The Bronx Live in Edmonton April 4th 2018

Wednesday was a fun filled evening of punk rock with The Bronx, No Parents and Counterfeit Jeans at the Starlite Room.

The first band of the night was Edmonton band Counterfeit Jeans. This three piece band hit the stage rocking playing their style of punk music. They were good at what they do, but didn't play anything that really caught my attention.

Counterfeit Jeans.

Next up was band out of Los Angeles called No Parents. I had never heard of these guys before but have to say I was impressed with them. They are three piece band that play a punk rock style of music, they reminded me of early Green Day with a mix of Scatterbrain. A real fun band singing songs with titles such as "Buy Us A Van", "Bully Girl", "Two Beers", "Die Hippie Die", "Dick City" and "I'm A Dildo", as you can see by the songs they don't take themselves too serious, yet the band was good. It was a lot of fun watching and listening to these guys.

No Parents.

And for the main act was another Los Angeles band The Bronx who play punk rock as well. This was my third time seeing them live and holy fuck these guys just keep getting better. The band is on tour in support of their album V which came out last year and was one of my favorite releases from 2017. As much as I like that album the songs sound even better live.

The band led by singer Matt Caughthran, who has got to have the best screams in rock n' roll, and in my opinion one of the best lead singers around these days, actually the whole band is probably one of the best live acts on the road right now.

After about a half dozen songs Matt came down on to the dance floor and played the rest of the show amongst the crowd, slam dancing, moshing and jumping around shaking his head like a mad man. You couldn't help but get caught up in the music. I tried staying on the outskirts of the pit, but every once in a while I found myself among the moshers and dancing and singing along with Matt. Lots of sing alongs, shout outs and picking people up off the floor. At one point Matt got bounced in to me and almost went down but I stopped him from falling, he put the mic in front of me, I sang along with im and he gave me a pat on the back and a hug. Matt is just one of the best front men since Gord Downie of The Hip.

Some of the new songs played on this night were "Two Birds", "Sore Throat", "Night Drop At The Glue Factory", "Side Effects" and "Broken Arrow". And all of them sounded absolutely amazing. And for old stuff lots of classics like "Six Days A Week", “They Will Kill Us All (Without Mercy)”, "White Guilt" one of my faves "Knifeman", "Shitty Future" and "Heart Attack American" oh man, just so many great songs. And the whole time Matt is among the crowd the band is on stage tight as fuck and holding down the fort. The band was super tight, the crowd was amazing. Matt made you feel like you were at something special in which we were. The feeling of a tight knit community brotherhood. If you like your music loud and on the punk hardcore side this is a must see band live. There is no doubt this show will be in my top three of the year. So much fun. Good times!!!

The Bronx.

Some merchandise I picked up at the show.

No Parents vinyl and t-shirt.

The Bronx hockey puck and two seven inch singles.

Ministry Live in Edmonton March 31st 2018

On Saturday night I went to the Ministry concert at Union Hall here in Edmonton. After hemming and hawing whether to go or not, as I had never seen Ministry in concert before and really wanted t go, I managed to score a ticket for the show 45 minutes before show time for 20 dollars under face value. So at that price I figured I can't miss seeing Ministry this time.

I got to the show just before the first band of the night started. The first band being The God Bombs out of New York city. The venue was pretty much empty when this three piece band hit the stage. But that sure didn't stop them from performing like they were playing to a packed venue. Their music is a mix of metal, punk, with some electronic beats and a tribal kind of beat. The lead singer was a mad man, at one point he was on the dance floor writhing around on his back singing or more like screaming. I didn't much care for them, but have to say they put on a performance.

The God Bombs.

Next up was Chelsea Wolfe from California. I had never heard of her before, but by the time she came on, the place had filled up a lot. Seemed like a lot of people were there for her as much as Ministry. I'd describe her music as kind of Goth, folky music. I didn't much care for her either. But she got a great response from the near full bar.

Chelsea Wolfe.

Now for the main act out of Chicago the industrial metal pioneers Ministry led by Al Jourgensen on vocals. I believe he is the only original member left. I had never seen Ministry before and have always loved their album from 1992 Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs. By the time Ministry came on the place was packed. Ministry is currently on the road promoting their latest album AmeriKKKant, which is somewhat of a throwback to their old industrial sound. I actually think the album is quite good.

The band opened with a couple from the new album "Twilight Zone" and "Victims of a Clown". And what a wall of sound that came from the stage. I had read a few reviews of their shows and heard a few complaints about Al's vocals, but I thought he sounded really good. They did a called "Punch In The Face" from the album From Beer to Eternity, while doing this song they had images on the screen behind the band of Trump being punched in the face repeatedly. There were a lot of images of Trump on the screen and not in a good way. The band also brought out Burton C. Bell of the band Fear Factory to do vocals on a couple of songs. That was cool and he sounded great too, he actually performs on a couple songs from the new Ministry album.

About a third of the way through the show I ran in to my buddy Metal, who happened to have an extra set of ear plugs that he gave me as I had forgot to bring mine. That made a huge difference in the music for me, I was able to really enjoy the rest of the show. Thanks Metal! The last third of the show is when Ministry finally did a couple of songs from Psalm 69, them two songs being "Just One Fix" and "N.W.O."back to back, that was when the crowd was really losing their minds.

My only complaints about the show, was the venue, not a fan of Union Hall, too few songs from Psalm 69 and Ministry only played for 70 minutes. Still a good time was had. Good times!!!

Ministry at Union Hall.

Udo Dirkschneider Live in Edmonton March 16th 2018

On Friday night my Cuz and I attended the Udo Dirkschneider concert at the Starlite Room. And you have to admit, it's fun to say Udo Dirkschneider! I really needed to get out to a show and get my mind off of some unfortunate family issues in the past two weeks, and what works best, live music always does the trick. So this was perfect.

For those that don't know who Udo is, he was the lead singer for the German heavy metal band Accept between 1979-1986 and then joined the group again for a couple of albums between 1993-96. I myself was a fan of Accept in the mid 80's, not a huge fan but did like and own the albums Balls To The Wall, Metal Heart and Russian Roulette. After Accept, Udo went on to front his own band U.D.O. for 15 albums, the only one I have is his first one. So can't say I even gave his solo stuff a chance. So when this show was announced, I thought it would be fun to see Udo, as I never did see Accept in concert, and don't think they ever played Edmonton before. I may be wrong there, but I don't recall seeing them play here from the time I started going to shows in 1984. What was really good about this show is that it was billed as the Back To The Roots Tour, so all Accept songs, sweet! I've always kind of thought as Accept as second rate Judas Priest.

We got to the Starlite Room around 8:30 thinking we would catch the opening band Elm Street from Australia, but that didn't happen, we got there just in time to grab a beer and it was time for Udo. Show was an eary start obviously, kind of surprised me for a Friday night show.

Udo and his band opened the set with a song called "The Beast Inside" from an Accept album called Death Row released in 1994. Have to say I was not familiar with this song, but man what a reception Udo got when he came out on stage. The fists were raised as were the devil horns salute, and Udo's voice was top notch and he hasn't aged one bit, and the man is 65 years old. He looks the exact same as he did back in the 80's, even wearing the camouflage gear still, just classic.

Next up was a song called "Aiming High" from 1986's Russian Roulette album, this song I knew. I didn't know all the tunes but the ones I did, like "Midnight Mover" from Metal Heart were sounding great. The sound at the Starlite seems to have got a lot better in the last couple of times I have been there, which is awesome.

There were a couple slower songs about midway through the show which was a great time to step out for a quick smoke. But after the slow ones, it was time for "London Leather Boys" from the Balls To The Walls album, that sounded amazing and got the near sold out crowd back into the show. After London, it was another song from Metal Heart "Up To The Limit", they did lots from Metal Heart, which to me was the last real good album they put out. The audience seemed to think the same as lots of people were singing along.

Udo's back up band were good, they had the classic metal sound down, as well as the cliché moves, but hey, it was all fun. On guitar was Bill Hudson an LA based guitarist who has played with Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra, he was kind of cheesy actually, also on guitar Andrey Smirnov who is a musician from Russia he was good, on bass from Germany was Fitty Wienhold and rounding out the band on drums is Udo's son Sven.

The encore featured a couple songs from the Accept album Restless And Wild, and of course to close out the show was the song everyone was waiting for "Balls To The Wall", the metal heads were losing their shit to this one.. A fun night of old school heavy metal and a good distraction from events over the past couple of weeks. A big shout out to my buddy for the guest list! Good times!!!

Udo Dirkschneider at the Starlite Room.

T-shirt front.

T-shirt back.