After two weeks of vacation which included lots of late nights,lots of traveling and too much drinking, we got back at midnite Saturday, so I was looking forward to a quiet Sunday of chilling and unwinding from vacation. Sunday afternoon I stopped by the local record shop (Permanent Records) to pick up a few records that I had on hold. While at the record store I got talking to Mike McDonald (whom is part owner of Permanent Records) and was congratulating him on getting on the roster of the Interstellar Rodeo Festival. That is when he asked me if I would like four passes to that nights festivities. Of course I said yes. Looked like it was going to be another late night, no rest for the wicked I guess.
The Interstellar Rodeo Festival is in it's first year and looks like it is going to be a huge success. The festival is held in Hawrelak Park in Edmonton in the amphitheatre there. Why this amphitheatre doesn't get used more is beyond me, because it is an excellent venue to see a show with a capacity of about 5000 people, nice medium sized venue. Anyways, the festival is a three day event that had a very eclectic line up with local and international bands playing. Some of the bands that played were Hawksley Workman, Richard Buckner, Randy Newman, Alejandro Escovedo, Gillian Welch, Cadence Weapon, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Blue Rodeo among many others.
By the time my buddy A-Bomb and I got there we caught the last two bands of the festival. The first band we saw was Whitehorse, a band I had never heard of before but will surely be looking into. Whitehorse consists of Luke Doucet and his wife Melissa McClelland, just a two piece band along the lines of White Stripes but way better. They play a rocking style of music with both singing, Melissa has a beautiful voice and when they sang together the harmonies were awesome. What caught us off guard at first was the big bass drum sound, we thought it was pre-recorded at first til we realized that Luke was playing the bass drum with his foot as he wailed away on the guitar too, very cool.
Whitehorse.
After their set Blue Rodeo was up next, being the last band of the festival. But while they were setting up Mike McDonald of Junior Gone Wild fame got to play an in betweener set. The MC of the event gave a very nice introduction of Mike mentioning his Junior Gone Wild days and mentioning that Mike was one of the best song writers in Edmonton. Mike's set was short consisting of only four songs with a few breaks in between as Blue Rodeo was doing soundcheck at the same time. Mike battled through the elements and played a great acoustic set.
Mike McDonald.
Next up was headliners Canadian pop/country band Blue Rodeo whom has been around for over 25 years now. I hadn't seen Blue Rodeo in 11 years and have to say they haven't changed at all. The band is still led by original members Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor and Bazil Donovan whom play off each other very well still after all these years. I myself have always been a bigger fan of the Greg Keelor songs. For some reason Blue Rodeo has always kind of reminded me of a Canadian version of the Grateful Dead with out the endless jamming. Great music for a beautiful Sunday night outdoor show. Some of the songs that Blue Rodeo performed on this evening were 'What Am I Doing Here', 'Diamond Mine', 'Already Gone', 'It Could Happen To You' and many others that I recognized but am not sure of the titles. Their set lasted about an hour and a half and rocked from start to finish.
Blue Rodeo.
This festival Interstellar Rodeo is off to a great start with an awesome venue,great vibes,excellent line up and good times to be had. I see this festival being like a smaller version of the Edmonton Folk Fest. Good times!!!
I would like to thank Mike McDonald for the four free passes to Sundays show. I only ended up not using one pass. I found a guy outside the gates filming Blue Rodeo through the wire fence while I was out having a smoke, I asked him if he would like a pass to get in and see the show. I made his day that's for sure, he thanked me big time. Thanks again Mike.
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