The final concert weekend of April 2024 is upon us, and there's a lot to take in for hard rock fans, so we're breaking things up into two posts! The previously announced Saturday-only gigs from Tym Morrison and Bone Yard 225 will be previewed on the SMS tomorrow, along with any potential new late notice gigs that hit the news desk, so don't worry, they are coming! Now, here's what you should know to start the weekend, including a few SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!
Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to Reggie's Place for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the shows were only announced on the venue's Facebook page on Tuesday, and at press time, the band has not confirmed the bookings publically. Fresh off of rocking Jay's this past weekend and via hosting that venue's weekly jam night tonight, TOMORROW & SATURDAY'S shows will be Soundcheck's first at Reggie's since the St. Patrick's Day weekend. Hopefully their classic and hard rock cover blend (including select country renditions) go over well as usual at Reggie's this weekend despite the late notice! TOMORROW & SATURDAY's concerts take place at 9:30 PM with 19+ age limits and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Soundcheck live!
Next up, local funk/hard rock cover sextet The Wyld Stallyns will play their second announced show of 2024 when they return to Shooters Downstairs Lounge THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! Again, apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via the venue's Facebook page last night, and like Soundcheck, the band proper has not publically confirmed it. SATURDAY'S concert is effectively a re-booking of their planned Shooters gig on April 6th, which new drummer Brandan Glew advertised on his personal Facebook page in March, but it was never publically confirmed by the band or venue, and was quietly cancelled with no replacement band. It's great to see the new Stallyns lineup back at it, and if you missed them three weeks ago, you'll get your fill of fun rock covers! No word on why Shooters used that photo for the Stallyns though. Either there's been more lineup changes, or Brandan, Josh, and Blair got huge makeovers!
Shooters are experimenting with hosting a matinee band on SATURDAY as well (a'la Reggie's) with blues rock veterans Smokehouse playing at 4:00 PM, but this is a case of two separate concerts on the same night, not Smokehouse "opening" for The Wyld Stallyns, whose first set begins 90 minutes after Smokehouse are projected to end their last one. The Stallyns will be on at 9:30 PM on SATURDAY with no cover charge and a 19+ age limit. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's The Wyld Stallyns live in concert a couple of years ago!
Moving to shows that had advance notice, we'll next head to The Distraction, where Montreal stoner/hard rock band The Hazytones will return to Sault Ste. Marie for a concert TONIGHT! Two-time local headliners at the former New American Pub in 2016 & 2017, The Hazytones have slowly gotten heavier in the seven years since we last saw them in town, and hopefully their songs from their new album "Wild Fever" and older originals go over well with local fans in their long awaited return! Local support will include alternative hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich in their Distraction debut, their first local date since Brandon Ruch replaced Mitch Sirie on guitar, and their first concert of any kind since their Ottawa & Cornwall shows in January. It'll be interesting to see how the new lineup does, especially with their new EP still in the works, so don't miss out on the Sandwich's set!
Rising young hard rock quartet Sylo (née Raincourt) will kick off the night in their second publically announced show since their reunion and the addition of guitarist Alder DeVries. Their social media presence is still quite minimal, but the talent is there, so don't be late! This all ages concert has doors opening at 7:30 PM tonight and admission is via a special $15 fee (or "pay what you can" as usual for The Distraction). Should be a good time for hard rock fans, and with a psychedelic tinge thanks to The Hazytones, so visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's the headliners live!
Finally for today's previews, local hard rock quintet HeadFirst will return to Jay's Piston Broke Pub for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Fresh off of their return to Reggie's last week, these will be Headfirst's... first shows at Jay's since rocking there at the end of March. This talented young group should have lots of solid covers in store for west end fans this weekend, so don't miss out on all of the action tomorrow and/or Saturday! No word yet on their slate of concerts for May, but guitarist Liam Dinsmore teased on their Facebook page's newest post that "Something. Is. Coming." on Saturday, May 18th. What specifically is coming on that day? Stay tuned for any details! As for tomorrow and Saturday's concerts at Jay's, they have 9:30 PM start times as usual, no cover charges, and 19+ age limits. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's HeadFirst live!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for our Bone Yard 225 & Tym Morrison previews (and more) next! Thanks everyone!
Before we dive into weekend concert previews and look at the recent lineup announcements for two big summer concert festivals on the outskirts of town, let's cover some recent news and notes on the site today, including new videos, recent updates, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, so here's what you should know!
The first hard rock-leaning concert of 2024 from local promoters Piecing It Together Shows (née Dryer Fire) takes place at the somewhat misleadingly named March Street Stage (beside June & Friends Hair Salon at 485 Queen Street East) on Sunday, May 26th, and will see the return of Victoria, British Columbia experimental noise project i.o to the Soo! Readers may recall seeing i.o headline at The Drawing Club on Bruce Street during the then-Dryer Fire's summer concert series in June, but they're heading outdoors for their local encore. Max isn't playing alone this time though, as advertising indicates that he's performing in/alongside Pet Retina, an also-Victoria-based noise rock duo that will be an intriguingly eclectic group to take in next month! Local support includes Hinterbrane (a "noise art" project led by artist Michael Burtch) and local folk/Americana band The Tye Lawless Co., who opened for Catriona Sturton for Dryer Fire last year.
This all ages concert takes place at 6:00 PM on May 26th, and admission is under a "pay what you can" model. Definitely a diverse range of entertainment to take in next month, but it'll end heavily and creatively with i.o and/or Pet Retina (weather permitting?), so visit the official Facebook event page for more details! Also, stay tuned for updates on the It's The Pits festival that the promoters are holding in Leeburn on Saturday, June 22nd, especially if hard rock/punk-leaning bands are playing! Yes, I am well aware of Crucifest in Leeburn too, we are waiting for public promotion to start before plugging it here.
Next up, you may be wondering where our fallout coverage of the Matthew Good concert at The Machine Shop on April 14th has been. Honestly, public videos from the show have not been plentiful whatsoever, but SooToday's Donna Hopper was back to cover it for this article, picking up 16+ years after his contentious acoustic show at The Speak Easy in 2007 that she also covered. Thankfully for all involved, this concert went off without a hitch, and while Donna didn't go into great detail about the show, there was apparently "a lively sing-along" of his Matthew Good Band hit "Hello Time Bomb". It's great to see that bygones are now bygones (now if only we can get Danko Jones back here!). Donna took thirteen colour photos on the 14th, nine of Matthew and his band, and four of openers... Silent 9? Yes, the local classic/hard rock cover quartet were tapped as late notice openers three days before showtime!
They replaced planned opening act Vilivant, who is still on tour with Matthew Good but did not play at the local date for unannounced reasons, and never acknowledged why they didn't play in the Soo. After dropping out of the Big Wreck tour last fall (including its local date), are we snakebit re: Vilivant playing here? Hopefully she and the band come to the Soo at some point! Silent 9 did post a video on their Facebook page featuring clips of multiple songs from their set, but unfortunately, it is A. vertically shot and B. a "Reel", so I can't embed it here. Everyone sounds good while the clips last, co check it out at the above links!
Also today, you may have seen scattered plugs on social media that local punk trio Hails were playing a show in Bay City, Michigan on April 6th, and that event did take place! It's very rare to see Sault Ontario bands play in the US, let alone not in Sault Michigan, but clearly Ha!ls did the paperwork and followed the rules they needed to! Even if it was local, the show was not something that I likely would have covered as normal, as the venue ("The We/Us House") is not a public venue with a freely posted address. Even the other bands (Rot Knot, Piss Soup, and Unabomb) had cryptically designed logos as far as name readability. The Vanity First side project were filmed in Bay City (outside of Saginaw) by attendee "Fish" playing for 60 seconds, and while the video was horizontally shot, it was regrettably uploaded in vertical dimensions with pillarboxing, which is why it's so tiny and sandwiched by black bars.
As uploaded to their Facebook page, the video shows Hails dipping a bit into thrash with the intensity on offer, and while I wish they'd uploaded this horizontally like it was filmed, it's a strong video overall! Just watch it in full screen for best results. Hails have also announced that they're heading to Toronto for the first time to play at the Humber River Art & Music Festival on August 24th, which will be a huge opportunity for Brent, Mikhal, and Keeghan, so click here for details on that booking, and check out their Bay City concert video for yourselves below!
Finally, here's the latest from St. Ignace, Michigan metalcore band Heavy Lies The Crown, so what have they been up this month? Last week, they shared this image on their Facebook page that heavily implies that they're releasing a new single named "Marble Skin" in the near future, which will be their first new song since Nathan Switzer returned to the band to replace Ted Olson as lead guitarist. A string of social media application logos was included, but take that with a grain of salt re: the song's availability, as I don't think Pinterest and Instagram are known as music streaming platforms. A new video featuring drummer Jaxon Massaway (clearly before or after work) was also posted on April 2nd to hype up their next announced concert, where they will open for Born Of Osiris and many other metal bands at The Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac on May 26th.
I can't embed the video here, as Facebook content matched audio used in it from the headliners in the generic promotional video for the show at large that followed Jaxon's plug, but it gets the job done to hype what will be a huge night for fans downstate or locally who are willing to make the 4-5 hour drive! Click here to watch the video, see above for more from H.L.T.C., and look for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!
News hasn't been super fast as of late, but here's a reasonably stuffed post on this Monday evening, leaning more to punk acts, including some new videos and big details on a new album, so here's what you should know!
As promised, local skate punk trio Vanity First released their new studio album "Identity Crisis" at their release party at Soo Blaster on Saturday night, and if you didn't attend to pick up a CD copy, you can also stream it online! No word on videos from the show, but Honest Job alum Drew Armstrong did snap photos at the concert, and a black & white one of drummer Keegan McAllister has already been posted to the band's Facebook page, with more promised to be coming. The band claims that "Identity Crisis" is available on "all streaming platforms", a claim immediately disproven by not being uploaded on Bandcamp yet (despite "Off With Their Heads" being posted there). In actuality, you can stream it on Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Deezer, while mp3 copies are on sale on Amazon and iTunes for $8.91 if you'd prefer actually owning the mp3 files.
As hyped in detail on MorningStar Records' website, the album can be bought via Kunaki's print-on-demand method on CD ($10) or vinyl ($40) at this link, though at press time, I cannot confirm if Vanity are stocking the album at The Rad Zone or another local physical retailer (members do have CDs if you contact them directly). "Identity Crisis" is effectively an expanded re-recording of their 2022 "Vanity" demo, now including the three advance singles posted this year, their late 2022 single "Get Out", and one more new song named "When I Fall". All songs from "Vanity" were redone for "Identity Crisis" except "Breathe", a campfire jam-esque acoustic ballad which ended that demo. Quite frankly, if one song had to be scrapped, they picked the right one, as it doesn't jive with their skate punk base, but it wasn't a bad song, if more suited to guitarist Mikhal Muto's folk punk solo project Agnosticism than a full plugged in band.
At present, I have "Identity Crisis" pencilled in for review on the SMS in June, as this month and next are already committed for the newest albums from Convergence and the aforementioned Agnosticism. Stay tuned for that, but local punk fans will definitely want to give Vanity First's brand new album a listen (or optimally buy it) above & below!
Next up, the long awaited eighth installment of local punk supergroup project Mikey & His Uke's series of covers of Green Day's breakthrough album "Dookie" finally dropped on their YouTube channel earlier today! Four weeks removed from song #7 in this 30th anniversary series (the longest wait yet between songs), project leader/Bookclub frontman Mikey Hawdon and crew are back to tackle the next song on "Dookie", that being the single "She". On this one, vocal duties fall to K.J. Jansen of Calgary punk mainstays Chixdiggit, while Pennywise bassist Randy Bradbury (in his fourth appearance in the last five covers) is back here, as is ex-Goldfinger drummer Darren Pfieffer, who has yet to miss a "Dookie" cover in this series. Once again, Mikey plays guitar after his usual ukelele intro. Everyone delivers as you'd expect on this classic cover, and K.J.'s vocals are a great match for a Green Day rendition!
After last month's "Basket Case" cover had no real visual frills, we do get more variance here, with K.J. notably singing while shaving his beard, which is a new one for me to cover! Granted, Sault Michigan readers will appreciate Darren's choice of hockey jersey more than Sault Ontario ones. Next up in Mikey & His Uke's "Dookie" cover series is the deep cut "Sassafras Roots", which could drop at any point between Sunday and May 20th (the current average would be May 4th), so keep an eye out for that, and check out "She" for yourselves below!
Finally for today, here's a brief new promotional video from local alternative/hard rock band Handsome Sandwich's Facebook page to plug their set opening for The Hazytones at The Distraction on Thursday! The 12 seconds long & vertical clip sees the entire band (all wearing sunglasses) promoting the concert, with each member handling a part of the sentence. No new information, but hopefully it helps get the word out, so give it a watch below, and check above for details on the concert! And of course, our best thoughts go out to drummer Johnny Belanger following the passing of his brother, the obituary is linked here. I went to high school with them, and I can't imagine losing a loved one so young like this.
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
Before we begin today's otherwise all-Sault Ontario post, I wanted to apologize for missing Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished's unplugged concert this past Tuesday at the Sault Area Arts Center's ribbon cutting ceremony for their relaunch at their 217 Ferris Street location. Alex Traynor & Josh Fair brought back their late 2010s acoustic two man band for a matinee set that day, which the band did not promote on social media. Hopefully things went well for the Arts Center and Tarnished equally, and I apologize again, I'd have plugged it here had I known Tarnished would be there! Now, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS and new updates from two linked projects north of the border!
Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down will return to the stage for concerts at Reggie's Place on Friday, May 3rd and Saturday, May 4th! The shows were announced via the band's new Facebook page yesterday, but there will be changes afoot compared to when we last saw Double Down at the end of last month. The big news is that they have quietly parted ways with singer/guitarist Adam King for unannounced reasons, and he has been replaced by "a new band member", whose identity has yet to be revealed. Notably, the band's prior Facebook page (the one formatted as a personal account that you had to add as a friend) hasn't been updated since March, so was Adam its primary administrator, hence the need for a new page? Hopefully things are amicable between Adam and the band, and that we see him back out there soon, as he'd be an asset to other bands!
We'll let you know more on the band's new guitarist(/singer?) when they are revealed, but they could be waiting for a grand unveiling at Reggie's in two weeks. In any event, Double Down have teased having new songs in their set (possibly influenced by their new member coming aboard) to play that weekend, so keep everything in mind then! Expect 9:30 PM start times, 19+ age limits, and no cover charges on both nights. Visit the above links for more on Double Down's upcoming plans!
Next up, fellow local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations have confirmed two more new dates for next month! While we already knew about their Gateway Casino debut on Saturday, May 18th, they will kick off the Victoria Day long weekend by rocking The Water Tower Pub once again on Friday the 17th. That will be their first show since playing at the same venue this past weekend, so fans of the central venue will have an option to see them next month before they head back downtown! Speaking of which, fans can also now see Valerie, the Tonys, and Pierre at Shooters Downstairs Lounge for a third one-nighter in just over a week when they take the Dennis Street stage on Saturday, May 25th! Good to see bookings ticking up for Generations, and hopefully things are even busier for them as we enter the summer season! The Water Tower Pub show is at 9:00 PM, while the Shooters concert takes place at 9:30 PM.
Both of these new dates have 19+ age limits and no cover charges. Hopefully things keep rolling along for the Jus' Chillin successors in their second year of classic and hard rock hits, so visit the above links for more details on Generations' May schedule!
Also today, let's dive into two local projects from local punk musician Dustin Jones, starting with his online page-less solo project Jonesy Land, who released their first studio recording since their debut album "Zoom - Out" came out last May, but it's not what you may be assuming compared to their 2021-2022 punk singles or the folk/alternative singer/songwriter material from the album. Since at least 2022, Dustin has wanted to record a full studio cover of The Ronettes' "Be My Baby", inspired by his appreciation of the musical work of producer Phil Spector, Much of the music had been recorded for this classic 1960s pop cover already, but Dustin had waited to find the right local singer for it, and he eventually went with Hollow Heads frontwoman Gabrielle Dumas, who has been recording her own material at Mission Control Studios as of late herself.
Dustin is joined on guitar here by his old Rising Tide bandmates Sheldon Jaaskelainen (strings) and Chris Johns (drums), alongside his current Bookclub bandmate Josh Norling on horns, as well as fellow horn player Vince Filetti, the ever-prolific Jay Case on bass, and "miscellaneous people" on added instrumentation. You can hear the "Be My Baby" cover on major streaming services, but a video featuring Gabrielle singing the track was posted to Tidal Records' YouTube channel on Tuesday. Music from this era isn't really in my wheelhouse, but it is well produced and performed, and Gabrielle adds some quality rasp to the proven melodies here, so see what you think of outside-the-box cover below!
We'll close with Dustin's current (and also online page-less) local alternative/punk cover band Bookclub, who played at the Great Lakes Outdoor Show at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre last week, but there are lineup confirmations to make after that set! First, it does appear 100% confirmed that the aforementioned Josh Norling (also of The Wyld Stallyns) has joined the band on saxophone, confirming Searchmont Resort's listing of him being a band member when they plugged Bookclub's Kiln show in January. It's too bad that Bookclub seem set on 1980s-leaning alt-rock covers, as with Josh and Erin as a horn section, they'd kill doing ska punk! Josh was listed with everyone else in tags for videos shared on personal Facebook accounts from last Saturday, as was Handsome Sandwich guitarist Brandon Ruch, who appears to have replaced Dave Bahun in Bookclub for unannounced reasons.
Hopefully nothing bad happened with Dave (Mikey & Dustin's old Inner City Surfers bandmate, mind you), but Brandon is a talented guitarist on the rise, and hopefully he fits in well with Bookclub, assuming that he is 100% in the band now! Alas, without a proper social media page for Bookclub, there was no 100% public confirmation of lineup changes beyond what may have been said in concert. There were black & white videos floating around from the Outdoor Show set too, but alas, I think they were Facebook "Stories" and thusly not viewable more than once (I really don't see the point of "Stories"). Stay tuned for more from Bookclub when we hear it, and for more news and notes soon! Thanks everyone!
Let's dive into another weekend of hard rock and punk concert previews today! Not a packed weekend as heavier bands go, but there's enough to fill out today's post, including some SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, so here's what you should know!
Before their previously announced Shooters Downstairs Lounge concert on SATURDAY NIGHT, local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 will return to The Esquire Club for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the band only announced the Esquire Club show via their Facebook page yesterday. TOMORROW's booking was originally scheduled to belong to local classic rock band The Cloud Bandits as per The Esquire Club's early 2024 concert calendar (pictured here from January), but I have not heard a reason from that band nor the venue over why they're not playing TOMORROW, or if The Cloud Bandits are still playing on Saturday. With Shooters only hosting live bands on Saturdays due to their Friday DJ nights, Bone Yard 225 now have a full weekend in store for fans of their southern and classic rock attack, three nights if you count their jam night hosting duties at Reggie's tonight, so keep that in mind if that interests you!
Both TOMORROW'S Esquire Club concert and Saturday's Shooters show are at 9:30 PM, and they are both 19+ events with no cover charge. Hopefully Bone Yard effectively rock downtown and west end fans this weekend, so visit the above links for more details, and here they are live!
Next up, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to Jay's Piston Broke Pub for traditional concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Again, apologies for the short notice, these shows were only announced via Jay's Facebook page this morning. Of course, Soundcheck are hosting the Thursday jam night there tonight as expected, but this weekend's normal concerts are new to us, so if you want to see Cameron with the guys, let alone a standard night or two of classic and hard rock covers from this talented veteran foursome, head to the former Reggie's West TOMORROW and/or SATURDAY! These will be Soundcheck's first non-jam night appearances at Jay's since their 1980s themed party at the start of March. As usual, TOMORROW & SATURDAY'S concerts have 9:30 PM start times, 19+ age limits, and no cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Soundcheck live!
Moving to previously announced concerts, let's head downtown to Reggie's Place, where local hard rock quintet HeadFirst will take the stage TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Fans of this rising young band will recall how all of their solo headlining concerts in 2023 were at Reggie's, but they have yet to play there this year, opting to spread their wings to other local venues in the interim. If you've missed the guys (and Claire) at this downtown staple, be at Reggie's this weekend for their hard rocking and sometimes surprising array of covers and select originals! As usual for HeadFirst's shows here, expect 9:30 PM start times, no cover charges, and 19+ age limits this weekend, and if you can't make it they'll be back at Jay's Piston Broke Pub next weekend. For more details, visit the above links, and for a preview, here's HeadFirst live earlier this year!
Finally for this weekend's known local hard rock/punk concerts, we'll head to Soo Blaster, where local punk trio Vanity First will release their new album "Identity Crisis" at its release party on SATURDAY NIGHT! Along with their set, professionally printed CDs made by Kunaki and sold through Mike Haggith's label MorningStar Records will be on sale for $10 (vinyl copies will be sold online for $40), and a digital release is also expected. You can get pre-order details and more about the album via MorningStar's article on the album/band from last week, which heavily pumps the band up in glowing terms! The full track listing is also given, confirming that their late 2022 single "Get Out" will be on the album, as will re-recordings of every song from the February 2022 "Vanity" demo except "Breathe" (unless it was re-titled "When I Fall", which is the sole advertised song that we haven't heard a studio version of then or now.)
Local metal trio The BAG will get things off on a heavy foot on Saturday before Andrew, Mikhal, and Keeghan take the stage, so don't be late for their intensity either! This all ages concert has admission of $10 (if you bought tickets directly from the band) or $15 (at the door), and the concert proper begins at 8:00 PM. Vanity First have sure grown as a band in the past two years, and hopefully their skate punk attack is greeted enthusiastically as headliners tomorrow, with CDs flying off of the merch table to boot! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview of the release party, here's Vanity First live!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post on the site shortly! Thanks everyone!
Let's continue playing catch-up with local/Barrie crossover thrash band Spades GT in today's post, and we'll pick things back up from last week with continuing coverage of their set at the second annual Walterstock memorial/charity concert at The Rockpile in Toronto on January 6th! In our post on April 7th, we looked at some fan-shot videos that filmed single songs from Spades GT, but their full set at Walterstock was also filmed, and in this case, horizontally! This was filmed by YouTube user Jake Disman, who previously shot Spades playing "Hands" at the Road To Lockdown Fest last year at the same venue, but this time, he didn't put a filter over the video afterwards. Owing to the fact that Walterstock had twenty-seven scheduled acts in one day, the former Jack Spades only had a 15 minute set, in which they played "Succubus", "Red", "Final Girl", "Sewer City Radio", and "Rise" (the latter was not planned to close but they didn't know they had extra time until they finished "Sewer City Radio".)
While Jake's video is softer and more distant than the closer videos that we featured here last week, this horizontal stationary video captures Spades GT ripping a furious (if rushed) mini-set, and you can't ask for much more out of what J.D., Daniel, James, and Tyler gave in 15 minutes than what you get here! Audio quality is much crisper than the video quality too. Check the whole thing out for yourselves below!
Moving into the month of February 2024, Spades GT's music video for "Final Girl" (as well as the newest video from guitarist Daniel Horton's side project The Fast Life) were reviewed by the Facebook music review page E:W:L (Even Without Life), which normally reviews new independent music not unlike You Rock! or Your Music Live. You can watch the 2+ hour livestream at this link, and host Tim Woloszyn looks at the "Final Girl" video an hour & 39 minutes into the stream. Despite the focus being on independent music, the portion of the stream where Tim plays Spades GT's video is muted due to Facebook content matching the song, even though Spades were 100% on board with being promoted here, so the video is sadly unembeddable externally. Tim highly praised the video and song though, and definitely was amped up as an on-camera personality, so check out the whole thing by clicking here!
Updates were relatively quiet from Spades GT's camp in February aside from openly putting their name out there re: bookings for later this year, both in the GTA and elsewhere. The band is now taking pre-orders for an official skateboard featuring the band's logo stencilled over the "Sewer City Radio" album cover, so click here if you want details on the construction and how to place an order! On March 8th, the guys confirmed that they have begun writing for their next album, as per this "Reel" (no video there though). They revealed that they're "stepping outside the box" here, but to what extent is to be revealed, and the band has since revealed that they plan to release new music "this summer". A few days later, Spades posted a new video from the Random Killing show in Toronto last September (also double posted as a "Reel" for some reason.)
The video sees Spades GT playing "Red" at The Bovine Sex Club, and it's a well shot video from a close angle (horizontal, at that) which gives a larger feel to the venue! Fittingly red lighting (maybe too red), but everything sounds and looks good, and while I don't know why they didn't share this last fall when the show was still fresh in mind, better late than never! Give their new-ish "Red" video a watch below!
We'll close with the aforementioned E:W:L, as Spades GT returned to that webseries for its March 22nd episode (also unembeddable due to Facebook content matching songs played on air), where Tim interviewed bassist James Roy Daley and drummer Tyler Reiner over Skype! The Spades section begins 32 minutes in with a playing of "Sewer City Radio" (now muted), but you do see Tim enthusiastically rocking out still! In terms of the interview proper, Tim (with help from commenters) asks the guys about their belief in ghosts, how they define music, how they write their songs, their favourite Canadian musicians, their rehearsal patterns, past drug experiences, how the band met (Tyler referenced the band's Soo origins here and even briefly mentioned why ex-bassist Daniel Rodbard left), the genre of music they'd prefer if they couldn't play punk/metal, an... interesting experience from their Northern Vibe Festival set up here in 2022, ...
...their favourite song to play live, why they got into music, and their message to the indie music community. The interview runs until the 65 minute mark, so we get over a half hour of loose and fun conversation with Spades' rhythm section here! I'd have structured the topics of conversation a little more naturally, as it seemed very random without a lot of follow-ups, but James & Tyler came off well, so give the whole interview with E:W:L a watch at this link! Remember, I can't embed it here due to the content matched audio elsewhere in the stream. We're almost caught up for Spades GT activity, so we'll have more from them last & this month on the site soon, along with more local content! Thanks everyone!
Today's SMS post is divided in half between the Twin Saults, with new videos and band updates from Sault Michigan taking up the back half, but we're leading off north of the border with a big concert preview for tomorrow night and an intriguing LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month. Here's what you should know!
Toronto "dead metal/zombie glam" band Blood Opera will make their local concert debut on Saturday, May 18th at The Queen of Hearts Club above Shooters Downstairs Lounge! Billed as Canada's only "horror heavy metal" band, Blood Opera will be right up the alley of Frightlight fans thanks to their horror movie-influenced presentation and lyrics, but taken up many notches with an elaborately violent stage show to accentuate their hard hitting and melodic sound, and note their impressive guest performer list on their studio material too! This show is being promoted by Steel City Events and will serve as an afterparty for that day's Steel City CollectorCon at the Quattro Hotel, basically along the same lines as the planned First Jason-headlined concert that would have served as the Steel City Nostalgia Fair afterparty in April 2020 (one guess as to why that fair and concert were cancelled). It's great to see Steel City try a concert of this scale again, let alone another one for diehard horror movie fans!
Local support will come by way of party metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty in a rare support turn for a touring band as opposed to rappers. Hopefully the Stanghettas & Mikhal deliver a fun set to kick off the night! This is a 19+ event (as is Blood Opera's stage show in general), but $20 tickets bought in advance will double as passes to the CollectorCon, and the concert proper begins at 9:00 PM. Blood Opera are the sort of band best seen rather than described, but fans of horror movies won't want to miss all of the action over the Victoria Day long weekend, so visit the above links for more on this concert (and the CollectorCon) next month!
Next up, here's a preview of a big concert taking place TOMORROW NIGHT, as Coquitlam, British Columbia alternative rock musician Matthew Good will make his long awaited return to Sault Ste. Marie when he headlines at The Machine Shop! The former Matthew Good Band frontman and political activist will be familiar to many readers from band and solo songs like "Hello Time Bomb" and "In A World Called Catastrophe", so it'll be good to have him back on a local stage! Of course, this is Matthew's first stop here since his acoustic gig at The Speak Easy in October 2007 that was... divisive, let's say. I won't rehash what happened, but clearly, he wants to let bygones be bygones with the Soo! Remember that he was supposed to play at the Sault Community Theatre Centre in March 2020, but that show was one of the first cancellations due to the pandemic lockdowns, so kudos to him for coming back to Sault Ste. Marie four years later!
Guelph hard rock solo artist Vilivant will open tomorrow in her local debut, after dropping out of November's Big Wreck show at the same venue due to "logistical issues". Hopefully there will be none of the sort for Vilivant this time, as she's got some solid tracks herself! Unusually bumped up from its originally planned date on April 25th, this all ages concert begins at 8:00 PM, and general admission tickets are still on sale for $54.50 plus online & processing fees at this link, and presumably at the door. Fingers crossed that this show is a huge hit for Matthew and fans alike, so that we're not waiting another 16½ years for him to come back! Visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's Matthew live!
Also today, let's zip over to Sault Michigan for a new band in the works from two rising young musicians that have been covered on the site! Attendees of last fall's fan-voted Lake Superior State University Battle of the Bands will remember the surprise runner-up run by local singer/guitarist Molly Escherich, who has been increasing her profile ever since with more acoustic sets in the E.U.P., but is also working on a proper band named Aerials (System of a Down reference?). Joining her here is drummer Blaze Beairl, who is the son of Exit 808 frontwoman Amy Beach and former Shift guitarist Joey Beairl. Fans in Alpena saw Blaze fill in on bass with his mom's band at the Rock Recovery Battle of the Bands in last month, but Blaze is a drummer first and foremost, and he has his own solo Facebook page featuring him covering songs by Knocked Loose and Limp Bizkit.
While both Molly & Blaze have multi-instrumental skill sets, they are looking for a permanent bassist to fill out their lineup, and you can watch them covering The Offspring's "The Kids Aren't Alright", System Of A Down's "Sugar", and, as embedded below, Pop Evil's "100 In A 55" on Molly's solo Facebook page (Aerials do not have one of their own yet). These obviously aren't 100% indicative of their final sound, but Molly & Blaze are definitely talented young musicians with some intriguing bands in mind to cover, so check their first videos out above & below, and click here for details on their bassist search and how you can try out!
Finally, here's the latest from local hard rock/metal band Tarnished, and while the wait for the rest of their videos from the aforementioned Rock Recovery Battle of the Bands continues, they have more news to share. Remember this "Reel" from last month featuring frontman Alex Traynor and an unidentified guitarist playing the solo to Ratt's "Round & Round"? Well, the second guitarist was actually drummer Josh Fair! Of course, long-time fans shouldn't be shocked that Josh can play guitar, as Tarnished began life as an acoustic duo, with Josh playing guitar for their shows in this format through 2020, and he also played bass when the band had a separate drummer in the past. Leading from that "Reel", a normal embeddable video was shared on March 30th featuring Tarnished (with Josh on guitar) playing "Round & Round" in full, and sitting in on drums here was Rhythm & Brews/ex-Nixxon Dixxon drummer Chris Hubbard!
Tarnished gave mixed messages as to Chris' status with the band (they thanked him for "rocking out with us" in the description, but also said that they've "currently got Chris jammin' on the drums" in a comment reply), but remember that Chris and Alex filled in with each other's bands for concerts earlier this year. Whether Chris has joined permanently or not, let alone if he and Josh could switch roles if needed, I couldn't say, but he drums well on this strong cover! I've never liked "Round & Round", but Tarnished handle it as well as you'd expect, so give this jam a watch below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone!
