Gender a moot point in powerful Henry V
Shakespeare’s Henry V is the most manly of kings. In his earlier play, Henry IV, the Bard gives us the wild, undisciplined wastrel known as “Prince Harry,” who together with his partner in excess Falstaff probes the depths of dissipation. But in Henry V we see a new man born. The former rake assumes the […]
INSIDE Edmonton’s Avant-garde
There may have been as many performers as there were audience members at the gig – but it didn’t matter. This was ART. A man named SkruntSkrunt rendered space sounds through a speaker box that was duct-taped to a didgeridoo. The Japanese performer Himiko wore a scary face mask as she played oddly consonant chords […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Bye Bye Bunny
Everyone’s favorite year-end album list starts as a blank slate. Which way will the winds blow in 2017? Where will this year’s standouts come from? What genres will they play? It certainly seems like the most interesting local projects these days are those that blend a bunch of sounds into one, but isn’t that really […]
PLAYBILL: Bang Stomp Bang
Shif-shif-shif-shif, ca-klap, baDOOM, a-boom, a-boom, a-boom, shif-shif, baDOOM! CLANG CLANG CLANG, baDOOM, ka-shif-shif-shif … ZZk ZZk ZZk ZZk, CLANG! baDOOM, crash, ow! Look out! Aieeeee! Been there, dented that – and still this Cirque du Percussionista show continues to merrily bang along. For those who haven’t seen the Robot Chicken sketch, Stomp! is 90-minutes of […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Rollins the Raj of Rage
Just over a year ago on late night television, Stephen Colbert asked Henry Rollins what makes him angry. He replied, “Anything where humans could be better, where they could treat each other and themselves better.” Colbert cut in, “Isn’t being angry the sort of thing we should stop? Aren’t you part of the problem, Henry […]
Lord of the Logos: Black Metal AF
Seriously, metal dudes – what’s the point of having such a beautiful logo when you can’t read the name of the damned band?! For an answer, we turn to the Lord of the Logos himself: Christophe Szpajdel, the prolific Belgian metalligrapher whose customers include Metallica, Rihanna and Foo Fighters, among an estimated 10,000 bands over […]
NYE PREVIEW: The Secretaries play to type
As the year concludes, this weekend’s live music opportunities center around – no surprise – New Year’s Eve. There’s a bevy of options for everyone, from folk to rock to folk-rock, from electronic to pop, and lots in between. One of the best shows, and the best values, may be at Ritchie Community Hall, where […]
Edmonton music measured in awesomeness
It was an interesting year. Edmonton gained a lot of new venues. It lost some more. Yet through it all, the city’s music scene endures, perseveres, resiliently plows through, pulling itself along on a cord thrown out for the city’s vast catacombs of master musicians. The city’s music scene cannot be captured in one or […]
Toruk the stuff of recurring dreams
Toruk – The First Flight, from the world’s largest theatrical company Cirque du Soleil (100 productions and counting), is taking flight in Edmonton. At Rogers Place until Dec. 26, the show is based on James Cameron’s box office juggernaut Avatar using Cameron’s lush, vividly imagined world of the planet Pandora. Cirque strips away Cameron’s least […]
Alan Thicke plays against type in last film
Alan Thicke died of a ruptured aorta on Dec. 13 after playing hockey with his 19-year-old son Carter – who happens to have a bit part in the last feature film his father starred in, It’s Not My Fault and I Don’t Care Anyway, shot in Edmonton. They did a lot together. “You could tell […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: A visit from Cadence
The cat came back. They all come back, sooner or later, these former Edmonton artists who moved to greener pastures. Even if it’s just a family visit at Christmastime. Performing a homecoming show Friday at the Needle Vinyl Tavern, Cadence Weapon may be thriving out East, but the rapper born Rollie Pemberton was raised in […]
PLAYBILL: Christmas wholesomeness
‘Twas the night before wombat and all through the snerse, not a weeful was starping, not even a cherse. The weppels were hung by the stabbage with hair, in the clam that snat eelix would carter the snare. And nox in her keppitch, and meal in my lap, was flopping and keeling like mice in […]
