The next show I saw was the Highlandia Fest which was held in the Highlands neighbourhood at Henry Martell Park. This was basically a block party for the hood. Apparently this festival has been happening for years. but this was the first I had heard of it. They had live music playing all day and night until 11pm. My buddy Buzzard and I only wanted to see the last two bands Altameda and Leeroy Stagger. Talk about two great bands to close out the festival. we weren't sure what to expect when we got there. I didn't think they would be serving beer and I was right on that, but after scoping the place out we noticed that people were just sitting around on the grass drinking cans of beer or bottles of wine that they had brought themselves. Lucky for us we got there early enough that we booked it to the closest liquor store and picked some beers up. what a cool relaxed festival, everyone was well behaved just enjoying the tunes and having a few beers. I wish there were more events like this in the city. No cops harassing people, just people with their kids enjoying beautiful night out.
So after fetching ourselves some beers we made ourselves comfy on the grass just before Edmonton band Altameda started. This would be my 11th time seeing Altameda in concert. Probably my favorite Edmonton band these days. Like every other time I have seen them in concert they were great. Maybe a little tamer then usual at this show, but still really good. They closed out their hour long set with a fun cover of Paul McCartney's song "Coming Up". Overall a good set.
Altameda.
Headlining the evening was Leeroy Stagger with the Rebeltone Sound. This would be my 15th time seeing Leeroy in concert. This show was the last date of his Me And The Mountain Tour, which is also the name of his latest album that was just released in mid May. This is the first of two albums he is releasing this year. And a great album it is. The show on this night was Leeroy with his band doing an all acoustic set.
Most of Leeroy's set was made up from songs from the Me And The Mountain album, such songs as the title song, "Caught In The Middle", "Beauty In This World", "Open Up Your Heart" and "Fire & Fury", the new songs sounded great. Leeroy also played a couple of older songs from his Love Versus album "I Want It All" and "Joe Strummer and Joey Ramone" as well as "Poison The Well" from his 2015 album Dream It All Away. Leeroy also pulled out an old Joe Strummer song called "Johnny Appleseed" mentioning that it was probably his favorite song. As I had mentioned earlier Leeroy has another album coming out this fall, he played a song from it called "Leonard Cohen Is Dead". His our long set was excellent and went by far too fast. All and all a fun little festival with two great bands to close it out. Good times!!!
Leeroy Stagger and the Rebeltone Sound.
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