Weekend Concert Previews, Concert Cancellations, And New Videos!!

Before we begin this weekend's concert previews, just a heads up that local metal/hard rock band Tarnished's planned shows at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino tomorrow and on Saturday have been cancelled due to the ongoing closure of all Kewadin branches following the ransomware attack earlier this month. The attack affected phones and computer systems at all branches, and their on-site lounges remain closed as of this writing, so any concerts there are off, including Boyne City classic rock band Derailed's planned St. Ignace Kewadin dates this weekend. In their Facebook post confirming the cancellations, Tarnished said that "we will have a rescheduled weekend", but unlike Oz last week, they have not announced the dates yet. We'll keep you posted when we hear more! In terms of hard rock-leaning events, eyes should be on the Tesla concert at The Dreammakers Theatre in Sault Ste. Marie next Friday.

Obviously, having all five Kewadin Casino locations closed is far from ideal, and they'd prefer to be open sooner rather than later, as they're not making money with no casino, bars, or events available on site, but ransomware attacks are serious. When they're ready to re-open, we'll let you know, and while I've seen and heard nothing to suggest that the Tesla show is in danger yet, follow Kewadin Casinos' social media accounts for further details on their eventual re-opening and concert schedules!

Now, let's dive into known hard rock concerts taking place this relatively quiet concert weekend, and we'll stay in Michigan to start, as local hard rock cover quartet Unfortunate Sun will return to Huck's Pub & Grill in nearby Rudyard for the first time in 2025 on SATURDAY NIGHT! Three months removed from headlining a "hunter's widow party" there, and two weeks after their I-500 weekend gigs at The Merch, Saturday's concert from "your favourite rockin' band" should be a good opportunity to enjoy some hard rocking covers from this talented veteran group, even if your face doesn't quite melt as much as Major Toht's did! This one-nighter goes down on Saturday at 8:00 PM, you must be 21 or older to attend, and there is no announced cover charge (though take advantage of the cake offer at the bottom of the poster at your own discretion). Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Unfortunate Sun live!

Lastly for known hard rock concerts this weekend, Sault Ontario southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 will take the stage for one night only at Soo Blaster THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! As a handful of other heavier cover-leaning bands have done in the past few years, Bone Yard are getting the solo spotlight at Soo Blaster as their momentum increases, and it'll be good to see the guys rocking the large stage there with their hard hitting covers and their slowly growing repertoire of original music! No word on if their "Bone Yard shot" will be on tap, but merchandise should be on sale, and note that local internet radio station The Borderline (where your local 225 appeared for an interview last month) are this show's advertised sponsors. No, Bone Yard aren't booked elsewhere tomorrow night. Saturday's concert has a 9:00 PM start time, no announced cover charge, and a 19+ age limit. Visit the above links for more details, and here's the 225 live!

Finally, let's look at some new live videos from a band not playing live this weekend, namely local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations! Over the Valentine's/Family Day long weekend, they rocked Jay's Piston Broke Pub, and attendee Josie Vella was there on either the 14th or 15th to film two videos posted onto the band's Facebook group on Sunday. One sees Generations covering Alannah Myles' "Black Velvet" with frontwoman Valerie Powley on lead vocals, but embedded below is their cover of David Wilcox's "Do The Bearcat" with bassist Pierre Anthony singing lead. Unfortunately, both videos were shot vertically, and neither exceeds 1:40 in length, but Josie got some good close vantage points of Generations in action, and they have a predictably strong grasp on both of these classic covers! Give them a watch above and below, and don't miss Generations at The Water Tower Pub next week!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (HeadFirst), A New Local Metal Project, And More!!

Here's a new news post for you guys on this Wednesday evening, and it includes a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for the spring, our first look at a new local band, and leading off, an even newer band to check out (with EP!), so with all of that said, here's what you should know!

We have a new solo project to add to our Sault Ontario band links, namely The Realignment Project! This marks the return to original local music of former Dirty Virgin drummer and Riverin frontman Matt Hicks, who we last covered on the SMS in an active band when Riverin posted their last updates in 2014. The Realignment Project hew much closer to Riverin than Matt's better known glam metal band, as they are an industrial metal act. Historically, that's something we never had much of locally, so they immediately stand out from that alone! Matt launched an Instagram page for T.R.P. last month, which has teaser images, AI art, and some short videos, many of which promoting the fact that they released their debut EP "Afterthought" on January 29th! You can buy it on Bandcamp on a "name your price" model, and they also now have a YouTube channel featuring lyric videos for four of the EP's six songs, only omitting "Finger On The Trigger" and "Synthetic".

As this is a brand new album on sale, this will be this month's CD review at the SMS, ending our two month spell of archive album reviews, so while I won't give thoughts on The Realignment Project's music yet, check back in the next week or so. That said, it's great to see Matt back working on new music, and if you were following Riverin in their heyday, you'll definitely want to check out The Realignment Project to hear similar and more fully realized material, so do so at the above links, and here's the lyric video for the EP's opening song "Broken Machine"!

Next up, here's that LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, as local hard rock quintet HeadFirst have announced a mini-residency of sorts at Shooters Downstairs Lounge that will see them rock the Dennis Street nightclub for three+ upcoming Saturday night gigs! We already knew about their planned shows on March 1st and April 12th via Shooters' own advertising, but the new date will be on Saturday, March 15th, though no word on if it will have any St. Patrick's Day tie-ins. However, these three concerts will be themed across the board, as Shooters will be offering official HeadFirst-branded cocktails, shots, and food items that will only be on sale during these concerts, so click here and here for details on each drink. Fun idea, especially as this is beyond just one themed shot, so keep all of this in mind if you're hungry or thirsty when seeing HeadFirst at Shooters! Red, Raine, Liam, Claire, and Anthony allegedly have "more dates to come" at Shooters, so keep tabs with the band on social media for more concert details as they roll in.

Also, if you buy an official HeadFirst t-shirt, you'll also get a $5-off voucher for one of the drinks, which is a good bonus! In terms of their actual sets, the band will "occasionally be playing a few songs for our next project", with more details coming soon. By "project", are they just making their next CD/EP/album sound more mysterious, or is it something more/beyond just a new album? We'll keep you posted! All three Shooters shows so far have 9:30 PM start times, 19+ age limits, and no announced cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, but we're not quite done with the raw|lust|hot rockband, as they have been named as one of the local openers for the previously announced Selias concert as Soo Blaster on Friday, March 14th! This is via the official Facebook event page, which also confirms that local alt-punk trio A Dire Setback will open as well in their first gig of 2025. At least one more opening act is to be announced, we'll let you know when they are.

Note that Selias' local debut at the same venue in September featured seven opening bands, six being local. Tickets surprisingly aren't on sale for this show yet, but last fall's Selias concert ran for $15. So far, it does seem like next month's concert has more of a varied genre spread (neither A.D.S. nor HeadFirst are full "metal" bands), but with less than a month to go before showtime, hopefully Heavy North Entertainment gets everything in place for a great night of hard hitting music at Soo Blaster! See above for more on this event and HeadFirst's new Shooters dates!

Finally, let's cross the border to look at the first public videos of new Sault Michigan punk trio About:Blank! This union of Tarnished, Lift The Broken, and Midnight Logic alumni debuted at Serious Business' multi-band concert at Pickles Bar & Grill in Brimley on February 8th, and a bunch of photos from their set can be seen on their Facebook page, confirming that Parker Talentino is their vocalist and bassist. Two videos from that night can be seen on Facebook, both seeing About:Blank playing original songs, one being "Hearse". Despite being shot with the same camera and horizontal orientation, "Hearse" was crammed into a vertical portrait orientation with horrendous pillarboxing, and it was uploaded second (how did that happen?). As such, I've embedded the other song "Fix" below, but it is a lighter and more laid back punk number with a swinging vibe to it. "Hearse" is faster and more all-out, and has pseudo-rap vocals, no less!

It's just two songs so far, but About:Blank seem to be starting off promisingly, and the talent is definitely there! I will say that Parker's clean singing voice is better suited to "Fix", but I'll have to hear more to really judge how he fits in singing on electric material. Check out About:Blank's live debut below, and stay tuned for more from them soon!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more weekend concert preiews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Headrush & Tym Morrison), Plus Fuller Updates!!

I hope everyone is having a good Family and/or President's Day! For this cold Monday morning, we have LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for Sault Ontario in the coming months, as well as big news from a reunited band's upcoming plans, so here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison has announced a run of bimonthly matinee concerts at Misty's Fifties via his most recent Facebook event page for shows there! He just added dates to it, including a reported return to the Second Line West bar/restaurant this past Saturday. I profusely apologize for missing that date, but when he just added it to an existing event page, there won't have been the same alert that the show was happening at all. Hopefully there was a strong turnout for his unplugged hard and classic rock covers on Saturday! That show aside, Tym has six matinee gigs ahead at Misty's, all on Saturdays, including shows on March 8th & 22nd, April 5th & 26th, and May 10th & 31st, none of which fall on Canadian holiday weekends. Not a rigid schedule pattern here (shows are 2-3 weeks apart), but it is good to see Tym playing more frequently in the coming months!

All six of Tym's upcoming Misty's shows (as well as this past Saturday's, apologies again) are 4:00 PM matinees with likely 19+ age limits and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, and hopefully we hear more from Tym's covers here and elsewhere as 2025 continues!

Next up, here's a special memorial concert taking place at Soo Blaster on Friday, June 27th, as local classic/hard rock cover quintet Headrush will topline Socch-Fest! This is a celebration of life event for Mark Gigliotti-Socchia, who died last month at just 51 years of age. While not a musician, you may recognize Mark as a chef, film industry lighting worker, and bartender, and you can read his obituary at this link. I normally have reservations about plugging events this personal in nature, but the Facebook event page is public, and organizers are hoping to make this "the party of the summer and a night to remember" that will hopefully be a reunion for many of the "1990s Soo crowd". As such, this will likely be Headrush's Soo Blaster debut. Socch-Fest has an 8:00 PM start time, I assume it will be 19+, and organizers have not announced a cover charge or ticket price. Visit the Facebook event page for more details, and R.I.P. Mark!

Finally, let's talk about inactive(?) local emo/punk band Fuller, who famously reunited for a headlining concert at LopLops Lounge in December 2023. There were teasers at the time that they wanted to record their Mark-era originals in studio, but little was said publically, not helped by Fuller only existing on social media in 2023-beyond via their Instagram page (I don't use Instagram for band links on the SMS due to its limitations for band profiles, even though a handful of current local bands only have Instagram). That said, Instagram does have three new-to-us videos that Fuller fans will want to check out! The newest one from last week has bassist Mark Rand revealing that they have indeed completely recorded an album that has also been mixed and is currently being mastered. The album will be released "as soon as possible", and Mark was gauging whether fans would be interested in physical copies being produced.

Regardless, the Fuller album will be available on digital platforms "really soon", and Mark hinted that there may be a release party concert to go alongside it. This all lines up with what frontman Jamie Vincent revealed in his Afterparty live-stream last month, which is encouraging for Fuller and midwest emo fans! A year+ prior, Fuller's Instagram page also uploaded this video of drummer David Peredun tracking drums for one of the album's planned eight songs, and while we only hear drums, it does sound promising, which isn't a surprise given David's skill level! Embedded below is the other new-ish video that I hadn't mentioned on the SMS, and it features Fuller playing an instrumental section with very strong energy at the LopLops reunion gig a year+ ago. This is not from Jimmy Polnick's live-stream (which was framed vertically and not shot this close), so kudos to whoever filmed this high-quality clip!

It's not that long and has no vocals, and it's a horitzontal landscape video forcibly shrunk down and pillarboxed into vertical dimensions (why do it like that?) but it's a tantalizing glimpse of what Fuller brought to the table after a two decade absence, so give it a watch below, and stay tuned for more!

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That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Heavy Lies The Crown) & More Winter Updates From Their Camp!!

It's been two months since we last talked about St. Ignace, Michigan deathcore band Heavy Lies The Crown on the SMS in regards to new activity, so what have they been up to as of late? We left off in mid-December, and we'll pick things back up on the 13th of that month with this short Facebook video from singer Brandon West (again introduced here as "Heavy" despite no other band members being present), where he teased the impending delivery of their newest round of official H.L.T.C. hockey jerseys. They arrived three days later, featuring artwork by bassist Christian Cook, and you can see how they turned out at this link! Jerseys were largely made to order with limited extras, but message the band to see about possible availability or to express interest in possible future orders. The band's last proper musical updates of 2024 were their second and third "Studio Update" videos.

Studio Update #2 from December 16th covers similar ground to the first one (footage of guitarist Kaycee Mason and drummer Blaze Beairl tracking material for their forthcoming third full-length album), but does so in colour, while Studio Update #3 from the 21st focuses on Christian (with those hands, though!), albeit in black & white. No sign of Brandon or "travelling" guitarist Jaxon Massaway in either upload, and both continue to use the same clip of "These Walls" as the backing audio. Good to see things progressing throughout the winter, so give the new update videos a watch!

While not featured in the above update videos, Brandon was slated to wrap up vocals "soon" as of January 9th, when the band also teased the possibility of adding more tracks to the album after reviewing what they've recorded so far. The following week, they teased possibly including a featured artist on their new album, and asked fans for suggestions, while they said that "I think these songs are gonna hit different" on January 23rd. Starting later that month, H.L.T.C. began announcing concerts of theirs for 2025, and the first will see them rock Cabin Fever Fest 2 at the From Huron Out Pub in Oscoda (3½ hours southeast of the Soo) over the March 22nd weekend. Twelve bands are scheduled to play this two night festival, including Lansing experimental hard rock band Mr. Denton On Doomsday, who Sault Michigan readers may recall from multiple local gigs in the 2000s. Nice to see them in an SMS post again after 16 long years, albeit not for a local date!

Regarding their new album, they posted a Facebook poll on January 27th to inquire about physical formats to potentially release it on (as far as I'm aware, their two  albums and their debut EP were digitally exclusive). CDs won in a landslide, but we'll let you know if you can actually hold the next album when it's released! On January 28th, Heavy Lies The Crown shared two "Reels" on their Facebook page featuring footage of their set at Fight Breast Cancer With Music at The Delft Theater in Escanaba in October, finally letting us see video footage from that night with actual live audio (they previously only posted a highlight/teaser compilation featuring multiple bands, but with "These Walls" dubbed over). One is of them playing "*69", while the other "Reel" is not labelled as to which song. Click on each to see them, as "Reels" remain unembeddable on external websites and unplayable in background tabs.

While it is great to see actual raw footage from their last concert of 2024, they are horizontal landscape videos forcibly pillarboxed into the vertical "Reel" dimensions, and while they have text captions above, why let these videos be so tiny when they don't have to be? Also on January 28th, H.L.T.C. announced a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for actually local fans, as they will host their third annual 2nd Street Music Festival at 376 North 2nd Street in their St. Ignace hometown on Saturday, August 9th! Like in the past two years, this is being hyped around Brandon's birthday, and further details are to be confirmed, but it's great to see the guys playing a proper E.U.P. show again! We're lucky to see Heavy Lies The Crown in our coverage range twice in a calendar year. If this is similar to the last two installments, this will be a FREE & ALL AGES outdoor event at 7:00 PM with a few extra bands (last year featured Tarnished and Hannahville metal band Ghidora.)

We'll leave things here for now, but they have been quite active posting videos/"Reels" on Facebook in the past three weeks, so it shouldn't be too long before we look at more from Heavy Lies The Crown on the site. 

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Generations), Weekend Concert Previews, And More!!

Before we begin this weekend's hard rock concert previews, just a heads up that this weekend's Oz-headlined concerts at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino have been cancelled. If you didn't hear, all five Kewadin branches have been closed since Monday due to a ransomware attack affecting the computers and phone systems at all locations, and the closure extends to their on-site bars and lounges. Read more on the incident at this link or other local news services. As such, Oz are cancelled this weekend, as is Mark Bowen at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin, and we'll let you know if things get delayed beyond the expected one week timeframe (note that Tarnished are scheduled to rock the Sault Kewadin next week). However, Oz have already booked makeup dates, as the Iron Mountain classic/hard rock quintet will return to On April 11th & 12th!

I won't treat these as brand new shows, merely rescheduled ones, but it is good to see that this skilled veteran group will be coming back to The Rapids Lounge in the spring, and hopefully with nicer weather for the commute! Keep tabs with Kewadin Casinos for more on the ransomware attack and their re-opening plans, but for now, let's dive into this weekend's known hard rock concert previews in Sault Ontario, including an extra LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this month, so here's what you should know!

Joining their previously announced shows at Jay's Piston Broke Pub TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will return to The Water Tower Pub for the first time this year on Friday, February 28th! This show was announced via the venue's February concert calendar, and will obviously be the last show of the month at the Great Northern Road nightclub (no word yet on which different act is playing there on Saturday, March 1st). If you want to cap off a snowy month with this talented veteran foursome and their hard rocking slate of covers, you know where to be, but if you want to see Valerie, the Tonys, and Pierre beforehand, they'll be rocking Jay's tonight and tomorrow for the long weekend! Of course, tonight's show is on Valentine's Day, which the band is hyping up in their own promotion for this weekend's gigs.

Note that the band (minus Valerie) are hosting the weekly jam night at Jay's tonight as well, but we traditionally don't cover jam nights as "concerts" due to their unpredictability by design. This weekend's two shows are at 9:30 PM, their Water Tower Pub show in two weeks is at 8:00 PM, and all three have 19+ age limits and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Generations live!

Next up, here's some more Valentine's/Family Day long weekend concert previews, starting with southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225's return to Reggie's Place TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! While oddly not promoted this week on the band's own Facebook page, Reggie's have promoted them thusly on theirs, and also hyped up the Valentine's angle for tonight. These will be your local 225's first shows at Reggie's in two weeks, and first anywhere since their "uncorked" gig this past Saturday at the aforementioned Water Tower Pub. If you want to rock out with "the dirty 3", you'll wanna head downtown for all of the action tonight and/or tomorrow, perhaps also involving merchandise and the infamous "Bone Yard shot"? This weekend's shows have 19+ age limits, no cover charges, and 9:30 PM start times. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Bone Yard 225 live!

Finally this weekend, local hard rock quintet HeadFirst will return to The Esquire Club for the first time this year TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Last seen at Shooters two weeks ago, these will be HeadFirst's... first shows at The Esquire Club in two months. While they are still "working on some new projects", the guys have been stepping out onto the stage a bit to start 2025, and it's good to see their fan favourite blend of hard & classic rock covers (plus some originals) back in the west end this weekend! Yes, HeadFirst are playing up the Valentine's Day scheduling too for tonight, and they also will have brand new band merchandise for sale this weekend, including t-shirts, stickers, and posters, not to mention their existing debut EP "Head Trauma", so click here for details on their range of items. This weekend's shows both have no cover, 19+ age limits, and 9:30 PM start times. See above for more details, and here's HeadFirst live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (The Headstones & Tarnished), New Videos, And More!!

With a big new show announcement within, today's post features LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS on both sides of the border, along with new videos and a couple of other recent notes, so here's what you should know on this Wednesday night!

Sault Michigan classic metal/hard rock band Tarnished are scheduled to rock The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on Friday, February 21st & Saturday, February 22nd! Our source is Kewadin's entertainment page, whose schedule is updated through the end of the month. These will be Alex & Josh's second and third shows of 2025,  and their first at the Soo Kewadin in over four months, when they were late fill-ins for Risque there in early October. Good to see the guys back with some advance notice, and hopefully everything goes smoothly for their hard hitting classic covers and originals next weekend! No word on if Chris Leask and Ron Suchey will sit in as the bassist & drummer again, as they have at every non-battle of the bands set of Tarnished's since the fall, though be advised that the band has not corroborated these bookings on social media at press time.

We'll let you know if anything changes! As usual for bands rocking The Rapids Lounge, expect a 21+ age limit, 9:00 PM start time, and no cover charge across both nights. Visit the above links for more on Tarnished's next two headlining dates as they continue what should be a big year!

Next up, here's yesterday's big concert announcement for Sault Ontario, as Kingston punk/alternative quintet The Headstones will headline at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion on Saturday, July 19th! While this show is presented by Sault Michigan's Rock 101, local radio listeners tuning into 104.3 The Fox will have heard a lot of The Headstones in the past month thanks to their 1990s hits like "Smile & Wave", "When Something Stands For Nothing", and their cover of "Tweeter & The Monkey Man". Fronted by Canadian Screen Award-winning actor Hugh Dillon, this will be their first known local concert appearance since 1997, when they headlined at Algoma University's T-Bird Lounge, which is a long time coming. Thanks to 104.3, I've gotten a crash course in The Headstones in recent weeks, and their sound jumps well from darker themes to punk rock to Tragically Hip-esque commentary, and it'll be neat to see them under the big tent this summer!

Sudbury grunge/hard rock quartet The Fortunate Losers (who opened for Monster Truck at Soo Blaster in 2019) will make their long awaited return as openers on July 19th. Solid band who don't play out here enough, so don't bypass them in five months! Presented by Cabin Media Entertainment, tickets for this 7:30 PM and outdoor-ish concert go on sale on Friday at 10:00 AM at this link, though I have not seen a clear reference to ticket prices as of this writing. Between this, Our Lady Peace, and Big Sugar headlining the Go North Festival (more on that soon), 2025 is proving to be a big year for domestic rock music here, and hopefully The Headstones' show is a huge hit! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Also today, here's a new video from Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Unfortunate Sun's Facebook page! Posted last week, this comes from one of their headlining dates at The Merchants Bar over the I-500 weekend (either Friday, January 31st or Saturday, February 1st), and it sees them covering Seether's "Remedy". Filmed from side-stage to what looks like a good audience, this cover is well handled for the video's minute+ long runtime, but Skip's vocals are higher than I'm used to for Seether songs, so adjust accordingly. Check out Unfortunate Sun's newest video below!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last little while, and as usual for these short-form items, these are in alphabetical order by artist or show name:

 

• This was surprisingly never mentioned on the SMS when it happened, but Sault Michigan rock radio station Rock 101 quietly replaced The Core with Meltdown on Sunday evenings with hardDrive with Lou Brutus at some point in the last few years. As opposed to the 1990s-centric The Core, hardDrive is a bigger syndicated show focusing on modern hard rock, and Lou gets some big scoops and interviews, so it'll be some welcome variety on Sundays, especially if you want newer stuff than the Classic Rock Sundays rotation on 104.3! You can hear hardDrive on Sundays from 7:00-9:00 PM, while The Core can now be heard online at this link on Sundays at 9:00 PM.
  
• I have moved local/Winnipeg classical metal project Sell This! to our inactive band links, as they have not issued a public update since their release party for their album "Empires Everywhere" at The Distraction in January of last year. Led by former RedD Monkey cellist Pete Mozarowski, Sell This! were previously active in Winnipeg in the early 2020s, where they put out three EPs, before Pete moved home with Sell This! in 2023. While his vocals weren't always that rangy, Sell This! were a unique entry into the local scene with their industrial influences & politically charged lyrics, and hopefully we hear more from Pete soon!
• I can't embed it here because it is a "Reel", but local classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9 posted a highlight video of songs from their Bon Soo set at The Machine Shop this past Friday onto their Facebook page! In order, you'll see fragments of their covers of Hall & Oates' "You Make My Dreams" (with Jess dancing with Mr. Bon Soo!), Post Malone & Morgan Wallen's "I Had Some Help", Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69", Walk The Moon's "Shut Up & Dance", and Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot". Despite being a "Reel", the clips within have were strong performances with good energy, so click here to see everything!
   

That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: No Funeral & Habitat Shuffle

It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! For the first time in 2025, we're looking at not one, but two randomly selected defunct or inactive local groups, due to the first act chosen not having much to talk about given their short lifespan and lack of videos, so a second randomly chosen act in a similar state was also picked to round things out with. Both ended up being short-lived bands who released an album each but didn't do a ton else under these names, so here's what you should know on both!

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No Funeral

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario/Edmonton, Alberta

Genre: Noise Punk/Post-Hardcore

Lineup:

Connor O'Brien (Flint), vocals/guitar
Jamie Vincent (AlgomA), bass/drums

Info/Analysis: After being bandmates in the Edmonton punk band Flint from 2009-2012, Connor and Jamie planned a new joint project for at least two years, eventually debuting No Funeral when Connor travelled east for a Dryer Fire-promoted event at Outspoken Brewing in October 2022, and they were scheduled to play at the cancelled Matthew Nadon memorial concert in February 2023. That same month, they recorded their self-titled album at Unsalted Audio, and its release in March was their final public act before falling inactive. In effect, No Funeral were here for a good time, not a long time, but fans of noise rock, Rollins-esque vocals, and Jamie's local bands (especially Bad Back) will take to their inconsistent but strong album, and hopefully they resurface in time!

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Habitat Shuffle

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Genre: Alternative/Hard Rock

Lineup:

Christian Lemay (Free Beer, Id Iota), vocals
Dustin Goodall (Id Iota, The Pixo Control), guitar
Ryan Gray (Free Beer, Creatures Of The Night), bass
Blair St. John (All Over The Map, Pillory), drums

Info/Analysis: The 2014 launch of Habitat Shuffle united most of the former Free Beer (a.k.a. M.O.B. and Sarah's Valley) while eschewing their former ska punk sound in favour of 1990s-inspired alt-rock & grunge. After dropping out of a planned live debut at the Great Sabatini concert that June, they recorded their four-song EP "Sober Drift" at Mission Control Studios, releasing it on Bandcamp that August. For one reason or another, the band (minus Ryan) opted to scrap Habitat Shuffle and relaunch as Id Iota in the spring of 2015 with a more indie rock-inspired sound, running locally until 2019. For my own heavier musical preferences, I actually preferred Habitat Shuffle's EP (especially "Resort") to Id Iota's for its grungy qualities and catchy song structures, but it helped bridge the gap from Free Beer effectively, but listen to both "Sober Drift" and "Maudlin Fair" to compare their sonic evolution in the mid-2010s!

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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! This series will return on or around March 10th when we look at another randomly selected past local band, and in this case, it will be acoustic southern hard rock duo and former Bone Yard side project The Bearded Lounge! Look for that then and for more news and notes on the site as this week rolls along! Thanks everyone!