U2 IN EDMONTON: Where the streets literally have no name

It’s a beautiful day in Edmonton when love comes to town, where anticipation wasn’t better than the real thing – in a place where the streets literally have no name. Just ask the people walking down 82nd Avenue, or “Whyte,” as some folks insist on calling it. Perhaps Bono and the Edge and the Other […]

CONCERTS: Tegan and Sara get intimate July 6, Daniel Tosh adds show

Here’s a show that’s going to sell out in the blink of an eye – Tegan and Sara at the Myer Horowitz Theatre on Wednesday, July 6. Well, maybe: the big discussion online yesterday was whether the $75 the pair are commanding for tickets was highway robbery. The twin sister goddesses of alternative rock from […]

TRUE TALES OF THE ROAD: Tea with Bono

Before the concert of this decade – tonight at Commonwealth Stadium – there was the concert of the last decade. It’s 1997 (we seem to be missing a decade) and U2 comes to Edmonton to play not one, but two shows at the stadium on the band’s Popmart tour. Local media greet the band on […]

Rise Against returns to rock Rexall Oct. 8

Again we ask a musical question: Rise Against what? Why, everything, of course – and we have a dandy subject for a WHO NAMED THE BAND feature when the mainstream punk band (not an oxymoron) returns to Edmonton, at Rexall Place on Saturday, Oct. 8 with Flogging Molly and the Black Pacific in support. Tickets […]

U2 fever sweeps Edmonton

The floodlights are on at Commonwealth Stadium. They’re building something that looks like the timewarp machine from Contact. Is Jodie Foster coming? Something’s going on. You can feel the excitement in the air, the local media has gone on full paparazzi alert, fans are staking out the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald, the TV weather forecasters are […]

REVIEW: The misadventure of Lauryn Hill

Free advice for Lauryn Hill: Fire your soundman. Fire your bass player. Fire your drummer. Keep your backup singers. And for God’s sake, please chill out just a wee bit. These are really the only conclusions a discerning music fan can draw from Hill’s terribly disappointing show Saturday, May 28 at the Edmonton Event Centre. […]

PREVIEW: Cyclists brake for ESO show

There’s a misconception about the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra that it’s really only meant for people who earn over $100,000 a year. And there’s another misconception about cyclists that they all wear form-fitting Lycra, even the ones who ride to church. So if you combine the two stereotypes and have heard about the Bike to the […]

Andrew WK recruits an X-Man

Andrew WK has a new partner in partying. Gig City caught up with the Party Hard hitmaker backstage at the Pawn Shop Friday night as he rolled through with his mysterious new protégé/collaborator Aleister X to give Edmonton a show like no other. Flashing a warm smile, Wilkes Krier assures us he still loves to […]

Aboriginal Slave Lake benefit to raise spirits at Legislature bandshell

When Ron Walker isn’t pow-wow dancing, he’s a youth worker who specializes in easing aboriginal kids through the culture shock of moving from small towns to the big city. More than 10,000 Slave Lake residents were put in that situation rather suddenly last week when a terrible forest fire destroyed a third of the town. […]

Fresh from American Idol, Judas Priest to rock the Shaw Nov. 1

The few, the proud, the Marines, the metal bands known by one name only – these are the true heroes of our time. At least when it comes to their fans, the ones for Judas Priest particularly compelled to shout “PRIEST!” accompanied by the universal devil horn salute. Once again, in case there’s still any […]

TRUE TALES OF THE ROAD: Chilliwack’s trash can jam

Don’t upstage the headliner if you want to work in this town again. This is part of “Vegas rules,” in old school showbiz lingo, an unwritten code of performer conduct that discourages warm-up bands from attempting to blow their headliners off the stage. It’s just common courtesy. But sometimes it can’t be avoided – especially […]

FOLK FEST 2011: The world according to Terry Wickham

We already know who’s coming to the Edmonton Folk Music Festival this year: k.d. lang, Andrew Bird, Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, the Gipsy Kings, the Amazing Kreskin, actor-singer Tim Robbins and much, much more. Old news. Check the folk fest website. But it’s the folk fest PRESS CONFERENCE that really puts it all […]