PHOTOS: Flora Falls @ Guilt and Co. - September 08, 2026

Flora Falls
Guilt and Company
September 08, 2026

Christine McAvoy Photography

Elliott BROOD @ Fox Cabaret -- September 08, 2026

It was a raucous Tuesday night at the Fox Cabaret, as Elliott BROOD stopped by Vancouver on their current BC tour.

With no opening band, Mark Sasso, Casey Laforet, and Stephen Pitkin took the stage and kicked off with “Nothing Left” from their 2014 album Work and Love, weaving through songs from their illustrious career. From the ode to their hometown of Windsor, Ontario with “Rose City” off their latest double album Town & Country, going all the way back to Tin Type with “Cadillac Dust” and everything in between. Highlights included the infectious, boot-stompin’ “Without Again”, the rollicking Rodney Crowell cover “Blueberry Wine”, and “Oh, Alberta”, which even featured a brand new verse, finally namedropping BC!

The show had very chill vibes, with the crowd often joining in, stomping & clapping, singing along to songs like the soaring “Northern Air”. And the band was having lots of fun too, often chatting & joking between songs… except for one very important message from Mark: how his CPAP machine saved their collective sanity while touring. Which lead to Casey introducing the next song as “Mark Stepped in the Toilet”.

After the band got the whole room clapping, nearly non-stop, to a rare anti-Californian song “Wind and Snow”, they took a very brief break, but were back out quickly for a few more; first “Dried Up” then their cover of the Cheers theme song. And finally, they brought the evening to an end with a bang with one last singalong, everyone in attendance shouting HEY HEY HEY along with perennial favourite “Write It All Down For You”.

Over the last 17(!) years I’ve seen Elliott BROOD about a dozen times, and they are always such a fun band to watch live. Incredibly tight musically, with loads of energy and charisma. And as an added bonus, the early show with no opener meant it was all done before 10pm!

setlist
Nothing Left
Dig A Little Hole
Bird Dog
Without Again
Out Walkin’
Bluebird Wine [Rodney Crowell cover]
Rose City
Wolfgang
Oh, Alberta
Northern Air
Paper Money
Stay Out
Mark Stepped in the Toilet Only At Home
Cadillac Dust
The Bridge
The Banjo Song
Wind and Snow
(encore)
Dried Up
Where Everybody Knows Your Name [Gary Portnoy cover]
Write It All Down For You

"Weird Al" Yankovic @ PNE Amphitheatre -- September 03, 2026

The very first concert I ever saw (aside from children’s entertainers like Charlotte Diamond) was “Weird Al” Yankovic at the Orpheum Theatre, in 1996 on the Bad Hair Day Tour. I saw him again in ‘99, but despite my enduring love for the legendary parody artist, I haven’t had a chance to see him live since then. So when he returned to Vancouver at the new PNE Amphitheatre for the Summer Nights Concerts series, I wasn’t going to miss him again.

Opening the tour was Puddles Pity Party, the pierrot whiteface clown act of Mike Geier. He came out and sat alone on stage as the music of Harry Carroll’s “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” played behind him & he sang, while a video of him literally chasing a person in a rainbow morph suit was on the big screen behind him. From there, his set consisted of covers accompanied by relevant videos — including an inordinate amount of Kevin Costner clips — as well as pulling audience members up on stage to join them.

Songs included “Let’s Give ‘Em Pumpkin To Talk About”, a version of the Bonnie Raitt classic about everyone’s favourite fall spice source, a mashup of the Gilligan’s Island theme song sung to “Stairway to Heaven”, and my favourite “Crazy Train” where he enlisted a small child to “play guitar” while clips of infuriating moments played behind them; people doing mundane tasks wrong, objects almost but not quite breaking, that sort of thing.

He capped off the set with Queen & Bowie’s “Under Pressure” with another guest he pulled on stage, fed snacks through the whole song leading to the final moment of the song, where the guest had to eek out the last words through a full mouth. He was a very fun opener, not just with his stage show, but a great singer as well!

Then it was time for the man himself, as the screens flickered on with the introductory video to the Bigger & Weirder tour, a kaiju-sized “Weird Al” Yankovic in a 50’s era city. While this played, the band filled the stage and started off with “Tacky”, the video screens showing Weird Al as he sang his way through the backstage area and appeared in front of the crowd. He quickly apologised that the show needed to begin with a powerpoint presentation before launching into “Mission Statement”, and then as the sun set, pulled out the accordion for “Polkamania!”, the 2024 version of his hit-song-medley.

The night wove through his forty-plus year career, hitting favourite parodies like “Smells Like Nirvana” and “Fat”, with appropriate costumes, as well as his originals, including “One More Minute” where he went up and down the aisles serenading fans, and the DEVO-inspired “Dare to be Stupid”, yellow radiation suits and all.

Every few songs there was also a burst of clips on screen (mostly when Al needed a costume change) that included everything from snippets of his biopic Weird to various cameos in TV & movies over the years, and of course some of his famous interviews with celebrities. He also included a couple of the theme songs he’s known for, like from the Captain Underpants movie.

Partway through the set, he started “Party in the C.I.A.” and then wove through a medley of parodies, including “Bedrock Anthem”, “My Bologna”, “Like a Virgin”, and “Canadian Idiot” would have blown the roof off the amphitheatre had it not been outdoors already.

Al also was having fun with longtime members of the band, initiating a couple drum solos from Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz, which just consisted of a couple notes each, then when he solicitated requests from the crowd, he landed on the guitarist Jim “Kimo” West who cautiously replied “I dunno… some Bowie?” before launching into an actual cover (not parody) of “Suffragette City”.

The main set came to a close with two all time favourite parodies, “White and Nerdy”, which saw Al scooting around stage on a segway, and then a huge singalong to “Amish Paradise”, as it wrapped up with a bombastic musical number and Al introducing the band, as well as doing a couple James Brown-esque fakeouts, cape and all.

But of course there would be a couple more songs as stormtroopers filled the stage, and Al launched into… “We All Have Cell Phones” a short song inspired by his previously shown interview with Michael Stipe. But then, of course, he lead the amphitheatre as everyone sang along to “The Saga Begins” and finally capping off the two-hour set with “Yoda”, which included the famous rhythmic & hypnotic “Yoda Chant”.

Throughout the show, all the child-like wonder I had of seeing him the first time came flooding back. Not only is Weird Al an incredible performer, but the whole band is amazingly tight and the stage show is fantastically put together. Afterwards, my cheeks hurt from laughing and smiling the whole time, and I am so glad I went to see Weird Al again.

setlist
Tacky
Mission Statement
Polkamania!
Everything You Know Is Wrong
One More Minute
Smells Like Nirvana
Dare to Be Stupid
Medley: Party in the CIA / It’s All About the Pentiums / Bedrock Anthem / My Bologna / Ricky / Ode to a Superhero / I Love Rocky Road / Eat It / Like a Surgeon / Word Crimes / Canadian Idiot
Fat
Captain Underpants Theme Song
Now You Know
Suffragette City (David Bowie cover)
Skipper Dan
eBay
Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me
White & Nerdy
Amish Paradise
[encore]
We All Have Cell Phones
The Saga Begins
Yoda

Trans-Canada Highwaymen @ Commodore Ballroom -- June 06, 2026

Ten years ago, four icons of CanCon alt-rock got together to form Trans-Canada Highwaymen. After some on and off touring and the release of Explosive Hits Vol. 1 — covering some late 60s and 70s Canadian classics — Chris Murphy (Sloan), Craig Northey (Odds), Steven Page (Barenaked Ladies), and Moe Berg (the Pursuit of Happiness) finally made it to Vancouver. And nothing was going to stop me from seeing them (not even a high school reunion).

With no opener, Trans-Canada Highwaymen hit the stage as each member took turn on vocals, starting with Page doing BNL’s “It’s All Been Done”, Craig with “Someone Who’s Cool”, Moe taking over on “Hard to Laugh” and Chris not doing a Sloan song, but Michel Pagliaro’s “Lovin’ You Ain’t Easy”.

That set the stage for the rest of the show with the four members trading off vocals, harmonizing with each other, and rotating around the stage; Chris drummed for most of the night, but each member took their own turn at least once. As well as their own hits, they got some classic covers from their album, and the “Theme from Trans-Canada Highwaymen”, an autobiographical song about the start of the band. All four members were clearly having a ton of fun as they joked and laughed with the crowd, constantly needled not only each other between songs, but even people not on stage when Chris made up a Smugglers song on the spot once they confirmed Grant Lawrence was in the crowd. 

Other highlights were classics like Seven Page rocking “Undun” from The Guess Who and Moe channeling Lifehouse’s “Pretty Lady”. For their own tunes, the crowd was singing along with songs like “Underwhelmed”, the eternally catchy “Jane”, and “She’s So Young”. Near the end of the set, Odds’ “Make You Mad” segued into something of a CanCon Medley, with each member taking turns singing lines from iconic Canadian songs including (but not limited to) The Tragically Hip, 54-50, Loverboy, Bryan Adams, Barney Bentall, BTO, Chilliwack, Doug & The Slugs, and wrapping up with the Sleep Country Canada jingle. 

The main set came to an end with me getting chills as everyone sang along to one of my favourite songs, “Brian Wilson”,  but the band was back out for a couple more. First Andy Kim’s “Rock Me Gently”, before one more Sloan hit “The Rest of My Life” and the song Steven, Craig, and Chris all credited as opening the door for them on the radio, “I’m an Adult Now”.

Page then said that was normally the end of their set, but they had one special surprise for us, introducing Geoffrey Kelly from Spirit of the West as they had the entire commodore singing (and jumping) along to “Home for a Rest” for one of the most fun endings to a show I’ve seen.

One of my favourite ‘unique concert concepts’ is a supergroup getting together and playing a bunch of their individual songs together. I’ve been lucky to see that sort of show a few times, and it could be recency bias, but this was definitely my favourite. It was a great night spending two hours with some incredible musicians celebrating song amazing Canadian music.

setlist
It’s All Been Done (Barenaked Ladies)
Someone Who’s Cool (Odds)
Hard to Laugh (The Pursuit of Happiness)
Lovin’ You Ain’t Easy (Michel Pagliaro)
Theme from Trans-Canada Highwaymen
It Falls Apart (Odds)
Jane (Barenaked Ladies)
Pretty Lady (Lighthouse)
Underwhelmed (Sloan)
Undun (The Guess Who)
Tonight Is a Wonderful Time to Fall in Love (April Wine)
She’s So Young (The Pursuit of Happiness)
The Other Man (Sloan)
The Old Apartment (Barenaked Ladies) 
Make You Mad (Odds)
CanCon Medley
Brian Wilson (Barenaked Ladies)
(Encore)
Rock Me Gently (Andy Kim)
The Rest of My Life (Sloan)
I’m an Adult Now (The Pursuit of Happiness)
Home for a Rest (Spirit of the West)

Spencer Krug @ St. James -- June 05, 2026

Last month, Spencer Krug released his latest album Same Fangs, and has been on a tour throughout western Canada, culminating with a show here in Vancouver. And as soon as it was announced at St. James Hall, I knew that was the absolute perfect venue to see the prolific singer do a solo piano show.

Opening the night was Elbow Kiss, who was also featured on Krug’s new album. They took the stage alone with an acoustic guitar, starting with “No Way Around” as their lovely voice drifted through the room. Between each song, they told brief stories as introductions, evoking Garry Oak Meadow on “Palm of Your Eye” and the strange manifestation of “Josephine”. They wrapped up with their latest single, “Blue Ember”, and one more transfixing song I didn’t catch the name of, for a wonderful set.

Soon after, Spencer Krug took a seat behind the grand piano on stage. He quipped about starting a show being the hardest part before launching into “The Fog”, his fingers flying over the piano while his howling vocals filled the old church.

From there, he wove through his entire library, touching on releases under his own name like the piano variation of “How We Have to Live”, to when he was Moonface with the powerful intensity of “Barbarian I” and its sequel, and back through a few Sunset Rubdown tunes like “Us Ones In Between”. He even reworked the old Wolf Parade song “I’ll Believe in Anything”, giving it a heart wrenching piano version for its renewed popularity.

Near the end of the set, Elbow Kiss joined him for a few songs off Same Fangs, their voices intertwining beautifully on “Berserker Mode” and playing off each other on the gorgeous “Pinecone King”.

At that point, Krug noted it would be a great time for the encore, jokingly running behind the curtain and immediately reappearing for a pair of my favourites from any of his projects; first the haunting “City Wrecker” and then “Julia With Blue Jeans On”, which always floors me live, but even more so in this venue, as it built to a tear-inducing finish.

As the set was wrapping up, Krug self-effacingly cracked that he was always shocked people watch a man at a piano for so long. But I could’ve watched him play all night, and I don’t think I was the only one. For the whole show, the crowd was completely rapt; silent during each song and then exploding with applause once the final note drifted away, and giving a well deserved ovation once the show was done.

setlist
The Fog
My Puppeteer
How We Have to Live
Fast Peter
Barbarian I
Barbarian II
The Shadow
Us Ones in Between
A Day in the Graveyard II
I’ll Believe in Anything
Timebomb
Berserker Mode
Pinecone King 
”Encore”
City Wrecker
Julia with Blue Jeans On