Leonard Cohen In Edmonton April 25th 2009

What a week for Canadian music legends. Saturday saw Leonard Cohen playing Rexall Place here in Edmonton, two days after Neil Young played the same venue. I wasn't going to go to this show, but then knew my friend Joe is a huge Cohen fan, and thought I might as well check it out with him. I am glad that I did, Leonard doesn't tour very often and who knows if I would ever get the chance to see him if I didn't go this time.
He played for just under 3 hours with an intermission half way through. The show started with a standing ovation for him from the crowd of about 8,000. I was quite impressed with the show, his voice still sounds great, raspy and all. It was a laid back older crowd for the show.
I wouls rate this show an 8 out of 10. Earl also decided to come to the show at the last minute. All and all a good time.

Rock N' Roll Will Never Die

On Thursday April 23rd I went to see Neil Young play here in Edmonton, this was my 4th time seeing him play, and wow, what a fuckin' show. This was my first time seeing him play without Crazy Horse has his back up band. Out of the 4 times I have seen him, this was my favorite show. Neil was ON for this show, opening with Love And Only Love from the Ragged Glory album (my fave Neil album) then following that up with Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) I knew we were in for a treat with that kind of opening. The coliseum wasn't quite sold out, a crowd of about 12,000 I would say, with a very strong smell of pot right from the get go :)
This was the first time I had seen Neil pull out the acoustic guitar in concert playing Heart Of Gold and Old Man from the Harvest album. Absolutelly amazing, seeing him play and hear these songs in the set. He played for 2 hours and 15 minutes, playing only a few songs from his new album Fork In The Road. He also played Down By The River which I had never seen him perform either, another one of my favorite songs of his. And for an encore he played a Dylan cover All Along The Watchtower, made famous by Jimi Hendrix, and I am sure Jimi was looking down with a big ass smile, he fucking rocked this song out big time.Feedback is a beautiful thing!!!I went to this show with my girlfriend Janis. What an awesome show, I give this show a 10 out of 10.
Setlist for the show.

Love And Only Love
Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
Fuel Line
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Pocahontas
Spirit Road
Cortez The Killer
Cinnamon Girl
Mother Earth
The Needle And The Damage Done
Light A Candle
Are You Ready For The Country?
Four Strong Winds
Heart Of Gold
Old Man
Speakin' Out
Tonight's The Night
Down By The River
Get Behind The Wheel
Just Singing A Song

Encore:

All Along The Watchtower

Record Store Day Purchases

Well, yesterday was Record Store Day and I managed to get out and checkout most of the record stores on Whyte Ave. My goal was to purchase something at every record store I went to. Mission accomplished. It was nice to see all the shops were busy, with some good specials at all the record stores.
My first stop was at Blackbyrd Myoozik where they had all their stock 20% off and had a good deal on used CD's, buy 2 and get one free. I found 2 Blitzen Trapper CD's I didn't even know existed at Blackbyrd, a self titled album and an album called Field Rexx, and for my free CD I got the Talking Heads - Fear Of Music album
Next stop was Southside Sound, which unfortunatelly will be closing their doors soon. Which is too bad, this shop has been on Whyte Ave for as long as I can recall. Over the years I have bought many an album at this record store. All their stock now is marked at 20% off. At Southside Sound I got Warren Zevon's Live album recorded at The Roxy called Stand In The Fire, I got this album on vinyl.
Now off to Megatunes which is right across the street from Southside Sound. This shop has been on Whyte Ave for about 5 years now. I go to this record store on a regular basis. The guys at Megatunes are good people and treat me good, giving me some deals on albums and Clint always manages to talk me into buying a little extra. He has turned me onto a few bands which I may never had listned to or even knew of if not for his recomendation. Here I got a couple slabs of vinyl, I got the Robert Plant and Alison Kraus collaboration Raising Sand on double vinyl, and also purchased Daniel Johnston's Artistic Vice and 1990 album on vinyl. They had some deals their as well with 4 dollars off regular priced music, and 10 dollars off box sets, they also had a bunch of CD's for real cheap, where I was able to find Boneclub's Bellow album for 1 dollar, which they gave to me free. Thanks Megatunes.
Last stop for the day was Sound Connection, which moved back to Whyte Ave about 2years ago. Sound Connection has been around forever as well, and is where as a teen I bought 90 percent of my music. My brother and I used to make the trek downtown every Saturday morning as teens and buy all kinds of music, that and skip school and hang out at Sound Connection. If your looking for some old school metal albums, this is the place to checkout. They too had all their stock on for 20% off. Here I bought all kinds of stuff. They have a box of CD's on the front counter for 2 bucks a piece, where I managed to find some good stuff, I got the Supersuckers first album The Smoke Of Hell and La Mando Cornuda which is a fucking awesome balls out rock album and also one Of Supersuckers later albums called Paid, also in the 2 dollar bin I got Youth Brigade - To Sell The Truth, Sparta - Wiretap Scars and Zeke's double album Til The Livin' End all for 2 dollars a piece plus 20% off, sweet deal. I also got a triple live album by The Allman Brothers Band at Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY 8/24/04 for 20 dollars and last but not least Kick Axe's album Welcome To The Club on vinyl for 6 dollars, like I say, a great place to find some old metal.
Overall it was great day of record shopping on Whyte Avenue. Plans for today... drink some beers and listen to some new music.

Record Shop Day.

Tomorrow is record store day,(Saturday April 18th) go out and support your local independent record store, buy something!!!
I'll be checking out Sound Connection, Blackbyrd Myoozik, Megatunes, Octopus Ink and Southside Sound all on Whyte Avenue, here in Edmonton,Alberta,Canada. I may even venture to the northside and go to Freecloud Records and Listen.
Feel free to share what you may have picked up on record store day.

Favorite Shows of 1995

The year 1995 was a decent year for shows.
March 30th I went to see The Eagles at the Coliseum. I wasn't going to go to this show becuase it was the first time I had seen ticket prices hit the three digit mark, a hundred bucks to see The Eagles,hmmm, really didn't think it was worth it. But day of the show I went down to the Coliseum to see if I could score a cheap ticket, that didn't happen. So I went to the box office to see what they had for seats, I managed to get a front row seat dead centre for face value, if I was going to pay a hundred dollars for a seat, front row centre I could do. I am glad I saw this show cause it was quite good. Joe Walsh stole the show as he did when he played with Ringo Starr. I sure would like to see Joe Walsh do a solo show. I went to this show alone.


On May 26th I traveled to Vancouver to see Jimmy Page and Robert Plant play The Pacific Coliseum. And what a fucking show that was, when they opened with Led Zeps Rock n Roll the place went nuts, made the hair stand on the back of your neck, just thinking of it is doing the same thing to me now. I went to this show with my brother. We took four doobies for the show and came out of the show with the same four doobs, there was a lot of pot smoked at this show, I didn't even get to light one up. The people next to me just kept sparking them up one after another. At the end of the show I turned to the guy next to me and gave him one of my joints, and said thanks for all the smoke. I owe you one,lol. My Bro was 3 rows behind me and I believe he was swilling Jack out of a bottle someone had snuck into the show. This was an absolutelly amazing show.

On July 15th it was time for a road trip to High River, Alberta for Another Roadside Attraction Festival that had The Tragically Hip playing (the Hip put on this Fest) with Eric's Trip,Rheostatics,Matthew Sweet,Blues Traveler,Spirit Of The West and Ziggy Marley. I went to this show with a whole shit load of friends, Joe, Claudia, A Bomb, T Bone, Julio,Warren,Kim and more, can't remeber everyone.
What an amazing line up and good time at this show. The beer garden was a fucking zoo, I recall A Bomb and I going to the beer garden tripping out, and just watching people lose their fucking minds, good times!!!! Blues Traveler were awesome.





July 17th was time for Ace Frehley and Peter Criss at The Thunderdome. I was so stoked for this show, as was my brother whom I went to this show with. After all him and I are two of the biggest KISS fans around. Neither one of us had ever seen Ace or Peter before and here they were playing together at a bar, wow, this was going to be amazing, and it was. Each memebr did their solo thing then played some songs together. To hear Ace do New York Groove was fucking awesome, my Bro and I lost our minds at this show.

Next great show I saw this year was Rancid with Seaweed at Dinwoodie Lounge. This show too was fucking awesome and an excellent venue to see some wicked punk rock. I went to this alone I believe.


Other shows I saw in 1995 were Joe Cocker at The Jubilee Auditorium, Sons Of Freedom with Econoline Crush and Grimskunk at People's Pub, Randy Bachman at The Thunder Dome, Weird Al Yankovic at The Jubilee Auditorium, 54-40 atThe Thunderdome, The Pietasters with Let's Go Bowling at The Sidetrack Cafe, Glueleg at People's Pub, The Watchmen with The Headstones at The Convention Centre, Furnace Face at The New York Theatre in Vancouver, Paul Rodgers of Bad Company at The Thunderdome, Charlie Sexton at The Sidetrack Cafe, comedian Nestor Pistor at Santana's, The Pursuit Of Happiness at The Power Plant on U of A campus, Green Day with The Riverdales at The Coliseum, Love Supreme (Lester Quitzau's band) at Blackbyrd Myoozik overall another great year of shows.

Gaslight Anthem in Edmonton Apr.8th

On April 8th I went to see Gaslight Anthem with The Heartless Bastards at The Starlite Room here in Edmonton. They played to a packed house, sold out show.
I thought I was going to like The Heartless Bastards, after all I have been listening to their new album The Mountain for a few months. But, I have to say, after seeing them live, I find that the lead singers (Erika Wennerstrom) voice grated on me after about 4 songs. They are a good tight band, but was a bit let down by them.
Now, Gaslight Anthem rocked the joint big time. They opened with the song Great Expectations and had the crowd singing along and dancing away. The show rocked all the way thru, they surprised me with a Tom Petty cover American Girl. The band played for about 70 minutes. I really enjoyed this show and hope to get to see them again soon. Over all a really fun night of kick ass rock n' roll. I would rate Gaslight Anthem a 9 out of 10.