April Fool’s Day cancelled
Because we have reached a tipping point in society where there is more fake news than real news – and not only is the fake news more popular but it often reveals more truth than real news, fiction being less strange than truth – April Fool’s Day has been cancelled by Order of the Government. […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The Lumineers keep it lit
Now that Mumford and Sons have ditched folk, it is the sacred duty of The Lumineers to carry on the trend of funny stringed instruments, odd drums and fashionable hats in popular music. We just can’t get enough. At Rogers Place Friday night for their first proper headlining show in Edmonton, The Lumineers came to […]
PLAYBILL: A little Peter Pan in all of us
It’s worth asking why there have been so many versions and adaptations of Peter Pan. Is it because that all of us, deep down inside, in our heart of hearts, have a secret desire to fly around while wearing green tights? Or is there something deeper? Maybe it’s because Peter Pan is a magical flying […]
Chris Stapleton shows his love in Edmonton
In true country music fashion, many of Chris Stapleton’s songs are about drinking – which resonated with the crowd at Northlands Coliseum on Saturday night because everywhere you looked there was beer in hand. Except for the underage fans, of course. Being 17 years old and just 3 months away from the legal drinking age […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Tea Party still getting oolong
While the Tea Party’s heyday was definitely in the 1990s, with such hits on alternative radio as The River, Temptation, Psychopomp, Heaven Coming Down, and The Messenger, the band broke up in 2005 and went their separate ways – but then finally reunited in 2011, much to the delight of their fans. That reunion met […]
HISTORY: From Hawaii to hockey to Hollywood
Get ready to feel super old, People of a Certain Age: The “Super Oldies” record label has reissued the self-titled 1980 album by the Edmonton band Footloose. Meanwhile, the Wayne Gretzky statue has been uprooted from its original home at Northlands Coliseum after 28 years, and moved to the new Rogers Place arena. It’s no […]
PLAYBILL: Go Into the Woods, we dare you
There’s a weird sort of fractured hindsight at work in the musical Into the Woods. We’ve all seen it – in our bedtime stories. Written by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, this award-winning musical is a willy nilly hodge podge of almost every Grimm fairy tale that has since made into an sanitized-animated feature by […]
Blood in the Cut: Pop music gets edgy
Before a beautiful rock show by Mother Mother at the Shaw Conference Centre on Thursday night was an opening act that has really hit a nerve. K.Flay’s Blood in the Cut has been all over the radio lately, a song about a woman who deals with a heartbreak by expressing ideas of self harming. It’s […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Jaunty Plume array
The Prodigal Son returns! After a long sojourn in Nashville, Mike Plume has moved back to Edmonton. He’s from Bonnyville, actually, but close enough for rock ‘n’ roll. At the Almanac Saturday night, the singer-songwriter has been keeping a fairly low profile since he and his family moved back last summer. Why? “Trump,” he explains. […]
PLAYBILL: Elektra electrifying
Today’s spooky teens have nothing on the ancient Greeks. Kids in those days didn’t have smartphones – just lots of time on their hands and easy access to a wide variety of poisons and deadly weapons. Got a lot of rending and hewing to do. Edmonton Opera’s latest show Elektra is about as edgy as […]
