Nightwish Edmonton Show Review

Wow this took awhile to get around to doing. This past weekend I had the chance to check off the third of my five favourite european metal bands off my "I must see these bands" list. I was truly surprised to find out that Nightwish was coming to Edmonton to play a sold out show at the Starlite room. I was surprised that they were coming, and I was also surprised that they sold out faster than the other two bands I saw: Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius. Maybe it's the female singer that makes them more attractive to more people. Not sure. Anyways, Diane and I arrived a bit late to the Starlite room, and already an impressive looking line had formed all the way down the block. So there was nothing for us to do except go to the back of the line and wait for about 35-40 minutes to get in. Such is the state of going to the Starlite, since that has been the way of things in the past. On the plus side, the weather was beautiful so waiting in line wasn't a big deal.

While in line the opening band started up. It didn't really look like we were missing anything, and I didn't even bother to find out who was playing. Then again, it's really hard to tell since the volume was turned up so loud. *sigh*. The problem with live concerts.

So Diane and I found our spot on the right side of the venue on the stairs descending to the floor. It was packed in there though, so it took awhile to squirm into a good spot. It took a long time, as usual, for the main band to have all their gear setup and sound tested, but after the long wait Nightwish finally came on stage.

Nightwish has undergone a bit of turmoil in the recent months. They fired their distinctive lead singer after the band decided that they were not on the same page concerning the direction of the band (or something, I'm not really familiar with the situation). This made for some troubling times as the band tried to find someone to replace her. I'm not sure they ever would've found someone with quite as deep and powerful a voice as Tarja, but they did find someone who does a pretty darn good job. The new vocalist didn't sing too many classic Nightwish songs, but the ones that she did do she did pretty well I'd have to say.

Here's the setlist for the night:

1. Intro + Bye Bye Beautiful

2. Dark Chest of Wonders

3. Who ever brings the night

4. The Siren

5. Amaranth

6. Islander

7. The Poet and the Pendulum

8. Come Cover Me

9. While Your Lips are Still Red

10. Sahara

11. Nemo

12. 7 days

13. Dead to the World

14. Wish I had an Angel

All in all the show was amazing. The various members of the band are quite good at their respective intruments. The keyboardist isn't as flashy as the one in Stratovarius or Sonata Arctica, but that's okay. One of the guitarist's sported a rather epic beard/hair combination.

It's been a few days since the event, so I don't remember too many details. Also I wanted to get this post up before I forgot about it entirely. I took some video that I'd like to share, but I need to post process it so I can upload it somewhere useful (I was thinking flickr). That might take a little while.

Anyways, it was a pretty good show, and I was quite happy that I got the chance to go!

Heraldk

Eileen Ivers Concert Review

A few months ago, Diane asked me if I wanted to go to a concert with her in April. It was an awfully long time in the future, but I booked it in. Last night was the concert in question, and it turned out we were there to see a fiddler by the name of Eileen Ivers. Now, I'll admit that while I do love the style of music, I haven't been very proactive in finding more of it to listen to. I have a few Leahy CDs, but that's about it. So I was pretty excited to find another collection of quality fiddle music. Eileen has a pretty impressive resume. She has won nine All-Ireland fiddle championships, and she toured with Riverdance starting in 1995. So that's pretty cool. The band she was touring with featured several excellent musicians in their own right. They put on quite a show.

The music they played varied quite a bit with several pieces fusing a few genres. In the last song before the intermission, they played a song called "Gravelwalk" that she described as Celtic fiddling meets the Bronx. Early on, I was surprised that she broke out a wah pedal for her fiddle. I became astonished as she began to make her fiddle sound like a full out distortion guitar. Huh. I mean, I know and like Apocalyptica, which does distortion Cello, but I didn't expect to see it on the violin.

Edit: here's the only video I could find of Eileen playing gravelwalk. It's too bad it's just the distortion part, because it sounds much better in context.

(as a side note, Apocalyptica is getting air time on Sonic 102.9, a local radio station. I think this is fantastic).

The show was wonderful and the only thing missing from the audience clapping and singing (for 2 songs anyways), and foot stomping fun was a couple pints of Guinness.

Thanks sweety for getting us tickets :)

Heraldk

Sonata Arctica Show Review

This was a long time coming. I've been so busy this last week that I haven't had a chance to talk about the latest Sonata Arctica concert here in Edmonton.

SA made their second appearance in two years at Edmonton's Starlite room last week. I was able to get tickets and go, so I continued to support the band's efforts to increase their North American fanbase. If they keep coming back they should do just that ... this show was sold out!

My only real complaint about the show was that it was too short. They got on stage late due to the doors opening at 8:00pm, and two opening bands on the slate. The first opening band "The Order Chaos" was not too bad. They only played three songs, but I might have to look into their music a little more to see if I like it. The second band was called "Sanctity", and they were ... almost as different from Sonata Arctica as you could get and still stay in the same genre of music. Sure they had metal riffs on the guitars, but where Sonata Arctica is classy, melodic, and appealing, Sanctity was rude, crass, and unappealing. I couldn't wait for them to get off the stage.

It's too bad SA couldn't play a longer set. They totally have the repertoire to play a two hour or longer set, but because of the late start there was no way that was going to happen. Still, they did play a good set, and I enjoyed getting the chance to try and take some band-in-action photography and video with my P&S camera. I think I did a decent job!

Big news as well, Edmonton... Nightwish is coming to town to play the Starlite room! I've already bought my tickets (you can get them in a presale from a link off their webpage). So once I see them, then all I've got to see is Kamelot and Rhapsody and I'll have seen my top 5 favourite metal bands! How exciting!

Heraldk

A New Edmonton Arena

Anyone who's been reading the journal lately knows that there seems to be an ongoing debate over the council's investigation into building a new arena in downtown Edmonton to replace Rexall Place. There's been a barrage of articles over the past few days pointing out some of the advantages and disadvantages to the proposal ... and I guess I shouldn't be surprised there is such hot debate over the topic. It is, after all, a large investment of city resources. I'm cautiously in favour of a new arena in the downtown core, but I've been waiting to weigh in on the issue until I'd read a few more articles in the paper. I think today's article by Scott McKeen convinces me that it's a good idea, and touches on many of the complaints that people have with the arena.

So, why do we need a new arena? Well the reality of the situation is that Rexall is aging - particularly when compared to arenas in other cities. It's the 2nd oldest building the remains in active use in the NHL. From the Oiler's perspective, its hard to remain competitive if they can't sell as many seats or luxury boxes as other teams. If you've been reading my blog, you know I'm an Oiler fanboy, so you'll know that I'm biased about this from the start. But before you chastise me for being biased, Scott McKeen makes the point that Rexall is not just used for Oiler games... a new arena would be usable to attract some of the world's biggest musical acts as well. Not only that, one should only look back to this time last year when the Oilers were making their unlikely run through the playoffs to know how important the Oilers are to this city. Don't you think they deserve the chance to remain competitive - particularly when a competitive Oiler team makes this city swell with pride?

So I believe a new arena is warranted. So what are the issues? Well cost is one big one. Already though, it looks like there are several options that will require much less taxpayer dollars to build the arena. As the committee looks at it in more detail, we'll see what they come up with. However, several people more in the know than I remain confident that much of the cost can be absorbed from other sources. Sounds good to me.

As to the location - why not build the arena downtown? Downtown is starting to get much more lively as we are finally seeing condos being built in the core. (I'm happy that the city is finally starting to build up a little - the sprawl of this city is kind of disgusting). Building the arena downtown can only help - particularly since the current proposal is to build it in an area of downtown that isn't exactly bustling at the moment. You have to go west of city hall to really see active part of downtown. Thousands of people pouring into downtown to watch the latest hockey game or concert -- sounds like a good plan to get people downtown. The inevitable businesses that pop up around and in the facility will help draw people to arrive downtown early and have them stay late.

To be honest, I am a little biased. And I don't know all the issues. I do however, have a hard time believing that this isn't a good idea for the city. Many articles have pointed at other cities and the success of downtown arenas there -- places like Vancouver and Columbus and Denver and ... well I forget all of them, but there's quite a few. I don't know all the information, but maybe someone can point out to me why a new downtown arena in Edmonton can hurt us.

Heraldk

Calm winterness

There's something strangely calming about walking outside after its snowed. Edmonton got a huge dump of snow this weekend ... making this March the most snowy March EVER. When you walk outside for a bit, there's this hint of quiet beauty in the air. Maybe I'm just imagining it, but the crisp cool air with the clean snow just seems to bring me a feeling of peace. I'm in a weird mood again tonight. I'm not sure what it is, but I kinda feel like the world is rapidly changing around me and there's nothing I can do about it. Have you ever had the feeling where you're drifting away from the world? That's how I feel now, I think.

A lot of the friends I've known in past years have drifted away so much that I either don't even know where they are anymore ... or I do, but I just don't talk to them much. If it weren't for the odd msn collision, I would probably never hear from them again. It feels weird ... like pieces of me are being torn apart. And yet, I can't seem to get off my ass to change things. I should be able to, shouldn't I? I mean, all I should be able to do is make a little concerted effort to have coffee with my friends of old.

Maybe it comes down to energy? At the end of the workday, I find that I don't have enough energy to do much more than sit down, play some video games and go to bed. I would love to get off my behind to go do a project, or learn to play the guitar, or something. If anything, maintaining old friendships seems to be harder than any of these tasks ... and if I can't do these projects, how can I do something harder?

And yet, it bothers me. What can I do about it? I don't know. It tears me up inside though.

Heraldk

Edmonton Sonata Arctica Show Review

Well last night was the Sonata Arctica concert that I've been looking forward to for quite awhile. For those who don't know, Sonata Arctica is a Finnish melodic metal band that took the scene by storm when they released their first full length album. When I first heard some of their music, they almost immediately became part of my musical library. This was the 2nd of two shows that I thought I'd never ever see in Edmonton. The first was Stratovarius in October of 2004. Both of these bands have huge followings over in Europe, but North America hasn't seemed to have discovered how good this genre can be. Oh well, I suppose the radio would probably ruin it anyways. Damn radio.

Anyways. I was pretty pumped for the show. The opening band, going by the name of "Helden" got going around 9:30 or so. This was a band I had not heard of, and probably with reason. They were a pretty new band and while their guitarists showed a lot of promise, I was totally turned away from them because the vocalist did nothing more than scream into the mic. I'm sorry, that's just not appealing to me.

Finally, SA took over the stage, and the wait was totally worth it. Tony, the band's lead vocalist has an absolutely amazing voice ... more so than I thought from the records. I was very impressed with how he was able to sing in a very clear high melodic voice and then switch over to a growly kind of tone that still kept the essence of the melody. Such talent!

The keyboardist was sensational. He had a keytar, which was a very cool way for him to show off how damn fast he could move his fingers! Its just not fair ... some people can play way too darn well. The keyboardist was featured many times on the albums playing dueling solos with the guitarist, and the show was an incredible example of why this should be done way more often. If the keyboardist hands went blazingly fast, the guitarist's fingers had to have gone at least as fast!

Incredible on many levels. The band played one encore of three songs. The first "song" being a medley of a whole lot of big songs that they didn't play during the show. They then went on to play two more crazy fast songs including Don't Say a Word, and then delayed the final chord of the last song as long as was possible.

The best part was how much the band looked like they were enjoying themselves. Particularly Tony who added little fun quirks into some portions of the music. I forgot to mention that Tony was dressed in some crazy plaid pants. Yeah, that's right, plaid pants. Taken aback at first, I couldn't help but think ... cool!

All in all, I was very happy with the show. Tony promised the crowd that they'd be back to Edmonton sometime after their next album. I think I will have to be there!

Heraldk

CS Department Christmas Party and the Singing Christmas Tree

Ahh Christmas ... so much to do, so little time! Saturday was the department Christmas party - and it was a blast as I kind of expected. The food was not spectacular, but the dancing was fun. Diane and I showed off our dancing skillz - though I felt really rusty at most of the dances other than the waltz. Our waltz is our best dance for sure :) The DJ at the party was a little too involved in the dance. At first it was pretty cool - with him playing several instruments along with the music. But after he switched costumes a few times and tried getting people to dance all night, I started to feel a little awkward. Oh wells. I also won the limbo contest, which was kinda fun. I dunno what I do right there - I just seem to know how to do it. Kinda weird :) For a prize, I got a cool see-through digital clock. It sits on my desk now :)

Last night I joined Diane and her mother to go see the singing Christmas tree. For those who haven't gone, its a big tree with tiers for a choir to get setup in it. Its usually pretty good - and while I didn't think it was too bad this year, there was a couple of things that I kind of didn't like. Mostly, I didn't like how the sound was setup. Usually, the capability of a largish choir to sing doesn't need a lot of amplification through the sound system. But using a little is okay too. However, some sort of effect was being applied I think, and the result didn't sound very good to me. The concert also seemed a lot shorter than past years too. *shrug*.

The other thing that I've started thinking over the past few years that I've gone there is that I'm feeling increasingly uncomfortable in a church like the one the tree is in. Its too ... over the top for me. I consider myself to be a Christian - at least in a lot of the ways I think about life and its opportunities. But I just can't feel comfortable in an environment where there's this big speaker setup, with tv monitors lining the aisles and corporate sponsers for the program and the refreshments. I'm fond of the little church my family goes to - its nice, its not near as flashy, and it just feels more comfortable. *shrug* This will probably come up later in another post. For now, I'll leave it at that.

It certainly doesn't look or feel like Christmas outside. All the snow is gone again - and its less that two weeks to Christmas. Weird weird weather. But no matter - I'm starting to look forward to a chance to take a holiday here ... I need some time off I think :)

Heraldk

Esks Win!

What a wild weekend. Friday night was a pretty calm night as I pretty much just stayed home and watched the hockey game (an exciting game between the oilers and flames ending in a shootout Oiler win... yay!). I also won another $75 player poker that night. Full tilt has been an awesome room for me this week.

Saturday morning I had to be up to get to first aid training. I needed a recertification, so this was the second of two training sessions. Thankfully, its over now - the course definitely isn't all that exciting. The best parts were laughing at the acting jobs of the people in the St John's ambulance videos. Some of their "painful groans" were really funny.

Saturday evening my parent's had Diane and I over for dinner - an offer I couldn't refuse. One of our family friends was up from Calgary and so her and my mom and my sister all went to the Opera that night after dinner. Elizabeth got a chance to see my condo on the way and she seemed pretty impressed :)

Diane and I spent the evening together. We had intended on going to see Harry Potter, but ended up missing the show we wanted to see so we just hung out. Its pretty wonderful to spend an evening with my sweetheart :)

Sunday was crazy busy. Elizabeth, mom, Diane and I all went to the UofA mixed chorus dress rehearsal for their yearly Christmas concert. I understand its tradition that they put on a show at Strathearn United Church every year before the actual concert at the winspear. It was pretty cool to watch. Then, we wandered down to Rutherford house where we had a lovely little lunch.

After that, Diane and I parted ways with the rest of the group and went south to join Leanne and Jon's grey cup party. It was a pretty intense game and there were many moments where we were on the edge of our seats hoping that the esks could come back. Next year's grey cup has little chance of being this exciting!!

Afterwards we needed to leave so I could get the car home, but it was a very fun party and a super exciting game to watch. I'm still amazed at how it all turned out!

All in all, a busy weekend. Now I'm tired and need to sleep :) But I have to get through today first!

Heraldk

Stratovarius coming to EDMONTON????

Wow. So anyone else who'll be in Edmonton on October 2nd needs to pay attention. Stratovarius is coming to town! For those who don't know, Stratovarius is one of Europe's biggest names in the melodic metal genre - they have something like 11 CDs currently out with a 12th one being released in the near future. The band is apparently deciding to finally try a North American tour - and they are hitting *several* Canadian towns. This is a band that is used to playing huge rock concerts with thousands of people cheering for them on the big stage. So to catch these guys in a city where a lot of people have never even heard of them is pretty crazy. Especially in the small Starlite Room venue!

If you haven't heard of Stratovarius, but like some heavy metal music without the screaming, check them out. If you're interested, you should check out the show - its only $25 a ticket, and there's no telling whether they will be back or not!

Heraldk

Busy Weekend!

Well the chaos of the last few days has finally subsided a bit as the busiest weekend of the summer has now been finished. At least, I hope it was the busiest weekend of the summer! Thursday night was Jon and Leanne's wedding rehearsal, and since I was in the wedding party, I had to be there. It went smoothly and we then all went over to Leanne's parent's place for a BBQ. Mmmm ... steak! On

Friday, I packed most of the unpacked items into boxes and then was picked up at the university by Paul and we met up with the rest of the groomsmen at Jon's new house. That evening we had some pizza, went to the Canada Day Barenaked Ladies concert at commonwealth stadium, and then returned back to Jon's for more pizza and beer. It was a fitting day for Jon's last day being single.

Saturday was the big day. The groomsmen were all sleeping over at Jon's so we got up, washed up and got dressed in our fancy tuxes. Jon got us all these fancy pocket watches, which were pretty sweet! The wedding day is all a blur for me now as the day was packed with busy times. First the ceremony, then the pictures, then the reception, and finally the dance. Crazy busy were we! The dance was the most fun for me - Diane and I haven't been to a dance in a very long time and were excited to get out on the floor. Unfortunately, the DJ didn't really know what a waltz was, and I think he only played one all evening. And we missed it. So we didn't get our best/favourite dance in :( I suppose I should say more about the happy couple. The entire day went really well - no problems to speak of, and both of them seemed very happy with the day. The reception food was all finger food - which was kind of cool ... and then they had an ice cream sundae bar for dessert (for those who know Leanne, this is totally appropriate!).

Sunday was the gift opening, which Diane and I went to. It was pretty neat to see what people decided to get from the registries. One of the most innovative gifts was an ice cream maker with a bathroom scale! After the gift opening, Katherine, Madeleine, Diane and I all went out for dinner (Madeleine is one of our friends from high school). It was a lovely dinner at Japanese Village (its been tradition every time Madeleine comes to town).

Monday I officially took posession of my new condo. The guy I bought it from was super duper awesome and stayed around after I got the keys to make sure everything was going to be straightened out. They even left me a bottle of wine! I was so amazed by the effort he put in to making me feel at home. Its good to know there's people like him around! In the afternoon, Madeleine along with a couple of high school buddies I hadn't seen in awhile, came to see the new place. Hoorah! In the evening, my parent's neighbours helped me pick up my grandparent's futon that they were giving me. We brought it into the place that night and we returned home so I could finish packing up the last of the stuff.

Tuesday was a long day. It was *really* *really* warm and that was hard to deal with as we moved my huge amount of stuff to the new condo. Luckily, there was lots of help so it didn't take too long. After moving everything in, I got everyone some pizza and we relaxed - played a game of poker and then played some pictionary and Jenga. T'was fun!

Yesterday I stayed at the condo to wait for the telus and cable guys to come hook up my internet and phone. I was glad that they made it - I really wanted to have those there so I could have those conveniences.

And now its today, and I'm back at the university finally to do work! Hooray! :)

Heraldk

Collective Soul

The night was Saturday, May 21st. The occasion? To see a band that I have grown to love - Collective Soul. They played at Red's for their second concert in Edmonton in less than 6 months. I missed their first arrival here in December and was kind of annoyed because I had really wanted to see them, so I was really glad when they announced another date in May! The group I went with included Mike, Nolan, and my girlfriend Diane. We had supper at the Old Spaghetti Factory beforehand and then wandered down to Red's where we proceeded to wait for the show. The doors opened at 7:00, but oddly enough the show didn't start until 9:30. So we wandered around for awhile. Mike got some game tokens to play in the arcade with. We played some air hockey, foosball, and table hockey. T'was good fun.

When it got closer to show time, we went to try and find a spot to stand an watch the show. We got lucky and found a spot that we got an excellent view of the band at. The house was packed - the concert had been sold out for a couple of weeks. As usual, the show started late, but finally the opening band The Waking Eyes took the stage and I was pleasantly surprised by how good they were. Aside from their known garage-rock style, they brought out a few surprises including a piece where they ditched their conventional guitars and the bassist picked up a stand up bass, the lead guitar sat down at a keyboard and the singer/rhythm guitar took up a trumpet! They proceeded to play a jazzy sounded track with a quite catchy bass-line. Very cool!

Finally though, Collective Soul took the stage. Its been awhile since I was last at a rock concert, but it was probably the most intimate rock show I've been at. All my other concert experiences were at the Shaw conference center or Rexall place - both of which are very large venues. Red's is quite a bit smaller than either of those and as a result created a very nice atmosphere for being up close to the band.

The thing with Collective Soul is that they have a *huge* number of hit songs, and for them to just play all of these songs would take them quite a long time. They played all these songs plus a couple of songs off their new album. It was pretty incredible - hearing the hits like Precious Declaration, Why pt2, Gel, Where the river flows, Heavy, and Shine. The years in the business of touring has obviously made them very good at what they do. The show was very very well put together with a proper buildup to a rocking and loud conclusion to the concert. The encore was three songs long finishing with the song Shine - where everyone in the audience was singing "Oh oh oh oh - heaven let your light shine down". I always like it when bands give the audience a chance to sing :)

All in all, it was an amazing evening. There are many unpleasant aspects to the concert experience ... but the part that matters was amazing. For the others, here's hoping that the no-smoking bylaw gets passed this year like planned!

Heraldk