PREVIEW: East Indian Vedic metal kings from Singapore
Posted on May 4, 2011 By Chad Huculak Culture, Front Slider, Music
Europe has spawned many extreme metal acts who extol the virtues of their Viking forefathers. Singapore’s Rudra is taking a different angle: they’re bringing ancient Eastern philosophy into the mix. The band plays a style it refers to as Vedic metal, which fuses black metal, death metal, and Indian classical music with lyrics derived from […]
John Edward in town tonight – didn’t see that coming
Posted on May 2, 2011 By Albert Smith Front Slider, Theatre, TV and Radio
I’m sensing a windowless booth. A curtain. A long line of grumpy people waiting for something they don’t enjoy. In a bread line? Flu shots? Is this the Great Depression? Communist Russia? Yes! Someone named Steve. The colour orange. I see a lot of long faces, some people crying – could it be a funeral? […]
REVIEW: Fun like a two-star hotel in Ulan Bator
Posted on May 2, 2011 By Jennifer Cassidy Dining, Food, Front Slider
The Mongolie Grill 10104 109 Street 780.420.0037 The concept of the “fast casual” restaurant seems to have really taken off lately. We reviewed two similar restaurants, Famoso Neapolitan pizza and Mucho Burrito, a few weeks ago with decidedly different results. On the other hand, though it only has two locations, The Mongolie Grill is sort […]
Scott Cook throws grassroots-rocking CD release potluck
Posted on May 1, 2011 By Staff Front Slider, Music
Scott Cook’s CD release party at Pleasantview Hall today causes one to ask – and then answer – this question: When you can make a decent record in your basement with a microphone and a laptop and every band and their dog has a webpage, even if it’s frickin’ Myspace, is a local CD release […]
AIR SUPPLY: Balm for the boomers
Posted on April 30, 2011 By Albert Smith Front Slider, Music
These kids today … with their “fire” and their “wheel.” Old-timers shouldn’t grump. Twitting and textering are just different tools with which to communicate, like the telegraph wire or smoke signals, and stars like Tiesto and Lil Wayne merely represent the latest examples of musical expression, as they are artists that will prove to be […]
Guitar Shorty hits Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival
Posted on April 29, 2011 By LH Thomson Front Slider, Music
There are always some fairly righteous reasons to go to Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival, but this year is something a little special, at least if you like ripping guitar. Y’see, even though he’s not the headliner, this year’s edition – Aug. 19 to 21 at Hawrelak Park – is bringing in Guitar Shorty. And Guitar […]
Lil Wayne turns over a new leaf
Posted on April 28, 2011 By Albert Smith Front Slider, Music
Are you feeling it? The excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain? Then you must be ready for Lil Wayne at Rexall Place tonight – on the “I Am Still Music” tour. There is of course nothing more street credible in […]
THEATRE: It’s a women’s world in When Girls Collide
Posted on April 27, 2011 By Adrian Lackey Front Slider, Theatre
When Girls Collide is a remount of the original production back in 1989 – and for Leona Brausen, it couldn’t have come soon enough. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. The play is funny. I’m drawn to what’s funny,” she says. Brausen will reprise her role of Helen Thorne from the […]
GIGGLE CITY: Oh, Susanna exposes herself!
Posted on April 26, 2011 By Albert Smith Comedy, Front Slider, Theatre
Got a Jackie Harvey scoop for ya: The swarthy, supposedly Italian Susanna Patchouli, hostess of the Oh Susanna variety-talk show once a month at the Varscona Theatre – as it is this Saturday at 11 p.m. – is none other than Edmonton thespian Mark Meer in women’s clothing! He doesn’t even try to deny it. […]
TRUE TALES OF THE ROAD: Mix Master Mike survives Greek Altamont
Posted on April 24, 2011 By Mike Ross Front Slider, Music
One inevitable effect of being on the road a long time is that the gigs tend to blur together – so you can forgive Mix Master Mike when he says that both his “best” and his “worst” road stories happened “about four years ago,” when in fact the two events happened four years apart. Small […]
NEW MUSIC: Tune-Yards, Crystal Stilts go big on fusion
Posted on April 24, 2011 By Michael Senchuk Front Slider, Music
Tune-Yards – w h o k i l l Crystal Stilts – In Love With Oblivion How do you take a plethora of musical genres, and fifty years of musical history, and combine it into an album that people will listen to repeatedly? Tune-Yards’ “w h o k i l l” is one of those […]
Shuttered landmark pub has been frozen in time for three decades
Posted on April 23, 2011 By Rob Drinkwater Culture, Front Slider
It might have been due to liquor laws that discouraged visible drinking, or perhaps it was because street-level property on Jasper was once too valuable, but there was a time when downtown Edmonton’s fanciest bars and restaurants were located in basements. Like today’s downtown restaurants, the customers were well-heeled and worked in the then newly […]
