My List of Concerts (Ranked)

I was just thinking about music and how great it is to hear an awesome song that brings back memories. What's even better than that is when you can catch those songs performed live by an artist or band. With so many great acts coming and going into the city as of late, I thought I would share my experiences with the concerts I've been to. So here's my list of top concerts I've ever been to. Considering I've only been going to concerts since 2 yrs ago, I've seen a decent amt of shows. Here they are in countdown format:

London Rogue (Some St. Albert Church): No disrespect meant to the band or anything, I just felt like I should include all of the performances I've been to. And afterall, it's almost impossible to compete with a professional caliber show when you're a smaller local band. Anyhow, the night wasn't too bad. I'd say what ruined the experience the most was how the audience was mainly teens trying to mosh out. The worst part was that there a teeny local band also playing at the same venue. I refer to their style of music as garbage music, as they shout a bunch of non-sensical stuff into the microphone and play their instruments as hard as they can. Very comparable to Alexis on Fire, whom I also hate. Still, London Rogue was easily the best performance of the night, with their cover of a Spice Girls song.

London Rogue (Some Bar downtown): Okay now it really looks like I'm bashing the band, but it was honestly tough to decide which was better between this and Black Eyed Peas. The night was a bit better for the band as they were opening for a less teeny act called 'The Stars'. I don't remember much of the experience as it was their first concert I had been to, but the mood was right and there were definitely a number of supporters there.

Black Eyed Peas (Rexall Place): I was deeply deeply disappointed by this one. Not only did they not play all the songs I wanted, but the acoustics of Rexall completely sucked, and Fergie attempted to sing Sweet Child of Mine. No Fergie! Shtop it... Shtop it... (it was also my fault cause I got some of the worst seats for us to watch from). One of the rare good moments of the performance was when they finally started doing songs from their Elephunk CD like "Where is the Love?"


McMaster and James (Telus Stage, K-days): Even though this was a free concert to the public, it was still better than the $75 concert for BEP. A couple memorable songs that were fun to sing along with, and it was kinda funny when it started to pour and we stayed out there.


Philosopher Kings (Telus Stage, K-days): To date, this is still the best free concert I've ever been to. They've got more hits than I had previously given them credit for and they're really fun to see live. It also didn't hurt that they stuck around to do autographs and pictures after their FREE concert. That and the lead guitarist is Simon from Prozzak. Wicked!


Philosopher Kings (Starlite Room): Wasn't as good as I was expecting, but I mean it was only 3 months after I saw them at K-days. The main reason it was cool was that I had listened and memorized their latest 'Castles' cd and I actually knew the songs they performed from there. That and I knew before coming to the concert that Simon from Prozzak was the same guy from Philosopher Kings, so I got to talk to the lead guitarist about that. As usual, they stuck around to talk to the crowd, very cool..

Boys 2 Men (River Cree Casino): Honestly, I almost forgot I even went to this concert. They played all the major songs they had and some new ones from their latest album. Gotta respect these guys for staying with it as long as they have. Also they are some VERY talented singers. Fun concert because we were in the 3rd row. Could have paid an extra 40 bucks for meet and greet passes after the concert, but I had no cash on me at all. I'm still surprised to this day that Anita didn't take advantage of this at all. Shoulda paid extra for the meet and greet...

Casting Crowns (Shaw Conference Centre): Actually there were a number of gospel artists there like Starfield and the such, but Casting Crowns stood out to me the most. Seeing as people reading this blog won't know who Casting Crowns are, I won't go into huge detail. I will say though that after hearing that concert, I've become a big fan of their music.

K-OS (Starlite Room): Now we're entering the concerts that I really enjoyed. K-OS was just awesome because I knew all of his songs and we had an awesome seat. I would have gone to see him again a month ago, but it seemed to early from when he last came. What a great performer he is, yet he's so mellow. Three things I could lived without were his starting act (3 girls who played some loud rock music that wasn't catchy at all), K-OS appearing 2 hours later than expected, and the drunk woman who pulled me and Larry off onto the floor separately to dance wildly. Actually, nevermind, that was pretty funny.

John Mayer (Rexall Place): I never realized how great of a guitarist John was until I saw him live. What was great about it was not only does he have a repetoire of classic/awesome songs, but he's not afraid to go into a solo and really outperform the song. He did all of the usual songs from all his albums, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. And I think he's one of the rare artists who actually showed up relatively on time. His opening act kinda sucked, some country girl..

Bryan Adams (Rexall Place): This was previously my most favorite concert of all time. I didn't think anything would be able to outdo this concert at all because it was so badass. First off, concert opener was Daniel Powter, whose music I really enjoy now since that concert. And then when it came to Bryan, he played ALL of his songs. There's not one popular hit of his that I can think of that he didn't play. He just had such a presense at the venue and you can respect him so much for everything that he's done in the last few decades. Had some wicked guitar solos and also came back for two encores. I also have a memory of him playing the harmonica WHILE playing guitar, who knew he could do that?! Oh yes, how foolish of me, he is Bryan Adams and he can do anything.

Justin Timberlake (Rexall Place): What can I say, this guy is an amazing performer! Even better, he's one of the bigger A-list artists to come out to Edmonton. So what that translates to is that he commands a bigger fan base to sellout Rexall, and since tickets were so fricken expensive, you only get the people who really enjoy his music. It was also really cool to see a bigger and more expensive setup than I had ever seen live. I can't really describe the whole thing with words but when there are bar seats that are connected to the stage for sale at 500-600 bucks, you know it's gonna be a big show.

He did all of his famous songs from his latest album and his first album, and even touched on one N'SYNC song which was kinda cool. I was surprised that the show was more vulgar than anyone was expecting with women pretty much dressed as strippers, swearing, the middle finger, and drinking on stage. Normally it wouldn't be such a shock, but with Justin having some younger fans as well, it came as a pleasant surprise that he didn't try to tame his show.

The cherry on the top of the whole thing was Timbaland's surprise appearance midway through the show where he did his own set. Being that he had cancelled his much-anticipated concert at River Cree weeks before, it was definitely a warm reception for him.

Seats were great as I had some friends who work at Ticketmaster buy them for me 2 weeks prior. I think it was the first time ever that I had sat in the 2nd row for a major concert. My only regret was that Good Charlotte opened for him. I mean they aren't as terrible as I imagined, but he coulda chosen a way better opener.