Thursday, April 1, 2010

Weekend Concert Previews, Woods of Ypres Tour Dates, And A New I.S.O.M. Video!

Happy April Fools Day! And before anyone asks, no, nothing in this post is an April Fools joke, I'm not in the prankster mood today (though turning the site into the Sault Emo Scene or Sault Polka Scene for a day would be amusing!) Today, we have previews of the three metal concerts this weekend, along with two news stories, so here we go!

Firstly, a big concert in Sault Ontario tomorrow night, as Garden of Bedlam hit The Canadian Nightclub to officially celebrate the launch of their official website! Though it's already active and ready to check out online at http://www.gardenofbedlam.com, the official launch of it will be tomorrow night when they take the stage for what may be the last time before they hit the studio! (And by "may", I mean if a rescheduled date for their Garden River fundraiser is announced.) Supporting Garden of Bedlam tomorrow will be Half Past, in their debut appearance at The Canadian Nightclub, and their first concert since February! With Garden of Bedlam soon to record a new album, expect lots of unreleased songs from them tomorrow, but Half Past also have a new original up their sleeve tomorrow, so look out for that! Crank Sound Distribution are handling the sound tomorrow, and The Rad Zone will be on hand to sell Garden of Bedlam merchandise! The concert will start around 11:00 PM tomorrow night, NOT TONIGHT like The Canadian's radio ads had been saying earlier in the week. There is a cover charge of $5, a Half Past Facebook status is my source.

This should be a great concert, especially if you're itching to see Garden of Bedlam live, because as I already said, this could be their last concert for a few months. Whether you want to celebrate their website, rock out to some awesome metal, or both, hopefully you'll be at The Canadian tomorrow! Same goes for Half Past, hopefully we'll see a lot more from them soon, but tomorrow's a must if you wanna see them too! Click on the bands' names above to check out their material, confirm your attendance at the official Facebook event page, and for a video preview, here's their video for their song "The Truth Shall Set You Free"!



The other two metal shows this weekend will be on Saturday, and we'll stay in Sault Ontario for the first one, as a major tribute band will make their way here! Destroyer: Canada's Number One Tribute To Kiss will be headlining on Saturday night at The Rockstar Bar, for a show that I'm sure will appease some of the disgruntled Kiss fans who are anxiously (or impatiently) awaiting their rescheduled date here! A very authentic Kiss experience will await ticketholders, with full costumes, makeup, and big-show quality lighting, effects, fire breathing, and most importantly, an authentic Kiss sound! The family friendly, well travelled, and nationally recognized Destroyer will be sure to deliver the closest thing to Kiss that we can get for the time being, so be sure to head out to The Rockstar Bar on Saturday! Doors open at 9:00 PM for this concert, tickets are $12 in advance at either The Algonquin Hotel's front desk or The Rad Zone! If you're buying at the door, the price jumps to $15. Steep for a show at a bar, maybe, but you're going to get a lot of bang for your buck! Plus, $12-15 for a faithful Kiss tribute is arguably a better deal than $100 for the real thing, but that depends on who you ask. Check out more from Destroyer at their official website!

Sounds like a great concert, though I do find it ironic that since Kiss announced they were coming here, we've gotten Ace Frehley and a tribute band at separate shows for less combined than Kiss themselves this summer. But hey, it all works out for Kiss fans! If you want the next best thing to Kiss themselves, you'll want to be at The Rockstar Bar on Saturday, you won't be disappointed! Click here to confirm your attendance on Facebook, and for a preview, here's a video of Destroyer performing the Kiss classic "Rock N' Roll All Night" from a Calgary concert! And yes, that really was their stage setup, these guys are no joke!



Finally, there is a concert in Sault Michigan on Saturday as well, which I'm putting last to not fragment the Sault Ontario shows. Muskegon hard rockers Kilacel finally make their long awaited return to the area on Saturday night when they return to The Corner Pub Bar & Grill! Now compared to when I first mentioned this show last week, nothing's any different, but I'll go over what I know again: The show's in honour of the birthday of a person named Sandy, with an associated afterparty afterwards. It's a listed concert on their MySpace page, so it can't be a private deal, probably more akin to Fitswitch's one-off reunion for a birthday show last year. A cover charge of $3 has been announced, and the show starts at 9:00 PM. I'd been wondering what happened to Kilacel for local shows, they had a decent amount early last year and then it just dried up! (I noticed the same with bands like Orange October and Graveyard Tan, though the latter played here in February.) Great to see them back! If you want some radio hard rock, Kilacel play that style very well, and should put on an awesome show for the fans in Sault Michigan on Saturday!

For a preview, check them out on MySpace, and check out this really good video of Kilacel performing the song "Shotgun Bullet Baby" from the 2009 Muskegon Summer Celebration! I'm impressed!



Two big news stories to cap today's post (I have more than this, just spreading things out!) And we'll start with the announcement of new tour dates from your favourite local black/doom metal band, Woods of Ypres! Frontman David Gold has announced the band's first tour dates since the release of "Woods IV: The Green Album" on a topic on the band's official forum! This leg of the tour is strictly in Western Canada, kicking off in Thunder Bay on June 18th, then making it's way west before the leg wraps up June 26th in Vancouver. It includes a stretch of 6 shows in 6 days, and a possible Victoria show if they can get a booking. Now before anyone panics that there's no Sault Ste. Marie show, even though we were slotted in the Western Canada tour leg last year, do you really consider us "Western"? If that's all for that leg, we're probably in the Eastern half of the tour, whenever that's announced. Either way, I'm hopeful that they're back in our little burial ground this year, I can't wait to hear W4 songs live!

The tour dates, with associated Facebook event pages where available, are all posted at this location! David also mentions a U.S. tour, which would be awesome! I'll keep you posted with more, especially if a local show is announced, and all of the present tour dates are in the "Out of Town Concerts" section on your right!

And finally for today, here's a rarity: Video footage of inactive Sault Michigan death metal band Integrated System of Machines! Keyboardist Craig Harrison uploaded a new clip onto his YouTube channel of the band performing in June 2009 in Stanton, Michigan at last year's Carnival of Chaos! I'm thinking this was one of their last concerts before the band parted ways with frontman Orb Hearthstone and mostly vanished from major activity. This clip comes from their set on the "Ozzfest Stage", and it's of their self-titled song from their 2008 debut album "Apocalyptic Vision" (expect an SMS review of that next week!) It's a bit more accessible than their typical death metal fare, but you should dig it! Check it out below, or head to their MySpace page for more from the band! Hopefully we hear more from I.S.O.M. in the near future!



That's all for today, I thought I had stuff about this year's Rotaryfest to share, but the link for it disappeared, so that can wait until something pops up again. More Woods of Ypres stuff, and much more await my next post, and depending on when it goes up, there may be a Garden of Bedlam concert review attached! Stay tuned, thanks everyone!

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