The Georgia Straight

Reviews by Tom Paille on August 14th, 2026 at 3:02 PM AC/DC returned to BC Place for one final show on the Power Up Tour, which may as well be their final show here. Same as their last show here, the Pretty Reckless opened the affair with a ripping set that lead singer Taylor Momsen led despite the very slowly filling arena. She seemed overmatched but undaunted, and won the crowd over in no time.

Arts Choices by Allan MacInnis on August 14th, 2026 at 3:00 PM I was given two shits by ARGH!!. They're in a jar on my bookshelf: two plastic turds with googly eyes in a disturbingly cloudy mayonnaise container and the words "Two shits by ARGH!!" written on the bottom. I suspect they were meant as a visual pun by the artist, commenting on my caring at least two-turds-worth about his work, as I occasionally come to see him at his oddball art shows, which few people do.

Chicago band Whitney’s first album, Light Upon the Lake, released 10 years ago, was an immediate announcement that the Chicago duo of Max Kakacek and Julien Ehrlich was serious business. The band was formed out of Kakacek and Ehrlich’s previous group, the awesome Smith Westerns (RIP).

It is said that a rising tide lifts all boats, but does that apply to punk rock? Dead Bob, for instance—fronted by John Wright, one of two brothers who were the core of Nomeansno—is definitely seeing audiences grow in size and in enthusiasm. The group played a spectacular headlining show at the Rickshaw this past May in support of its new album Nothing Changes Everything. Dead Bob also undertook a second tour of Europe (mostly Germany, where Nomeansno had a huge following) this past June and July.

In January this year, I sat down with Fable Diner owner Ron MacGillivray to talk about what years of Broadway Subway construction had done to his business. At one point, he said something that stuck with me: “I don’t think I’m going to make it by the time this is finished.” Seven months later, we know he was right. Fable Diner announced this week that its Mount Pleasant location will close after its final service on August 23, ending a run of just over a decade at Broadway and Main.

Vancouver Queer Film Festival is pulling up a chair for its 38th edition, bringing 87 films from around the world to Vancouver screens this September. Running from September 10 to 20 in theatres, followed by a streaming programme from September 21 to 27, the 2026 festival takes “A Seat at the Table” as its theme.

Batch is a Vancouver success story. The restaurant/bar/hangout spot first launched at the Plaza of Nations, which had been absolutely begging for something (anything) to fill its vast emptiness for years. Then the concept hit the deck above Kits Pool, complete with food from the beloved DownLow Chicken Shack.

Some childhood trauma stays with you. “As a kid, when I was walking through the snow, you never knew when you’d go into a snowbank and your leg would get stuck,” recalls Vancouver-based writer Ian Boothby over video call. “One day I was doing that and my foot got stuck underneath a tree branch, but my friends thought there was a monster under the snow and screamed, and then ran away because they were terrified, leaving me to die.

Maybe I’m just naturally optimistic about democracy, despite little to no evidence on that front of late. But I had been wondering for awhile about whether members of the current majority party on Vancouver city council—ABC Vancouver—would attend all-candidate debates in the run-up to October’s municipal election. During the 2022 election cycle, Ken Sim did attend a few mayoral debates. I was at one of them.

Occasionally the cute little captions the Straight puts on photograph cutlines can cause their writers some trouble.