Instruments

Bieber Fever at Air Canada Centre

Entertainment / Music Teen singing sensation entertains but doesn’t genuinely connect with fans. Nick Krewen Special to the Star, Published on Tue Nov 23 2010   He’s unstoppable! The teen pop phenom freight train known as Justin Bieber barrelled over a sold-out Air Canada Centre audience for the second time in three months Tuesday night, with a dazzling 90-minute tease-and-please spectacle designed to activate that dormant female gene that only comes alive…


KT Tunstall ducking out of the singles game

Entertainment / Music Singer in town to play the Phoenix, with a new album that’s dancier and more electronic than before.   Nick Krewen Special to the Star Published on Mon Nov 22 2010   When you write a song as invigoratingly infectious as the 2006 strum-driven, romantic, self-empowerment anthem “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree,” the desire to try to creatively repeat that magic can be overwhelming. However, Scottish singer and…


Carrie Underwood at the ACC: She sings, she scores

Entertainment / Music Carrie Underwood didn’t need the fancy props she brought to her concert. This performer is magnificent.    Nick Krewen Special to the Star Published on Wed Nov 03 2010 Like her hockey-playing husband, Carrie Underwood knows a few things about scoring. Twenty-four hours after centre Mike Fisher spearheaded an Ottawa Senators victory in a squeaker over our beloved Toronto Maple Leafs, Mrs. Fisher, a.k.a Underwood, returned to the scene…


Ryuichi Sakamoto works with giants and with glaciers

Composer found music even in the frigid waters of the Arctic Sea.  Nick Krewen Special to the Star, Mon Oct 25 2010 Over 80 albums and 32 years, revered Japanese cultural icon Ryuichi Sakamoto — who made a rare Toronto concert appearance Sunday at the Queen Elizabeth Centre — has dabbled in a lot of genres. Since he graduated from his electronic music studies at Tokyo’s University of Art, Sakamoto,…


Plundering the past with Phil Collins

Plundering the past with Phil Collins | Toronto Star A mature pop titan becomes a covers act for the first time.  Nick Krewen Special to the Star Published on Fri Oct 08 2010 “I just bought a second cannon.” Not exactly the words you expect to hear flowing from the mouth of Phil Collins. But the 59-year-old’s chief passion these days is no longer music, but collecting 1820-1840 era Texas…