September 30th

  Rush at Rexall Place in Edmonton on September 30th, 2012. As always with Rush, an amazing show.

September 28th

  The gig poster for the September 28th, 2012 Alberta Culture Days Kick-Off Block Party a free outdoor show in downtown Edmonton featuring two great local bands the dance punk elctro band Shout Out Out Out Out and the ska influenced band Mad Bomber Society.

Burton Cummings Live in Edmonton September 1st 2025

  Here's a show I didn't expect to be going to, but after entering a contest with The Bear radio station, much to my surprise, I won a pair of tickets to see Burton Cummings and Tom Cochrane play the Fan Park at the Ice District here in Edmonton. The show was originally booked for Saturday June 21st, but was postponed, never did hear why. The new date was set for Monday September 1st, which sucked as it was the Monday of the long weekend. Sunday would have been better as the following day would have been the holiday. But nope, it was Monday, ughh! Regardless, my buddy Nazz and I were going.

 Now for these two Canadian acts that play Edmonton on a regular basis, over all the years I have been going to shows, I had never seen either musician in concert before. Not that I have really cared if I saw Tom Cochrane, I have always wanted to see Burton Cummings live, having seen Randy Bachman, Burton's partner in The Guess Who more than a few times, i was excited to finally see Cummings in concert.

 The first thing we noticed entering the venue was that it was decent sized crowd and that it was certainly an older crowd for this show.

 Opening the show was Tom Cochrane. Because I have never seen him before, I wanted to check out his set. Well, it didn't take long for me to realize, there was a reason I have never gone out of my way to see him before. I'm just not a fan! Of course Tom and his band played all the songs that we have all heard way too many times. Songs such as "Big League", "Boy Inside The Man" and "Life Is A Highway", my buddy Nazz looked at me with eyes rolling, it was time to step out for a smoke. I truly don't care if I ever hear that song again. The one song he did play that I enjoyed live was "Lunatic Fringe" an old Red Rider song of his. Tom mentioned during his way too long set, was that he was flying out of town immediately after the show as he had a gig the following night in Toronto opening for The Who. The crowd was loving Tom's set, me, not so much!

Tom Cochrane.

  After a quick break it was time for Burton Cummings and his five piece band. I was looking forward to seeing Burton in concert, having never seen him before and liking some of them old classic Guess Who songs that him and Randy Bachman belted out in 60' and 70's after forming The Guess Who in Winnipeg in 1965.

 Burton opened his set with the song "Bus Rider", and at 77 years old, Burton still looks good and still has his voice. Second song in was the Guess Who hit "Clap For The Wolfman", that had the good size crowd clapping and singing along. Then came the songs "Hand Me Down World" and  "Laughing". Within the first ten songs you start to remember that The Guess Who had a shit load of huge hits that got a lot of play on AM radio back in the day, songs such as "These Eyes", "Guns Guns Guns" and "Albert Flasher". Burton took time between songs to tell some stories and introduce his band. Burton has a child like speaking voice, or so it seemed to me anyways. There were a couple songs I wasn't familiar with, new solo songs. I had mentioned to my buddy Nazz that one I heard "American Woman" and "No Sugar Tonight", I'd be good to leave. And yes, that's what we did. We heard them songs, both songs that I love and have a great concert line up story involving that whole 1970 American Woman album. I'd be happy to tell you the story if you should run into me sometime at a show and care to ask. With it being a work night and getting late, we bailed after hearing them two songs. What we saw of the show, I thought it was great. just wish it had been a weekend show. Good times!!!

Burton Cummings.

 

September 24th

  I have no ticket stub for this show was as the venue ticket takers took the full ticket with no stub returned much to my dismay. What I do have though are great memories and concert ads from this awesome Flaming Lips concert I saw at the Edmonton Event Centre. The Flaming Lips had a production for this show that was on the scale of a coliseum show, but played in a nightclub. Such an amazing concert!

                                                    Notice the wrong date on this ad.

                                                                       Full page ad.

September 23rd

   My ticket stub, ya it's a shitty printed out paper one for the Pearl Jam concert I saw at Rexall Place in Edmonton on September 23rd, 2011. Mudhoney was the opening act on this bill. Sadly I missed Mudhoney as I was outside the venue trying to buy a cheap ticket for this show as I had missed out on buying tickets for the show. I did manage to get a ticket from a scalper at face value, not great seats, but I at least got to see Pearl Jam kick ass yet again.

September 21st

 

 On September 21st, 2009 I saw The Hold Steady in concert at the Starlite Room in Edmonton. A great show this one was. Would love to see them live again.

September 19th

 The gig poster for the time I saw the Canadian band Bionic play New City Likwid Lounge in Edmonton. on September 19th, 2003. Bionic were a band formed in Montreal featuring Ian Blurton of C'mon, Change Of Heart and Blurtonia, also in the band was Jonathan Cummins of Doughboys fame. Opening the show was Les Tabernacles and Twin Fangs. A great rock n' roll band Bionic was.

Wilco Live in Edmonton August 30th 2025

  My buddies A-Bomb, Buzzard and I went to see An Evening with Wilco at the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton a few weeks ago, which was their last show of the year. This would be my 7th time seeing Wilco in concert and first time in fifteen years. Hard to believe it had been that long since they last played here.

 What an awesome show this was too. First thing my buddy A-Bomb and I noticed was that Wilco still has the same six band members as the last time we saw them. It's no wonder they sound so good, a tight band that can play any kind of music, and Wilco does play a wide range of styles of music, from rock n' roll, folk, to noisey jazz like music. Lead singer Jeff Tweedy hasn't changed a bit since last seeing them and Nels Cline is unbelievable on guitar.

 Wilco played two sets which equaled about a two and a half hour long show. And the setlist covered a wide range of songs from a wide range of albums. A great selection from two of my favourite Wilco albums A Ghost Is Born, "Handshake Drugs", "Spiders (Kidsmoke)", "The Late Greats" and Sky Blue Sky, "Impossible Germany", "Walken", "Hate It Here" and those are just the ones I still remember from weeks ago. Other songs played that I recall were "Box Full Of Letters" and "It's Just That Simple" from their first album A.M., a couple from Being There "Sunken Treasure" and "Forget the Flowers". What really surprised me at this show was two songs from the Mermaid Avenue album that Wilco and Billy Bragg did back in 1998. One of the songs played was "California Stars" and I don't remember the other, but I know they played two from the album, for those that don't know that album was made up of songs that all lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie that Wilco and Billy Bragg put music to.

 I would love to have heard more songs from their awesome album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, they did do a few from that album "Heavy Metal Drummer", "I'm The Man Who Loves You" and one other. There were a portion of songs that I wasn't all that familiar with from some of their newer albums. The songs sounded great live but I don't know them well enough to recall the titles of the songs. All and all this was a great show. I just hope it isn't another 15 year wait for them to come back through town. Good times!

Wilco.