MUSIC PREVIEW: Chilis for the books
Books could be written about the adventures of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And they have. The band has published at least three themselves. Adding to their legacy of 11 studio albums, 13 No. 1 hits, six Grammy awards and 80 million records sold back when people still bought lots of records. Fans still buy […]
PLAYBILL: Teatro’s Talking Turk, take two
Teatro La Quindicina are a bunch of bloody contrarians. While other Edmonton theatre companies are winding down their seasons, playwright Stewart Lemoine’s quirky little troupe is just getting started. May 26 at the Varscona Theatre marks their opposite-world season opener: a Lemoine revival called The Salon of the Talking Turk, starring Mark Meer in the […]
Flailing Festivals in Flaming Flinders!
It may seem like outdoor music festivals are dropping like flies – but that’s because there are so many of them. Some are bound to die. But while public confidence has been eroded from the recent cancellations of the Pemberton Music Festival in B.C. and the Fyre Festival in the Bahamas, most of your favourite […]
PLAYBILL: Norwegian blue
Rarely has “pining for the fjords” had more meaning beyond the Monty Python sketch. And it might just be a coincidence that the aforementioned skit involves a possibly dead-or-maybe-just-resting “Norwegian Blue” parrot – and that the author of the season-ending play by U of A’s Studio Theatre was from Norway. Weird, no? The Lady from […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Shredmonton attacks a second time
There are many mysteries, enigmas and riddles inside the fascinating world of heavy metal. So having an annual metal “conference” is a swell idea – and having it in Edmonton is perfect. While we are a hockey town for only a few precious weeks a year, we’re a metal town all the time. Just ask […]
PLAYBILL: Yo Mama
Who are these ladies – dames, gals, broads, girls, skirts, chicks, women – who call themselves “Hey Ladies”? It turns out the three Edmonton performers either are mothers, have mothers or both – so it works out. The Mother’s Day edition of their semi-improvised variety-talk show plays Friday at the Roxy on Gateway. It’s not […]
PLAYBILL: Bonnie and Clyde get musical therapy
If only Bonnie and Clyde had gone into couples therapy before things got out of hand. They could’ve unpacked all that co-dependent bank-robbing-shooting-people-running-from-the-cops behaviour, and come to some resolution that didn’t involve getting killed. Maybe they could’ve gone straight and counseled wayward youth on the perils of robbing banks, shooting people and running from the […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Rock (and rap) Against Racism
“I love and treasure individuals as I meet them; I loath or despise the groups they identify or belong to,” said the late George Carlin – and he may have been onto something there. In other, gentler words (Carlin was a bit of a grump), if you judge people one by one, and truly don’t […]
PLAYBILL: Art for art’s sake
Any artist who’s ever been turned down for a grant should feel their blood boiling over Art. As will the characters in Yasmina Reza’s play – the English translation at the Varscona Theatre April 26-May 14. Starring local familiars Glenn Nelson, John Sproule and Frank Zotter in this Shadow Theatre production, the story revolves around […]
Last Toke in the Big Pink
With weed about to become legal in Canada, I’m comfortable with a full disclosure: I smoked a lot of dope inside MacEwan University’s Jasper Place building when I was a music student there in the early 1980s. After a farewell party on April 28, the campus will be abandoned, the arts programs moved downtown. A […]
REVIEW: John Mayer no one trick pony
John Mayer has turned self-indulgence into an art form. This is the whole point of being a rock star, isn’t it? To “indulge yourself.” It’s one of the seven deadly virtues of rock ‘n’ roll. Self indulgence is not necessarily a bad thing. It only means that you will do only what you love to […]