Friday, June 4, 2010

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Keep The Faith, Monkey's Uncle, & Blind Baby), Concert Previews, And SMS 3rd Anniversary Plans!!

Hey guys, you ready for some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS?! I have a bunch to share today, so here's what you need to know on them! Afterwards, stay tuned for previews of this weekend's concerts, and info on the SMS 3rd anniversary on July 4th, and how YOU can help out with it!

Yesterday, I mentioned in my paragraph about the 2112 cancellation that The Canadian Nightclub was hyping a Bon Jovi tribute band as playing there next Friday, and I would be checking online to find out which specific one would be here. Well, I didn't have to look far! Keep The Faith: The Quintessential Tribute To Bon Jovi will be back at The Canadian once again on June 11th for another night of faithfully performed Bon Jovi classics! My source for this is the band's Facebook group. You may remember seeing Keep The Faith there in March at a well advertised concert, and are returning! Fronted by Jon Bon Jovi look and sound-alike Chris Newman, the band do really sound like Bon Jovi, performing hits of theirs from their 1980s hair metal heyday all the way to their more accessible country-influenced songs of recent years! Though I'm not a huge Bon Jovi fan, Keep The Faith always impress with their sound, and fans of the band will be sure to have a ball! I'd expect a $5 cover charge for this show, expect a start time of 10:00 PM, and it will definitely be 19+. As I hear more, I will share it with you guys! For more information and samples of Keep The Faith, click here!

The next new concerts I have for today come courtesy of Kewadin Casino's Entertainment page, which was recently updated to reflect concerts at The Rapids Lounge for all weekends through August! Some we knew about already (Peril and Nixxon Dixxon), some are non-metal bands (The Hixx and The 2nd Hand Band), and others still I still don't know a genre for (Rainbow, Gary's Driving, and Crossroads.) But there are two more local metal bands returning to The Rapids Lounge at Kewadin Casino this summer for some concerts, so here's what you need to know about them! We'll start with Sault Michigan hard rockers Monkey's Uncle, who are returning to The Rapids Lounge once again for a pair of weekends this summer! Though the band still does not plug upcoming shows on MySpace (though they still update it), Monkey's Uncle will indeed be back at Kewadin's bar on June 25-26th, and August 6-7th! All four shows have a free admission, they all begin at 9:00 PM, and you must be 21 to get in. Nice to see them back for a few shows, though I really wish they would update their MySpace for full dates! If they have shows at The Bird or The Satisfied Frog, I have no way of knowing! Really good band though, check them out at this location!

Now I actually went out of chronological order for the concert announcements, the final band actually should be first chronologically, but I'm putting them last to segue into the weekend concert previews, as they're a part of them too! Sault Michigan hard rockers Blind Baby will be at The Rapids Lounge themselves this summer, but first, they've got shows a LOT sooner! According to frontman Tadd "Booze" Gravelle (thanks for adding me on Facebook!), Blind Baby will be playing at The Bird THIS WEEKEND for two shows, tonight and tomorrow night! Then, the band will be at Cozy Corners Bar & Grill in Barbeau (just outside of town) for shows next weekend on June 11th and 12th, followed by the Kewadin shows on July 3rd and 4th! This comes straight from Blind Baby's singer, so there's my source. The band haven't announced these shows on their Facebook page, and The Bird and Cozy Corners don't have an online page to my knowledge, so I can't 100% verify additional details, but let me say this: The Kewadin shows have a 9:00 PM start time with no cover charge, the rest of the shows can't be terribly different!

Should be good shows, especially this weekend at The Bird, sorry for the short notice of announcing it! I've probably missed some other Blind Baby shows too, my apologies for any I did miss! I can actually tell you a bit about Blind Baby's sound now too, as Tadd was kind enough to send me some audio samples via e-mail, and they aren't bad! A mix of heavier and lighter originals, good musically but I assume the samples won't do justice to the live experience! Good vocals (especially the heavier material), I like the guitar too! Kinda hard to define, but if you like some hard rock originals, you can't go wrong! As I hear more on Blind Baby, I'll have it for you guys!

Seeing as the Blind Baby concert alerts discussed concerts taking place this weekend, we'll continue from that with the other local concert preview for this weekend, as Turner Up will play just one concert this weekend, as they bring their live show to The Canadian Nightclub tomorrow night! Expect a night full of rock covers (with heavier stuff to be seen the later you stick around) from a band full of local music veterans! They're a great band to dance to, if you're into that kind of stuff also! A start time of 10:30 PM is listed on the Facebook event page, there should be a cover charge of $5 or less, and you must be 19 to get in. Turner Up are always fun to see live, head on out to The Canadian on Saturday if you want to enjoy yourself with some live hard rock! Check out more from Turner Up at this location, and for a video preview, here's a live clip of the band covering the Def Leppard classic "Hysteria"!



Finally for today, it is now June 4th, just one month away from The Sault Metal Scene's third anniversary! Hard to believe, isn't it? To start the countdown to July 4th, I have a third anniversary-specific banner on the blog and a special logo for it on our Facebook page, which will be up until our anniversary on July 4th (with a week's exception from June 20-26th, when we'll have a special logo and banner up for Tesla's show at Kewadin Casino on June 26th.) But that's far from all! As you may know from following the SMS over the past 35 months, you'll know that I try to celebrate the anniversary each year by having something special in store! Like how last year, I unveiled the current logo and launched our Facebook page, or with the SMS CD giveaways that I likely won't repeat this year due to waning interest. This year, I definitely want to do something special, and my plan is to add a new special feature to the SMS of some type! But, here's the problem: I'm not entirely sure what I want to do.

This is where YOU come in, the faithful SMS readers! I want your opinions as to what I should start or launch or add or feature or edit on The Sault Metal Scene in time for our 3rd anniversary on July 4th! I have a few ideas, but I don't know what would be popular, worth your time, or feasible. So here's what I'm gonna do: I have a topic posted on the discussion board of the SMS' Facebook page called "SMS 3rd Anniversary Ideas" where I share many of the ideas I've been debating. I'd like you guys to voice your opinions there, in comments on SMS posts, by e-mail at robertfigures@hotmail.com, or through my Facebook page as to what YOU would want to see on the SMS for our third anniversary! It doesn't have to be something I mentioned on the topic, if you have a bright alternate idea! I can't promise that the most popular suggestion will be chosen, some are more feasible than others, while a few choices I didn't include because I can't pull them off either time-wise or financially, but I'd love to hear your ideas! Whatever sounds like the best option with a good size of popular opinion will be the newest SMS feature, addition, page, or edit! HELP ME OUT, GUYS! WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE ON THE SMS ON JULY 4TH?!!?

That's all for today, I will have more news and updates in the coming days, so stay tuned for more! Remember, I NEED YOUR HELP!!!

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