On Sunday July 8th the Commercial Hotel in Edmonton celebrated their 100th Birthday. The hotel holds the club Blues On Whyte which has hosted live music 7 days a week since the mid 80's. To celebrate their birthday they closed off a block of Whyte avenue and had a street party. There were two stages set up, a main stage on the avenue and a smaller stage between the hotel and Greenwoods Bookshoppe that also was a beer tent,minus the tent. Live music started at 10am and went til 10pm with the music alternating between the two stages. Along with the music, they held a pancake breakfast and lots of local vendors from Whyte ave set up on the street selling there wares.
My buddy Hurl and I hit the ave at 11am, a bit hungover, but nothing a few cold ones can't cure, in which we indulged. But that didn't last long, we caught the local ska band King Muskafa (whom used to play every Sunday at the Commie), they are a fun band to see and had the packed beer tent up and dancing early in the day. In almost plus 30 weather already. We could only handle an hour or so of that, beers and sun beating on you when you are hungover will make mince meat of you in a hurry. Nonetheless, we did enjoy their set. After them it was time to bail, and get out of the sun for a bit.
King Muskafa.
I then went back later in the afternoon and caught another local band called Jk And The Static, they were a good blues band, nothing I found especially original, but fun. They too had the crowd up and danicng and carrying on, just like seeing a band in the Commie. Good times!!!
A funny thing I saw during Jk's set, a guy in the crowd whom ended up wearing all kinds of hats from the people in the crowd, a Commie moment for sure.
Back home it was for an hour or so to have a few beers and get out there in time to catch Wild T and The Spirit. This was my 8th time seeing them in concert, and have to say the best I have seen them out of the last three. It was good to see Wild T looking healthy and ripping it up again. He put on a great performance to a decent crowd on the main stage on Whyte Ave. I ran in to my buddy Mook at the show which was nice. We made our way to a side street for a quick smoke which made the show even more enjoyable. All and all a great day with aqesome weather, wicked music, cold beers and good people. The Commercial Hotel should be proud for the awesome street party they threw for the 100th Anniversary of the Commie. Good times!!!!
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