{"data":{"id":"7aa7bee3-b371-428a-b899-7b57cecae08d","originKind":"SYNDICATED","title":"Review: No hard road on the Sam Roberts Band's nostalgia trip to Chemical City","summary":"“The past is an intoxicating place. It’s like a highlight reel of existence.”\n\nSo said Montreal’s Sam Roberts four songs into his retrospective set at Edmonton’s Jubilee Auditorium highlighting the 20th anniversary of Chemical City, a expansive concept album that cemented the eponymous Sam Roberts Band as standard-bearers for Canadian rock (rawk?) in the mid-2000s.\n\nThe album itself was a bit of a swing, musically speaking, and I’ve always been a fan of big swings, and sometimes not so big swings.\n\nOn the heels of becoming somewhat ubiquitous on Canadian radio, not to mention MuchMusic AND Much More Music, with breakout hits Brother Down, Don’t Walk Away Eileen and Where Have All the Good People Gone (which all got their due in the second half of Saturday night’s show), Roberts and Co. took a detour, both physically and musically, decamping to Australia to record what’s ultimately a sweeping vista of an album.\n\nWhile the idea of bands playing legacy albums in full isn’t new, this would be my first time seeing such an affair.\n\nIn a way, a concert featuring the performance of an album in its entirety is kind of strange because it takes away the unpredictability of a concert, when you don’t know where the artist is going to go, what songs they’ll draw from. The beats are all familiar.\n\nBut at the same time, the Chemical City itself was a journey and the audience was on the trip with the guide who drew the map.\n\nIn this instance, the songs were more insistent. The groove more pulsating. The sound larger.\n\nOpener The Gate — with its layered build of keys, bass and guitar, before drums punctuated the intro like a starter’s pistol — set the tone for the night, with its almost snarling psychedelic swirl.\n\nBridge to Nowhere, meanwhile, it’s hazy, spacy flow, provided the first of many singalong moments for the night, before the crescendo started again on rocker With a Bullet.\n\nThe concert reached an early peak with the fourth song of the night, the extended jam of Mind Flood.\n\nNormally this is an encore song, Roberts joked with the crowd, “the encore of the encore. And now we’re playing it fourth.”\n\n“These are the mistakes of youth.”\n\nIn another life, or another country, you could easily have seen these guys as a shoegaze or space rock outfit.\n\nRoberts seems not to have lost a step in the 24 years since they first played the Jube during a multi-night stint opening for The Tragically Hip, strutting the stage like he’s still in his 20s.\n\nHis voice, while still in fine form, is a little more frayed, a little more yearning, especially on Uprising Down Under, the tenderness of his vocals and acoustic guitar ultimately carried aloft as the band rounded out the song.\n\nFrom there, the crescendo starts again, like a wave cresting, from Mystified, Heavy’s sensation of floating, to the propulsive stomp of An American Draft Dodger in Thunder Bay and the shimmering guitars and tight groove of Bootleg Saint.\n\nAs the Chemical City guided tour hits the home stretch, we’re gifted duelling guitar and organ solos from Dave Nugent and Eric Fares before Roberts took to the piano for the plaintive cries of A Stone Will Cry Out. As an album closer, it’s fitting, as it feels weary, as though the band, not to mention the audience, is entirely spent.\n\nIf that was the totality of the show, the audience would have been able to walk away with a satisfying experience.\n\nBut as is customary, the back half of the show was chock full of hits, leaning heavily on their first and third albums, We Were Born in a Flame and Love at the End of the World, though it was the Lo-Fantasy single We’re All in This Together that got the crowd not already on their feet up and dancing.\n\nThe aforementioned trio of hits — Don’t Walk Away Eileen, Where Have All the Good People Gone, and Brother Down — by this point etched indelibly in the consciousness of Canadian music fans, helped tuck the audience in for the night.\n\nThe show was a reminder that while, ultimately, you don’t want to live in the past, it’s more than OK to visit every once in a while.\n\nRelated Edmonton's best concerts 2025: The Roots, Sarah McLachlan and Sigur Ros made for a sweet year\n\nConcert newa: Canadian R&B star Daniel Caesar playing Rogers Place Aug. 13\n\nBookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.\n\nYou can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.","url":"https://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/review-sam-roberts-edmonton-chemical-city","imageUrl":"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/0424-city-col-kelly_302400148.jpg","publishedAt":"2026-04-19T19:15:57.000Z","sourceLabel":"Edmonton Journal Music","tags":["Entertainment","Local Arts","Music"],"authorName":"Dave Breakenridge","contentHtml":"\"Sam

“The past is an intoxicating place. It’s like a highlight reel of existence.”

So said Montreal’s Sam Roberts four songs into his retrospective set at Edmonton’s Jubilee Auditorium highlighting the 20th anniversary of Chemical City, a expansive concept album that cemented the eponymous Sam Roberts Band as standard-bearers for Canadian rock (rawk?) in the mid-2000s.

The album itself was a bit of a swing, musically speaking, and I’ve always been a fan of big swings, and sometimes not so big swings.

On the heels of becoming somewhat ubiquitous on Canadian radio, not to mention MuchMusic AND Much More Music, with breakout hits Brother Down, Don’t Walk Away Eileen and Where Have All the Good People Gone (which all got their due in the second half of Saturday night’s show), Roberts and Co. took a detour, both physically and musically, decamping to Australia to record what’s ultimately a sweeping vista of an album.

While the idea of bands playing legacy albums in full isn’t new, this would be my first time seeing such an affair.

In a way, a concert featuring the performance of an album in its entirety is kind of strange because it takes away the unpredictability of a concert, when you don’t know where the artist is going to go, what songs they’ll draw from. The beats are all familiar.

But at the same time, the Chemical City itself was a journey and the audience was on the trip with the guide who drew the map.

In this instance, the songs were more insistent. The groove more pulsating. The sound larger.

\"

Opener The Gate — with its layered build of keys, bass and guitar, before drums punctuated the intro like a starter’s pistol — set the tone for the night, with its almost snarling psychedelic swirl.

Bridge to Nowhere, meanwhile, it’s hazy, spacy flow, provided the first of many singalong moments for the night, before the crescendo started again on rocker With a Bullet.

The concert reached an early peak with the fourth song of the night, the extended jam of Mind Flood.

Normally this is an encore song, Roberts joked with the crowd, “the encore of the encore. And now we’re playing it fourth.”

“These are the mistakes of youth.”

In another life, or another country, you could easily have seen these guys as a shoegaze or space rock outfit.

Roberts seems not to have lost a step in the 24 years since they first played the Jube during a multi-night stint opening for The Tragically Hip, strutting the stage like he’s still in his 20s.

His voice, while still in fine form, is a little more frayed, a little more yearning, especially on Uprising Down Under, the tenderness of his vocals and acoustic guitar ultimately carried aloft as the band rounded out the song.

From there, the crescendo starts again, like a wave cresting, from Mystified, Heavy’s sensation of floating, to the propulsive stomp of An American Draft Dodger in Thunder Bay and the shimmering guitars and tight groove of Bootleg Saint.

As the Chemical City guided tour hits the home stretch, we’re gifted duelling guitar and organ solos from Dave Nugent and Eric Fares before Roberts took to the piano for the plaintive cries of A Stone Will Cry Out. As an album closer, it’s fitting, as it feels weary, as though the band, not to mention the audience, is entirely spent.

\"

If that was the totality of the show, the audience would have been able to walk away with a satisfying experience.

But as is customary, the back half of the show was chock full of hits, leaning heavily on their first and third albums, We Were Born in a Flame and Love at the End of the World, though it was the Lo-Fantasy single We’re All in This Together that got the crowd not already on their feet up and dancing.

The aforementioned trio of hits — Don’t Walk Away Eileen, Where Have All the Good People Gone, and Brother Down — by this point etched indelibly in the consciousness of Canadian music fans, helped tuck the audience in for the night.

The show was a reminder that while, ultimately, you don’t want to live in the past, it’s more than OK to visit every once in a while.

Related

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.

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