MUSIC PREVIEW: Peak Coldplay
This weekend features a lot of awesome talent playing our local music venues, but let’s face it, most music fans are holding their breath and waiting in anticipation for the arrival of Coldplay next week for a pair of shows – Tuesday and Wednesday at Rogers Place. Ever since their start in the mid-1990s, the […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Kaleido scope astounding
What the Fringe is for theatre, the Kaleido Family Arts Festival is for the Edmonton music scene. For there’s a blithering bonanza of live music descending on the Alberta Avenue community this weekend. A not-so-quick count reveals more than 180 different gigs in almost every genre in 14 different venues, indoors and out, alleyways, patios, […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Best of the folk fest
The dominant event across most genres this weekend of course is the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, a veritable staple of the city’s music scene since 1980. In fact, there’s usually a dearth in gigs over the weekend because most venues don’t want to schedule anything against this juggernaut, certainly the largest music festival in the […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Hit the road, Jack
Congratulations, you have survived the summer up to now – to reach “peak festival” in Alberta. On this weekend it is impossible to go to any public park, farmer’s field or even your own backyard without there being some kind of festival happening. Getting out of Edmonton will only bring you to more festivals – […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: A different kind of ’90s love
Matchbox Twenty and Counting Crows were at the very pinnacle of the music scene in the 1990s, and the latter were particularly popular in Canada, with three songs reaching the top 3 during that time – Mr. Jones, A Long December, and Hanginaround. Round Here was another popular anthem that received significant airplay during that […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Seven to rule them all
Every festival has its own “feel.” Now see if you can tell what the acts at the Seven Music Festival Saturday in St. Albert have in common: The Strumbellas, The Rural Alberta Advantage, The Provincial Archive, Paul Woida, The Elwins, Sykamore, Frazey Ford, and The Royal Foundry. Yes, they’re all white, but that sort of […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Ruth B hits the A list
That’s quite the little song Ruth B came up with – by herself, in her bedroom in Edmonton, on her cheap Yahama electric piano. You may have heard her ode to Peter Pan on the radio: Lost Boy. Professional producers left the song mostly untouched from the her original homemade YouTube video she posted in […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Blitzen Trapper keeper
While tagged with a variety of labels, from alt-country to indie folk, Blitzen Trapper has been going strong since the turn of the millennium, and seem to get stronger with every album. The Portland quintet self-released its first three albums, including their opening salvo, an eponymous release in 2003. After their most recent effort, 2015’s […]
PLAYBILL: One Pride, many voices
It is that time of year again, when a young man’s (or young woman’s) fancy turns to love – even love that does not hesitate to dare to speak its name, to modernize an old saying a bit awkwardly. In our free country, of course, so many are daring, which is why we have the […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Surf from turf
There’s a somewhat surprisingly good surf rock scene burgeoning across the Canadian provinces – and one of the cities leading that charge is Saskatoon. One of their notable surf acts, the Garrys, will be playing Mill Creek Café (aka Sewing Machine Factory) this Thursday. Interestingly enough, the reverb-soaked trio doesn’t have anyone named Garry in […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Good Qawwali!
If you’re looking for something completely different this weekend, or you’re totally into Bollywood movies and their music, then this weekend holds a treat for you. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, a Pakistani musician primarily of the Qawwali genre, will play a show at the Jubilee Auditorium on Sunday night. Following in the footsteps of his […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Descendents upon us
The famous Descendents clamber out of the punk trenches to spread their raucous tribute to local fans at the Union Hall Sunday night. The California punk rock act was formed back in 1977 by guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo, and drummer Bill Stevenson. They became an integral part of the early 1980s hardcore punk […]
