SONiC BOOM Rewind: 2013 & 2014

For years, the Labour Day Long Weekend meant SONiC BOOM in Edmonton. We all miss coming together to sing along with our favourite bands, so let’s reminisce about the ‘good old days’ of live music together!

SONiC BOOM 2013

SONiC BOOM 2013 was quite the year! It featured two full days of music, “SONiC Broom”, Frank’s Red Hot Wrestling Pavilion and more. The first day included Former SONiC Band of the Month Rend along with Half Moon Run, Yukon Blonde, Cold War Kids, The Weakerthans, City and Colour and more. Day two boasted a line up including acts like The Unlikely Candidates, USS (Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker), Death From Above, AWOLNATION, Mother Mother, Weezer, and Blink-182.

It was Super SONiC host Brooklyn’s first SONiC BOOM! She was 17.

The Sheepdogs rolled in an organ for their performance. No big deal.

USS’ Human Kebab kept the good vibes going between sets.

Bands signed the SONiC Star Guitars, later auctioned off for charity.

SONiC listener Trisha remembers the tradition of SONiC BOOM.

“From meeting Ryan G from Mother Mother at SONiC BOOM’s after party, to getting a sweet photo with Max K from the Arkells in VIP, SONiC BOOM always brings the magic. Rain, sun, sleet, outhouses, beer, friends and AMAZING people brought us here year after year. We have made friends for life, including a fill-in musician for The Unlikely Candidates (Wolf Bradley), who now has his own band in California called Habits the Band. We also made friends who travelled from Saskatchewan every year, and we would meet in the VIP section to catch up. I miss SB so much – it hurts my heart.”

Death From Above performed a sweltering set.

Blink-182 stormed on stage with a jam-packed setlist.

SONiC listener Danny had a rock star run in.

“I was putting my shoes back on at the Blink show back in the day after some moshing. While I had one foot in the air trying to get my shoe on, Travis Barker just so happens to throw his drumstick at me and hit me in the head. It fell to the ground and I could only watch as people fought for it. Threw those shoes out the next day.” 

Weezer made their return to the festival and didn’t hold anything back.

Once again, Rivers Cuomo climbed all over the stage like a kid on a playground, just like he had done in 2010.

SONiC BOOM 2014

In 2014, the festival returned – this time for three days! The line up boasted headliners Death Cab for Cutie, Arctic Monkeys and Jack White. Rise Against, Dear Rouge, July Talk, Cage the Elephant, Foster the People and more rounded out the rest of the weekend.

Rise Against put on a high energy 17-song set with not one but two encores. Tim busted out his acoustic guitar for the first encore which featured two acoustic songs: “People Live Here” and “Swing Life Away”. They closed the show with one of their most popular singles, “Savior”.

Brandy Taylor sat down and interviewed Tim McIlrath of Rise Against. You can check out the interview below.

SONiC listener Faith sent in some of her favourite photo memories.

“Hey guys, here are my fave pics that I took from SONiC BOOM.”

July Talk and their famous unicorn mask!

Cage the Elephant’s Matt Schultz crowd surfed.

Brandy Taylor chatted with the Arctic Monkeys in a glamorous RV.

Remember that crazy mirror ball Arctic Monkeys brought with them? It brought their performance to the next LEVEL.

Even though he asked politely not to, some listeners rebelled and took photos of Jack White.

“Hey! Back when cell phone cameras were Meh, I got some kinda cool, but not really sharp photos of the Arctic Monkeys and Jack White.” – SONiC listener Meagan

“That time I crowd surfed to Jack White in 2014 and almost got dropped at SONiC BOOM! Sooooo in love” – SONiC listener Ashlee

The crowd packed right in for Jack White’s set.

He brought the most elegant instruments for his performance.