I have no ticket stub for this show was as the venue ticket takers took the full ticket with no stub returned much to my dismay. What I do have though are great memories and concert ads from this awesome Flaming Lips concert I saw at the Edmonton Event Centre. The Flaming Lips had a production for this show that was on the scale of a coliseum show, but played in a nightclub. Such an amazing concert!
My ticket stub, ya it's a shitty printed out paper one for the Pearl Jam concert I saw at Rexall Place in Edmonton on September 23rd, 2011. Mudhoney was the opening act on this bill. Sadly I missed Mudhoney as I was outside the venue trying to buy a cheap ticket for this show as I had missed out on buying tickets for the show. I did manage to get a ticket from a scalper at face value, not great seats, but I at least got to see Pearl Jam kick ass yet again.
The gig poster for the time I saw the Canadian band Bionic play New City Likwid Lounge in Edmonton. on September 19th, 2003. Bionic were a band formed in Montreal featuring Ian Blurton of C'mon, Change Of Heart and Blurtonia, also in the band was Jonathan Cummins of Doughboys fame. Opening the show was Les Tabernacles and Twin Fangs. A great rock n' roll band Bionic was.
My buddies A-Bomb, Buzzard and I went to see An Evening with Wilco at the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton a few weeks ago, which was their last show of the year. This would be my 7th time seeing Wilco in concert and first time in fifteen years. Hard to believe it had been that long since they last played here.
What an awesome show this was too. First thing my buddy A-Bomb and I noticed was that Wilco still has the same six band members as the last time we saw them. It's no wonder they sound so good, a tight band that can play any kind of music, and Wilco does play a wide range of styles of music, from rock n' roll, folk, to noisey jazz like music. Lead singer Jeff Tweedy hasn't changed a bit since last seeing them and Nels Cline is unbelievable on guitar.
Wilco played two sets which equaled about a two and a half hour long show. And the setlist covered a wide range of songs from a wide range of albums. A great selection from two of my favourite Wilco albums A Ghost Is Born, "Handshake Drugs", "Spiders (Kidsmoke)", "The Late Greats" and Sky Blue Sky, "Impossible Germany", "Walken", "Hate It Here" and those are just the ones I still remember from weeks ago. Other songs played that I recall were "Box Full Of Letters" and "It's Just That Simple" from their first album A.M., a couple from Being There "Sunken Treasure" and "Forget the Flowers". What really surprised me at this show was two songs from the Mermaid Avenue album that Wilco and Billy Bragg did back in 1998. One of the songs played was "California Stars" and I don't remember the other, but I know they played two from the album, for those that don't know that album was made up of songs that all lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie that Wilco and Billy Bragg put music to.
I would love to have heard more songs from their awesome album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, they did do a few from that album "Heavy Metal Drummer", "I'm The Man Who Loves You" and one other. There were a portion of songs that I wasn't all that familiar with from some of their newer albums. The songs sounded great live but I don't know them well enough to recall the titles of the songs. All and all this was a great show. I just hope it isn't another 15 year wait for them to come back through town. Good times!
It was on September 18th, 2000 that I saw The Mighty Mighty Bosstones with The Gadjits opening play the Golden Garter in Edmonton. A fun ska show this was.
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.
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.
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.
Comic book.
Seven inch single.
I finally found myself a bottle of the Megadeth beer yesterday at the local liquor store. I have been looking for this for quite sometime ...
