July 27th

  

 On July 27th, 2013 I was at the second day of the 2013 version of the Interstellar Rodeo held at Hawrelak Parks Heritage Amphitheatre in Edmonton. Sadly this festival is no longer held, having folded in 2019. This was always such a good time and great line ups,like this one.

 Highlights for me at on this day was seeing Mike Plume Band open the days festivities. And my favourite performance of the day was seeing Danny Michel for the first time in concert. Danny had the Garifuna Collective backing him up which was incredible. The whole day was an absolute blast.

Interstellar Rodeo in Edmonton July 28th 2019

A couple of Sunday's ago Janis, Erin and I attended the last day of the annual Interstellar Rodeo Festival here in Edmonton at the Hawrelak Park Amphitheatre. This was the second year in a row where I only attended the last day of the festival. I'm just finding that the line ups haven't been as good as previous years and the ticket prices keep going up. I love this festival as it's very laid back, interesting and eclectic bands and a great crowd. So I pick what I think will be the best day, and this year's Sunday looked like a good line up and the weather was decent.

The first band of the day was a band I had never heard of before called Southern Avenue from Memphis, Tennessee. They are a five piece blues/soul band led by Tierinii Jackson on vocals. The lady had lots of energy and a great voice for this kind of music. I enjoyed their set and it was a great way to start the day.

Southern Avenue.

Next up was Saul Williams a musician/actor from New York. His performance was a mix of rap, hip hop, spoken word, poetry, with all of this seeming to have something to do with politics. I was not a fan of this whatsoever. I watched and listened to as much as could stand, it was time to go out for a smoke and beer.

Saul Williams.

Lucius was up next, they are an indie pop band formed in New York led by two ladies on vocals by the names of Jesse Wolf and Holly Laessig. These two women have backed up everyone from Jackson Browne, John Prine, Sheryl Crow, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and most recently Roger Waters, having toured with Waters over the past three years on the Us + Them Tour. With Jesse and Holly wearing matching orange outfits and sharing a microphone the harmonizing from these two were incredible. I wish I knew their material better even so, it was a great hour long set.

Lucius.

The next band up was one of the bands that really interested me in the Sunday line up. A band based out of Austin, Texas and has been around for fifty years. I'm talking about Asleep at the Wheel. What a treat it was to see this group perform live. Led by Ray Benson on guitar and vocals, with Katie Shore on fiddle, Cindy Cashdollar on steel guitar, David Sanger on drums plus a few more musicians that I am not sure of their names. Asleep at the Wheel's music is a western country swing style of music mixed with Americana. They were amazing and so much fun. At times it reminded me of Dr. Hook. Some of the songs I recognized were "Hot Rod Lincoln", "Milk Cow Blues", "Route 66" and ending their hour long set with "Happy Trails". This was such a fun set, Ray and his band looked to be having a blast up there as were all those watching and listening. I heard a lot of people talking about how much they enjoyed Asleep at the Wheel. Certainly the highlight for me out of all the bands I saw.

Asleep at the Wheel.

Next was Whitehorse a band based out of Hamilton, the two main members are the husband and wife couple Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland. This would be my fourth time seeing the band live. When I first saw them in concert was at Interstellar in 2012, back then it was just the two of them, now they have a full band, which sounds great. Whitehorse is always a fun band to see in concert and this time was no different. How to describe their music, hmmm, a mix of blues, swamp rock with some pop mixed in. Enjoyed their set again.

Whitehorse.

Closing out this years Interstellar Rodeo was Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats. While I only have one of his albums and that being his debut album with the Night Sweats, an album I thought was just ok, until I saw him on the Austin City Limits TV program, and wow, was he ever good on that. So I was looking forward to seeing and hearing him in a live environment. And Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats did not let me down. There style of music which is a mix of soul and blues with some Americana mixed in was amazing, you could probably add some funk to the list of style of music. Nathaniel sounded great and him and his band played with a lot of energy in which the crowd fed off, as did the band. I didn't know all the music, but they played a good selection of tunes from the album I do have. The biggest song of his set of course was his hit "S.O.B.". A very entertaining show. All and all another fun night out at Interstellar Rodeo. Good times!!!

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats.

Interstellar Rodeo Edmonton July 22nd 2018

On Sunday I made my way down to Hawrelak Park for the last day of the Interstellar Rodeo Festival. This was the first time in five years that I haven't gone all three days. A variety of reasons for that, wasn't all that keen on the line up this year, though that usually doesn't hold me up, but the cost and personal reasons. But of all days that I really did want to go was Sunday because of Alejandro Escovedo and Courtney Barnett were playing. But as of Saturday I wasn't going. But lucky for me, my sweetheart Janis and her friend Erin went on the Saturday. While they were there having a bite to eat at one of the picnic tables, the couple next to them asked if they were coming on Sunday for the show. They said that they weren't, that was when the couple asked if they were interested in buying their tickets for 20 dollars a piece as they were not able to make it. Thanks to Janis she picked up a ticket for me for Sunday. So, I was now going, and the price was right too!

Because I didn't pay full price and the weather was touch n' go, I didn't head to the festival grounds until mid afternoon, that and there was really no bands that interested me til later in the day. Well the weather ended up cooperating, no rain after the lunch hour, so that was perfect. I got to down to the Hawrelak Park Amphitheatre in time to catch the band out of Regina, Saskatchewan called The Dead South who are now signed with Six Shooter Records, the label that puts on this festival. There music is described as a mix of folk and bluegrass, they were good at what they do, but not my jam.

The Dead South.

Next up was the Interstellar all Stars, this has been a tradition of the Interstellar Festival in which they put together a group of musicians for a jam. This year the group consisted of Jason Plumb from Regina whom fronted the Waltons, Tim Baker from St. Johns, Newfoundland the lead singer and songwriter of the band Hey Rosetta!i> and Rose Cousins from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Their set was good with the highlight being when they did the Tragically Hip song "Ahead By A Century" that had the crowd singing along. It actually gave me chills hearing it. Pretty damn cool.

The Interstellar All Stars.

Now it was time for Alejandro Escovedo, one of the artists that I really wanted to see. This would be my second time seeing Alejandro in concert. Escovedo who is from Texas is a veteran of the music scene having recorded and toured since the late 70's. The man has played punk, roots rock and alt country and good old rock n' roll. As Ford Pier the MC of the festival mentioned in the introduction of the band, that Escovedo played in the punk band The Nuns who opened for the Sex Pistols in San Francisco their final concert. So ya, Alejandro has been around for a while.

Escovedo's hour long set was rocking through out playing a Rank & File song, Rank & File being an old punk band he was once in. Of course he also played his solo stuff including the songs "Sally Was A Cop", "Chelsea Hotel 78", "Sensitive Boys" and "Five Hearts Breaking", those were the songs I knew at least. Escovedo gave me a Keith Richards kind of vibe. I really enjoyed his set and was a great way to warm up the crowd for the final artist of the weekend.

Alejandro Escovedo.

Closing out the festival was Australian singer/songwriter Courtney Barnett. She was the artist that most excited me about this years line-up. Her latest album Tell Me How You Really Feel is one of my favourites of this year, so I was really looking forward to hearing her play live. And she did not disappoint at all. She rocked that stage right from the get go opening with the song "Hopefulessness" from her new album. This lady writes some amazing lyrics and with so much wit, like these words in the opening song "you know what they say, no one is born to hate, we learn it somewhere along the way, take your broken heart, turn it into art", and that's just the first verse. Another great song she performed was "I'm Not Your Mother, I'm Not Your Bitch".

Another great line of lyrics again from her new album in a song called "Nameless Faceless" "he said "I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup, and spit out better words than you". Courtney certainly has a way with words.

At the start of her set I was standing up by the soundboard having a few beers, as last call was coming and I didn't want to waste any beer tickets, so I had a few lined up, as I was watching and listening to her music all I could think was this would be even better if I was up close. So I wasted no time and downed my last two beers and made my way up to the front of the stage. And yup, it was even better up close. Courtney brought her "A" game and rocked the hell out, she brought the punk to Interstellar. Very impressed!

Kind of sad that I didn't go all three days to this years Interstellar as this is a very fun laid back festival even if you don't know all the bands, it is always a really good time. Great job by Six Shooter Records putting on this festival and to all the awesome volunteers. Good times!!!

Courtney Barnett.

Courtney Barnett setlist I got from the show.