BRIAN WILSON: Sand, sun and golden adolescence
He stopped touring with his brothers and cousins long before the Beach Boys were a nostalgia act at Klondike Days – but Brian Wilson is known as much for his elusive eccentricities as his musical genius. He is the stuff of legend. The median age for his show at the Jubilee Auditorium Wednesday night was […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: John Mayer’s split personality
We all know John Mayer has a gift for writing beautiful, heartfelt pop songs to make strong men weep. That’s why he’s famous. We know that he likes to say outrageous things to reporters from time to time. That also makes him famous. Romantic involvements with women like Jessica Simpson, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift […]
PLAYBILL: Superstar rises at Mayfield
Jesus Christ Superstar is the best musical Andrew Lloyd Webber has ever made. FACT. Oh, you don’t want to argue around this time of year, when in some households the annual screening of the 1973 feature film starring dreamy Ted Neeley is as close to religion as they’re going to get all year – and […]
REVIEW: Starcatcher flies like Peter Pan
Avast there, matey, prepare to go aloft! And I abide that ye’ll have a crew of plundering picaroons at yer back. The Citadel’s current show Peter and the Starcatcher does briefly soar aloft, but that comes later. James MacDonald’s rollicking, inventive production starts small with what is known as “physical theatre,” or the more poetic […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Local aces play Graceland tribute
The Going To Graceland show at the Royal Alberta Museum Theatre on Saturday night will be one of the last gigs played at the venue, and it’s celebrating what many believe to be one of the best albums of the 1980s, if not the entire Century. A nine piece ensemble – featuring locals aces like […]
PLAYBILL: 9 Parts of Desire has many faces
Nine very different Iraqi women lead lives as normal as they can manage in the years between the two Gulf wars – imagined by Heather Ruffo in her discussion-provoking play 9 Parts of Desire. The playwright was inspired and disturbed by a trip to an art museum in Baghdad, and from extensive interviews with area […]
Review of the Cat Cafe: HISSSSSSSSS!
FULL DISCLAWSURE: I grew up in a cat house. The rotating clowder of strays my mother took in numbered up to 16. I’d left home by this point, and moved in with a girl who had a cat. Then we split up and she moved out, and I kept the cat until it died. Another […]
INTERVIEW: Weezer from 2 sides
Scott Shriner is the perfect man to help us understand Weezer – an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a slowly unraveling sweater. While he’s not an original member, he’s the band’s longest serving bassist, since 2001. Shriner was a fan first: a bar band musician from Toledo, Ohio who came to Hollywood in […]
REVIEW: The Lumineers light up Edmonton
The Lumineers sure have matured since they came up with the big Ho Hey that launched their folk-popping star just five years ago. They’d have to – they’ve been working non-stop ever since. The proof was in their stomperific, strumtacular show at Rogers Place on Friday night. It was puzzling to see some 14,000 hip […]
April Fool’s Day cancelled
Because we have reached a tipping point in society where there is more fake news than real news – and not only is the fake news more popular but it often reveals more truth than real news, fiction being less strange than truth – April Fool’s Day has been cancelled by Order of the Government. […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The Lumineers keep it lit
Now that Mumford and Sons have ditched folk, it is the sacred duty of The Lumineers to carry on the trend of funny stringed instruments, odd drums and fashionable hats in popular music. We just can’t get enough. At Rogers Place Friday night for their first proper headlining show in Edmonton, The Lumineers came to […]
PLAYBILL: A little Peter Pan in all of us
It’s worth asking why there have been so many versions and adaptations of Peter Pan. Is it because that all of us, deep down inside, in our heart of hearts, have a secret desire to fly around while wearing green tights? Or is there something deeper? Maybe it’s because Peter Pan is a magical flying […]
