REVIEW: Shakespeare comedy goes disco

REVIEW: Shakespeare comedy goes disco

The Merry Wives of Windsor, one of two Shakespearian plays featured this summer by Edmonton’s Freewill Shakespeare Festival, was a commissioned work – by a patron no less than Queen Elizabeth I. Her Majesty loved the portly, sack-quaffing knight that Shakespeare created for his Henry IV, Part 1 and further developed in Henry 1V, Part […]

MUSIC PREVIEW: No bad blues

MUSIC PREVIEW: No bad blues

One of the great things about the blues is that it can be played by musicians who’ve never met or who don’t even know the same songs. One of the bad things about the blues is that it can be played by musicians who’ve never met or who don’t even know the same songs. That’s […]

Rockers rock Edmonton Rock Festival

Rockers rock Edmonton Rock Festival

People like Kim Mitchell and Randy Bachman have played here so much that we take them for granted. These guys are world-class artists who’ve put a lot of rock standards on the scoreboard, but around here they’re just part of the landscape, ignored, sometimes even scorned by younger generations. If you miss them now, hey, […]

MUSIC PREVIEW: The Rock must go on

MUSIC PREVIEW: The Rock must go on

The letdown for all the folkies from the Edmonton Folk Music Festival is indeed palpable. There are a number of well-heeled mavens in the city who believe, and it’s quite possibly true, that the vast majority of folkies don’t go to many shows the rest of the year. It makes sense. After all, 100,000 people […]

Women rule at Interstellar Rodeo

Women rule at Interstellar Rodeo

The theme for the whole weekend at Interstellar Rodeo has been about broken hearts – or maybe that’s just what indie folk is all about. To paraphrase Donovan Wood during his musical interlude: All the best songs are about a couple mad at each other while coming home from a party. “I ain’t nothin’ but […]

REVIEW: Whitehorse divine at Interstellar Rodeo

REVIEW: Whitehorse divine at Interstellar Rodeo

Interstellar Rodeo is a deliciously Edmonton festival. A warm Saturday in Hawrelak Park boasted everything you could want from a music festival: Kids played football, people lounged on blankets; a woman gyrated to the music with an iridescent hula hoop, another lady rocked a tutu and a cowboy hat; babies were wearing Led Zeppelin T-shirts. […]

Romeo and Juliet jazzed up in the park

Romeo and Juliet jazzed up in the park

Those two lovestruck teenagers are at it again out there under the moon – which is this time hung over Hawrelak Park for a zesty, stripped-down production of Romeo and Juliet. It’s part of the Freewill Shakespeare Festival until July 16. We are told that this is the third most popular of Shakespeare’s plays and […]

MUSIC PREVIEW: One Fringe to rule them all

MUSIC PREVIEW: One Fringe to rule them all

There is a condition unique to Edmonton – or any other winter city, for that matter – called Seasonal Hyperactive Festival Exhaustion Disorder, or SHAFED, that results in such a manic rush of summer fun that events that would normally merit full attention get shafted. Such is the case with the Fringe – the biggest […]

AW, SHUCKS: Corb Lund seizes his Day

AW, SHUCKS: Corb Lund seizes his Day

Fitting for a day named in his honour in the City of Edmonton, Corb Lund laid down a righteous old school country shitkicking at Heritage Amphitheatre in Hawrelak Park Monday night, as part of the re-scheduled Interstellar Rodeo Festival itinerary. Starting with set-opener Hurtin’ Albertan, Lund played with the spirit of a reincarnated Wilf Carter, […]

REVIEW: Big league fun at Edmonton rock fest

REVIEW: Big league fun at Edmonton rock fest

If there is one thing classic rock fans know how to do – apart from drinking beer – it’s how to enjoy themselves. It’s hard to imagine people at the folk fest having any more fun than the joyful fans down at Heritage Amphitheatre on Friday Night for the 2013 edition of the Edmonton Rock […]

FESTIVAL GUY: Interstellar Rodeo a triumph of Edmontonian proportions

FESTIVAL GUY: Interstellar Rodeo a triumph of Edmontonian proportions

“Eclectic” may be too generic a word to describe the mish-mash of musical genres thrown together for this year’s Interstellar Rodeo – everything from Americana from Steve Earle to the electronic art rock from Edmonton’s own Shout Out Out Out Out. There seemed little cohesion between the different artists at the weekend’s cosmic soundwave soup […]

Friendly fairies frolic in fantastical Freewill festival

Friendly fairies frolic in fantastical Freewill festival

It weren’t for Shakespeare, Disney would look a lot different today. No Tinkerbell! Before the great playwright first produced A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1660, fairies were evil. They put death spells on people, stole their babies, spread disease, imparted loose morals upon comely maidens. In general, fairies were unpleasant manifestations of the public fear […]

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