November 25th

  

 On November 25th, 2018 I was at The Buck here in Edmonton too see The Devil's Voice an Edmonton SNFU tribute band consisting of members from Misery Signals, Compromise, Sleeping Girl, Fire Next Time and Choke.

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.