MUSIC PREVIEW: Hit the road, Jack
Congratulations, you have survived the summer up to now – to reach “peak festival” in Alberta. On this weekend it is impossible to go to any public park, farmer’s field or even your own backyard without there being some kind of festival happening. Getting out of Edmonton will only bring you to more festivals – […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Mission to Mars
The incredible Bruno Mars is in town this weekend for a pair of shows, Sunday and Monday nights at Rogers Place. With a wide range of musical talents, from writing to singing to playing guitars and the keyboards, he is currently touring to support his 2016 album 24K Magic, although it’s his debut from 2010, […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: A different kind of ’90s love
Matchbox Twenty and Counting Crows were at the very pinnacle of the music scene in the 1990s, and the latter were particularly popular in Canada, with three songs reaching the top 3 during that time – Mr. Jones, A Long December, and Hanginaround. Round Here was another popular anthem that received significant airplay during that […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Canada Day with Sarah
As far back as high school, Sarah McLachlan’s yearbook predicted she was destined to become a rock star – and that’s exactly how her life played out. Her pair of albums from the 1990’s, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and Surfacing, remain as powerful as ever, spawning such Canrock hits as Good Enough, Building A Mystery, Sweet […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Descendents upon us
The famous Descendents clamber out of the punk trenches to spread their raucous tribute to local fans at the Union Hall Sunday night. The California punk rock act was formed back in 1977 by guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo, and drummer Bill Stevenson. They became an integral part of the early 1980s hardcore punk […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Downtown Mr. Browne
Jackson Browne has turned his early success into an epic career now spanning six decades and 14 studio albums. The most recent of those, 2014’s Standing In the Breach, still, after all these years, found its way to No. 15 on the US chart. Playing Monday night at the Winspear Centre, Browne originally came to […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Local aces play Graceland tribute
The Going To Graceland show at the Royal Alberta Museum Theatre on Saturday night will be one of the last gigs played at the venue, and it’s celebrating what many believe to be one of the best albums of the 1980s, if not the entire Century. A nine piece ensemble – featuring locals aces like […]
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 […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: January thaw
We’re in the depths of what’s usually the coldest part of the year, which scares off all manner of touring musicians – though you wouldn’t know it, of course, and with temperatures on the weekend expected to soar well into the single digits, you might just be tempted to leave your jacket in the car […]
REVIEW: July Talk, he said, she said
It’s clear the public prefers to hear both sides of the story when it comes to using music to talk about relationships. Just see how well the co-ed dual lead vocalist approach has worked for so many artists. They call this the “Beauty and the Beast Effect” – an especially apt description of July Talk, […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: July Talk all action
After playing a surprise “secret” gig on Tuesday here in the city, July Talk heads down for a quick gig in Red Deer before circling back for a second SOLD OUT show, on Friday night at Union Hall. The Toronto-with-the-Edmonton-connection indie rockers released their debut self-titled album in 2012 to critical acclaim, and followed that […]
A Tribe Called Red: We are the human beings
Chances are this was the first time First Nations pow-wow dancing was seen at the Union Hall – a room for sloppy rock shows and big drunken blowouts, much better suited to its previous name, The Thunderdome, literally like in the Mad Max movie. There’s a first for everything. A Tribe Called Red was in […]
