MUSIC PREVIEW: Gary Numan still in driver’s seat
“It’s the only way to live: In cars” – talk about a song for the times! It’s an anthem for automobile culture, or something. Gary Numan’s global hit Cars made such an impact that many people say the song was single-songedly responsible for the 1980s and all the new wave goodness that followed therein, even […]
Joey lied: DOA is back!
Joey “S***head” Keithley said that DOA would never play again – but here they are headlining a show at the Pawnshop in Edmonton on Wednesday night as part of the “unfarewell” world tour, with new music in the works for next year. So he lied – and doesn’t that make him the perfect politician? Having […]
Barber of Seville: Where’s the wabbit?
If Bugs Bunny could use Gioachino Rossini music without permission, then any opera company doing The Barber of Seville should be able to use Bugs Bunny to help sell tickets. Right? It’s only fair, to heck with public domain. Opening Saturday at the Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton Opera’s production of The Barber of Seville ought to […]
One Direction comes to Edmonton in July
Let the screaming commence: One Direction is coming to Edmonton next summer – for the first time ever! The fivesome of singing lads will include the Commonwealth Stadium – Tuesday, July 21, 2015 – on its On the Road Again world tour to support the new album, entitled Four. It’s the band’s fourth album. Tickets […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The B’s of Brainy Beats
The reason there are so many weird rappers in Edmonton is because Edmonton has no rap scene! Just kidding. There are a number of gifted hip hop artists working in town, if not exactly making a living at it. The scene is so small and isolated that people elsewhere would laugh at the prospect we’re […]
Wundi and the Track: It’s not the bar, it’s the booker
With the love Edmonton music people have for Wunderbar – officially known as Wunderbar Hofbrauhaus, or “Wundi” to regulars – it’s easy to compare it to the Sidetrack Café. If you’re old enough. Ah, good times. So sad. Old-timers rue the day the beloved ‘Track was bulldozed for condos. Others – Wundi regulars, for instance […]
Mike MacDonald and the Burden of Truth
There are two kinds of comedians, says Mike MacDonald, “diagnosed and undiagnosed.” That’s in the routine the Ottawa comedian will be doing at the Edmonton Comedy Festival this weekend – part of the act he put together six months after undergoing a liver transplant because when he woke up he couldn’t remember a damned thing […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Once a college band, always a college band
Sloan has to be one of the strangest yet most wonderful rock bands in Canada. From early campus success, “back in the day,” they’ve been compared to the Beatles for their sultry popcraft – epitomized by such masterpieces of heartbreak as The Other Man – and the fact there are four of them, each basically […]
INTERVIEW: The Unstoppable Shawn Bernard
Shawn Bernard survived losing both of his parents and his sister to drug overdoses. He survived poverty, living on streets, becoming a drug dealer, gang leader and drug addict himself. He survived jail. In an inspirational story he’s told to youngsters across Canada countless times since, he prevailed over all these trials to break the […]
Better Alf an Oo than no Oo At All
Area classic rock fans are rejoicing that The Who is coming to Edmonton as part of their 50th anniversary tour. Man, has it been that long? Sure has. So a year of anticipation won’t be much more compared to half a Century of rocking! Featuring originals Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend – the only originals […]
Tragically Hip to encore Fully Completely in Edmonton
In case you didn’t get your fill of Fully Completely the first time around, the Tragically Hip is bringing it back for an encore. The reissue of the band’s third album will coincide with the “Fully and Completely tour” across Canada in 2015. The Hip plays Rexall Place Thursday, Feb. 12. Tickets go ON SALE […]
EIFF REVIEW: Gone Doggy Gone a howl
The most sympathetic character in Gone Doggy Gone is the dog. Ooh, but Laila is such a sweet little crumbcake! With her wee sweaters and booties and her adorable little baby puppy carriage, and her humans wipe her butt with baby wipes because she sleeps in their bed, literally coming between man and wife, and […]
