One Direction comes to Edmonton in July
Let the screaming commence: One Direction is coming to Edmonton next summer – for the first time ever! The fivesome of singing lads will include the Commonwealth Stadium – Tuesday, July 21, 2015 – on its On the Road Again world tour to support the new album, entitled Four. It’s the band’s fourth album. Tickets […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The B’s of Brainy Beats
The reason there are so many weird rappers in Edmonton is because Edmonton has no rap scene! Just kidding. There are a number of gifted hip hop artists working in town, if not exactly making a living at it. The scene is so small and isolated that people elsewhere would laugh at the prospect we’re […]
SHEER POETRY: Story slam man
The rise in popularity of poetry over the last decade has been spurred on by the idea that storytelling can be a competitive sport – and Edmonton has been up to the challenge. One such “Story Slam” is taking place Thursday, Oct. 22 at the Artery, part of LitFest, Edmonton’s non-fiction festival – yet another […]
Wundi and the Track: It’s not the bar, it’s the booker
With the love Edmonton music people have for Wunderbar – officially known as Wunderbar Hofbrauhaus, or “Wundi” to regulars – it’s easy to compare it to the Sidetrack Café. If you’re old enough. Ah, good times. So sad. Old-timers rue the day the beloved ‘Track was bulldozed for condos. Others – Wundi regulars, for instance […]
Mike MacDonald and the Burden of Truth
There are two kinds of comedians, says Mike MacDonald, “diagnosed and undiagnosed.” That’s in the routine the Ottawa comedian will be doing at the Edmonton Comedy Festival this weekend – part of the act he put together six months after undergoing a liver transplant because when he woke up he couldn’t remember a damned thing […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Once a college band, always a college band
Sloan has to be one of the strangest yet most wonderful rock bands in Canada. From early campus success, “back in the day,” they’ve been compared to the Beatles for their sultry popcraft – epitomized by such masterpieces of heartbreak as The Other Man – and the fact there are four of them, each basically […]
INTERVIEW: The Unstoppable Shawn Bernard
Shawn Bernard survived losing both of his parents and his sister to drug overdoses. He survived poverty, living on streets, becoming a drug dealer, gang leader and drug addict himself. He survived jail. In an inspirational story he’s told to youngsters across Canada countless times since, he prevailed over all these trials to break the […]
Better Alf an Oo than no Oo At All
Area classic rock fans are rejoicing that The Who is coming to Edmonton as part of their 50th anniversary tour. Man, has it been that long? Sure has. So a year of anticipation won’t be much more compared to half a Century of rocking! Featuring originals Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend – the only originals […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Up + Downtown = Festival Time
After the highly acclaimed Ryan Adams (not Bryan Adams) plays the Winspear Centre on Thursday, the biggest gigs of the weekend are part of the city’s final music festival of the year, the Up + Downtown Festival which – you guessed it – includes a vast raft of venues in Edmonton’s downtown area. Arguably the […]
Pixies review: Where Nirvana really came from
The strangest yet one of the most influential bands of the 1980s gave a few really good reasons why their music continues to attract sizable crowds – like the one Pixies drew Monday night at the Shaw Conference Centre. This young, urban group of bespectacled, plaid-clad hipsters weren’t going to be flicking their Bics in […]
