Black Mourning Light to darken weekend
The question is not IF Edmonton can support such a narrow niche event as a “black and doom” metal festival – of course it can – but WHY. Dustin Ekman, producer of the Black Mourning Light Metal Festival happening this weekend, speaks from personal experience, “What else do you have to do when it’s 40 […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Stumbellas sellout
It’s no surprise that one of Ontario’s hottest folk-rock bands is playing a sold out show at Winspear Centre this Thursday night – when just four years ago they were playing Wunderbar. The Strumbellas’ 2012 album titled My Father and the Hunter was one of the year’s very best, featuring their epic song The Sheriff, […]
Weird town to be less weird without weird artist
To mangle a line from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Planet Edmonton will be a very great deal less weird without Philip Alexander Jagger. The performance artist, experimental musician, filmmaker, actor, poet and distant cousin of Mick Jagger has spent 30 years Making Something Strange in Edmonton, but will soon be moving to an […]
Cartoon concert review: Kanye loves Kanye
Performing weeks after Drake conquered Rogers Place, Kanye West showed Edmonton the opposite side of Drake’s win-‘em-over-approach. This was the Kanye show and it was all about Kanye. There were no opening acts or tacky TV commercials greeting the audience arriving into the bowels of Rogers Place. Instead, dry ice drifted along the floor and […]
Kenny Rogers knows when to fold ‘em
He can hardly walk, he can’t stand up for very long, his voice is a raspy shadow of its former self – but Kenny Rogers is making the most of what he’s got left, one last time. What a trouper. There should be something poetic said here about saluting the lion in his final victory […]
Roger Waters brings Us + Them to Edmonton
Remember how awesome that Roger Waters show was? KABOOM! Fwoosh! Kazam! All we are … is just another brick in the wall … whereupon a frickin’ airplane flies across the arena and crashes into the Wall, blowing it to smoking bricks. Wow. That was all in the first song, by the way. The show (at […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Kanye vs. Kenny
At least the Oilers won the home opener against the Godless Flames – so now can we stow all the crap about the new arena already? All is forgiven! Again Edmonton has two arena shows on the same night – and not very much crossover audience between Kanye West (at Rogers Place) and Kenny Rogers […]
Cowboy pianist steps into the spotlight
You know that saloon scene with the piano player in just about every Western movie ever made? Stewart MacDougall could be that piano player. He looks and sounds and has lived the part. It’s not often this dedicated local sideman gets a chance to headline in his own town, so it’s a special event he’s […]
The Science of Guitar Face
Guys make the funniest faces. We gnash our teeth, knit our brows, purse our lips, let our mouths hang open, contort our jaws, scrunch our eyes shut, stick out our tongues, breathe heavily, grunt and groan and moan and generally look ridiculous. Yes, Guitar Face is an occupational hazard when you’re playing a really good […]
Tegan and Sara show their pop side
It’s been both inspiring and weird to witness the evolution of Tegan and Sara from folk-singing Calgary twins to the hippest Canadian indie darlings around to the electro-synth dance-pop group they are now. Weirder still is that they’re getting more radio airplay than ever – yet the draw doesn’t equal the high rotation. Barely 2,000 […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Top 7 UP+DT acts
This weekend’s primary offering is a bevy of insanely good gigs courtesy of the fourth annual offering of the Up + Downtown Music Festival. With acts ranging from folk to punk to garage to psychedelic, there’s a little something for almost everyone. But little something is probably not giving the festival programmers enough credit, because […]
Metal John carries Torch of Rebellion
There can be only one! We refer of course to the designated heavy metal guru at the mighty CJSR FM 88.5 university radio station. Where once was Metal Mike (Berry) in a previous millennium, the torch hath passed to Metal John (Kyle), who has bravely held his lonely post for the last 20 years, give […]
