Jr. Gone Wild Live in Edmonton July 30th 2022

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon my buddy A-Bomb, my Cuz and I made our way to downtown Edmonton for the Taste Of Edmonton Festival, which is a festival of different restraunts selling their goods in Churchill Park. It is a ten day festival of food and music. This was the last day of the festival with the music headliner being Edmonton's Jr.Gone Wild with Ayla Brook and The Sound Men opening, another Edmonton band. This is a free festival with lots of great music and food and beverages. Being such a beautiful summer day we walked downtown through the river valley swilling beers on our 45 minute trek. At Churchill Park we met up with my buddy's Buzzard and Nazz. What was really making this Jr. Gone Wild show special was that on their Facebook page leading up to this show there were some cryptic posts saying this was a must see show and would be epic. Hmmm, interesting, what was this all about. Well a day before the show, lead singer Mike McDonald finally posted on social media saying this would be Jr.'s final show as they were going on hiatus again. What the hell! They had released there latest album Still Got The Jacket in the past year, and is an amazing album, and things seemed to be rolling along quite well for the band. They had recently did a tour in eastern Canada and even did some shows out west. Talking to a couple of the members before and after the show, they had said that it was just time for a break. Not knowing if there would be anymore shows or not. What a shame as this band has been knocking it out of the park as of late. So this was going to be special, but also kind of sad.

Opening the show was Ayla Brook & The Sound Men, a roots/rock band from Edmonton. This would be my second time seeing them play live. I enjoyed there 45 minute set, with the band playing lots of songs from their latest release Desolation Sounds, songs like "(I Think) I Hit My Limit", "Cheap Microphone & An Old Guitar" and "Floated So Far" in which Kimberley MacGregor joined them on stage for this song. She too is a great musician. There were also some older songs from Ayla's album (I Don't Want To Hear Your) Break Up Songs. A great set from these guys. Ayla Brook & The Sound Men.

Now it was time for Jr. Gone Wild. I was expecting a bigger crowd then there was, still a decent turnout, just thought there would be more. Jr. Gone Wild's hour and half long set was excellent. The members of JGW being Mike McDonald on guitar and vocals, Steve Loree on guitar and vocals, Dove on bass and rounded out by Quentin herbert on drums. This was my 15th time seeing the band live. I thought the band sounded amazing as they always do. Lots of new songs from the Still Got The Jacket album and of course some awesome oldies too. Some songs from their album Still Got The Jacket (their first new album in 25 years) performed were "Girl In The Crowd", "Old And Ugly" (my favourite song on the new album), "Barricades", "Cool For My Kids (Good Lookin’ For My Wife)", "Dodge" and "Fly At Night" a Chilliwack cover. A great show and hopefully not their last one. Hopefully after some time off the band will reunite and play together again. Here is hoping so. After the show we met up with another friend and ended up going to River City Revival House under the Starlite Room and swilling more beers until closing time. A very fun night out of music beers and friends. Good times!!! Jr. Gone Wild.