WEEKEND MUSIC PREVIEW: Shorter and bigger

Posted on June 21, 2012 By Michael Senchuk Music

From an apparent black gig hole last weekend comes a supernova of musical activity. Both the Edmonton International Jazz Festival and the Works Art and Design Festival, with its free live stage in Churchill Square, start Friday. Also playing on this night is the monster blues project the Tedeschi Trucks Band at the Jube and […]

Aboriginal arts stereotypes exploded at Rubaboo Festival

Posted on June 12, 2012 By Wayne Arthurson Music, Theatre, Visual Arts

If you’re an aboriginal artist, there’s a perception that your discipline is mostly traditional, like pow-wow dancing, beadwork, soapstone carving, stuff like that. There’s also a perception that if you’re an aboriginal artist, you have act or dress a certain way. For example, I’m an aboriginal writer, but some people have expressed surprise that I […]

JAZZ FEST: A user’s guide – Botti and beyond

Posted on June 12, 2012 By Mike Ross Culture, Front Slider, Music

It’s not who you know, it’s who you don’t know – and that’s the key to enjoying a good jazz festival. This wisdom, above, comes from Kent Sangster, artistic director of the Edmonton International Jazz Festival, which runs through July 1 at venues around town with headliners like Wayne Shorter and Chris Botti and many […]

CONCERT REVIEW: The Wailers spread love at Open Sky

Posted on June 10, 2012 By Robin Schroffel Music

The skies sure opened wide Saturday evening at the Open Sky Music Festival – but that didn’t stop the revelry at Hawrelak Park’s Heritage Amphitheatre. Girls danced in the downpour, teenagers wrapped themselves up like ghosts in soaking sleeping bags, and dreadlocked students made friendly conversation while the weather howled through the festival grounds and […]

Interview with a Wailer: High times and kindred spirits at Open Sky

Posted on June 8, 2012 By Mike Ross Music

You don’t have to smoke marijuana to play reggae properly – but it helps. “God knows!” declares Barrington Brown, aka Koolant, the new lead singer for the Wailers – who, at the age of 27, hasn’t been alive as long as Bob Marley has been dead. Koolant is nonetheless a stone-cold, real-deal Jamaican Rasta-man who […]

SANE CLOWN POSSE: Cirque star brings new act to children’s festival

Posted on May 28, 2012 By Mike Ross Theatre

Clowning has become very serious business – thanks to Cirque du Soleil, which in turn owes a debt of gratitude to people like Dimitri Bogatirev. This man is a true Clown. Bringing his travelling three-clown circus Aga-Boom to the International Children’s Festival, opening Tuesday at St. Albert Place, the Ukrainian-born performer is a first rate […]

Hip Hop in the Park a new age hippie happening

Posted on May 17, 2012 By Mike Ross Music, The Latest

Hip Hop in the Park – a free festival taking place Saturday at the Louise McKinney Park – is more like the folk fest than any stereotype of a dangerous gangsta rap music event imagined by people who are afraid of rap music. “We’re more like new age hippies,” says producer Melissa L.A. Bishop. “We’re […]

ELEMENTS OF STYLE: Electronic music rules at weekend festival

Posted on April 26, 2012 By Mike Ross Front Slider, Music

Putting aside the question of whether electronic music fans are crazier than rock fans – Northlands seemed to think so when they refused to allow alcohol to be sold at this weekend’s Elements Music Festival until a judge ordered the decision reversed – there are more basic questions for those who don’t know their “house” […]

Performance poet Jem Rolls exists only in the moment

Posted on April 23, 2012 By Mike Ross Comedy, Front Slider, Lit, Theatre

The chief difference between stand-up comedy and performance poetry, according to noted performance poet Jem Rolls, is that “I don’t have to be funny all the time.” So it’s more relaxing for the audience if they don’t expect a punch-line every single time, he adds, and even better, “It’s more relaxing for me.” Appearing Friday […]

Linkin Park to headline Sonic Boom 2012

Posted on April 16, 2012 By Albert Smith Music, The Latest

Sonic Boom 2012 shall be outdoors, Weather Gods be damned, and should sleet come, at least we’ll have Linkin Park and Incubus to warm us up. This festival happening Sunday, Sept. 2 at the Northlands grounds will be Linkin Park’s first appearance in Edmonton, believe it or not. Incubus – another hard rocking band from […]

Area grandfather becomes living art installation at Latitude 53’s In/Stall/Ed

Posted on August 26, 2011 By Staff Theatre, Visual Arts

Nick Shostak Sr. may have not known what he was getting into when he agreed to take part in a performance art project with his granddaughter Amy – who, as the artistic director of Rapid Fire Theatre, gets up to all sorts of zany things. The 81-year-old patriarch of the Shostak Clan will become a […]

TONIGHT: Surf rocker Donavon Frankenreiter plays Open Sky Music Festival

Posted on August 26, 2011 By Mike Ross Music

No more festivals! The summer in Edmonton, such that it was, is just too packed. Well, OK, one more … The second annual Open Sky Music Festival, celebrating “surf rock” and its related genres, is set to go at Saturday and Sunday at Hawrelak Park’s Heritage Amphitheatre, which is at least a thousand miles from […]

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