Rock and Folk Festivals working for the same weekend
The stakes in the Great Edmonton Summer Festival Poker Game just went up. The table is getting crowded. This year’s Edmonton Rock Music Festival happens on the same weekend as the Edmonton Folk Music Festival – and everyone is crossing their fingers that the crossover between classic rock and folk music isn’t too huge. The [...]
WEEKEND MUSIC PREVIEW: OK, fear the Reaper
It’s Metallica weekend in Edmonton! The near-mythological metal band from California plays two sold-out shows at Rexall, Friday and Saturday nights. Everything else musical this weekend plays second fiddle, like it or not. The only major competition is the Edmonton Rock Music Festival at Hawrelak Park, with headliners like Prism, Blue Oyster Cult and April [...]
Blue Oyster Cult headlines Edmonton Rock Music Festival in August
Don’t fear the reaper – make a song about the original Man in Black that generations of classic rock fans will sing and laugh in the face of same. That’s how it works. We expect plenty of laughing and singing in the face of Death when Blue Oyster Cult comes to town this summer. The [...]
FESTIVAL CITY SCORECARD – let’s build a dome over Edmonton
Consider that organizers of Sonic Boom might have actually been HOPING for lousy weather on Sunday, Sept. 4 and you’ll get a sense how ridiculous it’s been for outdoor festivals in Edmonton this summer. Let’s just build a giant dome over the city. It in fact turned out to be a beautiful day while an [...]
TONIGHT: Chamber of Commerce Prez’s alter ego drums for Jefferson Starship
Classic rock fans ought to be used to that vague feeling of confusion seeing a favourite band that’s been around since the ‘60s – man, who the HELL is in the band now? The surprising answer for Jefferson Starship, playing Saturday at the Edmonton Rock Festival in Hawrelak Park, is this: the PRESIDENT OF THE [...]
TRUE TALES OF THE FISH: Country Joe and the F***
Country Joe McDonald does not over-estimate his place in the pantheon of Voices of a Generation, as a leader in the Peace Movement of the 1960s, as a martyr for the cause of free speech in America, as a counter-culture hero for the great censorship debate that would lead us into a new golden age. [...]
TRUE TALES: Sex with Janis and the Edmonton Rock Music Festival
The question must be asked: What was it like making love to Janis Joplin? Her one-time creative partner Sam Andrew replies, “Feathery, light and very feminine – way more feminine than I would’ve thought. I knew her really well. It wasn’t surprising, though. She was definitely all woman.” It was just the one night of [...]
Edmonton Rock Music Festival turns back clock Aug. 12-13
Question: when does something classify as “Classic Rock”? On South Park, it was suggested it took 22.3 years for AIDS jokes to become acceptable and, therefore, funny. And we know the half-life of a McDonald’s french fry is 17.6 decades. So how long does it take for a band to be considered “classic”? If you [...]
