Dave Hause Live in Edmonton April 19th 2018

Last Thursday my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Dave Hause show at The Temple, which a concert room in the same building as the Starlite Room. First time I have attended a show in this room. It's a decent room for a small space venue. Not sure what the room can hold, but by the time Dave Hause came on, I would guess about 150 people, which made the room pretty full.

The first artist of the night was James Renton the lead vocalist from the local band Fire Next Time. I haven't seen James or Fire Next Time in a couple of years, so I was looking forward to his solo set. The place wasn't very full for him but he still put on a good show. He still reminds me a bit of William Elliot Whitmore, a rough whiskey soaked voice like a Tom Waits. His music as FNT music is a mix of folk and punk sounding. I enjoyed his set, he played a couple of new tunes from the forthcoming Fire Next Time album Knives. One of them songs being "Collars". I'm really looking forward to hearing the album and seeing James with a full band in the near future.

James Renton.

Next up was Drew Thomson whom hails from Hamilton, Ontario and was once the front man for the band Single Mothers. I had heard of the band Single Mothers but never listened or followed them. So I wasn't familiar with his music at all, but have to say I thought he was pretty good. I thought his vocals could have been a bit louder but nonetheless, what I could make out, he seems like a pretty good songwriter. An artist I will certainly be looking into more.

Drew Thomson.

The headliner of the night was Dave Hause from Philadelphia, accompanying Dave, was his brother Tim. It was a year ago this month that I first saw Dave Hause in concert opening for The Bronx. I enjoyed his set so much that time, so when he was announced to be playing a solo headliner set this time around, I was excited about getting to see him in concert again.

For those that don't know who Dave Hause is, he a singer-songwriter and used to play in the punk/hardcore band The Loved Ones. Now a days his music is more along the line of Americana style roots music with some pop punk flavour.

Dave and Tim opened the show with a song called "Shaky Jesus" from his 2017 album Bury Me in Philly. Actually they played a lot of songs from this album including, "The Flinch", "Helluva Home", "Wild Love", "Dirty Fucker" and "Divine Lorraine", to name a few. Which was cool as I am a huge fan of that album. Dave Hause also played keyboard on a song called "The Great Depression" from his album Devour, sounded great too, also from that album was a song called "Autism Vaccine Blues". There were even a couple old songs from his 2011 album Resolutions, including the title song and "C'mon Kid". I had never heard this album before, but did pick it up at the show.

Dave closed out the night with the Tom Petty song "I Won't Back Down" which sounded incredible and had the whole audience singing along. What an awesome show. Good times!!!

Dave Hause.

A couple pieces of vinyl I picked up at the show.

Book Review (Gord Downie)

Have had this book for a few months now and finally got around to reading it. It is the Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip coffee table book (190 pages) written by Steve Newton, and published by Sterling Publishing out of New York. This book is an indie release and not authorized by Gord Downie or the Tragically Hip.

The writer of this book Steve Newton is a writer out of Vancouver who writes for the weekly entertainment paper there called Georgia Straight. He's been with the paper since 1982 and first interviewed Gord in 1989. If you are a fan of The Hip you really won't learn anything you don't already know about the band, but it is a good read. The book consists of clips of interviews he has done with Gord and the other members of the band.

There are a lot of great pictures in the book from their earliest days of playing bars in there hometown of Kingston, Ontario and right up to their last gig in Kingston August 20th 2016. Also in the book are pictures of memorabilia like backstage passes, ticket stubs and gig posters.

I was contacted by the senior photography editor Stacey Stambaugh to contribute some pictures of my Tragically Hip memorabilia for the book. Much to my surprise they actually used four of my posters for the book. In return I got a free copy of the book.

This is a must have for any Hip fan. In the back of the book is a list of every show they have played in their career and list of all the albums The Hip and Gord Downie have released.

The book is available at Chapters/Indigo bookstores and am sure many other book stores as well. Check it out, I am sure you will enjoy it.

Rod Stewart Live in Edmonton April 6th 2018

On Friday night Janis and my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Rod Stewart concert at Rogers Place here in Edmonton. This was my second time seeing Rod in concert, the first time being in 1991. That first time my buddy Geddy and I spent more time running for beers through out the show whenever there was a song we didn't like being performed. Well this time was a bit different as I respect Rod Stewart that much more, but there were still plenty of times where I did go run for a way over priced beer.

I was kind of hoping this time Rod would play more of his old stuff, tunes from The Faces and from classic albums like Gasoline Alley and Every Picture Tells A Story. But sadly only one song got played from either album and that was "Maggie May" from the Picture album, the last song before the encore.

The show started with a what looked like a big old checkerboard shower curtain around the stage. The first song of the night was "Infatuation" which got the 14,000 people (my guess) up and singing and dancing. That was followed by the song "Young Turks" from his hugely popular 1981 album Tonight I'm Yours. Rod's voice sounded a little rough, not that he has always had the best voice but at least you knew it was him singing and not some piped in vocals. Rod did mention how dry it was here and it was messing with his and his female backup singers voices. Rod seemed in good spirits though saying how much he loved a Friday night show, and saying he would be playing for an hour and forty-five minutes in which he did. And with no opening act, this show was done before 9:30 which seemed pretty lame for a Friday night show, but I guess at the age of 73 and still looking good, Rod may be a little old for late nights now.

Other songs that he played were "Ooh La La" a Faces song, that was good, as well as "Tonight the Night", "Forever Young", "Downtown Train" a song that Tom Waits actually wrote. My favorite tune of the night was the Muddy Waters song he did "Rollin' And Tumblin'", he sounded great singing this gritty blues song as his voice really seems to work with this type of rock n' roll, it's more along the lines of his Gasoline Alley songs.

For the encore he played "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?", I was really hoping he wouldn't play that song, but I guess I knew it was coming with it being one of his biggest hits. What was weird though was for the last three songs the big curtain or shower curtain whatever you wanna call it would come down, then go back up and they would do another song, and then finally it never went back up, show done, over. No good night, no bow, nothing, all over, seemed like a weird way to end a concert. And especially when it's not even 9:30 on a Friday. All and all the show was a bit schmaltzy but still a fun night out. Good times!!!

Rod Stewart at Rogers Place.

The Bronx Live in Edmonton April 4th 2018

Wednesday was a fun filled evening of punk rock with The Bronx, No Parents and Counterfeit Jeans at the Starlite Room.

The first band of the night was Edmonton band Counterfeit Jeans. This three piece band hit the stage rocking playing their style of punk music. They were good at what they do, but didn't play anything that really caught my attention.

Counterfeit Jeans.

Next up was band out of Los Angeles called No Parents. I had never heard of these guys before but have to say I was impressed with them. They are three piece band that play a punk rock style of music, they reminded me of early Green Day with a mix of Scatterbrain. A real fun band singing songs with titles such as "Buy Us A Van", "Bully Girl", "Two Beers", "Die Hippie Die", "Dick City" and "I'm A Dildo", as you can see by the songs they don't take themselves too serious, yet the band was good. It was a lot of fun watching and listening to these guys.

No Parents.

And for the main act was another Los Angeles band The Bronx who play punk rock as well. This was my third time seeing them live and holy fuck these guys just keep getting better. The band is on tour in support of their album V which came out last year and was one of my favorite releases from 2017. As much as I like that album the songs sound even better live.

The band led by singer Matt Caughthran, who has got to have the best screams in rock n' roll, and in my opinion one of the best lead singers around these days, actually the whole band is probably one of the best live acts on the road right now.

After about a half dozen songs Matt came down on to the dance floor and played the rest of the show amongst the crowd, slam dancing, moshing and jumping around shaking his head like a mad man. You couldn't help but get caught up in the music. I tried staying on the outskirts of the pit, but every once in a while I found myself among the moshers and dancing and singing along with Matt. Lots of sing alongs, shout outs and picking people up off the floor. At one point Matt got bounced in to me and almost went down but I stopped him from falling, he put the mic in front of me, I sang along with im and he gave me a pat on the back and a hug. Matt is just one of the best front men since Gord Downie of The Hip.

Some of the new songs played on this night were "Two Birds", "Sore Throat", "Night Drop At The Glue Factory", "Side Effects" and "Broken Arrow". And all of them sounded absolutely amazing. And for old stuff lots of classics like "Six Days A Week", “They Will Kill Us All (Without Mercy)”, "White Guilt" one of my faves "Knifeman", "Shitty Future" and "Heart Attack American" oh man, just so many great songs. And the whole time Matt is among the crowd the band is on stage tight as fuck and holding down the fort. The band was super tight, the crowd was amazing. Matt made you feel like you were at something special in which we were. The feeling of a tight knit community brotherhood. If you like your music loud and on the punk hardcore side this is a must see band live. There is no doubt this show will be in my top three of the year. So much fun. Good times!!!

The Bronx.

Some merchandise I picked up at the show.

No Parents vinyl and t-shirt.

The Bronx hockey puck and two seven inch singles.