Motley Crue ‘not worthy’ to open for Alice Cooper
If Motley Crue truly plans to retire for good at the end of their 2014 tour, they sure went out with a flash-bang during their nearly two hour set Tuesday night at Rexall Place. The excess of your average ’80s hair metal show was exceeded with such ease – MORE dry ice, MORE pyrotechnics, MORE […]
REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac plays to its strengths
For a band so relentlessly intent in telling us to forget yesterday – as in their 1977 hit Don’t Stop, Fleetwood Mac sure makes a lot of money keeping the past alive, as evidenced by the full house at Rexall Place Saturday night on their current “On With the Show” Tour. In the years before […]
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 […]
Is Glen Campbell Alzheimer’s documentary exploitive?
Director James Keach’s documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me follows the country music legend’s farewell tour following his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease in the summer of 2011. While chock full of joyful moments, it’s hard to watch the rapid descent of the great musician into dementia, as documented during a scene at the Mayo Clinic […]
EIFF REVIEW: Doc celebrates Memphis history
How do you watch a 90 minute documentary about the recording sessions for an album no one knows about, coupled together with countless anecdotes about people most music fans have never heard of, filmed in a city that was once crucial to the development of the American 20 century musical and cultural identity, but isn’t […]
EIFF REVIEW: The downside of altruism in One of a Kind
Can humans help themselves by helping others? Veteran French auteur Francois Dupeyron explores this very complex question in his 17th film One of a Kind (original French Title: Mon âme par toi guérie, or My Soul Healed By You). It screens Saturday, Sept. 27 at 2 pm as part of the Edmonton International Film Festival. […]
AW, SHUCKS: Corb Lund seizes his Day
Fitting for a day named in his honour in the City of Edmonton, Corb Lund laid down a righteous old school country shitkicking at Heritage Amphitheatre in Hawrelak Park Monday night, as part of the re-scheduled Interstellar Rodeo Festival itinerary. Starting with set-opener Hurtin’ Albertan, Lund played with the spirit of a reincarnated Wilf Carter, […]
Six Tastes of K-Days
K-Days and Taste of Edmonton combined make up Edmonton’s most popular summer festival. Both used to be under the umbrella of the Klondike Days Association, and which locals to this day still lump together for the mindlessly fun, hideously expensive and gastronomically adventurous event to which all major cities are afflicted. Did we say afflicted? […]
REVIEW: Killer Queen defies the cynics
When you get as big as Queen – all 250 million or so records sold – you can do whatever you want. And that includes hiring a new lead singer from one of the most popular television shows in the world – and then defying all cynical expectations that they’re just doing this for the […]
JAZZ REVIEW: MSMW titans of whatever we call it now
When it came time to pick a name for the new group Medeski, Scofield, Martin and Wood – combining the New York funk-jazz trio with a veteran guitar wizard – it didn’t seem there were any grand visions about chocolate watches or strawberry alarm clocks. Nope, just the names of four guys, about as exciting […]
Taylor Scott brings ‘soul jam’ to Blues on Whyte
For a jaded music fan who thinks most of what passes for artistic talent these days is pretty average, hearing Taylor Scott is like hitting the jackpot. This unassuming kid from Cheyenne, Wyoming is a monster. He’s phenomenal. He can do soul, funk, R&B and shred like a metalhead, and you’ll rarely hear a white […]
REVIEW: George Thorogood b-b-b-boring
Vigorously played classic rock sends some people into fits of screaming, shouting, foot stomping, rampant high fiving and lots of odd yelping, but for others, like me, it can send them deep into a catatonic state that lasts several hours and ends up in the middle of a field wondering where everyone went and just […]
