WEEKEND MUSIC PREVIEW: New year lit up with Buckcherry
With the closure of the Edmonton Event Centre, we’re likely to see a few more gigs over at Union Hall in the next few months. The first is this weekend, with California’s Buckcherry headlining a show on Saturday night. Like many of the best hard rock acts, the band is no stranger to legal wranglings. […]
NYE MUSIC PREVIEW: Should old gigs be forgot and never brought to mind?
New Year’s Eve is a weird gig. Traditionally for musicians it is the highest paying job of the year, but it’s a party more than a concert, and the musicians are expected to be entertainers more than the artists they are the rest of the year. It’s also the one show where you’re playing second […]
REAREND IN VIEW: Our top stories of 2012
The most popular stories GigCity published in 2012 started in January with a viral video of “strange sounds in the sky” that prompted a local debunker to create a hoax video to prove the original was a hoax, but the plan backfired when her video went viral, too, as did the article we wrote about […]
MUSIC: Top 10 Edmonton albums of 2012
This was quite the year for music in Edmonton. Not only did we play host to some major touring acts, capped off by two nights with the legend Paul McCartney, but a large number of local acts put out some sensational albums. While the city may be best known in music circles for its folk […]
Top 5 Edmonton albums of 2012
5. Scenic Route To Alaska – All These Years A saucy, southern folk rock album that’s easy to listen to from a band that’s been making a lot of waves in the local scene the last couple of years. The sheer beauty of this album is that it’s appropriate for almost any setting – a […]
McDades speak out: You will practice your fiddle and you will love it!
It must be hard to rebel against your parents when your parents are folk musicians. It’s pretty much the most rebellious form of music known to man outside of punk rock, which is really just folk music writ large. But rebel one must. As a teenager, Solon McDade actually experienced a crisis of fashion that […]
WRITER CITY: Marv Machura on Truth/Beauty
Dubbed “Edmonton’s hottest folk rocker” by a local radio station, Marv Machura is also one of the smartest. He’s not only been a working musician for the past 30 years, he’s also a teacher and a public speaker with a fascination for Marshall McLuhan. Machura’s first book of poetry, Wonder, 30 years in the making, […]
LOCAL CHRISTMAS MUSIC: Hot chocolate for the ears, cider for the soul
It’s hard to know if Edmonton musicians are more or less inclined to record Christmas music than musicians in other places – hard to know because, frankly, we’re too lazy to do the math. It’s that time of year. But there are telling signs. Area artists, generally, don’t seem as inspired by Edmonton’s long beautiful […]
MAIMANN DOWN UNDER: Cross Turbonegro off bucket list
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – I waddled into the Hi-Fi club feeling the ground sway relentlessly back and forth, reeling from a three-day boat trip through the Great Barrier Reef. The hangover and ensuing plane ride that day probably didn’t help. But it was fitting that when I arrived to see Norwegian rock ’n’ roll cult heroes […]
Alexisonfire to host its own Celebration of Life
A rock band is the only living entity that can be present at its own wake. If only human beings could enjoy such flowers at our own funerals, to witness the outpouring of love and adoration from friends and family and fans that disbanding rock bands experience on farewell tours. One last time. The Last […]
TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS: Toys, candy, family, four ghosts
If you haven’t found the true meaning of Christmas by now, you’re probably not going to find it in a Christmas show – but that doesn’t stop them from trying. Edmonton sees the same set of Christmas shows every year, year after year, in one similar form or another, and people keep flocking to them […]
WEEKEND MUSIC PREVIEW: Hopped up on Timbits
The music universe usually heads into its annual slow-down period around Christmas – but you wouldn’t know it by Friday night in Edmonton. Even with the Jingle Bell Rock gig moved to Sunday (and downgraded from the Shaw to the Edmonton Event Centre), it’s still a toss-up what to see. The guy from Poison or […]
