Thursday, May 14, 2015
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Dead Venues the Movie/Jr. Gone Wild Live May 8th 2015
On Friday night Cuz, Janis and I made or way to the Garneau Theatre to catch the Dead Venues documentary that was part of the Global Visions Film Festival, and then after the film a performance by the Edmonton band Jr. Gone Wild.
The film Dead Venues was a documentary about some live music venues that used to be part of the Edmonton music scene. The filmmakers of this movie are Mike Siek and Eden Munro whom put together this hour long movie, along with a lot of help from the fans and the collectors of posters, ticket stubs, photos and live footage. The filmmakers did a great job of putting it all together. The venues covered in the film were the Ambo (Ambassador), it was cool hearing stories about that venue. Other venues were the Sidetrack Cafe, Power Plant, Rebar and the Bronx/Rev. Having seen shows at all these places I could relate with every story told by all those that were interviewed. It was also nice to hear the big round of applause for Kirby when the picture of her was shown in the movie. Having just lost her to cancer in the last year, she was a lady that was involved in every aspect of the Edmonton music scene.
In the lobby of the Garneau Theatre they had hundreds of posters from past shows of all the mentioned dead venues. It was cool to see all those old posters. I myself contributed some posters for the show as well. Great job on the movie to all those that were involved.
Some of the posters that were hanging in the lobby.
After the movie and a brief intermission so that you could get a few beers in you, they had Edmonton band Jr. Gone Wild perform. This was a great band to have play to cap off the night, with JGW having been a big part of the music scene since the 80's.
Jr. Gone Wild played an hour and a half show and sounded great. This was the first Edmonton show the band has played in about a year, and was my fifth time seeing them, so it was good to see them play live again as they always put on a good show.
What did surprise me about the show was how many people left right after the movie and didn't stick around for the concert. The theatre was packed for the movie but dwindled down to about a hundred people for the live performance. Nonetheless it didn't stop JGW from putting on a spectacular performance. JGW played lots of old favorites and even a couple of brand new songs, which was really good to hear, as it has been many years since JGW has put out any new music.
There were three new songs played, one being called "Barricades" which was written by Steve Loree the guitarist in the band, and a profanity laced song called "Fools Errand" penned by lead man Mike McDonald and then to close out the show the band did a countrified cover of the SNFU song "Cannibal Cafe". It was a real different version to this classic SNFU punk song. From what I understand JGW have recorded this song for an album that will be coming out of bands covering SNFU songs to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of SNFU's debut album ...And No One Else Wanted To Play.
A great night out seeing a great movie and a great performance by Jr. Gone Wild. Good times!!!
Jr. Gone Wild at the Garneau Theatre.
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Seven Inch Saturday (Death By Stereo)
Today's seven inch single is by the Orange County, California hardcore punk band Death By Stereo. This single was released in 2000 on Indecision Records and includes these two songs "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Salvation" on Side A from their Day Of The Death album, and the Side B song is "Would You Like To Be My Neighbour?" which was a previously unreleased song.
Friday, May 8, 2015
Book Review (Live at the Commodore)
I recently finished reading a book that my brother had bought me for Christmas. The book is wrote by Aaron Chapman and is called Live at the Commodore, The Story Of Vancouver's Historic Ballroom. And just like the title says, it a story about the history of this famous Vancouver concert venue.
The Commodore has been around since 1929 and is still thriving today in the same location in downtown Vancouver on Granville Street. It did close down for three years 1996-1999. But is again up and running hosting concerts on an almost daily schedule.
This book is well written, and tells many a stories about the early days of being a ballroom hosting dances and such, and of course stories of the many bands that have played shows there, including bands such as Nirvana, KISS, Pearl Jam, U2, James Brown, Ween, Tagically Hip and just about every band you could possibly think of. It's a perfect midsize venue holding about a thousand people.
I myself have only seen a handful of shows there myself, which were Steel Panther, Drive-By Truckers and Ween twice. And I have to say it is one of the best venues I have seen a show at, not that I have seen shows in to many places, but yes, it is a great venue. If your not from Vancouver and have a chance to see a show there, do it.
A great book and well worth picking up. The author Aaron Chapman also has another book out about another great club in Vancouver. That book is called "Liquor, Lust and the Law" which is about the Penthouse Nghtclub which is a great strip bar on Vancouver.
A great surprise for me with this book which I didn't realize until I started reading it, is that its an autographed copy. Thanks Bro!!!
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Seven Inch Saturday (Maximum RNR)
Today's seven inch single is from the Toronto punk rock band Maximum RNR. I picked this single up at one of their shows here in Edmonton back in 2004, although this came out in 2002. The two songs on this release are, on Side A which they call the Rock Side is "Switchblade" and Side B which is Roll Side is called "Cutthroat" both songs are in your face rock n' roll. To download some of their music click here. Great stuff!!!
Rock Side - Switchblade
Roll Side - Cutthroat
Mark Mills Live in Edmonton Apr.25th 2015
On Saturday afternoon my Cuz and I went to the Buckingham here in Edmonton to catch the Mills and Mills show, a free show at that.
First up was Windmills who is actually just a one man band from Kelowna, B.C. His name is Cory Myraas and plays indie pop, just him playing guitar and keyboards. He was interesting, better then I was expecting.
Windmills at the Buckingham.
Headliner was Mark Mills who is now based in Vancouver. This was my third time seeing him perform, and yet again, another great performance. Mark is very entertaining playing his electro dance beat style of music. This time around he didn't bring out the guitar instead just playing the keyboards and he also scaled back his stage antics a touch. As Mark has been known to scale the bar, furniture or just about anything around him, and wandering all around the venue singing, but this time he kept to the stage only. This was his last date of a western Canadian tour promoting his vinyl release of his latest album "Triple Fire Sign".
Though there was no advertising for this show whatsoever, there was still a good turn out for it all things considered. Mark's set on this Saturday afternoon was only about an hour, but was highly entertaining with him playing songs from his latest release as well as songs from his earlier album "Go Love Yourself". Mark closed out his show with a cover of the Chris De Burgh song Lady In Red. A very fun show. Good times!!!
Mark Mills at the Buckingham.
Autographed copy of the new Mark Mills album Triple Fire Sign.
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