Edmonton Rock Music Festival Aug.17th 2019

Three Saturday's ago now, my buddies RCD, Buzzard and I went to the Edmonton Rock Music Festival held at the Heritage Amphitheatre in Hawrelak Park. This was the ninth edition of this festival which is a two day fest, but we only attended the Saturday. The Friday edition did have a couple of good bands including Sloan and the Odds. I had never been to this festival before as it is usually just a bunch of washed up has beens, but this year there was one band that I had to see and are from being washed up, I am speaking of The Pursuit Of Happiness.

The first band we caught was Darby Mills. Darby used to front the band the Headpins, but has now been a solo artist the past three years, with a new project called the Darby Mills Project. I've never been a fan of the Headpins but thought it would be fun to see her in concert. She did do a few Headpins songs like "Just One More Time" and of course their biggest hit "Don't It Make Ya Feel". Darby (the queen of scream) sounded good she still has a pretty good voice even at the age of 60. Most of her set though was made up of cover songs by the likes of Nazareth (Hair Of The Dog), the song made famous by Janis Joplin "Piece Of My Heart" and closing out her set with a version of the Allman Brothers Band's "Whipping Post".

Darby Mills.

Next up was Wide Mouth Mason from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This would be my fifth time seeing them in concert. I was a little disappointed to not see Gordie Johnson of Big Sugar fame not playing bass with the band this time around. I just couldn't get into them this time. They were alright but nothing special.

Wide Mouth Mason.

Next was The Pursuit Of Happiness, this is the reason RCD and I were at this festival. This would be my sixth time seeing TPOH in concert. I was surprised that they weren't the headliners, but at least if we didn't want to stick around we could be home at a decent time.

TPOH led by Edmonton native Moe Berg on guitar and vocals put on a wicked show as they always do. They played pretty much the whole Love Junk album, but not only that they pulled out some other favourites like "Gretzky Rocks" from their 1995 Where's The Bone album, plus a couple of songs from The Downward Road album "Cigarette Dangles" one of my favourites of theirs and also "Pressing Lips" from said album. Another great song played was "Two Girls In One" from their sophomore album One-Sided Story. A nice surprise was hearing the song "Let My People Go" which was a B-side from the Love Junk era and only released on the Sex & Food: The Best Of TPOH album. Of course they left their biggest hit "I'm An Adult Now" until the very end. Such an amazing show. I would go see TPOH again anytime. A fun band that sounded great and looked to be having a blast on stage. It's a shame they only had an hour long set.

The Pursuit Of Happiness.

Prine Edward Island band Haywire were up next. I didn't even know this band was still around. This would be my second time seeing haywire in concert, the first time was when they opened for Helix back in 1987. I was never a fan of the band but have to say they were a lot of fun this time around. At one point during the show a guy in front of us was waving around a vinyl copy of Haywire's 1987 album Don't Just Stand There. Lead singer Paul MacAusland spotted the guy with the album and grabbed it from him and then proceeded to sign it and take it to each member of the band and had them autograph it as well, all while still playing a song. I thought that was pretty cool. I asked buddy if I could get a picture of his autographed album, so here is the picture. They sure looked a lot different back in 1987.

Haywire.

After Haywire is when I wasn't sure how I was going to enjoy the rest of the evening. Up next was Tommy Tutone (Tommy Heath), a pop band from the early 80's with one big hit, that being the song "867-5309/Jenny". It took me a fucking week to get that damn song out of my head. Other then that they were forgettable for the most part.

Tommy Tutone.

After their short set it was Greg Kihn. Again another band that had their hey days in the early 80's. When I think of Greg Kihn I just think of how often you see his records at garage sales, flea markets and the bargain bins at record shops. He obviously was huge at one time. I did recognize a few of his songs from his short set. Songs like "Jeopardy" from his Kihnspiracy album, and "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)" from his Rockihnroll album. At 70 years old Greg Kihn looks and sounds pretty good. I'll give him that.

Greg Kihn.

Headlining the night was 80's teen idol Rick Springfield making this his second appearance in the Edmonton area in the past five months having played River Cree Casino in March.

Now I've never been a fan of Rick Springfield unlike my punk music loving brother Citrus. I've always made fun of my Bro. for his musical taste in Springfield, but hey a guilty pleasure is a guilty pleasure. Because of his liking Rick, I did read Springfield's memoir he wrote years ago, I found the book in a bargain bin for a few dollars and did read it. It was actually a decent read. Rick really did live the life in the 80's, between the drink, drugs, women and battling depression, it was an interesting read and gave me a respect for him.

Springfield and his band put on a great show I have to admit. Rick sounded great as did his back up band. I was surprised again at how many of his songs I actually did know, I figured the only song I would recognize is his hit "Jessie's Girl" from his 1981 album Working Class Dog. Even at 70 years old, Rick can still woo the women in attendance, as much of the front of the stage were ladies rocking out and blowing him kisses. And being Rick, he was loving it and working the crowd. Several times during his performance Rick would have a bouquet of roses in his strumming hand and pull off the big Pete Townshend windmill and smash the roses across the strings throwing rose petals all over the stage. Kind of a cool gimmick, just wish I could have got a picture of that, but to no avail.

Behind Rick and his band was a big screen projecting images and videos of Rick and his appearances in movies and of course clips of him in the soap opera General Hospital. I was quite surprised by how rocking his hour long set was, I wasn't expecting that at all. He did about a ten minute medley of some of his biggest hits, and then closing out the night with a bang playing "Don't Talk To Strangers", "Human Touch", "Love Somebody" and ending the set with "Jessie's Girl". I actually enjoyed his show, and at 70 years old Rick still has a good voice and looked to be having a lot of fun on stage performing.

All and all this was a very fun night out, beer prices were reasonable which was good as we indulged quite a bit, the crowd was awesome, though it wasn't near sold out, the weather held out ( as our summer has sucked ass), great venue, fun atmosphere, the smoking area was a fun place to hang out when things did get boring, and of course hanging out with a couple of great frineds made it a lot of fun. Good times!!!

Rick Springfield.

T-shirt.

Edmonton Folk Fest August 9th 2019

Last Friday my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Edmonton Folk Fest to see Jason Isbell in concert. Also playing on this night was Amanda Shires. Now I've never been a big fan of the Folk Fest (I'll get into that later), but sometimes there is an artist you just have to see, and this year it was Jason Isbell again. There was also John Prine that we wanted to see on the Sunday night, but unfortunately John Prine cancelled as he had surgery and cancelled all his summer dates. So it was just the Friday night for us.

We got to Gallagher Hill in time to catch Amanda Shires on one of the side stages. Having heard a few of her songs on CKUA I was very interested in seeing her in concert. Amanda is an American singer-songwriter, fiddle player from Texas that has released a handful of albums. She is also married to Jason Isbell and plays in his band The 400 Unit. Her latest album is called To The Sunset, I knew a few songs she played from that one, "Parking Lot Pirouette", "Leave It Alone" and "Breakout The Champagne". I was surprised by how rocking her set was, she has a great voice and great band backing her up. For the last two songs of her set, her husband Jason Isbell joined her and her band. That was cool. I had a feeling that would happen, one more reason I wanted to see her play. I was very impressed and will be looking into getting some of her albums.

Amanda Shires.

After Amanda's set we figured we would have a quick smoke and grab a beer. Well this is where the problems start. We headed to the smoking area that was close to stage 6 which is where we just saw Amanda play only to get there and be told it was closing, we would have to go to the main smoking area by the beer tent. Ok fine, why they would close a smoking area that early I don't understand. So off to the beer tent we go. Well that was a fucking shit show. Line up to get into the beer tent, line up to get beer tickets and then line up to get a couple beers, cause you might as well grab two as it took for fucking ever to get a beer. Now we have to slam back two beers as quick as possible so that we could have a smoke and get to the main stage to catch the opening of Jason Isbell's set.

We got to the main stage just as Jason was taking to the stage, but here is another reason this festival drives me crazy. The stage is at the bottom of hill, which makes it a natural amphitheatre, it's actually pretty cool. But people get there super early and lay out these huge tarps to mark there spot. Then take off and go see other acts on the other many stages. That's bullshit in my opinion. We got to the main stage and of course the only place you could find a spot was way the fuck up on the hill, where you are basically just listening to tunes and watching the performance on a video screen. So we walked amongst the tarps and found a few with no one sitting on them, so we sat our asses down and started watching Jason Isbell's show. Eventually a few come to there tarps and find us sitting on them. Well where the hell were you before the show started. The tarp I was sitting on the three ladies that came back, let me sit and share their tarp. But my buddy got hassled a bit but didn't move. So we had alright seats for Jason's set.

This would be my third time seeing Jason Isbell in concert and first time seeing him without his band The 400 Unit. This time around it was just Jason, his wife Amanda Shires on fiddle and Sadler Vaden on guitar who also plays in 400 Unit. Jason opened the set with the song "Tour Of Duty" from his 2011 album Here We Rest. He did a great selection of songs from his last three albums Southeastern, Something More Than Free and The Nashville Sound, songs like "Something More Than Free", "Molotov", "Last Of My Kind", "Speed Trap Town", "White Man's World" and "The Life You Chose", "Cover Me Up", "Stockholm" and "Elephant" to name a few. Of course there were a few songs I really wanted to hear but didn't, but that's gonna happen when you have such a solid discography. Jason's set was awesome, I find that each time I see him live he gets stronger as singer and performer. very impressed!

Jason Isbell.

After Isbell was Brandi Carlile closing out Friday nights festival. I was looking forward to seeing her as well. But after Isbell it was off to the beer tent for a cold one. Well, guess what, the fucking beer tent is closed already. What the hell, there is still another act to come on and there is no more beer to be had, not impressed. And by now the main walking area where the pissers are and food trucks and such is a mud pit and it's dark as hell too. Now the organizers did all they could do with the mud situation, bringing in sand, and rig mats to cover the muddy areas. With the shitty summer we have had, they did what they could. But nonetheless, now there is a whole lot of mud and it's dark and you can't see what you are walking in. They need more lighting in the food truck area. It was just getting messy, I was pissed about no more drinks, and then the thought of walking all the way back to the main stage and trying to find a place to see the band from was all too much. I was getting to be a grumpy fuck, so I just decided to call it a night. So I missed Brandi Carlile which bums me out, but I just wasn't having fun. And it was getting chilly out too!

A few things I would change about this festival is obviously the alcohol license issue, it would be SO much better if you could walk around and enjoy a beverage and sit on the hill and watch the show, ditch the damn beer tent already, beer stands all about the festival site would be much better, I'd ban the stupid tarps on the hill as well, more lighting on the main grounds, keep your smoke areas open later, and move the damn video screens you have at the front of the stage, yes it's nice that you can see them if you are not close, but move the screens to the back of the stage or raise them. The screens block so much of what could be good site views from the side of the stage and such. I've said it before and this time I am thinking of keeping to it, no more Edmonton Folk Fest for me until I either quit drinking or they change the beer policy here. I'll sit amongst the trees at the top of the hill outside the fenced area and enjoy the music and drink and have fun. Did it years ago and had a blast. And hell if you are sitting at the top of the hill in the grounds, all you are doing anyways is watching the screens. I'm obviously one of the few that has these complaints because the crowds prove me wrong, but I am sure that there are some that would agree with me. Anyways, the music was good, the vibes not so much.