Weekend Music Preview: Busy, it is not
This weekend features mostly local performers, with the biggest name appearing at the Winspear on Sunday: Grammy and Oscar winning Jennifer Warnes. Other notables include Edmonton’s Wool on Wolves, with two performances – Friday and Saturday – at the Pawn Shop, and a CD release party for All Else Fails on Saturday. Friday Consonance: local [...]
TONIGHT: Synth duo Junior Boys keep it in perspective at the Starlite
The Junior Boys’ latest effort It’s All True is somewhat of an international project – Matt Didemus of the Hamilton-based synth-pop duo lives in Berlin, and frontman Jeremy Greenspan wrote some of the album while in China. On tour, however, the strength of their live set relies heavily on an Edmonton native. “We go through [...]
Blues bands face off to rep city in Memphis
There’s no way around it: it’s a little disappointing that in a city as big as Edmonton, only three outfits are facing off for the title of top local blues band and a chance to represent Champ City in Memphis. The contest is the first annual playdown, with the winner to be sponsored by the [...]
TONIGHT: Ke$ha to get $leazy at Rexall Place
Britney Spears is too robotic, Lady Gaga is too bizarre, Katy Perry is too bossy – but when it comes to pop tarts we love to hate and hate to love, Ke$ha is JUST right. Playing Wednesday night at Rexall Place on her Get $leazy Tour, this chick at least doesn’t take herself too seriously [...]
TONIGHT: Rollie Miles’ grandson scores big gig at the Big Game
Jesse Lipscombe is scared out of his wits at the prospect of singing O Canada at Commonwealth Stadium on Friday – and that’s just the way he wants it. “Right now I am absolute fear mode,” he says, “but I’m excited about it. I’ve never walked away from that kind of fear. Fear excites me. [...]
REVIEW: Cake takes the cake at Sonic Boom
When the End Times come, we’re going to need a house band – and that’s where Cake comes in. Imagine: all Cake, all the time. As it has been written somewhere: And the living shall envy the dead … Perhaps we’re making too much of this, but rarely has there been such a happy-sounding band [...]
THEATRE: Chris Wynters plays John in Four Lads Who Shook the World
Chris Wynters – Captain Tractor dude, open stage maven and all around musical theatre-type guy – claims that for the first 12 years of his life he listened to nothing but the Beatles. All Beatles, all the time. And now he gets to be one of them for the next three months. How sweet is [...]
DEJA BLUES – Johnny Winter and James Cotton return to Polish Hall Oct. 14
Great news for blues fans – if you can tear yourself away from the Beaumont Blues Festival for a moment – blues legends Johnny Winter and James Cotton are coming to play the Polish Hall on Oct. 14 and … hey, wait a minute! Didn’t we just do this? We sure did: The same bill [...]
TODAY: Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at Symphony Under the Sky
It’s been said before and it will be said again: The average symphony orchestra “grooves” like a coal truck on a bad gravel road, which is to say it doesn’t. It’s generally much better at rendering Tchaikovsky than, say, Ellington. But this will be repeated, too: The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is not your run-of-the-mill coal [...]
TODAY: Edmonton’s Christian Hansen replaces Cee Lo Green at Sonic Boom 2011
Bad news, everyone – Cee Lo Green, one of the most anticipated acts at the Sonic Boom Festival at Northlands Expo Centre on Sunday, Sept. 4, has been forced to cancel, promoters announced today. The triple Grammy-winning soul singer is reportedly suffering from a herniated disc and can’t travel. The ensuing gap in the schedule [...]
Live Music This Weekend – Sept. 2 – 5
A banner weekend in live music is highlighted by the Sonic Boom modern rock festival on Sunday, along with its attendant after-party at the Starlite Room. Friday Josh Groban (right) – Rexall Place hosts American singer-songwriter Josh Groban on Friday night, whose four solo albums have all gone multi-platinum, and now boasts over 24 million [...]
TRUE TALES OF THE ROAD: Paul Bellows bonds with his fans
Edmonton folk musician Paul Bellows was on the road quite a bit before he made it big in the business world as the founder of the Yellow Pencil web design company. So no – he doesn’t NEED to promote his new CD, Shipwreck Looking Out for a Beach, released Friday at the Haven, the day [...]
