{"data":{"id":"b7e73cf0-bd04-453b-b8b7-af8975ec5f85","originKind":"SYNDICATED","title":"Purple City outdoes itself with War on Women, Sook-Yin Lee and many more","summary":"And so it was Purple City Music Fest rolled through, ever an innovative game-changer with a keen eye on the dark horizon.\n\nIt was the fifth Purple City – sort of – the fest first in pop-up preview form at Hawrelak Park back in pandemic 2021 with all local bands after being reborn from the ashes of 2013-2019’s UP+DT.\n\nFirmly past its “will-it-survive?” kitten stage, the most notable thing about this year’s three-day fest over the weekend was just how many headliners were a) magnificent and b) women-led.\n\nAnd hell yeah, were they vocal and loud and wonderful.\n\nFormer MuchMusic VJ Sook-Yin Lee pops to mind, first and foremost – one of the fest’s keynote speakers along with Baltimore’s War on Women singer, Shawna Potter.\n\nLee’s packed Sunday-night show at Starlite secured her reputation, like Laurie Anderson and David Bowie before her, of being a true artist, first and foremost, years of rubbing shoulders with international stars found her in a place of impeccably good taste as a smart performer.\n\nAmid angel-voiced singing and industrial growls – not to mention a healing, singalong Green Tara Mantra – her woodwind-recorder cover of Marianne Faithfull’s 1980 hit Broken English was a fest highlight as she sang words repeated throughout the weekend, one way or another: “What are we fighting for?”\n\nLater that night, over at Freemason’s Hall, War on Women’s Potter echoed the same idea as a punk-metal lead singer who could give Bruce Dickinson a run for his money as she spoke of emergent chaos we seem to be mindlessly leaping into. “They want us divided,” deliciously resistant Potter said between thrashing around on stage with her hair whipping around. “Let’s get over our petty squabbles. Let’s f—ing get there together.”\n\nThat show, just wow, especially the penultimate Aqua Tofana where she pointed at various men in the audience singing, “But time’s up, yeah, you have to go. Your whole kind had a good run. We’re left with no other option.” Best hardcore show I’ve seen this year, easily.\n\nGoing all the way back to Friday in the same space full of ancient masonic symbols, another punk show had a special introduction as the set of local band Criminal Piss was interrupted by the fest’s pink Grimace mascot Nurple on stage.\n\nFrom the back of the room amid laughs and applause, the city was introduced to what I first called Gurple – a female-coded Nurple actually named Penelope: black bow and eyelashes bouncing around various venues for the rest of the weekend, including the two free outdoors lineups Saturday and Sunday complete with Love Wrestling matches.\n\nTopping the first of these was Calvin Love, on the lineup during the 2021 preview and first up in the fest’s official launch the next year. Every time I see him he gets better, the straight-ahead rock set culminating in a Tragically Hip-style freakout jam. Yes!\n\nThe next afternoon in Purple City’s coldest year because, of course, it is in 2026, The Wet Secrets dusted off its marching band uniforms, singer Lyle Bell wearing a Dead South beard and, at first, Garfield-round sunglasses as this crazy-good band had the whole outdoor crowd dancing, including former mayor Don Iveson.\n\nOne sweet moment saw Bell dedicate Quelle Suprise to fallen locals including writer Darren Zenko and the city’s unofficial mayor, Brian J. Knight – and he also nodded to band co-founder/filmmaker Trevor Anderson.\n\nIn front of a row of kids on the up-front subwoofers Nightlife/Knife Fight was off the rails, Kim Rackel and Emma Frazier, as usual, had all eyes on them in those giant white platform boots playing horns.\n\nMost of the action was subterranean, mind you. Y Afterhours upstairs and down stuffed with claustrophobic packed crowds all three nights, neon Blade Runner bondage gear and other such goth and dark wave vibes seeing memorable shows – usually duos – by Austin’s Jet Cemetery, Seattle’s amazing MØAA, Calgary’s krautrock-flavoured punk Bridgeland, and all this just Friday night amid 10 other acts.\n\nCalm and haunting misery folk The Deep Dark Woods filled the beautiful, new-to-the-fest All Saints’ Anglican Cathedral, no offense about five times better than McDougall United for what this festival needs, starting with the best sound of any of the nine stages.\n\nAll the Money I Had Is Gone was a heartbreaking highlight, locals Aladean Kheroufi on bass and drummer Mike Silverman already touring with singer Ryan Boldt’s project, about to head to Europe for three and a half weeks.\n\nThroat Piss, another crazy highlight over at Temple – powerhouse singer Swamp Wench with a deep bass drone sax played by Aaron Yuhas. So heavy, so great, with vibes that would scare Alice Cooper.\n\nThat night ended – for me at least – with chipper, bouncy, super-fun psych rock band Iguana Death Cult, just the most positive vibes imaginable – with very cute bunny shirts, to boot.\n\nSaturday, meanwhile, was such a whirl I struggled to keep what order things happened in on the way to Oakland’s Shannon Shaw doing a brilliant throwback rock and roll show at the totally full and happy Starlite.\n\nHer music somewhere on the dive-bar outskirts of Neko Case and Lana Del Rey, Shaw had incredible presence with her heartbreak, don’t mess with me ballads, and boy did everyone love it when she growled through the chorus of INXS’ Never Tear Us Apart.\n\nBondage gear-duo E.T. overcame some early mic problems and roared into a Skinny Puppy place earlier Saturday, while Dark Chisme’s Christine Gutiérrez noted that if it’s the end of the world, we may as well dance and enjoy ourselves, both in Y upstairs after the GameBoy-driven, punchy madness of locals Sloosh played below, a masked Metro Kit screaming delicious obscenities, burrowing into the squished-tight underground crowd.\n\nLocal-wise, haven’t even told you about Bad Buddy and the impossible-to-escape Big Evil Rat, not to mention Rocky Mann further abusing her ankle, which had her waving a cane in support of bands henceforth. Plus Verttigo, also so beautiful and positive, love them.\n\nOh yeah, and Hot Garbage: the spirit of Sonic Youth kept alive under the dizzying visuals everywhere all weekend.\n\nSuffice it to say, you may not recognize most of the bands on next year’s Purple City lineup, but you’ll be hooting from the rooftops about them afterwards: my favourite-above-all takeaway from the weekend being Penny and Pits – sort of a surf-rocky, ’90s grunge act out of the Maritimes led by Motherhood’s Penelope Stevens (no relation to the new Gurple mascot). Seek their songs Pool Party and especially Self Defense.\n\nWho did I forget? Yell at me all you like, if you must; I’ll be asleep over in a pile over here in the corner for a few days, dreaming of pink Grimaces wiggling their weird butts in the chilly night.\n\nfgriwkowsky@postmedia.com\n\n@fisheyefoto.bsky.social\n\nRelated Alberta Ballet will present Canadian premiere of Edward Clug's Peer Gynt as part of its 60th anniversary season\n\nPreview: Broadway musical shakes up classic tale with new life for Juliet\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/edmonton-purple-city-music-festival-war-on-women-sook-yin-lee","imageUrl":"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/0917-you-purplecity-3.jpg","publishedAt":"2026-09-15T15:49:30.000Z","sourceLabel":"Edmonton Journal Music","tags":["Entertainment","Festivals","Music"],"authorName":"Fish Griwkowsky","contentHtml":"\"Shannon

And so it was Purple City Music Fest rolled through, ever an innovative game-changer with a keen eye on the dark horizon.

It was the fifth Purple City – sort of – the fest first in pop-up preview form at Hawrelak Park back in pandemic 2021 with all local bands after being reborn from the ashes of 2013-2019’s UP+DT.

Firmly past its “will-it-survive?” kitten stage, the most notable thing about this year’s three-day fest over the weekend was just how many headliners were a) magnificent and b) women-led.

And hell yeah, were they vocal and loud and wonderful.

\"

Former MuchMusic VJ Sook-Yin Lee pops to mind, first and foremost – one of the fest’s keynote speakers along with Baltimore’s War on Women singer, Shawna Potter.

Lee’s packed Sunday-night show at Starlite secured her reputation, like Laurie Anderson and David Bowie before her, of being a true artist, first and foremost, years of rubbing shoulders with international stars found her in a place of impeccably good taste as a smart performer.

Amid angel-voiced singing and industrial growls – not to mention a healing, singalong Green Tara Mantra – her woodwind-recorder cover of Marianne Faithfull’s 1980 hit Broken English was a fest highlight as she sang words repeated throughout the weekend, one way or another: “What are we fighting for?”

Later that night, over at Freemason’s Hall, War on Women’s Potter echoed the same idea as a punk-metal lead singer who could give Bruce Dickinson a run for his money as she spoke of emergent chaos we seem to be mindlessly leaping into. “They want us divided,” deliciously resistant Potter said between thrashing around on stage with her hair whipping around. “Let’s get over our petty squabbles. Let’s f—ing get there together.”

That show, just wow, especially the penultimate Aqua Tofana where she pointed at various men in the audience singing, “But time’s up, yeah, you have to go. Your whole kind had a good run. We’re left with no other option.” Best hardcore show I’ve seen this year, easily.

Going all the way back to Friday in the same space full of ancient masonic symbols, another punk show had a special introduction as the set of local band Criminal Piss was interrupted by the fest’s pink Grimace mascot Nurple on stage.

From the back of the room amid laughs and applause, the city was introduced to what I first called Gurple – a female-coded Nurple actually named Penelope: black bow and eyelashes bouncing around various venues for the rest of the weekend, including the two free outdoors lineups Saturday and Sunday complete with Love Wrestling matches.

Topping the first of these was Calvin Love, on the lineup during the 2021 preview and first up in the fest’s official launch the next year. Every time I see him he gets better, the straight-ahead rock set culminating in a Tragically Hip-style freakout jam. Yes!

\"

The next afternoon in Purple City’s coldest year because, of course, it is in 2026, The Wet Secrets dusted off its marching band uniforms, singer Lyle Bell wearing a Dead South beard and, at first, Garfield-round sunglasses as this crazy-good band had the whole outdoor crowd dancing, including former mayor Don Iveson.

One sweet moment saw Bell dedicate Quelle Suprise to fallen locals including writer Darren Zenko and the city’s unofficial mayor, Brian J. Knight – and he also nodded to band co-founder/filmmaker Trevor Anderson.

In front of a row of kids on the up-front subwoofers Nightlife/Knife Fight was off the rails, Kim Rackel and Emma Frazier, as usual, had all eyes on them in those giant white platform boots playing horns.

Most of the action was subterranean, mind you. Y Afterhours upstairs and down stuffed with claustrophobic packed crowds all three nights, neon Blade Runner bondage gear and other such goth and dark wave vibes seeing memorable shows – usually duos – by Austin’s Jet Cemetery, Seattle’s amazing MØAA, Calgary’s krautrock-flavoured punk Bridgeland, and all this just Friday night amid 10 other acts.

Calm and haunting misery folk The Deep Dark Woods filled the beautiful, new-to-the-fest All Saints’ Anglican Cathedral, no offense about five times better than McDougall United for what this festival needs, starting with the best sound of any of the nine stages.

All the Money I Had Is Gone was a heartbreaking highlight, locals Aladean Kheroufi on bass and drummer Mike Silverman already touring with singer Ryan Boldt’s project, about to head to Europe for three and a half weeks.

\"

Throat Piss, another crazy highlight over at Temple – powerhouse singer Swamp Wench with a deep bass drone sax played by Aaron Yuhas. So heavy, so great, with vibes that would scare Alice Cooper.

That night ended – for me at least – with chipper, bouncy, super-fun psych rock band Iguana Death Cult, just the most positive vibes imaginable – with very cute bunny shirts, to boot.

Saturday, meanwhile, was such a whirl I struggled to keep what order things happened in on the way to Oakland’s Shannon Shaw doing a brilliant throwback rock and roll show at the totally full and happy Starlite.

Her music somewhere on the dive-bar outskirts of Neko Case and Lana Del Rey, Shaw had incredible presence with her heartbreak, don’t mess with me ballads, and boy did everyone love it when she growled through the chorus of INXS’ Never Tear Us Apart.

Bondage gear-duo E.T. overcame some early mic problems and roared into a Skinny Puppy place earlier Saturday, while Dark Chisme’s Christine Gutiérrez noted that if it’s the end of the world, we may as well dance and enjoy ourselves, both in Y upstairs after the GameBoy-driven, punchy madness of locals Sloosh played below, a masked Metro Kit screaming delicious obscenities, burrowing into the squished-tight underground crowd.

Local-wise, haven’t even told you about Bad Buddy and the impossible-to-escape Big Evil Rat, not to mention Rocky Mann further abusing her ankle, which had her waving a cane in support of bands henceforth. Plus Verttigo, also so beautiful and positive, love them.

Oh yeah, and Hot Garbage: the spirit of Sonic Youth kept alive under the dizzying visuals everywhere all weekend.

Suffice it to say, you may not recognize most of the bands on next year’s Purple City lineup, but you’ll be hooting from the rooftops about them afterwards: my favourite-above-all takeaway from the weekend being Penny and Pits – sort of a surf-rocky, ’90s grunge act out of the Maritimes led by Motherhood’s Penelope Stevens (no relation to the new Gurple mascot). Seek their songs Pool Party and especially Self Defense.

Who did I forget? Yell at me all you like, if you must; I’ll be asleep over in a pile over here in the corner for a few days, dreaming of pink Grimaces wiggling their weird butts in the chilly night.

fgriwkowsky@postmedia.com

@fisheyefoto.bsky.social

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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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