want to keep the band going after their lead singer died? Life isn’t fair. And so, in their desire to give these great songs […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Canada Day with Sarah
As far back as high school, Sarah McLachlan’s yearbook predicted she was destined to become a rock star – and that’s exactly how her life played out. Her pair of albums from the 1990’s, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and Surfacing, remain as powerful as ever, spawning such Canrock hits as Good Enough, Building A Mystery, Sweet […]
REVIEW: Shakespeare comedy goes disco
The Merry Wives of Windsor, one of two Shakespearian plays featured this summer by Edmonton’s Freewill Shakespeare Festival, was a commissioned work – by a patron no less than Queen Elizabeth I. Her Majesty loved the portly, sack-quaffing knight that Shakespeare created for his Henry IV, Part 1 and further developed in Henry 1V, Part […]
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, […]
REVIEW: Ryan Adams the real deal
Ryan Adams may be too country for rock ‘n’ roll, too rock ‘n’ roll for country and a bit too much of both to properly fit into the dreaded “alt-country” genre, but you’ll rarely find a more genuine personality on the whatever-you-want-to-call-it scene today. For an enthusiastic, beered-up crowd at the Jubilee Auditorium Friday night, […]
