Friday night's Bif Naked concert was reassuringly similar to every other time I've seen her. Except that she's blonde now. I was a lot closer to the stage this time, with only a single row of crushed front-line people in front of me. I think it was the first time I'd seen her at an 18+ show and it was at Nashville's Electric Roadhouse (holy crap, their next show is Vanilla Ice and Maestro Fresh Wes!), which was new to me. Fewer teeny goths and more guys with mullets than at other Bif shows, but still a good crowd. There were four or five opening bands and I liked the second-last one, though obviously not enough to remember their name. Bif went through the standard playlist, closing out with "We're Not Gonna Take It" as expected. She also commented on the aforementioned truck ad featuring "I Love Myself Today", saying she didn't have the heart to tell the advertising people that the song's about masturbation. Nice one, Bif.

Unfortunately, the timing meant that I missed The Plaid Tongued Devils, who I keep meaning to see, even though they were playing at the Sidetrack Cafe just across the street from my apartment.

I went to an Oscar party in Calgary on Sunday. The highlight was playing with a hyperactive collie. I'm not an Oscar person, though I did enjoy Michael Moore's diatribe.

Last night, I managed to buy the last two tickets to The Waifs' show here in Edmonton. Because they were single tickets, we had to wrangle things a bit to find two spots next to each other. Edmonton loves The Waifs and I've wanted to see them again ever since I saw them at the Woodford Folk Festival a couple of years ago. They were great, as expected, but the opening act was a girl named Serena Ryder. When she came out on stage, my first impression was standard folk-hippie type (which is fine), but then she belted out an amazing blues tune of her own composition and floored everyone. No guitar, no accompaniment, just this unassuming girl with a voice that you'd swear came from someone twice her size and age. She played a few more of her songs, alternating between playing her guitar and going a cappella, and finished with "At Last". It took the crowd one word to realize what she was singing, then they went crazy. Not quite Etta James, but damned good. Sadly, the mp3 on her site doesn't do it justice. I picked up her CD after the show. It was recorded live for a CBC show and has plenty of little imperfections to prove it. Somehow, it seems better that way.