MUSIC PREVIEW: Dixie Chicks stick to their guns
Look on the bright side of a Donald Trump presidency – our music scene will get better because so many great American artists will move to Canada! Maybe we can welcome the Dixie Chicks, too – in Edmonton to play Rogers Place Thursday night. These Texas-bred country-bluegrass women Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire […]
EXCLUSIVE: Carrie Fisher’s dog loves Milk Bones
Carrie Fisher isn’t doing any press for her appearance at the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo this weekend – but her dog Gary wasn’t so media shy. The adorable French bulldog who goes everywhere with the Star Wars actress even has his own Twitter account – with almost 10,000 followers! “Sniff, sniff, wag-wag-wag, lick-lick-lick,” he […]
INTERVIEW: Peaches reaches and teaches
In the art of exploring gender with bold musical statements, Peaches is way ahead of her time – but “that’s probably for other people to answer,” she says. So what say you, other people? There is a consensus. Peaches makes Lady Gaga look like Selena Gomez – and was doing her thing long before Lady […]
The price of fame at Edmonton Expo
There is one huge unwritten rule at the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo happening this weekend – bring money. Oh, sure, you could just stand around and gawk at all the cool nerds in their awesome costumes, but what fun is that? A lot of fun, actually … never mind. Fans spend college-tuition sums of […]
REVIEW: 5 Finger LIFE Punch
Five Finger Death Punch turns out to be more kind and sensitive than their name suggests. Oh, sure, they showed their hard side at their concert in Northlands Coliseum Saturday night. Their badassed side. They even brought a bunch of children on stage to take part in a rousing rendition of Burn MF. The former […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Country rockets launch Rogers Place
What we have here is a “perfect storm” of Big Gigs occurring on one weekend. Something’s gonna blow. Could Rogers Place have picked a better headliner for its opening concert on Friday night than Keith Urban? He’s a favourite in this market, and a hunka hunka burnin’ love to women the world over. Fun fact: […]
Culture Club comes to Coliseum
Of course we don’t want to hurt Boy George. The man’s made some mistakes here and there, but who hasn’t? Besides, he’s made some memorable music as the main driving force of Culture Club, a fixture of 1980s pop culture – and we’re glad he’s still going for it. Nostalgia among area fans will surely […]
David Crosby passes Canada test
A lot of American celebrities joke about moving to Canada if Donald Trump gets elected – but David Crosby sounds serious. The ‘60s survivor with the trademark silver skirted eggshell mentioned it a whole bunch of times during his beautiful but talky show at the Winspear Centre Monday night. He said he was checking out […]
The Lumineers turn Sonic Boom to folk
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment where the mainstreaming of folk music reached maximum saturation and jumped the shark. Certainly that recent KIA commercial with Nathaniel Rateliff is very embarrassing. Some point to the X-Ambassadors having their lead single, Renegades, an otherwise fine song, permanently branded to the Jeep Renegade. Can’t hear it without […]
Sonic Boom a cold and rainy circus
Every successful new band has a gimmick – sometimes more than one. Twenty One Pilots has at least as many as their name, and showed them all closing out the first night of Sonic Boom 2016 in Borden Park. They wore alien masks, did back-flips off the piano, crowd surfed the entire drummer and his […]
Brit channels legend in The Simon and Garfunkel Story
It’s not enough that the British defeat us hapless Colonists in all things to do with Rock ‘n’ Roll (just go to the scoreboard: The Beatles, The Stones and The Sex Pistols vs. Elvis, Dylan and Bon Jovi – it’s no contest) – but they have to come plunder our beloved American icons, too. Dean […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Sonic Boom blows up genres
It’s really very simple: If you like listening to the alternative rock radio station Sonic 102.9, you’re going to love Sonic Boom. This last festival of summer is like listening to Sonic minus the commercials – plus being at the mercy of the elements, food that’s bad for you, there’s line-ups for everything, and you […]