August 21st

  It was on August 21st, 2003 that I saw the Punk-O-Rama Tour here in Edmonton a Red's. This tour featured The Bouncing Souls headlining with Hot Water Music, Worthless United and The Forgotten.

August 20th

  The gig poster and concert ad for the time I saw the Toronto punk band Maximum RNR play a bar in Edmonton called Stars on August 20th, 2004.

August 18th

  It was on August 18th, 2012 that I saw Metallica play the second night of a two night stand in Edmonton at Rexall Place. These two shows were filmed for live footage for the film they released the following year called Through The Never. Metallica also performed two shows in Vancouver for this film.

Big Sugar Live in Edmonton July 17th, 2025

  My buddies Buzzard, A-Bomb and I went to see Big Sugar play a free show as part of the Taste Of Edmonton food festival held at Sir Winston Churchill Park in downtown Edmonton. This would be my 16th time seeing Big Sugar in concert. What really peaked my interest in seeing Big Sugar again was that the band is back to being a three piece band. I hadn't seen Big Sugar perform as a three piece band since the 90's, for a while there the band became more a roots reggae band then the blues based rock band that I loved. Don't get me wrong, they were still great live but I was really missing the rock n' roll show that Gordie Johnson and the guys used to play. I stopped buying tickets to there shows because of this. I still saw them lots of times, but they were always free shows. The last time I had paid to see Big Sugar was in 2003 and what I really surprised me was that the last time I saw the band in concert was in 2012, so it had been a long time since I had seen them. So I was pretty pumped about seeing them again, especially as a three piece.

 Big Sugar led by Gordie Johnson who in my opinion is one of the greatest guitarists in the world and so underrated, rounding out the band was Anders Drerup on bass and on drums Root Valach. The band came out rocking and very loud as Big Sugar is known to play. It was so awesome to hear the band play their style of rocking blues for an hour and a half. Playing almost the whole 1993 album Five Hundred Pounds. They also played some very rocking tunes like "All Hell For A Basement" a homage to Alberta, "Red Rover" and "Nicotina (She's All That)" from their 2001 album Brothers And Sisters, Are You Ready? again in my opinion the last really good album they have released. Their setlist was so good on this night with them also playing a few songs from the 1996 album Hemi-Vision "Diggin' A Hole" and "If I had My Way". As well as a few from the Heated album released in 1998 playing "The Scene" and "Better Get Used To It". oh ya, they also did a cover of the Traffic song "Dear Mr. Fantasy". I'm sure there were some other songs that I have forgotten, but what a fucking show. This is the Big Sugar I love, playing kick ass rock n' roll to a big audience that was eating up this version of Big Sugar. If Big Sugar continue like this I will gladly start paying to see them in concert again. This show was awesome. Good times!!!

Big Sugar.

August 14th

 My ticket stub from the Misery Signals show I saw on August 14th, 2014 at the Starlite Room in Edmonton. Opening the show were the bands This Is War and All Hail The Yeti.

August 13th

 

 The ticket stub from the time I saw Sass Jordan play The Thunderdome in Edmonton on August 13th, 1996.

August 12th

 

 It was on this date August 12th, 1990 that I saw Bob Dylan play the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton. Opening the show was Sue Medley.

August 10th

 

 My ticket stub and newspaper reviews from the time I saw Soundgarden with Reverend Horton Heat opening play the Convention Centre in Edmonton.

Rockin' Thunder Music Festival in Edmonton Day 2 July 12th, 2025

  Day two of the Rockin' Thunder Fest was another beautiful sunny hot day with another full line-up of music. Again Nazz and I got there early as we weren't sure what to expect after the first day fiasco. The good thing was that we didn't much care about the first band. It seemed they had it together a little bit better, still stupid long line ups to get in through security, but we found a way to get into one of the shorter lines. Day two was more of an alt-rock line up. I wasn't sure how the turnout would be for this, but by the time we got there which was about 40 minutes before gates opened, it looked to be much like day one, a good showing, yet again. My guess for attendance each day would be around 10,000, that's just a guess of course.

 The first band of day two was the Vancouver band Default. They got their start back in the early 2000's, I didn't like them then, and their performance did nothing to change my mind. Just middle of the road generic alternative rock, boring! With a set that felt like it was never going to end.

This first picture was taken just as Default was hitting the stage. As you can see, lots of people and beautiful weather.

Default.

 Next up was another Canadian band, Nova Scotia's The Trews. This would be my fourth time seeing The Trews in concert. This is a band I have tried to get into for many years and yet I just can't. They're a good rock n' roll band, I just don't do anything for me. Their set was alright, nothing special. At one point during their set the lead singer ventured into the crowd, and then a little later into their set the band ventured into the crowd. I'm thinking once was enough but nope twice. My buddy Nazz and I had a good laugh at the bass player and guitarist sharing the same mic through out the whole show. Could they not afford another mic, after a while it just looked and seemed very odd. I'm giving up on trying to like this band.

The Trews.

 During one the set changes Nazz and I wandered the grounds of the fest and found a smoking tent where you could purchase weed. Remember the days of smuggling weed into a concert, obviously those days are over with cannabis being legal now, but at this festival you could actually buy it there, I thought that was pretty cool.

 Next up was the Montreal's Sam Roberts Band. This would be my sixth time seeing them in concert. The first time I saw the Sam Roberts band was in 2002 when they were touring for their debut EP and opening for The Hip. Now this is a band that gets better every time I see them live. 

 Sam and his band know how to put on a rock n' roll show, their hour plus long set flew by in no time. While I do like their albums, live in concert they are so fucking good. Great energy, tight band, and awesome songs with great lyrics. Some of the songs played were "Brother Down", "Afterlife", "Hard Road", "Them Kids", "Don't Walk Away Eileen", "We're All In This Together" and the song "Where Have All The Good People Gone?" which is probably one of their biggest songs, that one had the crowd singing along loud and proud. I was very impressed with their set and look forward to seeing them again soon hopefully. Again, Nazz and I had a good laugh when we both said the same thing "the bass played looks like Liam Gallagher of Oasis".

Sam Roberts Band.

 Next up was Stone Temple Pilots out of San Diego. STP were a fairly big band back in the early 90's, especially their first two albums Core and Purple. They were part of the grunge and alternative music scene lead by lead singer Scott Weiland who was kicked out of the band in 2004 because of substance abuse issues and later died in 2015 of an overdose. I had never seen STP before, though I did have tickets to see them twice back in their hey days, but cancelled both times. Was I looking forward to seeing them perform, to be honest, I didn't even realize they were still touring let alone releasing a few albums without Scott. But here I was finally getting to see Stone Temple Pilots in concert.

 The band now is still all original members, except obviously without Scott on lead Vocals. The core members being brothers Dean Deleo on guitar and Robert Deleo on bass with drummer Eric Kretz, on lead vocals now is Jeff Gutt who has been singing with the band since 2017. Who knew, I sure didn't.

 STP put on a good show with the Deleo brothers very in sync with each other and rocking the crowd playing old time favourites mostly from their first two albums, songs such as "Unglued", "Big Bang Baby", "Vasoline", "Interstate Love Song", "Dead And Bloated", "Big Empty" and "Sex Type Thing". All songs that I know and enjoy, lead singer Jeff Gutt did a very good job of the songs, I just couldn't get past the new lead singer, that's just me, for some reason I couldn't get in to it. He does a great job and the band were good. The crowd ate it up and that's what matters. Would I go see them again? Nope!

Stone Temple Pilots.

 Now it was time for Saturday's headliner Weezer. Now this I was looking forward to. This would be my second time seeing Weezer in concert. The last time being in 1997 in Calgary on their Pinkerton tour.

 The crowd was ready for Weezer in a big way, and they did not disappoint. The first thing you notice when Weezer hit the stage was the big production and lead singer Rivers Cuomo looking his nerdiest in his wool sweater, looking a lot older then but still sounding amazing on vocals and guitar. The other members in the band were original members Brian Bell on guitar, Patrick Wilson on drums and newest member Scott Shriner on bass who has been in the band since 2001. The line-up actually surprised me, I didn't realize that they were all still performing together.

 Weezer opened with a song I didn't recognize but the second song of the night was very familiar, that being "Hash Pipe", then it was "My Name Is Jonas" from their debut 1994 debut album. And man, much to my surprise, I think they played every song from that album, which was super cool. I guess it makes sense as it was 30 years ago last year that their debut album came out. My only disappointment about their set was not enough songs from the Pinkerton album, as that is my favourite of theirs. But they did play "The Good Life", "El Scorcho", "Pink Triangle" and "Why Bother?" from said album. There were some other songs from their catalog that I didn't really know but they all sounded great live. And closing the set with their biggest hit and biggest sing-along song "Buddy Holly". Such an awesome hour and half long set and a great way to end the inaugural Rockin' Thunder Music Festival. Looks like this could be the beginning of an annual festival as they were advertising tickets on sale for next years fest on the screens at the show. Favourite bands of the two day festival for me would be in order Weezer, Sam Roberts Band and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts. Good times!!!

Weezer.