October 9th

  On October 9th, 1993 I attended Moshfest '93 at Northlands Agricom in Edmonton. An all day festival featuring such bands as SNFU, Cadillac Tramps, Disciples Of Power, King Apparatus, Pal Joey, Drool and many more. A very fun day indeed.

Dad Religion Live at The Temple in Edmonton August 23rd 2025

 This was a super fun show to see with my buddy A-Bomb and Buzzard. An all local act show featuring headliner Dad Religion. This would be my second time seeing them. The show was a release party for the Spartan's Club Comics SNFU inspired comic book (Come With Me, I'm On My Way: Four Tales Of Misfortune Inspired By SNFU) and the accompanying seven inch single release by Dad Religion.

 The first band of the evening was The Uninvited Guests. A group of musicians doing a bunch of punk/metal covers. It was a good start to the evening, my favourite part of their set was seeing Steve, the drummer from dad Religion get on stage with the band and do some Ramones covers, with Steve doing his great impression of Joey Ramone.

The Uninvited Guests.

 Next up was a band called The Strand. They too did a bunch of cover songs from old school rock like The Who and some punk classics. One such cover song they did was by the old Edmonton band Jerry Jerry and the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra. Another fun set.

The Strand.

 Next up was the band Western Death Ballads. This was one of the main reasons I came to the show. My brother introduced me to this Edmonton band a while ago and I finally got out to see them. I had been listening to them for a while now thanks to Spotify. They have three releases, two EP's and a full length album, only available digitally at this time (check your favourite streaming service). Really hope they release some physical copies of these. Their music is a mix of folk, punk and country. they're a three piece band with Cam McDonnell on guitar and lead vocals, Christi Mac on bass and James Mullet on mandolin. They were the only group of the evening that played all originals. And holy fuck were they good. Despite some sound issues at the start, Cam and the band kept it professional. All three members are great musicians and write some awesome lyrics. I highly recommend checking them out. can't wait to see them live again. Oh ya, I got to talk with cam after the show, and what a super nice gentleman he is. If you are a fan of Johnny Cash, Tom Waits and such, you will love this band.

Western Death Ballads.

 Headliner of the evening Dad Religion was up next performing the debut SNFU album ...And No One Else Wanted To Play in its entirety, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the album. And what an amazing job the band did playing this album. Lead singer Kristian Basaraba fucking nailed the vocals on this. The whole band was excellent. Joining the band on some songs was bassist Dave Bacon (1985-1987 / 2014-2018) who had two stints in the band SNFU, so that was super cool to see as well. All and all a great set and such a fun night, ran into a bunch of old friends I hadn't seen in a while and made some new friends too. Good times!!!

Oh ya, Kristian also is one of the guys that runs the Rad Dads Edmonton Chapter also has a cool podcast that is well worth checking out.

Dad Religion.

Comic book.

Seven inch single.

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.

September 5th

  

 It was on September 5th, 1992 that I went to Moshfest here in Edmonton at the University Butterdome. This all day festival was made up of mostly local bands of all genres. Bands such as SNFU, the smalls, Minstrels On Speed, Imagineers, Voice Industrie, Tippy Agogo among others. Good times!!!

July 16th

  

 On July 16th, 1989 I saw local Edmonton punk legends SNFU play Garneau Community Hall. Also on the bill were local bands The Imagineers and Desperate Minds.

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!!!

The Devil's Voice Live in Edmonton Nov.25th 2018

So what do you do on a Sunday night? Why, you go to a punk rock show, that's what you do. So it was last Sunday I made my way to The Buckingham on Whyte Avenue for a triple bill of music.

The first band of the evening was a Madball cover band fronted by JFK of E-Town Beatdown, also featuring members of Run With The Hunted and Sleeping Girl. Madball is a hardcore band out of New York, but this was Edmonton's version. I thought they sounded great, JFK certainly had the vocals down and the rest of the band were damn good as well. A great set.

Madball cover band.

Second band of the night and the surprise guest was a band called Seas out of Brampton, Ontario. This band is made of two former members of the band Moneen. Led by Chris Hughes of Moneen, he with the long ass dreads. Chris is a crazy front man whipping his air around and jumping around all the while singing and playing guitar. Also from Moneen was drummer Peter Krpan. Sitting in on bass was Clay Shea whom used to be in the Edmonton band Choke. Their music is a mix of pounding heavy shit shifting to psychedelia all in the same song. I rather enjoyed their set.

Seas.

Headlining the night was The Devil's Voice which is an SNFU cover band made up of members Jesse Zaraska from (Misery Signals/Compromise) on vocals, Brent Connolly (Sleeping Girl) on guitar, Garrett Heath Kruger (Fire Next Time/The Allovers and more) on drums, Braden Sustrik on bass (Compromise) and Shawn Moncrieff on guitar (Choke). of course The Devil's Voice is an SNFU song title from their If You Swear, You'll Catch No Fish album.

The Devil's Voice came together for a Halloween show where local bands did sets of bands being bands. These guys chose the iconic Edmonton punk band SNFU. It went over so well that they have now played a hand full of gigs since. This was my first time seeing them, and knowing most of the guys in the band I was looking forward to seeing them perform. I thought they did an excellent job. Lead singer Jesse might not have Chi Pig's (Kenn Chinn) voice but he did it justice and he had Chi's moves down good to his prancing, dyed hair, high kicks and the way he held his mic. You could tell Jesse was having a blast as were the band cranking out these old punk hits. Songs like "Cannibal Café", "She's Not On The Menu", "Where's My Legs" and "Time To Buy A Futon". Their 30 or so minute set was full on punk rock, I just wish I could remember what other songs they played but I am drawing a blank. I guess that's what you get when you don't write a review in a timely matter. I had a lot of fun at this show. Good times!!!

The Devil's Voice.

In concert news...The Devil's Voice will be playing their last gig on New Years Eve in Edmonton at The Temple in the Starlite Room, Also, Jesse Zaraska's band Misery Signals are working on a new album and touring Europe in 2019 with a couple of warm up shows in Alberta. One of them being at the Starlite Room on Sunday March 17th.