REVIEW: All hail Coldplay
Coldplay gave everybody a free LED wristband, so the audience could become a spectacular part of the light show at Rogers Place on Tuesday night – and then they blew off the confetti cannons in the first song. Usually that comes at the end. It figures. Coldplay has always set the bar high for themselves. […]
REVIEW: Guns N’ Roses best cover band ever
Here’s a sign you may be about to see a good concert – when the band rehearses in your town the day before the show. What an honour. People living in the Commonwealth Stadium area were reportedly treated to the echoing din of Guns N’ Roses running through Glen Campbell and James Brown tunes on […]
REVIEW: Beck where it’s at in Edmonton
If you’re expecting the unexpected at a rock concert, is having it fulfilled still a special thing? What if the focus of your high un-expectations does something surprisingly normal – like rocking out four-on-the-floor with a great rock band for a rockin’ old school rock concert at the Jubilee Auditorium, for instance – and says […]
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 […]
Folk fest plays second fiddle to elements
Let’s just get all of our “Four Strong Winds” jokes out of the way in the sopping wet aftermath of the 38th annual Edmonton Folk Music Festival. A Mighty Wind, too. The 38th annual fest started on Thursday with an evacuation due to dangerous gusts of wind causing alarming flopping TV screens, and ended Sunday […]
Folk fest blown out by mighty wind
Before it was evacuated on Thursday night, people were having a blast at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. They were just getting warmed up with the furious fiddling hurdy-gurdy goodness of the Quebec supergroup called Solo; and a smokin’ set of Haitian samba from Lakou Mizik – and then Mother Nature stepped in. A sudden […]
REVIEW: Bunnymen get Edmonton hopping
With only two original members from their beginnings in late 1970s Liverpool, Echo and the Bunnymen lit up Union Hall in Edmonton on Saturday night – despite the dim lighting. Founding frontman Ian McCulloch was in fine form, with brooding vocals reminiscent of Nick Cave, or maybe Jim Morrison of the Doors, which they’ve been […]
Lady Gaga takes control in Edmonton
Just once it would be nice to see one of these superstar pop divas let down their ridiculous hair, loosen up and get real – but no, Lady Gaga, one of the best of them all, had to reinforce the pop diva stereotype and come off like a control freak at Rogers Place on Thursday […]
REVIEW: Phantom raises goosebumps
Thirty one years ago, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterpiece opened in London’s West End. It went to Broadway two years later. Based on Gaston Leroux’s novel of great intrigue and captivation, Le Fatôme de l’Opéra, the show was a hit. This edge-of-your-seat piece about the dark side of the human condition remains the longest running show […]
Ed Sheeran hits Edmonton right in the feels
Ed Sheeran is a force to be reckoned with. Opener, James Blunt, referred to him as the biggest male artist in the world which isn’t an exaggeration. All you have to do is take a look at the music charts and see Sheeran’s name everywhere. Sheeran is no stranger to Edmonton having played here multiple […]
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 […]
