Madball Live in Edmonton June 4th 2023

 

When this Madball concert was announced in Edmonton at the Buckingham, my first thought was "holy fuck the crowd is gonna tear that place apart". The Buckingham is a smaller venue with a capacity of probably not more then a couple hundred.

 Of course this was a sold out show. A beautiful summer day and the venue was super hot. By the time New York City hardcore legends were done there was condensation dripping off the walls.

 There were five opening bands for this show starting with a band from Red Deer called Umi Yokai, I didn't get there in time to catch them, but heard people talking about them saying they were good.

 I did catch the rest of the bands which were End Game, Vibes, Shallow End and Trench. I'm just not a big fan of the hardcore bands anymore, guess I'm getting old. Lots of people were certainly enjoying themselves, doing there hardcore dancing, which looks like a big karate fight to me. After hearing all the opening bands, I was ready to see Madball. This would be my second time seeing Madball in concert.

 By the time Madball came on the place was packed and super hot. Madball were great, again I'm just not as big of fan of this genre of music as I used to be. With lead singer Freddy Cricien being the only original member in the band but still sounding good. All and all it was a good show, ran into a bunch of people at the show that I hadn't seen in a while so that was nice too. People were losing there shit to Madball and the place didn't get destroyed. A fun night out. Good times!

Madball.

The Queers Live in Edmonton June 3rd 2023

This show I had no intention of going to as I didn't even realize they were playing here. No postering done for the show and very little advertising. A week before the show I was offered free tickets, that's when I made the decision of going. That was after checking with my brother Captain Citrus if it was worth going to. My Brother has been a fan of The Queers since he was a teenager. I remember him listening to them way back. He said "you gotta go". So my buddy Nazz and I were off to see this old punk band from Portsmouth, New Hampshire that got there start back in 1981. The show was at Union Hall, not a venue that I'm a big fan of, but for free, what the hell.

The first band of the night was Edmonton band The Devil's Sons. A band that plays a rockabilly style of music. Not my kind of music, and didn't much care for them.

The Devil's Sons.

Next band up was another Edmonton band called Forester. Again, another band I didn't much care for. My buddy Nazz and I were really starting to wish we hadn't come to the venue so early. Because once you enter the venue Union Hall there are no in and out privileges, so you're stuck in the venue, which is bullshit in my opinion.

Forester.

After suffering through the first two bands and lots of smoke breaks in the smoking pit it was finally time for The Queers. The Queers had been touring western Canada on this 40th Anniversary Tour with another good punk band Teenage Bottlerocket but for the Edmonton show they weren't on the bill as from my understanding the band were playing a gig in Northern Alberta, which is a shame because it would have made for a better bill. Nonetheless, it was time for The Queers. There wasn't a very big crowd for this show, but you would never know it with the performance that The Queers put on. I'll admit I had really never much listened to The Queers before this show. Because my brother and my buddy Nazz have been fans of the band for years, Nazz had seen them before, but not me. I listened to a bunch of their albums leading up to the show. They remind me of a mix of the Ramones and a touch of the Beach Boys, ya kinda weird but so good. And their song titles are hilarious too. One of the songs I really wanted to hear was a song called "Can't Stop Farting", and ya, they did play it and it was awesome. There hour long set was awesome playing such songs as "Night Of The Livid Queers", "My Old Man's A Fatso", "Kicked Out Of The Webelos", "Granola Head", "Punk Rock Girls" among many others as their songs are not much longer the a few minutes each. Lead singer/guitarist Joe Queer was sounding great and was full of energy and in good spirits. A very very fun show. Good times!!!

The Queers.

 There was a funny incident in the smoke pit during the show when a couple of teenagers came up to my buddy Nazz and I and said, "sorry to bother you guys, but may we ask a question to you two", we were like ya sure, ask away. There question "how long have you guys been going to concerts?" we both looked at each other and did the math, answering "about 40 years", they were both blown away and said "we wanna grow up to be like you guys", fuck did we ever get a good laugh about that. Thanks for making us feel old!

Ryan Adams Live in Edmonton March 24th 2023

Another show that I almost didn't go to because of ticket prices, a hundred bucks to see Ryan Adams, a bit pricey I thought. But getting the chance to see Ryan Adams play a solo acoustic show at a church isn't something you get to see very often. This would be my third time seeing Ryan in concert. So I sucked it up and bought myself a ticket. Glad I did too, because this was a good show. The show was held at McDougall United Church a cool intimate show with great acoustics, even if you could here sirens through the walls of the place off and on during the show. Ryan played a three hour show with no intermission. A thirty plus song setlist with a big smattering of cover songs. He opened the show with the song "Oh My Sweet Carolina" from is debut album Heartbreaker. I believe he played another two or three songs from that album as well. Ryan covered a good portion of his albums but also did a lot of cover songs during this show which he had been doing through out this whole solo tour. I had been watching his setlists prior to this show and he was doing some interesting covers. he must have done at least eight cover songs during his three hour set, which I thought was kind of weird considering how many albums and songs he has out. At least three Neil Young songs, a Dylan song "If You See Her, Say Hello", a Springsteen song "Nebraska", an album that Ryan had recently released redoing the whole Nebraska album. He alos did a Stones song "Sympathy For The Devil". What really caught me by surprise was when he did the Slayer song "South Of Heaven". It took me a bit to realize it was that song. I heard the words and got thinking, no fucking way, is this really a Slayer song done acoustic and in a church to boot. Yup, sure was! Another cool cover was the Pixies song "Monkey Gone To Heaven". I didn't take many pictures at this show as during the first couple of songs a professional photographer at the back of the room was taking pictures when Ryan spotted him taking pictures and stopped mid song and berated the photographer for taking pictures. The guy had the credentials to be allowed to take the pictures, but Ryan asked him to stop and delete all the pictures he had taken. That was enough for me to not take too many pictures. Ryan wasn't very kind about how he handled the situation either. All and all this was a good show, was disappointed that I couoldn't have a beer at the show as there was no alcohol service at the show. Having known this before hand, I hid some beers outside the venue and stepped out a few times to down a quick beer. Good times!!! Ryan Adams.

T-shirt.