Sunday my friend Hurl and I checked out the all day free music on Whyte Ave. As this was the last day of the inaugural SOS Fest here in Edmonton. The SOS Fest (Sounds of Old Strathcona Music Festival) The festival ran from Friday July 9th to Sunday July 11th with over 120 mostly local bands playing 25 venues in the Whyte Avenue area. While I didn't get an all weekend pass, I wasn't going to miss the free music all day Sunday. Whyte Avenue was closed to traffic (103st to 105st) with bands playing from noon til 9pm. They had 2 stages going one on 103st and one on 105st which is right outside my doors, so no excuse not to go check it out.
The first band we caught of the day was The Swiftys who play a rocking country style of music, they were excellent and even did a Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash covers that were well done too. This is a band well worth looking into. I got a kick out of watching little kids, probably around 3 or 4 years of age dancing away right in front of the stage, quite cute.
The next band we saw were a blues band called Boogie Patrol who also were quite good. They had a great guitar player (Yuji Ihara) and the guy on vocals and harp (Rotten Dan The Bluesman) was excellent, a good up and coming blues band I am sure.
We then caught a bit of a band from Vancouver called The Fugitives. The played an interesting style of folk music, and I really liked the lady (Barbara Adler) who played the squeeze box, the whole band was good.
Next up was the Whitsundays who are from Edmonton and play a weird kind of psychedelic pop style of music. I thought they were quite good as well.
After Whitsundays it was time to head home and BBQ and have some beers. Now that we had a belly full of food and some drinks it was off to see headliners, Edmonton's psychedelic,electronic,dance rock/punk band Shout Out Out Out Out. This was my third time seeing them play live and once again they blew me away. This is a band you have to see live to really get it. Their albums are good, but nothing like seeing them play in concert, high energy, fucked up vocals, four bass players,two drummers, ahh such beautiful noise. By then the crowd had swelled and had the avenue full of people dancing and rocking out.
What an awesome way to spend a Sunday, live music all day,great bands,great weather, good people,close to home, well run. It's about time that Edmonton put on a festival like this promoting some of the great bands and musicians in this city. It was also nice to see them shout Whyte Avenue down for a day, wish they would do that for the Fringe Festival too. One small complaint I have is there was no merchandise booth selling CD's and t-shirts and such, I wanted to pick up a few albums by the bands I heard but wasn't able to. I guess I will have to check the record shops, small complaint, but I am sure there were a few people that would have bought some merch at the show after hearing a band they liked. All and all an really fun day. Here is hoping they do it again next summer. One more festival for the city of fests. Good job to everyone involved.
Front.
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