The Bouncing Souls Live in Edmonton July 14th 2026

 

 My buddies Nazz, A-Bomb and I went to this show at Midway Music Hall headlined by The Bouncing Souls with opening bands The Drowns, Death By Stereo and The Suicide Machines. A damn good bill of punk rock.

 The first band of the night and one of the main reasons I went to this show was The Drowns from Seattle, Washington. My brother Citrus introduced me to this band and have been waiting to see them live for a while now. I was finally getting my chance to see them, so we made sure to be at the venue early.

 The Drowns did not disappoint. They were loud, they were punk and they were exactly what I was hoping to see and hear. A three piece band that rocked for the whole half hour set. I was hoping to hear lots of songs from their album Blacked Out, as that is the album I have listened to the most. They only did one song from that album, that being the rocking "Ketamine & Cola". They played some new songs from their up coming new release Harsh Reality songs titles I recall were "Relentless", "Vengeance" and "Hellish Tattoo". An awesome band, I look forward to seeing them again, hopefully headlining.

The Drowns.

 Next up was Orange County, California's hardcore band Death By Stereo. This would be my 3rd time seeing them in concert, it had been 25 years since the last time I saw then live. While I'm not the fan of hardcore music as I once was they put on a good show. Lead singer Efrem Schulz is still a very intense lead man. On this tour Efrem mentioned they had a local bass player filling in as their usual bass player couldn't get across the border. I didn't catch his name but he did a great job. Overall it was good to see Death By Stereo again.

Death By Stereo.

 The third band of the evening was The Suicide Machines a ska punk band from Detroit, Michigan. This would be my second time seeing the band in concert. On this tour the band was playing their debut 1996 album Destruction By Definition in full.. Out of all the bands at this show, they were my least favourite. My buddy A-Bomb said they were his fave. I'm just not into the ska thing like I was in the late 90's. They were good and do what they do well. Just not my thing.

The Suicide Machines.

 Next up was headliners The Bouncing Souls from New Brunswick, New Jersey. This would be my 4th time seeing them in concert. The last time being in 2003, so it was a long time coming to get to see them again. I did see lead singer Greg Attonito do a solo acoustic show last summer at The Buck here in Edmonton, that was a cool show to see.

 The Bouncing Souls have been around since 1989 and other than the drummer it's all still original members. They are still a great live band, playing for an hour and a half with a selection of songs from almost all their albums. Opening the set was the song "Kate Is Great" from their self titled 1997 album. So many good songs I can't remember all of them, here are what I do recall, hell this show was almost a month ago now, so the memory of what was played is a little fuzzy, that and I had a few beers in me by the time The Bouncing Souls came on. Songs played "East Coast, Fuck You!" a great sing along song short but fun. Others played "The Ballad Of Johnny X", "Kids And Heroes", "Hopeless Romantic", "I Like Your Mom", "Here We Go" and of course the song that had everyone singing along "Lean On Sheena". The band sounded great, a very fun show. Good times!!!

The Bouncing Souls.

T-shirt.

August 2nd

  On August 2nd, 2012 I saw Canadian metal legends Anvil play the Pawn Shop here in Edmonton. Always a fun show seeing Anvil live.

David Lee Roth Live in Edmonton July 10th 2026

 

 When this show was announced my buddy Nazz and I talked about going, even though we had seen footage and reviews of previous shows saying that the shows just weren't very good. Yet, we still wanted to see for ourselves. After looking into tickets, it was a hard NO. We weren't about to pay $100 to see the train wreck. Well a few days before the show I got an email from the River Cree Casino where the show as booked, I am signed up for the River Cree newsletter, in the email it said free tickets for David Lee Roth, you just had to pay the service charges. Looked into that, and tickets ended up being $29, ok I can deal with that. So we bit the bullet my buddies Nazz, A-Bomb, Buzzard and I got tickets for the train wreck.

 This would be my second time seeing Diamond Dave solo and also saw him once fronting his old band Van Halen. Now going into the show we knew it wasn't going to be very good, but we still went in with a good attitude thinking it can't be that bad, can it. I mean it's David Lee Roth, he's always had a huge ego, always the entertainer and hell he fronted one of the premier rock n' roll bands of the 80's, and I liked a few of his solo albums, especially Eat Em' And Smile from 1986 and his follow up 1988's Skyscraper. 

 The venue was far from sold out, even with free tickets the place was only maybe half full. No opening band, just two hours of David Lee Roth with his back up band. David is now 71 years old, so you know the voice isn't what it once was (not that I think he was really that great of singer to start with) he no longer does the jumps and running around the stage he used to do, all understandable, he's aging like the rest of us. Opening the show with "Panama" a huge hit for Van Halen back in 1984. It didn't take long to see that, well he just doesn't have it anymore, his back up band and back up singers were all good, but Roth himself barely sang, more talked his way through songs. If you look at the setlist, you would think that is a great set, all Van Halen songs which was disappointing to me. I really was hoping to hear a few from his solo albums, but nope. After about six songs it was just kind of taking in what we thought would be a train wreck more like a fucking plane crash. It was really bad, one of the wors shows I have ever seen. And now I see that DLR has cancelled the rest of his tour, no wonder, time to hang it up Mr. Roth, sorry dude!

David Lee Roth.

July 28th

 The ticket stub from the time I saw Corb Lund and Jr. Gone Wild play the Starlite Room in Edmonton on July 28th, 2013. This show was a benefit show for help with the flooding in Southern Alberta at the time.

July 26th

  July 26th, 2001 The Reverend Horton Heat with opening band Bare Jr. at Suburbs in Edmonton. This was an awesome double bill.

Angine de Poitrine Live in Edmonton July 8th 2026 (Night 2)

 

 So after seeing the first night of Angine de Poitrine the night before, I thought I need to see that again. With both shows being sold out well in advance I figured I'd have a quick look the morning of the show to see if tickets were available, and lo and behold there were tickets and at half the price I paid for night one. I told my wife Janis you really need to see this group live. It's way too hard to explain them, it's really something you need to see. She agreed to come to the show so I grabbed us tickets. I mentioned to my buddy A-Bomb that tickets were available, but he said he would only go if he could get a ticket for $30 or less. I checked Stub Hub and there it was a ticket for 30. I watched the site for a few hours, he ended up getting a ticket for $17, great fucking deal. So there we were A-Bomb, Janis and I going for night two of Angine live at the Ice District Fan Park. My friend Nazz and his wife already had tickets for the show, so we met them at the venue. This time around we didn't bother getting there for the opener, saw them the night before and certainly didn't need to see them again.

 We got to the venue a half hour or so before Angine de Poitrine hit the stage,, had a to get a few beers and a smoke before the show. Well the smoke tent was a popular place to be as many in there were passing joints around, Janis loved that and partook in a circle of doobies flying around. She was ready to now see this band live.

 Night two was exactly as the night before, didn't feel or look like as a big of crowd as night one. But still, a good vibe nonetheless. Again a wide range of ages and people at the show, from little kids to old fucks like us, metal heads, punks, hipsters, you name it they were there. And again all kinds of people in polka dot shirts, shorts, hats and such. Right at the beginning of the show when the band came out, we were just heading into the venue and there was a little kid, probably about seven years old with her Mom, she let out a scream like it was The Beatles coming on stage. Talk about excited, lol. It was actually pretty cool to see little kids at the show and loving it, bouncing around to the weird ass music. Love seeing kids get into strange music like this, maybe there is hope for rock n' roll. Another little kid we saw, again maybe 7-8 years old was in his Mom's arms, big head phones on to protect his hearing but he was bobbing along to the music, making the hand gestures that the duo do during there shows. he knew what was going on, it was very cute to see.

 For those that don't know Angine de Poitrine is a duo from Quebec that play a style of music that I have recently learned, called Microtonal Music, it's weird ass music and all instrumental. these guys are super talented on their instruments. To read more about Microtonal Music, click here, a great article from SPIN Magazine.

 The band played an hour long set just like the night before. During the show we made our way pretty close to the front of the stage. My favourite part of the evening was watching Janis's facial expressions during the show, wide eyes and like what the fuck is going on. All and all a very fun show and night out with Janis and friends. Good times!!!

Angine de Poitrine.

T-shirt.