Mike McDonald Live in Edmonton January 10th 2026

 

 On Saturday afternoon I got out to see Mike McDonald, the lead singer of Edmonton's Junior Gone Wild play a free solo/acoustic show at the Cask & Barrel. I didn't know about this show until Saturday morning while out for a walk down Whyte Avenue when I saw a poster for the show. So ya, promoters and venues, putting up posters for your show does work! 

 With the weather being bearable on Saturday I decided to make my way downtown to catch the show. I didn't get there until almost 4, so I'm thinking I'll have to stand for this show as every time I have seen Mike play this venue the place has been packed. Much to my surprise there was almost no one there, maybe a dozen people, very weird for a free show on a nice day and free to boot. The Cask & Barrel do a free afternoon show every Saturday.

 This would be my 12th time seeing Mike play a solo show. He did two sets with the first set comprising mostly of cover songs, many which I didn't recognize. After a short break Mike came back for his second set, this set he did a lot of his solo material, songs such as "Longest Song In The Universe", "Slept All Afternoon" and "Fifty Dollar Whore". He also played some Jr. Gone Wild songs including "Fool's Errand", "The Last One" and "Five Million Songs", those are the ones I remember anyways. Mike also told a funny story about his band Jr. Gone Wild opening for Meat Loaf back in the day. In the second set he also did a cool cover of the Warren Zevon song "Lawyers, Guns and Money". Even with a small audience, Mike still put on a great show. Always good to see Mike perform. Good times!!!

Mike McDonald.

July 13th

 On July 13th, 2018 I saw The Cult with opening act Mike McDonald of local band Jr. Gone Wild play a free show at Union Hall in Edmonton. This free show was sponsored by the Aurora Cannabis company.

January 18th

  It was January 18th, 2014 that I was at the Blue Chair Cafe here in Edmonton to see Mike McDonald of Jr. Gone Wild play a solo acoustic show. It was at this show that Mike recorded the Live At The Blue Chair Cafe album. While I have no ticket stub or poster for this performance. I do have a couple of pictures and the album that was recorded at said concert.

Mike McDonald & Dove Live in Edmonton November 19th 2022

This was a fun free show to see on a Saturday afternoon at the Cask & Barrel in downtown Edmonton. Mike McDonald and Dove from Jr. Gone Wild. This was the first show of Mike's and Dove after Jr. Gone Wild went on hiatus at the end of July. Mike of course is the guitar player and lead vocalist of JGW and Dove is the bass player of JGW. This show was the two of them telling road stories and playing tunes from Mike's solo music and some JGW songs. This was the 11th time I have seen Mike perform solo. Half way through the show Quentin Herbert joined Mike and Dove for a couple of songs, Quentin played drums for JGW for the past few years. So it was three quarters of JGW on stage, so that was cool. A very fun afternoon of music and beers. I went to this show with Buzzard and Cuz. Good times!!!

An afternoon of honouring Chi Pig July 10th 2021

On a beautiful Satuday in July my Cuz and I went to the Chi Pig mural unveiling which was followed by a show by the Edmonton band The Devil's Voice playing at The Buck. And next door to the Buck, Mike McDonald of Jr. Gone Wild was playing a solo show at The Blackdog. So to say the least it was a very fun Saturday after going so long with no shows, we got two in the same afternoon at the same time. First off, the day started with the unveiling of the Chi Pig mural which is the east side wall of The Buck in Edmonton. For those that don't know, Chi Pig (Ken Chinn) was the lead singer of the legendary Canadian punk band SNFU, who got their start here in Edmonton. Sadly Chi had passed away in July of 2020 at the age of 57. In honour of Chi, local mural artists Layla Folkmann and Lacey Jane Wilburn started a a GoFundMe page and got a grant for the project. The mural is amazing. Here are a few pictures of it. Chi Pig Mural.

We started the day of music with catching the first set by Mike McDonald at the Blackdog. This would be my 7th time seeing Mike play solo. He was great as always. Mike and Chi Pig came up in the Edmonton music scene at the same time and were good friends, so it was cool that we were able to jump back and forth between The Buck and the Blackdog all aftrnoon. Mike McDonald at The Blackdog.

And at The Buck the afternoon started with a short movie of clips of Chi Pig and SNFU, some never before seen footage. That was pretty cool to see and had some in the audience with tears in their eyes. First band up was Edmonton band The Cutoffs. I don't recall much about them. After all this was almost two years ago now, at time of this writing. The Cutoffs at The Buck.

Next up was Edmonton band The Devil's Voice which is a SNFU tribute band consisting of members from such bands as Compromise, Misery Signals and Choke. The band name of course comes from a SNFU song. This would be the second time I had seen the band. They did a great job of covering SNFU songs and had the crowd singing along and even had a mosh pit happeing and stage diving. A very fun afternoon was had by all. All in honour of Chi Pig. The Devil's Voice at The Buck.

Good times!!!

Mike McDonald Live in Edmonton June 18th 2021

So it's been a few years since I have done anything on my blog. As we all know, it's been a shit show for the past two years. Not that a lot happened, but I do have a few shows to write about that I did manage to see. In June I did manage to get out and see Mike McDonald the lead singer of local cowpunkers Jr. Gone Wild play an outdoor show on a front lawn of a local neighbourhood. Mike played for over an hour. There was a good turnout for his show with lots of locals setting up lawn chairs and checking out the show. Mike sounded great and played lots of his solo material and even throwing in sone Jr. Gone Wild songs. This was my 6th time seeing Mike play a solo show. I went to this show with my buddy A-Bomb. Good times!!! Mike McDonald

The Cult Live in Edmonton July 13th 2018

Last Friday my buddy RCD and I went to the The Cult show here at Union Hall, a rare club show for a band like The Cult. This was a free show if you were lucky enough to get in on the tickets, in which I was. The show was put on by Aurora which is a medical marijuana producer and distributor, soon be a legal product for recreational use here in Canada come October 17th. Aurora has been doing a concert series called the Aurora Illumination Series where bands play club shows which are free for the fans all across the country. The show here in Edmonton, which is the second show that Aurora has put on here was The Cult. I honestly didn't even realize this British rock band was even still together never mind touring. While I have never really been a fan of this band, this would be my fifth time seeing them in concert. Having seen them with GnR, opening for the likes of Metallica twice, Lenny Kravitz, yet never really cared for them. Oh ya, also saw lead singer Ian Astbury front The Doors 20th Century thing they did. I do have more respect for them now then I did back in the day, and thought seeing them play a club show would be pretty damn cool.

A day after I scored the tickets much to my surprise they announced Mike McDonald as the opener. Mike is a local musician who also fronts the band Jr. Gone Wild, but this would be a solo show. Seemed like a really weird gig for Mike. I wasn't so sure how he would go over with a Cult crowd, I was actually quite nervous for him. But he did awesome, the crowd were into him, and there seemed to be quite a few people in the crowd that knew his music, after all he has been playing since the 80's so it's not like he is unknown. I myself am a huge fan of both his solo and JGW music. This would be my fifth time seeing Mike McDonald play a solo show.

Mike's 45 minute set was excellent with great song choices for this kind of crowd, mixing in solo and JGW tunes. The venue was quite full for him too, which makes sense as those that had free tickets had to be there by 8:30. I think Mike was even surprised by the great response he got from the crowd.

Some of the songs Mike did were, "The Longest Song In The Universe" from his first solo album Is This Thing On?, as well as a couple from his Live At The Blue Chair Café album. Which included "Fifty Dollar Whore" and "Slept All Afternoon". Mike also played a few new Jr. Gone Wild tunes that have yet to be released, "Five Million Songs In One", "Barricades (The Hockey Riot Song)" which is song actually written by Steve Loree the other guitar player in JGW, "Fools Errand" also was played. Just so many great songs. It was awesome to see Mike play to a near full venue and pull it off. Great job Mike.

Mike McDonald at Union Hall.

Next up was the main act that everyone was waiting for The Cult. The Cult have gone through many a member in the band, this version of the band included as always Ian Astbury on vocals and Billy Duffy on lead guitar, rounding out the band was Damon Fox on keyboards, Grant Fitzpatrick on bass and drummer John Tempesta who has also played in Testament and Rob Zombie's band.

By the time The Cult came on the place was super packed. The band opened with "Wild Flower" which sounded incredible, a great opening song, then into "Rain". Then there were a few songs that I'm not all that familiar with, like I say have never really followed the band that close despite seeing them quite a few times. I still don't think Ian has the strongest voice but hey that's just my opinion. I did think that they closed the show out great playing "Sweet Soul Sister", "Fire Woman", "Love Removal Machine" and for the encore "She Sells Sanctuary". I had to laugh as Ian still loves to bang around the tambourine a lot, I remember that from all the other times I have seen him. At least this time he seemed sober and didn't have the attitude that I have seen him have before. Like the time I saw him get booed off the stage after four songs when they opened for Metallica back in 1993. All and all this was a fun show to be at. Good times!!!

The Cult at Union Hall.

Free t-shirt I got for signing up for the Aurora newsletter. Just wish the t-shirt mentioned The Cult on it.

Back.

Jr. Gone Wild Live January 28th 2017

On Saturday afternoon my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Cask and Barrel in downtown Edmonton for the Garage Band Saturdays event which was originally billed as a Mike McDonald solo show but ended up being a Jr. Gone Wild show. This was my ninth time seeing them live and the smallest most intimate venue I have seen them play. The place can't hold much more then 70-80 people.

This was the first show JGW has played this year, and with little or no rehearsal, the band sounded great. Ya, there were a few rough spots but overall I thought they were awesome. Mike only played acoustic through out the whole show which I have never seen him do at JGW gig before so that was cool. His voice sounded great and guitarist Steve Loree just keeps sounding better to me, maybe because Mike was on acoustic, but Steve really seems to be getting better and better, and of course Dove on bass and Larry Shelast on drums held their own too.

The band did two sets on this afternoon, lots of great tunes and a few good stories told as well. I didn't realize that it is the 30th anniversary of JGW first album Less Art, More Pop! which is a brilliant album.

I really enjoyed the selection of songs played during the two sets. A couple of newer ones "Barricades (The Hockey Riot Song)", "Old & Ugly" and "Fools Errand". From the Pull The Goalie album there was "What's Going On", "Try Again" and "What A Great Day". From Simple Little Wish there was "Downtime" and "I'm So Glad".

Mike told a good story about the 1990 album Too Dumb To Quit. He mentioned that guitarist/lead singer Bill Henderson from the band Chilliwack produced that album, and how Bill would make them do the songs over and over and over. Well they had enough of that, when it came to the song "Bachelor Suite" in which they did on this afternoon. Mike and the band would only do the song once, no more takes, so the song you hear on the Too Dumb To Quit album is the only take of that song. The version they did at the Cask and Barrel sounded damn good too.

Other songs they performed Saturday afternoon from the Too Dumb To Quit album were "I Don't Know About All That", "In Contempt Of Me", and "Poet's Highway". JGW also did a couple of cover songs I had never heard them do before. Loudon Wainwright III "Dead Skunk" that was a really fun song and a Hank Williams song "Long Gone Lonesome Blues".

This was a great afternoon of music. Good times!!!

T-shirt.