MUSIC PREVIEW: Cher and Cher alike
You can’t be too mad at Cher – who retired and then changed her mind, not once, not twice, but thrice! At least she has a healthy sense of humour about it. The show coming to Rogers Place on Saturday night is part of the “Here We Go Again” tour. (IMPORTANT NOTE: On Tuesday night […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Godsmack, Tea Party, Sweater Kittens!
Godsmack is smack dab in the middle of a North American tour that lands Friday night at Rogers Place. The Massachusetts quartet, founded in 1995, has found their sound labelled a few different things – certainly in the metal category, but they’ve also been described as nu-metal, post-grunge, and alt-metal. Whatever you call them, they […]
REVIEW: Alan Parsons Live Project a mixed bag of magic in Edmonton
To be more famous for a throwaway joke in an Austin Powers movie than for recent music must be galling to such titans of progressive pop as … The Alan Parsons Project! Mwa, ha, ha, ha! Besides, it’s the Alan Parsons Live Project now – so named to distance itself from the original British 1980s […]
MUSIC: Bubbly Buble recipe: 2 shots of happy, 1 shot of sad, 1 shot of Frank
It was the goddamned media that anointed Michael Buble “the new Frank Sinatra” – followed shortly by media pronouncements that “Buble ain’t no Sinatra!” This is true! As far as we know, Buble has never threatened chin music on some crummy mook who fucked the deck, never called a female journalist a “ring-a-ding broad!” And […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: PUP socks!
Next Wednesday, March 27, the venerable Starlite Room hosts a sold out show with the Toronto punk rock quartet PUP. Originally going under the name Topanga, the brood’s eponymous debut album was released in 2014 after signing with Hollerado’s label, Royal Mountain Records, and produced by Dave Schiffman (Rage Against the Machine, Weezer). It was […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Québécois chanteuse plays International Women’s Day
Cœur de pirate (aka Beatrice Martin) headlines Winspear Centre Friday night – it happens to be International Women’s Day – as part of the SkirtsAfire festival, an all-women arts festival in Edmonton. She’s touring to support her fifth album, last year’s En cas de tempête, ce jardin sera fermé. It means “In case of storm, […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Magnetic Mangan
The audiophiles’ favorite venue, the Winspear Centre, hosts an act who can definitely use all of its offerings – as alt-folk artist extraordinaire Dan Mangan performs there Friday night. His precision guitar work and crooning voice and poignant lyrics should use the space to its utmost. Mangan is touring to support his newest album from […]
Col. Chris Hadfield to speak at Winspear Centre
Ground control to Colonel Hadfield – you’re going to need a bigger mothership to hold your fans in Edmonton. The Winspear Centre does sort of look like a spaceship, a fitting place for Canada’s beloved astronaut and science ambassador to speak. On Tuesday, April 30, Chris Hadfield will be hosting a live show called “Exploration: […]
2019 MUSIC PREVIEW: Ozzy! Priest! Skynyrd! Ariana!
The Big Three – can we call them the Big Three? Yes! – THE BIG THREE shall rock Edmonton this summer. Name other metal legends so widely known by only one name: Ozzy, Priest, Maiden – this trifecta alone will make 2019 a huge year for classic heavy metal in Edmonton. Ozzy Osbourne, age 70, […]
Shakey Graves returns to headline Winspear Centre
With a name like Shakey Graves, it’s no wonder he went into show business. OK, so it’s not his real name, but the story of one Alejandro Rose-Garcia is still remarkable: Just another dude from Austin, Texas with a guitar and some cool country-like songs becomes the darling of the folk fest circuit, and a […]
Alan Parsons Project to play Winspear Centre
Therefore, we shall call it … the Alan Parsons Project! Oh, my God! What now? The Alan Parsons Project is a progressive rock band in 1982. Why don’t you just name it Operation Wang-Chung …? You just don’t get it, Scotty. Because the real Alan Parsons Project is coming to Edmonton, that’s why – a […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Renewed Stone Temple Pilots to rock Howler
The Bear’s Annual Halloween Howler celebrates its 26th anniversary on at the Shaw Conference Centre on Friday night with surviving stalwarts of the alternative rock genre – Stone Temple Pilots. The band soared to the peak of their genre in the 1990s with hit after hit after hit, from Plush to Vasoline to Big Bang […]
