But the much-anticipated festival isn’t all that’s happening this week
As you might’ve guessed from this week’s cover Fast Forward has folk fest fever. Can you blame us? In addition to the acts we’ve interviewed in these pages there will be performances by Montreal post-rock trio Torngat Winnipeg rockers The Weakerthans Bright Eyes front man Conor Oberst and dozens more.
The Calgary Folk Music Festival provides the perfect chance to check out some acts you might never come across otherwise. Take The Master Musicians of Jajouka playing on Thursday night. The band has been led by members of the Attar family for the last 4000 years and more recently has inspired everyone from beat poets to the Rolling Stones — and that’s just one of the acts you don’t want to kick yourself for missing when the festival wraps up on Sunday.
Of course there’s more going on this week than the folk fest. Saturday marks the arrival of the Monsters of Rock tour at McMahon Stadium featuring heavyweights like Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest as well as up-and-comers like The Dillinger Escape Plan whose spastic mathcore is sure to confound and delight the hordes of headbangers who turn up for the one-day metal festival.
The music will remain heavy when Nine Inch Nails come to the Pengrowth Saddledome on Tuesday July 29. Trent Reznor has put out as many albums in the last four years as he did in the decade-and-a-half before that and his newfound vitality is sure to translate in the live show. Plus Crystal Castles are opening giving Calgarians a chance to see what they missed when singer Alice Glass broke her ribs in a stage-diving accident before their last performance in town.
Speaking of last performances local promoters F.A.R.M. (Future Alberta Rock Movement) are putting on their final show this Friday July 25 at The Stetson. The Fast Romantics The Ex-Boyfriends and The Lions will be joining forces to send the movement off the same way it came — dedicated to rock and full of pride in the local scene.
That same day The Palomino will host singer-songwriter Leeroy Stagger whose bruised ballads and rootsy rock will see him travel to Alaska and Europe later this year. It’s a great chance to hear some material from Stagger’s much-anticipated fourth album Everything is Real due in stores this fall.
