Favorite Shows Of 2003

What can I say about shows I saw in 2003 other then what an amazing year for concerts. Mind you, I did travel a bit to see these shows, but, oh so worth it.
Where do I start? I guess, I'll start with the Henry Rollins spoken word performance at The Winspear Centre on March 10th. This was my first time seeing Henry perform at all, I have still not seen him actually play with his band, but his spoken word shows are amazing. my brother actually convinced me to check this show out, and am glad he did.
I went to this show with A Bomb, Henry took the stage and carried on for 3 hours, just him and a microphone. he talked about everything from politics to music and telling stories about his travels. You would think after 3 hours it could get boring, but not with Henry. He tells a agreat story and has lived quite the life too. He was engaging, tense and funny all within the same story. This was a great show and have seen him again since. If you should get the chance to ever see him or hear one of his spoken word performances, I recommend you doing it.
All and all a great show.
In the summer of 2003, I was lucky enough to visit Montreal (as my brother was living there at the time) and what a fuckin' time I had. I was there for a total of 8 or 9 days I believe, and mananged to get out to 6 concerts. There is always something going on in Montreal, what a fucking awesome city. I loved it!!!!
The first show I saw while in Montreal was Wilco with neko Case opening on June 29th at The Metropolis, this show ws booked as part of The Montreal Jazz Fest which started on the 26th. It was good timing on my part to be there while the Jazz Fest was happening.
Back to Wilco, this show was played in a auditorium, it was a very cool venue, and Wilco put on an amazing show as usual. I went to this show with my brother.

Next up was Ben Harper on July 2nd also in Montreal at The Metropolis again. This was my first time seeing Ben Harper play, and have to say I really enjoyed the show. I went to this show with Lorreine. My favorite part of this show was when Ben played the song Burn One Down, in which I did , I think I was the first one to spark up, but it didn't take long before the venue was filled with the smell of pot. Excellent show.

Then on July 5th, Lorreine my brother and I made the 2 hour trip to Ottawa for the Blues Fest in Ottawa. My brother had scored us free tickets for the day. The main reason we went was to see Elvis Costello and The Attractions. They played the main stage to a crowd of about 25,000 and put on a great show. This was my first time seeing Elvis and he didn't let us down. We also managed to catch a bit of Daniel Lanois show, Corb Lund Band's set and Sonny Landreth play. The little bit we were in Ottawa, I really like dit. Nice clean city, got to go to the Parliament grounds, that was cool. What i also liked about this festival, was being able to go from stage to stage with a beer in your hand. Unlike here in Edmonton where they cage you up in a beer tent like a herd of cattle. So that was cool to be able to actually enjoy your beers while walking around checking things out. Also,a big thank you to Lorreine for driving us to Ottawa for this show.



Another show my brother and I checked out while I was in Montreal was the Foo Fighters,Pete Yorn and My Morning Jacket triple bill on July 6th at the Verdun Auditorium, which is an old hockey rink.This is an old school hockey rink with all wooden benches and real old feel to it. This was a great triple bill, Pete Yorn was alright, little on the mellow side, My Morning Jacket were excellent and the Foo Fighters put on a rocking show as usual.


Also while on my visit to Montreal, the whole week I was there was the Montreal Jazz Fest happening, on the weekend, they had free jazz performanes downtown. They shut down about a 6 block radius in downtown for the fest with beer stands all over the place and massive amounts of people. I believe I read that on the Saturday night there, there were like 100,000 people in the streets. Montreal really knows how to put on a festival. I had an awesome time in Montreal and would love to go back. Good time was had by all.

After coming back from Montreal, I came home to find out I had won tickets for the Elvis Costello show here at the Jubilee Auditorium on July 23rd. So I got to see Costello twice within 2 weeks. This show here in Edmonton was way different then the show I had seen in Ottawa. The show in Ottawa was an outdoor show with his full band (The Attractions)and in front of 30,000 people, while the show here was just Elvis and a keyboard player and to a crowd of a couple of thousand. So two totally different shows, but both really cool shows. I don't recall who I went to this show with. Does anyone remember?

On October 6th of 2003 Ween one of my all time favorite bands, finally made their first visit to Edmonton, playing at the dreaded Red's (god I hate that place) in West Edmonton Mall. I went to this show with Earl,Joe,Claudia and Darryl there may have been more but I don't remember. What a fuckin' great show Ween put on, they played for close to three hours and not a boring moment to be had through out the whole show.

Well after seeing Ween in Edmonton, I had to do the back to back Ween shows again for my second time, having done the back to back in Vancouver. But this time I went to Calgary for the show on the 7th at MacEwan Hall on the University Campus there. This too was another great show with a whole different set. I enjoyed this show more, probally because it's a way better venue. Not as many people at the Calgary show though. I went to this show by myself, having booked the day off from work and taking the bus to Calgary. All and all 2 excellent Ween shows back to back with two totally different shows.


Finally on New Years Eve was Big Sugar playing their very last show together as a band. This was going to be a good time no doubt. The opening bands for this show were The Trews and local band Exit 303. I went to this show with A Bomb and my Cousin Jay. The Trews I thought I was going to like, but actually ended up thinking they sucked ass. But Big Sugar more then made up for it. Gordie and the boys played for almost three hours and rocked the place into 2004. This being Big Sugars final show, it was being recorded for video with camera and booms all over the stage. To this day it still has never been released, which is a shame cause this was an awesome show, and I know A-Bomb would like to see it, as he ditched early being all fucked up,lol. This was a great way to rock into the new year. A good time was had by all.

Other shows I saw in 2003 were Steve Earle with Garrison Starr at Red's, Rocket From The Crypt with The Spits and The Bronx at New City Likwid Lounge (RFTC kicked ass), Moody Blues at The Skyreach Centre, AFI with The Explosion and Static Age in Montreal at The Medley(The Explosion were awesome and at a cool venue), The Corb Lund Band in Montreal at Cafe Campus (maybe 30 people at the show, small cafe, really good show and time), Bouncing Souls with Hot Water Music and a few other bands at Red's, Yesterday Was Everything Festival at The Power Plant(this is a festival that was put on by Jesse Zaraska, he was the lead singer in the local hardcore band Compromise, this was a benefit show for 2 musicians (Jordan Wodehouse and Daniel Langois) that were killed by a drunk driver while Compromise were touring in the southern states, and finally the Red Hot Chili Peppers with Mike Watt and The Secondmen at The Skyreach Centre.