Jazz hat (or More free Edmonton stuff)
Hey gang, remember when we went on and on about our first year and I mentioned how we had neglected our Flickr pool?
Well it’s time to make that right.
We’d like to start filling our pool with pictures. I’ll do my best to upload photos on my end, and if you’ve got photos of Edmonton stuff you’d like to add please do. I’d love to feature your photos of the city, events and people in our daily Headlines.
So…to encourage some photos, how about I offer you a prize?
How about, for the low, low price of a photo you can have a fantastic Edmonton International Jazz Festival hat? Sounds like a deal to me.
Upload a photo of you at the jazz festival or from any of the jazz fest events or shows to our Flickr pool and I’ll throw your name into the hat (literally) for a chance at the hat.
Thanks to Eri for the hat.
On Now: Alberta Bound Tattoo Arts Festival
Alberta Bound Tattoo Arts Festival is underway at the Shaw Conference Centre until Sunday (Photo by Terry Gent)
Tattoo culture from around the world has exploded into Edmonton’s Shaw Conference Centre, and there’s no exaggeration in the “around the world” part. I met artists tonight from Yamanashi, Japan; Ibiza and Madrid, Spain; Detroit, Michigan and Lockport, Illinois; and from cities all over Canada. They’ve come out in force for the Alberta Bound Tattoo & Arts Festival, which has taken over the Shaw for three colourful days.
Part trade show, part retail experience, and part giant artist-filled tattoo shop, the festival has just about everything you could want that relates to tattoos. Nearly every booth you walk past has at least one artist bent over a human canvas, but there are also clothing stores, curiosity shops, flash and tattoo supply stores, hand-made tattoo equipment, pin-up stickers, custom hot rods, personalized zombie portraits, and even a complimentary ink station, where the artists on scene can try out new colours and new brands that have been donated by the companies that make them.
Edmonton tattoo artists make a huge showing too, one that tattooed Edmontonians can be proud of. I honestly had no idea there were so many shops in our city, and that’s speaking as a tattooed person myself! Familiar names like Raptor, Urge, Strange City and Ritualistics are all there, but there are also newer shops and even established shops from other cities that have moved to Edmonton to set up business here, such as D&M from Fort McMurray.
Bear's Skin Art Booth (Photo by Terry Gent)
At the Bear’s Skin Art booth, five tattoo chairs sit under the largest banner at the festival, and all of them are occupied. Jordan, one of Bear’s staffers, tells us that right when the show opened at two o’clock, they booked solidly through until the end of the (more…)
Doin’ The Fest
(Editor’s note: We are just recovering from an exhausting Folk Fest weekend. And now you’re telling us we have to Fringe for 10 days? You’re killing us, Festival City.)
Joel Plaskett is always a favourite across Canada. (Photo @ecodomestica)
It’s a weekend that tens of thousands of Edmonton and area residents look forward to all year long. For those of us who are die-hard attendees of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, it’s easy to forget that there are people who have never set foot inside Gallagher Park during Folk Fest weekend. Every year, sure enough, there are folk fest newbies who are seeing it all for the very first time.
This year, the 30th incarnation of the festival, I hit the park with my boyfriend Tommy, one of these festival virgins, and we had a fantastic time sharing everything the festival had to offer.
Concert Review: Bedouin Soundclash with Ben Stevenson and DJ Degree @ The Starlite Room’s 5th Anniversary Celebration
Ben Stevenson opened for Bedouin Soundclash at the Starlite Room's 5th Anniversary Party (Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)
(Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)
By Eri Gayler
The Starlite Room has been a staple of the Edmonton music scene for 5 years, and last night they had a chance to show their members a great time for their birthday bash. Arriving to two hours of reggae beats spun by local DJ Degree, the crowd was a perfect example of the mix that both the venue and the headlining band tend to attract: hipsters and rastas, frat boys and nerds, tattooed goth-punk types and couples that look like your parents. The club was packed, and most headed straight for the dance floor.
Former Edmontonian (now in Toronto) Ben Stevenson set a high visual bar for the night, dapper in his grey suit and tie as his band started out playing along with the last song in Degree’s set, jamming on it for a bit before getting into their own tunes. I’m not entirely sure what I expected from the former Our Mercury frontman, but this sure wasn’t it! Stevenson is completely chill and manically high-energy at exactly the same time, with a stage presence that encompasses his entire body, keeping all eyes on him. This cat is too cool for words, and bonus points for a solid, funky band that included Edmonton favourite Michael Rault. The thing that caught me again and again through the set was Stevenson’s voice, smooth and soulful with just the right rough edges, lyrics delivered with a power that seemed to suggest he was so full of music that it just had to come bursting out all night long. Trust me, you’ll be hearing more from Ben – and if you need it right now, check him out tonight at the ARTery with Rault as his opening act. The house will be rockin’, just like last night.
Bedouin Soundclash frontman Jay Malinowski (Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)
If Ben Stevenson’s band brought the house down, the Bedouin Soundclash boys-in-black blew the roof off. The volume was a little high for a small, brick-walled room, but they do say something about “too loud” and “too old,” and my 18-year-old self would probably just laugh at me. After that, though, I can’t possibly have a single complaint about this show, and might even call it one of the best performances I’ve seen.
Fresh from the previous night’s pick-up soccer game with both bands (Soundclash frontman Jay Malinowski told us proudly of his two goals, and praised the other guys for their skills), the band is excited be back in Edmonton to play for an audience that knows every lyric and every callback well enough that raucous cheers go up after the first chord of every song. From the second the music starts, there’s no way to not feel good, and I firmly believe that even the most steadfast non-dancer was tapping their toes so hard that they may as well just go all the way and shake it! (more…)
