Air quotes optional at ‘live’ dance festival
How to be a “live” DJ: Step 1: Show up Step 2: Push play Step 3: Collect $50,000 Just kidding. Fifty grand might be a little low for Calvin Harris’s guarantee. But how diabolically clever. DJs are among the few recording artists who can still make a living by making records – i.e., making them […]
WEEKEND MUSIC: Four horsemen of Canadian rock
Talk about bang for your rock ‘n’ roll buck. While it was a bummer that Bob Seger had to postpone his Thursday show due to the crappy weather, any of the four bands playing at the Shaw Conference Centre on Friday could be a headliner – maybe not at the Shaw, grant you, but somewhere. […]
WEEKEND MUSIC: Pop sisters still the indelible indie twins
They may be famous now, but Tegan and Sara remain the indelible indie pop twin sisters from Calgary. They parachute into Edmonton on Sunday night for a show at the Shaw Conference Centre. The girls began playing guitar and writing songs together at the age of 15, and, now, almost twenty years later, have amassed […]
WEEKEND MUSIC: Marilyn Manson show will go on!
There is no official statement yet, but it looks like Marilyn Manson is going to be OK following his collapse on stage in Saskatoon Wednesday night. Saturday’s show in Edmonton and all remaining shows “will be moving forward as scheduled,” according to the concert promoter. You know, it’s always fun and games until somebody loses […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Amy Grant show a musical Pentecostal service
A full moon hovering over Shaw Conference Centre during Amy Grant’s performance at Break Forth 2013 brought no portents of imminent danger – and for a non Christian attending a Christian music concert, it was a new experience. This wasn’t your usual rock concert. After years of going to heavy metal shows, I was allowed […]
Alexisonfire to host its own Celebration of Life
A rock band is the only living entity that can be present at its own wake. If only human beings could enjoy such flowers at our own funerals, to witness the outpouring of love and adoration from friends and family and fans that disbanding rock bands experience on farewell tours. One last time. The Last […]
Tegan and Sara bring Heartthrob to Edmonton in March
Of all the labels that get attached to the twin sister singer-songwriter politically active folk-rock duo Tegan & Sara, it might be time to take back the word “indie.” They’re mainstream cool now. The duo returns to Edmonton this spring for a show at the Shaw Conference Centre, part of a tour to give fans […]
Marilyn Manson returns to shock us again in February
Speak of the devil, and he will come. Speak of Marilyn Manson, and he will come back – eventually. Our favourite shock rocker returns to play the Shaw Conference Centre on Saturday, Feb. 9, touring behind his latest album, Born Villain. Tickets go on sale Friday. It’s been three years since Mr. Manson came to […]
Billy Talent brings Dead Silence to Edmonton this spring
Billy Talent is one band that has lived up to its name – well, half of it, anyway. They’ve been artfully injecting pop sensibility and compelling stories into a branch of rock ‘n’ roll they used to call “screamo.” You know, where the singer screams instead of sings? Billy Talent’s lead singer, whose name is […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Wiz Khalifa show goes to pot
If not for the security and police presence at the Wiz Khalifa concert Sunday night, you wouldn’t even know it was Movember. Nary a soul in the Shaw Conference Centre crowd of 4,900 could grow more than a zit on his or her upper lip. The facial hair was limited to the pencil ’stache on […]
SCARY TIMES: 13 Halloween events for grown-ups who don’t want to grow up
It’s no mystery why Halloween has been completely co-opted and dominated by grown-ups – it’s because many modern grown-ups have failed to grow up. Joe Flaherty – SCTV’s Count Floyd, so he ought to know about this sort of thing – complained that many of the adult students in his improv classes back East were […]
