Paul McCartney Live in Edmonton Sept.30th 2018

Last Sunday my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Paul McCartney concert at Rogers Place. This would be my second time seeing Sir Paul in concert. Paul is currently on his Freshen Up Tour, in conjunction with his newest album Egypt Station.

A friend of ours bought the concert tickets for us, while I appreciated her doing this for me, never again will I rely on someone else getting my tickets. These seats were by far the worst tickets I have ever had. We were in the very last row of the second deck, I'm talking the boonies, up there the seating is so steep it feels like if you stand up you could tumble and won't stop until you hit bottom, that and there is absolutely no leg room, overall just the shittiest seats ever. But, we toughed it out as long as we could. The sound was awful up there as well with the sound being real muddy and bouncing around. When Paul would talk between songs you couldn't understand a thing he was saying. The music sounded alright but not great. We finally bailed out of the seats about a two thirds of the way through and tried to find somewhere better, in which we did. We managed to sneak in behind a screen on the main concourse and stood and watched the rest of the show from the side stage, no one bothered us and I was able to get a few pictures, and actually understand the words and dance and have a good time. Thank god we moved, just wish we had moved much earlier. A guy would need a telescope to get decent pictures from where we originally seated.

As for the show itself, it was awesome. At 76 years old, Paul sounded great opening the show with the Beatles song "A Hard Day's Night", then into a Wings song "Hi,Hi,Hi" and then into another classic Beatles song "Can't Buy Me Love", and that is how the whole three hour long show went, one classic song after another, between solo Paul songs, Wings songs and of course a great selection of Beatles songs. McCartney told some great stories between songs which of course I had to read about in other reviews as where we were you could understand what he was saying.

Checkout the setlist to see what was all played, some of my favorite moments was the huge sing-along to "Hey Jude", the classic Wings song "Live And Let Die", and I loved the rocking version of "Helter Skelter" he played. The six song encore were all Beatles songs, ending the set with the appropriate song "The End". Even some of the new songs from his Egypt Station album seemed to work great in his set. Paul's back up band which was the same band he had in 2012 when I saw him were stellar. All and all a great night of classic music. Good times!!!

Paul McCartney Edmonton selist.

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Paul McCartney at Rogers Place.

T-shirt front.

T-shirt back.

Sore Points, Real Sickies and Languid @ Bohemia Sept.21st 2018

Because the Swingin' Utters show was moved to Thursday, my Brother (Citrus), Sherry and I were able to make it out to this triple bill of punk bands at the Bohemia, a venue in downtown Edmonton that I had never been to before.

Two of the three bands playing on this night I had never heard of before, and the one band I had heard of, I had yet to see live, so this was going to be an interesting evening.

The first band of the night was Languid. Wasn't sure what to expect from these guys, but holy shit were they fun. There music I would describe as mix of thrash metal and crusty punk. The guys in the band look like something out of the movie Fubar, especially the lead singer. The lead singer had so much energy, singing in to the mic like Lemmy of Motorhead, and punching the air like a mad man. I was really impressed with their set, way better then what I was expecting.

Languid at the Bohemia.

Next up was the Real Sickies another Edmonton punk band. And again, I was really impressed with these guys too. There music reminded me of old school punk like the Ramones. I had heard of the band before but had never got out to see them perform live before. I most certainly will be out to see them again. Lead singer Ben Disaster has an amazing stage presence and with him having his head full of baby powder, so when he got rocking and shaking his head, the powder coming off his head made for a pretty cool effect with the lights. Although about three songs into their set the smell of baby powder was a little overwhelming, but hey, it looked cool. The Real Sickies made me think of what it must have been like to see the Ramones back in the CBGB days. Kick ass band with Ben , short intense songs. Very very good!

The Real Sickies at the Bohemia.

Last band of the night was Vancouver band Sore Points. I thought they were a pretty good band, but after seeing Real Sickies it was going to be hard to top them, but nonetheless they put on a good show, short set which was perfect for the 70's era punk rock they played. This was a fun night out with my brother and his girlfriend Sherry, swilling beers and seeing three bands I had never seen before. Loved the venue as well, a cool place to see a show. Good times!!!

Sore Points at the Bohemia.

Real Sickies vinyl I picked up at the show.

T-shirt.

Swingin' Utters Live in Edmonton Sept.20th 2018

So last weekend my brother Captain Citrus and his girlfriend Sherry came to Edmonton from Vancouver for a visit, as luck would have it there were a couple of shows that we were able to get out to. The first show we attended was the Swingin' Utters concert at the Starlite Room. This show was originally booked for Friday but got flipped with the Calgary show, so it was now on the Thursday night instead of Friday. That was cool by me as I had the Friday booked off from work already and now opened Friday night for another show we wanted to go to.

My brother got here Thursday afternoon, so we met after I was done work and got some drinks in us before heading out to the show. This would be my first time seeing Swingin' Utters in concert. I wasn't all tat familiar with there tunes as I only have one of their albums. But hey, I'm always up for a concert, and if my bro says it will be good, I'm in, I trust his taste in music.

We got to the venue early as we wanted to see all the bands on the bill. When we got there, we learned that the show had been moved to the smaller venue The Temple, which is in the same building. Lack of ticket sales had the show moved. My estimate for the crowd would be probably be around a hundred people.

The first band of the night was local punk band A Gentleman's Pact. This would be my second time seeing them play, and like last time I saw them, I didn't think they were anything spectacular. I think if they had cut their set in half, 20-25 minutes would have been sufficient for an opener.

A Gentleman's Pact at The Temple.

The second band of the night was a band called The Last Gang from Orange County, California. This band was led by Brenna Red on lead guitar and vocals. Their style of music is in the punk vein and again, nothing really special. Middle of the road punk, exactly the kind of music you would expect from a Fat Wreck Chords signed band. I found them to be rather boring.

The Last Gang at The Temple.

The headliner of the night and the main reason we were at the show was the Swingin' Utters from Santa Cruz, California, another band that has been signed to Far Wreck Chords since 1996. This band is much different then most bands on that label. From what my brother had told me the Swingin' Utters don't tour very much anymore so to see them play live was going to be a treat. And he was right, they were a kick ass band to see in concert. While I didn't know there songs all that well, they sure put on a kick ass show.

Lead singer Johnny "Peebucks" Bonnel was full of energy and sounded great and looked to be having a whole lot of fun performing. The rest of the band was awesome as well. The band is currently doing a small tour in support of their first new album (Peace and Love) in four years. I had heard this album a few times and recognized some of the new songs which sounded great. This was a fun show, and I'd like to give a big shout out to my buddy JFK for putting my Bro. and I on the guest list for the show. Good times!!!

The Swingin' Utters at The Temple.

Swingin' Utters t-shirt.

Blitzen Trapper Live in Edmonton Sept.18th 2018

I'm so far behind on updates that it's about time I do a few. The first one I am doing from a show I saw last week. The Blitzen Trapper concert my buddy Buzzard and I went to last Tuesday. The show was originally booked for the Starlite Room but was moved to The Temple, still in the same venue, just a smaller room. With under 200 tickets sold, they moved it to the more intimate room.

The opener for this show was a three piece all female band called Candace hailing from Portland, Oregon. I didn't much care for them, I found their music to be boring.

Headliner of the night was Blitzen Trapper who also are out of Portland. This would be my fifth time seeing the band in concert. I've been a fan of the band since I first heard the album Furr. The tour they are on now is in celebration of the ten year anniversary of the album Furr, which Sub Pop has re-released in a deluxe double vinyl edition with previously unreleased material and a few live cuts.

The show started late, which sucked as it was a work night, which might also explain why there was such a small crowd, that and there was no advertising for this show. I saw no ads in the local entertainment magazine, no posters around town. A weekday show is going to need advertising no matter who the band is. My estimate would be maybe 125 people. With the show moved to a smaller room, it did feel intimate.

Blitzen Trapper started the show by playing the album Furr in it's entirety, which was super cool as there are a few songs on that album that I had never heard performed live before. And that album has bit of everything on it from psychedelic music, to folk music and just good old rock n' roll. Lead singer Eric Earley sounded great, at times he reminded me of a young Bob Dylan and at other times he was like an absolute madman on the guitar. After performing the Furr album, Eric did a couple of songs solo, before bringing the band back out to do some other material from there last album Wild & Reckless including the title song and a song called "Rebel". All and all I thought it was another amazing show by a brilliant band that deserves a better turn out then what they got here in Edmonton. Good times!!!

Blitzen Trapper at The Temple.

Limited edition silk screened tour poster 48/100.