August 19th

 

 The gig poster from the August 19th, 2006 Yesterday was Everything Festival held at the Powerplant in Edmonton. This was a festival held in memory of Jordan Wodehouse and Daniel Langlois, two members of the local hardcore band Compromise who died in a vehicle accident after being hit by a drunk driver while on tour in the United States.

June 1st

  The gig poster for the time I saw Misery Signals play Stars here in Edmonton. One of the opening bands was local act Drive By Punch, I don't recall who else was on the bill.

November 18th

  The gig poster from the Misery Signals show I saw on November 18th, 2004 at the Krobar in Edmonton. Opening the show was Too Pure To Die, Drive By Punch and Five O'clock Charlie.

August 14th

 My ticket stub from the Misery Signals show I saw on August 14th, 2014 at the Starlite Room in Edmonton. Opening the show were the bands This Is War and All Hail The Yeti.

June 1st

  It was on June 1st, 2004 that I saw Misery Signals play a free show in the basement of Megatunes an old record shop that used to be on Whyte Avenue. The show was in celebration of their Of Malice And Magnum Heart album release. This show was insane, the basement of Megatunes was way over capacity with people on the main floor just listening to the band as you couldn't stuff another person in the basement. The show was super good, the band was excellent, the place was super hot with condensation running down the walls, super loud and super fun.

April 5th

 

 My ticket stub from the time I saw Strapping Young Lad with The Agony Scene, Misery Signals and Reflux at the Starlite Room in Edmonton on April 5th 2005.

March 7th

 

 Concert memory of the day. It was on March 7th, 2003 that I saw Misery Signals with local bands Savannah and The Wolfnote opening play Stars On Whyte here in Edmonton.

December 19th

 

 On December 19th, 2003 I saw Misery Signals headline a show at King Edward Hall in Edmonton. Also on the bill were a bunch of local bands like Drive By Punch, The Wolfnote, thehollywood.ending, and others.

November 20th

  

 On November 20th, 2004 I saw SNFU headline a show at the Starlite Room in Edmonton with Misery Signals opening. A great double bill.

August 15th

  

 On August 15th, 2003 I went to the Yesterday Was Everything Festival held at the Power Plant on Edmonton. Headlined by Misery Signals.

July 31st

  

 It was on July 31st, 2004 that I saw Misery Signals headline the Yesterday Was Everything Music Festival in Edmonton at the Starlite Room.

 In concert news...Misery Signals will be playing their very last show as a band on Saturday October 19th in Edmonton at Union Hall.

April 25th

  

 On April 25th, 2003 I saw Misery Signals play the first of two back to back shows in Edmonton. The first show was an all ages show at Orange Hall which is just a small community hall. And holy fuck was it full and warm. Opening the show were a handful of mostly local bands. Full on hardcore show which I really enjoyed at the time.

In concert news... Misery Signals have got back together to do one last tour with an Edmonton stop on Saturday October 19th at Union Hall.

Yesterday Was Everything Movie

Last week I went to the Metro Cinema here in Edmonton to see the Canadian debut of the music documentary Yesterday Was Everything which is a doc on the band Misery Signals tenth anniversary tour for their debut album Of Malice and the Magnum Heart.

This documentary which was wrote and directed by Matthew Dixon actually started as a live concert recording but turned into the documentary that it is now. After being with the band for the nine city tour which went from Vancouver to Toronto, he had enough footage of interviews and live footage to turn into this movie.

Misery Signals got together with all the original members Ryan Morgan, Branden Morgan, Stu Ross, Kyle Johnson and vocalist Jesse Zaraska after he was ousted out of the band years before. Misery Signals is a hardcore band made up from members from the previous band 7 Angels 7 Plagues and Edmonton band Compromise. Jesse of Compromise came in contact with the band after touring with them through the states. It was on this tour that Compromise came to an end after a devastating accident when they were clipped by a drunk driver in Alabama in which their band van was sent in to the ditch and trees ripping apart their band and killing two members Jordan Wodehouse and Daniel Langlois of Compromise. RIP Jordan and Daniel. During the movie there is an interview with Jesse where he gets in to the most detailed account of the accident. It was during this part of the movie in which I don't believe there was a dry eye in the theatre. It was really tough to watch and listen to. Having known Jesse for years now this most I had ever heard about the accident. Heart wrenching it was, with most of the people at the movie probably having known the guys from Compromise.

The movie is very well put together and very interesting hearing the ups and downs of the career of Misery Signals and seeing some old footage and pictures of Edmonton hardcore band Compromise. I really enjoyed the movie and highly recommend checking it out. The movie will be available on iTunes, Google Play and Amazon on June 30th.



Rumour is that Misery Signals are working on a new album and a possible summer tour this year.

Throwback Thursday (Misery Signals)

Posters from the Misery Signals shows I have been too.

Misery Signals in Edmonton Aug.15th 2014

Last Friday I went to the Misery Signals show at the Starlite Room here in Edmonton. This Misery Signals show, my thirteenth time seeing them, was in celebration of the tenth anniversary tour (dubbed Malice X) of their debut album "Of Malice and the Magnum Heart" with all the original members Jesse Zaraska (vocals), Kyle Johnson (bass), Ryan Morgan (guitar), Stu Ross (guitar) and Branden Morgan (drums).

As I got to the venue and waited in the line up to get in. You could feel the energy and excitement for this show. With Jesse and Stu being from the area there were a lot of friends out for the show, and not only that, this American-Canadian hardcore band had a huge following here in Edmonton. On this hot and muggy evening as you got closer to the entrance of the Starlite Room, and anyone who knows the venue, it's a long line up between two building to get in, you could feel the heat and see the steam already coming out of the venue. I was sweating before I even got in. Once in the venue, it was like a sauna, as the place was packed and getting more crowded by the minute. I missed the first band but did catch the second band.

The second band was a band called This Is War from Edmonton. These guys were alright, they were a straight up metal band with two vocalists trading off on vocals throughout there songs.

This Is War.

Next up was band out of Los Angeles called All Hail The Yeti. This band featured drummer Ryan "Junior" Kittlitz whom hails from Edmonton and has played in many bands one of them being Compromise which is the band that was lead by Jesse Zaraska. All Hail The Yeti reminded me of Pantera in their "Great Southern Trendkill" era. So a southern metal feel. They too were alright, but not knowing their songs at all, a lot of it comes across as screaming. I think I may be getting too old for this metalcore stuff. I also found Ryan's drum sound was lost in the mix. You could see he was a flailing away on the drums, but the sound just didn't seem right. All and all, not a bad band.

All Hail The Yeti.

Now it was time for the band everyone was waiting for, the reunion of Misery Signals with all original members. By this time the Starlite Room was filled to capacity and feeling like a fucking sauna. Misery Signals did their debut album "Of Malice and the Magnum Heart" in its entirety. The band sounded tight, especially with this only being their third show of the nine show tour. Jesse Zaraska sounded good on vocals considering it had been sometime since he has done a full show with the band. What did bother me a bit, was that Jesse handed the vocals over to the crowd quite often through out the show. While it was cool that the crowd in front of the stage knew all the words to all the songs, I would have preferred to actually hear Jesse do the singing. Their hour long set was intense but affectionate with Jesse thanking everyone for coming out to the show several times, and the crowd singing Happy Birthday to Jesse at one point with Jesse's birthday being the following day. It's not everyday you go to a hard core show and hear the crowd breakout into the Birthday song. Another really touching part of the show was when Misery Signals did the song "The Day Summer Ended In June" which is the song dedicated to the two members (Jordan Wodehouse and Daniel Langlois) of Jesses's old band Compromise that were lost in a vehicle accident years ago while on tour in Alabama. You could see more then a few people with tears in there eyes during this sing-along, very touching. The band closed out the set with a 7 Angels 7 Plagues song "Silent Deaths, Crowded Lives". For those that might not know 7a7p is how Misery Signals came to be, as Jesse did vocals for the band for a few gigs after the original singer quit. This was after the demise of Compromise of course too. After those 7a7p gigs, the members of that band asked Jesse if he wanted to start a new project which came to be Misery Signals.

Anyways, this was an amazing show, and it was good to run in to some old friends at the show and to talk briefly with Jesse after the show, and thanks for the hug Jesse, your a stand up guy, it's awesome knowing you and being able to call you a friend. Good times!!!

The pictures I took at this show sucked, as the lighting at the venue isn't the best and with the venue being packed it was hard to get a decent photo, and I had a good buzz on.

Misery Signals.

Jesse Zaraska has just put out a book which is well worth looking in to.
My autographed copy of the book.

Some fan footage from the Edmonton show.

Another Reunion Misery Signals

Another day another band reunion. This time it is the Edmonton/Wisconsin hardcore band Misery Signals gearing up for a summer tour in celebration of their ten year anniversary of the debut album "Of Malice and the Magnum Heart". My brother Citrus and I even got a thank you in the liner notes on this album.

Misery Signals have gone through line-up changes over their ten year career as a band, but on this tour dubbed Malice X it will be all original members, Jesse Zaraska on vocals, Kyle Johnson on bass, Ryan Morgan on guitar, Stu Ross on guitar and Brandon Morgan on drums.

Checkout their bandcamp page here.

Looks like the in Edmonton will be happening on Saturday August 16th, venue to be announced this week with the rest of the tour dates.

10 Years Ago Today...December 19th

It was ten years ago today that I saw Misery Signals play King Edward Community Hall here in Edmonton.

And it was nine years ago today that I saw another band led by Jesse Zaraska (lead singer of Misery Signals) the.stars.wept play ay New City Suburbs in Edmonton.

9 Years Ago Today...November 20th

It was nine years ago today that I saw SNFU with openers Misery Signals play the Starlite Room in Edmonton.

19 Years Ago Today...November 18th

It was nineteen years ago today that I saw the Cadillac Tramps play at The Rev in Edmonton.

And it was nine years ago today that I saw Misery Signals live at the Krobar here in Edmonton.

It was three years ago today that I saw Mike Plume perform at the Haven Social Club in Edmonton.

And it was a year ago today that I saw Leonard Cohen play at Rexall Place in Edmonton.