What with being bookended by folk-festing and long-weekending, you might not have noticed that there are a pair of outstanding concerts happening today and tomorrow. If that's the case, notice away with these handy YouTube embeds:

Tonight (Wedneday, July 27) sees Wax Mannequin and The Burning Hell take the stage at the Marquee Room. They've toured together before, and their weirdo-pop sensibilities complement each other well. And one of their Calgary shows did result in a rousing singalong to "The Logdriver's Waltz," so you never quite know what'll happen.

As for Doucet, he's easily one of Canada's finest songwriters, whether you're talking folk, roots or straight-up rock'n'roll. Plus, he's an outrageously good guitar player who has … Read More

No one wants to read a bunch of “you should've been there” anecdotes, but that's hard to avoid in this sort of wrap piece. Fortunately, from the looks of it, more people were around at this Sled Island than ever – Olympic Plaza even looked almost full when the weather was at its best on Saturday, no small feat given the size of the space – so there's a decent chance you actually were there for a good chunk of this. And if not, feel free to mock me for missing Crocodiles at the Palomino, or the Intelligence every time they played, or any of the other amazing-sounding shows that I really should've been there for.

From my end of things, though, here's the best of the best. Feel free to tell me why I'm wrong about everything:

AU at the Bamboo: Pat already went on … Read More

Alright, keeping up my Obama-esque trend of looking forwards, not backwards (and considering Devin and Pat have already talked about pretty much everything I would've), here's yet another Tentative Sled Plan. Today's a long one, so bear with me.

Dead Meadow – What better way to start the afternoon than with classic rock riffage on the Local 510 patio? Other than Lee Ranaldo's workshop, I mean, which I'm obviously too late for already. Point being, we're in the lazy, hazy days of summer, and so hazy, semi-psychedelic rock seems entirely appropriate.

Sappyfest showcase – I've been meaning to check out this east coast fest for a while now, ever since I fell in love with Julie Doiron a few years back. May as well show them some love now, especially with … Read More

The decisions are starting to get tougher. Devin's right that Lee Ranaldo's Central United set at 9pm seems like a no-brainer, but that's maybe my only lock for tonight. But here are the inclinations anyway:

Dinosaur Feathers – I've been told that I can't miss these melodic indie-poppers. The samples I've heard sound decent enough, and I do love any band that can pull off three-part harmonies live. Might be a good breather after the decidedly less straightforward Ranaldo set. Then again, they are playing again tomorrow, and AU's Bamboo set is pretty tempting...

Crocodiles – Missed them last night because I'm old and get tired and hungry easily. Plus the Legion is always a blast.

Man Man and Gobble Gobble – Pretty much a perfect double-bill at … Read More

Ah, Sled Island. The time when a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of hours of kick-ass music, exhaustion, confusion and the best kind of indecision. As Pat mentioned in his blog post, we're going to be tweeting, blogging and other-vaguely-annoying-social-media-buzzwording the fest again this year, so keep an eye on this space, my Twitter feed (@peterhemminger) and the #SledIsland hashtag if that's the sort of thing you're into.

So, what's the tentative plan for tonight? My good intentions are to start with Faux Fur, Wild Nothing and Polaris longlisted Calgary ex-pats Braids at Central United Church, spend a few hours at the Distillery with The Luyas, Dum Dum Girls and Blonde Redhead, and round out the night with Crocodiles at the … Read More

A non-stop barrage of nonsense, non-sequiters and wilfully impenetrable sequences, Absurdesque has a good shot at earning the title of most challenging performance at this year's Rodeo. German theatre company Theaterlabor makes one concession to their audience in translating the play's dialogue into English, but outside of that, no effort is made to ease the audience into the work. It starts suddenly and with manic energy, then alternates between frenetic bursts and exhausted collapse, and as far as figuring out what it's all supposed to mean, well, that's pretty explicitly beside the point.

Suffice to say, Absurdesque is not performance at its most user-friendly. What it does offer, though, is sheer commitment to a form. As … Read More

If you're gonna pay tribute to Tom Waits, this is the way to do it. Quebec's L'orchestre d'hommes-orchestres may not have quite the same charisma as their off-kilter idol (who does?) but their take on his catalogue uses just the right approach. Forget faithful re-creation – the only way to do Waits right is with creativity, humour and a dedication to the pure fun of making noise.

That's exactly what L'orchestre delivers. Hell, the instrumentation alone is proof enough that these guys are on the right track. Teacups, shears, boots, a baby carriage and a balloon-powered melodica all make appearances, along with a helmet-mounted golf club that threatened to steal the show (or give someone a concussion). It only occasionally tries to echo the … Read More

Realistically, there was no way Acres of Dreams would be anything less than great. It's not like Kris Demeanor, James Keelaghan, Wendy McNeill or Cadence Weapon built their reputations as four of Alberta's best songwriters by half-assing, and clearly all four relished the opportunity to team up with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. It's pretty unlikely that anyone in the audience at the Jack Singer was surprised by the quality (and the polish) of tonight's performance.

So let's keep this straightforward: Acres was a blast. Each artist put their own spin on the night's Alberta history theme, with Demeanor embracing narrative and trivia (who knew Deerfoot's real name was Scabby Dried Meat?), while Keelaghan went more imagistic … Read More

As if November weren't already busy enough... In addition to Movember and NaNoWriMo, a group of (mostly) Calgarian Twitter users have decided to make this the Month of New Music. How do you take part? Simple: listen to one new album every day, and tweet about it. "New" just means new to you, so this could be a chance to catch up on some classics on top of exploring some new musical terrain.

Some folks have their whole month planned out already. I'm going to be winging it, myself, and hopefully posting weekly updates here on the ol' fflog (and daily updates over on my other blog, where you can feel free to post some album suggestions). To join in, or just see what other people are listening to, just follow the #monm hashtag on Twitter.

Oh, and thanks to … Read More

Just a quick note about some fairly awesome screenings coming up at the Plaza this month, all part of the theatre's 75th anniversary month. Check out http://theplaza.ca/ for more details, but a few details to get the saliva flowing:

• Free screenings of The Big Lebowski (tonight) and Fight Club (Friday)
• 35mm prints of Rashomon, Audition, Oldboy, Brazil, Memento, Being John Malkovitch, ET, Easy Rider and more
• Probably some other screenings TBA for later in the month
• OK, I likely shouldn't have made this a bulleted list, but it seemed like a good idea at the time

Given that Lebowski is the movie that gives this blog its name, albiet indirectly, you better believe I'll be there. And you should be, too.