REVIEW: Robyn Hitchcock still surreal
If the name Robyn Hitchcock is mysterious to hit parade stalwarts, don’t worry – it’s not likely his rabid legion of followers quite “get” him, either. That didn’t stop some 70 devotees of the surrealistic singer-songwriter from trying to unravel the Matrix-like yarns he spun in song and banter on Sunday night in Sherwood Park’s […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Bahamas or Dwight Yoakam, tough choice
You concert promoters need to get it together. You give us weeks of nothing but sporadic metal and classic rock shows during a usually dead time of year – and then on the same otherwise unassuming first Monday night of March you book two must-see acts in two concert halls at opposite sides of town. […]
Jack Semple channels B.B. King
The late B.B. King revealed more personality in three notes than all of those wankers who made it to the cover of Look At Me I Play Guitar magazine. There was even a rumour going around that B.B. didn’t actually know how to play chords (like Thelonious Monk didn’t know how to play the piano). […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Fearing loathing Trump
Stephen Fearing was born in Vancouver, raised in Ireland, lived in Minnesota and wound up back in Vancouver in 1984 – where only then he became the Canadian folk hero he is today. He could live anywhere – and America is bottom of the list. In the area for a trio show at Festival Place […]
PLAYBILL: Time travel terror
The trouble with Christmas spirit is that it only seems to come at Christmastime. For many people it’s just an expensive annual festival of indulgence in favourite sins – sloth, gluttony and lust, not necessarily in that order – in the company of loved ones, if you’re lucky enough to have any. You help the […]
PLAYBILL: The 12 Plays of Christmas
OK, so now we’re in the mood for some sweet holiday entertainment fruitcake. Twelve sleeps till Christmas, which is the number of days in the 12 Days of Same – and the proper amount of time left to catch some of the best Christmas theatre in town. If you play your cards right, you could […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Diggin’ Skydiggers
The acclaimed Skydiggers are in town on Saturday night, playing the featured weekend slot at the Needle Vinyl Tavern. The concert will showcase the band’s newest release, October’s Warmth Of the Sun, a 12-track romp basking in the band’s epitomal folk-rock sound. Of course, many fans will instead look to their classic tracks from the […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Jaunty Plume array
The Prodigal Son returns! After a long sojourn in Nashville, Mike Plume has moved back to Edmonton. He’s from Bonnyville, actually, but close enough for rock ‘n’ roll. At the Almanac Saturday night, the singer-songwriter has been keeping a fairly low profile since he and his family moved back last summer. Why? “Trump,” he explains. […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: January thaw
We’re in the depths of what’s usually the coldest part of the year, which scares off all manner of touring musicians – though you wouldn’t know it, of course, and with temperatures on the weekend expected to soar well into the single digits, you might just be tempted to leave your jacket in the car […]
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 […]
PLAYBILL: Burning Bluebeard: Too soon?
Why is OK to make light of the Titanic and not 9-11? What about a deadly fire in a crowded Chicago theatre that happened more than 120 years ago? Such questions are set aside for the new production of Burning Bluebeard, at The Roxy on Gateway Dec. 13-24. Jay Torrence’s 2011 play is based on […]
Cowboy pianist steps into the spotlight
You know that saloon scene with the piano player in just about every Western movie ever made? Stewart MacDougall could be that piano player. He looks and sounds and has lived the part. It’s not often this dedicated local sideman gets a chance to headline in his own town, so it’s a special event he’s […]
