October 24th

 

 My ticket stub from the Supersuckers show I saw on October 24th, 2014 at the Pawn Shop in Edmonton. Opening the show was local rockers Dolly Rotten.

Geoff Tate's Operation: mindcrime Live in Edmonton October 7th 2026

 

 Damn, it's been almost three weeks since my buddy Nazz I went to see Geoff Tate play The Venue at the River Cree Casino. Where the hell is time going?

 It's been 35 years since I last saw Geoff Tate in concert and that was when he was fronting his old band Queensryche. Since then that band had a nasty break up where lead singer Geoff walked away with the rights to the Operation: Mindcrime album and the rest of the band went away with the Queensryche name. The break up was a lot like what happened between Roger Waters and Pink Floyd where Roger walked away with the rights to The Wall album and remaining members got the Pink Floyd name. 

 I had no idea that former lead singer of Queensryche Geoff Tate still toured or even put out new music for that matter. So ii was a big surprise to me when this show was announced. hell ya, I'm going! The 1988 album Operation: Mindcrime has always been one of my favourite concept albums ever. I remember when this album was released in May of 1988 my buddy Nerraw and I driving around in his yellow VW trying to find this album on cassette, we finally found it at Hudson's Bay in Southgate Mall of all places. With a fistful of hash and wicked stereo system in his car, we were ready to give this album a listen. We were hooked on this album for a long time, and even to this day I still play it on a regular basis. That cassette is one of the best sounding cassette's ever produced in my opinion. have a listen, you might just agree. But anyways, enough of my ramblings. On with the concert review.

 Nazz and I got to the show early as we didn't want to miss anything, little did we know that there would be an opening act. Nothing on the poster or ads we saw mentioning this but yes there was an opening act. The opening act was an Irish husband/wife couple Tomas and Clodagh McCarthy. Tomas on guitar and wife Clodagh on saxophone and vocals. This was certainly not what I was expecting for an opening act for Geoff Tate. They were good but felt really odd listening to Irish songs before a heavy metal show.

Tomas and Clodagh McCarthy.

 After a short intermission it was time for Geoff Tate. I wasn't sure what to expect from Geoff and his band but holy shit, right from the opening song of Operation: Mindcrime "Anarchy-X" there was no doubt that he had a great band backing him up. Then into "Revolution Calling" I was very surprised at how good Geoff Tate's vocals were, at 67 years old Geoff can still carry a song, his vocal range hasn't aged one bit. Geoff and his band played all of Operation: Mindcrime in it's entirety and did an awesome job of it. Playing the part of Sister Mary and playing keyboard during the show was Clodagh from the opening act. She too nailed it, it was note perfect the whole show in my opinion. Apparently Tomas and Clodagh have been the opening act for Geoff for three years now and she has played the sister Mary part the whole time as well. That album is as relevant today as it was when it came out in 1988.

 After doing all of Operation, Goeff and the band did a small set of greatest hits including "Empire", "Jet City Woman", "Take Hold Of The Flame", "Silent Lucidity", both Silent and Jet City got huge applause. They even did a couple songs from Operation: Mindcrime III. I didn't even know he had done a part 3. To close out the evening they did "Queen Of The Reich" from their 1982 EP, and holy fuck did he ever nail that song, the heaviest song of the night and Geoff hit all the high notes, just an awesome job by all.

 this show was way better then I had expected. One thing though that I noticed is that on the poster and ads for the show it said it would be a string ensemble and laser show, which there was not, not at this show anyways. Still no qualms here. This was an excellent show. Good times!!!

Geoff Tate.

T-shirt front.

T-shirt back.

October 20th

 

 

My ticket stub from the October 20th, 2017 Nik Turner of Hawkwind show I saw a The Brixx in Edmonton. This show was amazing.

October 17th

 

 On October 17th, 1991 I saw Queensryche with openers Warrior Soul play Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. A wicked double bill to a very small crowd.

October 16th

 

 It was on October 16th, 2013 that I saw Canadian Irish punkers The Mahones play the Pawn Shop in Edmonton. Opening the show was local band Whiskey Wagon and English singer-songwriter Louise Distras. Great show this was.

Dave Hause & The Mermaid Live in Edmonton September 25th 2026

 

 Dave Hause made another trip through town in September, this is the fourth year in a row that he has come to Edmonton, which is cool by me as I am a big fan and missed him last year as I wasn't in town for the show. So when this was announced my buddies Buzzard, A-Bomb and I purchased tickets for the show at The Buck. It was about a month after buying our tickets that they announced the openers and much to my surprise, one of the acts was Greg Attonito lead singer of The Bouncing Souls. That was a huge bonus, as I saw him last year at the same venue for the same price as I paid for this show, so it was like a two for one show. Attonito and Dave Hause, sweet! 

 The first act of the night, hard to call it night as the show started at 6pm on a Friday night, a little early, as most people are just getting home from work and want to have a bite to eat before going out for a night. Nonetheless, myself and friends made it to the venue for opening act Old Wives a local punk band. This would be my third time seeing them live, also saw lead singer Ryan Dix open for Dave Hause once before.

 The Old Wives were really good warming up the crowd that already assembled. The band was tight with Ryan on vocals sounding good and the drummer, holy fuck he was a monster on the drums. They even threw in a Joel Plaskett cover for good measure. A very impressive opening set.

Old Wives.

 Next up was Greg Attonito the founding member and lead singer of New Jersey punk band The Bouncing Souls playing a solo acoustic show. This was the third time I have seen Greg in the past year and a half, twice solo and earlier this year with his band The Bouncing Souls. Greg played a 45 minute set to an appreciative packed club. Mixing his set with some Bouncing Souls songs "Hopeless Romantic", "Quick Chek Girl", "Kate Is Great" and some other songs I didn't recognize. He played some kiddie songs that him and his wife Shanti Wintergate do has a music project called Play Date. The song that got the biggest applause and sing along was the Souls song "Lean On Sheena". Closing out his set with the traditional song "Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)". It was an alright set but to me not as good as the first time I saw him play a solo set.

Greg Attonito.

 Headlining was Dave Hause & The Mermaid which is his full band. This was my fifth time seeing Dave in concert but only the second time I have seen him perform with the full band The Mermaid. Every other time it's been solo shows or with his brother Tim who also plays in The Mermaid.

 By the time they came on stage The Buck was packed. I'm thinking probably close to 125 people which makes for a full house and really hard to see the stage if you aren't within the first 10-15 feet of the stage. The Buck isn't the greatest venue to see live music, the sound is good but the sight lines are terrible, if they could only raise the stage up by six inches it would make a huge difference but because of the low roof, that won't happen. So a lot of the time if you aren't up front all you see are their heads if you're lucky to even see that.

 Because this show was almost three weeks ago now, I don't recall all the songs they played. What I do recall though is it was nice to finally see Dave play with a full band and rocking out. Songs I remember were "Autism Vaccine Blues"from his 2013 album Devour. Another old one he did from the 2011 release Resolutions was "Time Will Tell". There were a few from his latest album Dave Hause ...And The Mermaid. I was happy to hear a couple from his album Bury Me In Philly, them being "With You" and "Dirty Fucker". He also did a Loved Ones song which I can't recall the title right now. The Loved Ones of course is a band that Dave played guitar and vocals in back in the mid 2000's. He only played for just over an hour and the show was over by 9pm on a Friday night which felt really odd. It was a pretty damn good show. Good times!!!

Dave Hause & The Mermaid.

October 13th

 

 It was on this day October 13th, 2015 that I saw Ringo Starr and His All Star Band play the Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary. Todd Rundgren who played guitar in this version of his All-Star Band stole the show in my opinion.

Foo Fighters Live in Vancouver Sept.20th 2026

 

 After my buddy Buzzard and I planned our trip to Vancouver to see Sturgill Simpson we looked to see what else was happening that weekend, and as luck would have it. The Foo Fighters were playing the following night. So hell ya we decided why not checkout that show as well. So it was three shows in three night. Small (Night Court at the Green Auto), Medium (Sturgill at Pacific Coliseum) and Large (Foo Fighters at BC Place Stadium).

 This would be my fourth time seeing the Foo Fighters in concert and I'm just realizing now that every time I have seen them in concert it has been in a different city Calgary Edge Fest in 1998, Montreal in 2003, Edmonton in 2005 and now Vancouver 2026.

 I was surprised the Foo were playing stadiums on this tour as I guess I didn't realize how popular the band really is. BC Place was fucking packed, my guess is around 50,000 people, but then they weren't playing Seattle so maybe that had something to do with it, but then from what I have heard, they drew the same size of crowd in Edmonton, so yes they are that big.

 I haven't really been a big fan myself of the band since there first three albums, buying there albums here and there in the past twenty years. But I did buy their latest album Your Favorite Toy, which I thought was alright,  but nothing special. What did excite me about this line up was that Queens Of The Stone Age were one of the opening acts.

We got to the venue early hoping to beat the line up to get in and it worked, we had no problems getting in, no line up at the gate we went to. I didn't want to be stuck in some stupid line up and miss QOTSA. We got in early enough to catch the first act of the evening.

 As you can see from the above photo, it was a beautiful Sunday in Vancouver therefore the roof of BC Place Stadium was open.

 The first act of the evening was a band called Gouge Away from Florida, apparently been around since 2012. I had never heard of them before but here they were playing a stadium opening for the Foo Fighters. Their music is best described as hardcore music, not what I'm into. They were extremely loud with a lady lead singer (Christine Michelle) that could scream with the best of them. Their half hour set was long enough for me. Good on them though for getting the chance to play a stadium.

Gouge Away.

 Next up and the main reason I wanted to go to the show was Queens of the Stone Age. This was my second time seeing them live, the first time being in 2005, so it had been a long time. Again, I haven't bought any of their albums in years but have always been a fan. By the time they hit the stage the stadium was really filling up, I think a lot of people were very excited about seeing them.

 They opened their set with "You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire" from the Songs For The Deaf album. That's one of their albums I do own and really like. They actually played four songs from that one, the last three songs of the set were from said album "Go With The Flow", "No One Knows" and "A Song For The Dead". A couple from the 2007 album Era Vulgaris "Make It With Chu" and "Sick, Sick, Sick". There were quite a few songs I wasn't familiar with, yet still thought they kicked ass. What really surprised me was that there were no songs from the Rated R album, especially the hit song "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer", so that was disappointing. Lead singer Josh Homme sounded great on vocals and guitar and the rest of the band were great too.

Queens of the Stone Age.

 Josh smoking during their set, sure wish I could have had a smoke.

 After a short break it was now time for the Foo Fighters who are famous for playing three hour shows, which is exactly what they did. I guess when you have been around for 31 years and released 12 albums, so you have a lot of music to play. I'll admit there were a whole bunch of songs I just didn't know. But some of the older ones I really got into. Songs like the openers "All My Life" and "Times Like These" from their 2002 album One By One. It was awesome to hear some from their debut album "Big Me", "This Is A Call" and "Exhausted". The three songs "My Hero", "Monkey Wrench" and closer "Everlong" they did from the 1997 album The Colour And The Shape seemed to get the biggest sing-alongs, especially "My Hero".

 There was a medley of covers, them being songs from bands that members of Foo Fighters have played in before joining Foo. One of them songs being The Wallflowers song "One Headlight" apparently keyboardist Rami Jaffee played in that band. Also in the medley was the Germs song "Manimal" in which guitarist Pat Smear was a member of. The other songs I wasn't familiar with.

 At one point in the show lead singer Dave Grohl and newest member of the Foo Fighters drummer Iian Rubin switched instruments for a song, I don't recall now what song it was, but Iian was great on guitar and it was cool to see Dave hammering the shit out of the drums.

 There were a whole lot of songs I didn't know during the three hour show. I feel like three hours is just too long for a Foo Fighters show, shorten it to a couple hours and you have a kick as rock n' roll show. That and three hours of being yelled at by Dave Grohl, man that guy is a ball of energy, just full on through out the whole show, and being called a motherfucker for three hours, a term of endearment coming for Dave. All and all it was a fun night out. Good times!!!

Foo Fighters.