Jay-Z bares his soul in Edmonton
Jay-Z knows he screwed up. After admittedly cheating on his wife, the rap superstar brought honesty and humility to Edmonton on Saturday night – and entertained a full Rogers Place to roc nation and redemption. He kicked off Saturday’s show fittingly with the opening track of his intensely personal new album 4:44 – Kill Jay-Z, […]
INTERVIEW: The Heavy Cat Came Back
Paul Shihadeh had been elevated to bass player’s royalty in Edmonton before he split town in 2001. Oh, go ahead and make any joke you want. What do you call someone who hangs out with rock stars? A bass player. How do you know when a bassist is at your door? He rings the bell […]
Soft March celebrates Farewell Party
It’s terribly ironic that a band would name its debut album Farewell Party – but the title of Soft March’s new record has special meaning for its chief songwriter Joel Kleine. He suffers from a progressive and incurable neuro-muscular disorder called Friedreich’s Ataxia, and is confined to a wheelchair. “A farewell party is a happy […]
Mollys Reach scratches Reunion Itch
The “20 Year Itch” phenomenon reveals that any rock band reaching its platinum milestone experiences an incontinent gush of nostalgia. It results in re-releases of 20-year-old albums followed by theme tours to play said albums in their entirety. Even if the band is broken up, the Itch (which no penicillin can cure) can be potent […]
Rogers Waters the real Pink Floyd
It was an adorable but edgy piece of political theatre. A group of schoolkids from the Boys & Girls Club of Edmonton joined Roger Waters on stage at Rogers Place on Tuesday night to perform in Pink Floyd’s biggest hit – the one that goes, “We don’t need no education! We don’t need no thought […]
REVIEW: End of the road for Nickelback!
Edmonton seems to be the place for all these nostalgia bands to wind down their tours. From Peter Gabriel with Sting to Metallica, and recently Coldplay on shows No. 104 and 105 of their two-year world tour, promoters are choosing our gorgeous late summer-early fall nights to close out the concert season. Better late than […]
INTERVIEW: Yes by any other name
Shall we do this again? Who’s in the band? No, not the Who. Yes. What? The name of the band. Am I supposed to Guess Who? No, it’s Yes, it’s them. Them is playing? No, Them broke up a long time ago. The band is Yes. Oh, I love The Band. No! Not The Band. […]
REVIEW: k.d. lang soars in Edmonton
The entire run-through of Ingénue, k.d. lang’s seismic-shifting album that propelled her from prairie good ol’ gal to Grammy-winning superstar didn’t exactly rock the house at the Jubilee Auditorium on Saturday night. It didn’t need to. Despite lang’s powerful voice, put to great use during her roughly 80-minute set, the former Edmontonian stuck to the […]
Metallica destroys Edmonton
There was a lot of violent imagery on the big screens for the Metallica concert at Commonwealth Stadium Wednesday night. Couldn’t help but notice the icing on the cake: Wars, fights, death, destruction, fire and so on. Fitting. Just once it would be a hoot to see rainbows and butterflies accompanying such a massively brutal […]
REVIEW: Bob Dylan blowin’ in the wind
Aside from the cool duds the band wore, nothing was dressed up for the Bob Dylan show at Rogers Place Wednesday night. The stage had a candlelit ballroom type of look, and there were no coloured lights. Just varying intensities of white. Of course, that was all that was required. Dylan is his own gimmick […]
INTERVIEW: Suzanne Vega in the alternative heart
The name of Suzanne Vega’s baby was part of an interesting coincidence that leads to some of the greatest alternative music albums ever made – including her own. Vega is one of the headliners of the Interstellar Rodeo in Hawrelak Park July 21-23. When she was married to the legendary producer Mitchell Froom, she had […]
Adam Lambert gives new life to Queen
Queen is never going to replace Freddie Mercury. He was one of a kind. But what about the rest of the guys in the band? What do they do when they want to keep the band going after their lead singer died? Life isn’t fair. And so, in their desire to give these great songs […]
