We're almost at the midpoint of January already, and this post is loaded with some big updates, including a local band's apparent return from inactivity, the latest news from Lion Ride, the newest additions to the Hempfest lineup, and kicking things off, LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!! Here's what you need to know! (EDITED: 12:48 AM)
The complete lineup for the next metal night at The Roosevelt Hotel THIS THURSDAY have been announced, including hardcore metal quintet WinkStinger, grimecore trio Shit Liver, and death metal rockers State of Misery! WinkStinger are fresh off their well received slot at the New Years Eve show at Foggy Notions, Shit Liver also riding recent momentum on their locally unique material, and State of Misery are on a hot streak themselves in recent months! This concert will be at The Rosie on Thursday night at 9:00 PM, with no announced cover charge and a 19+ age limit. For more details, visit the above pages and the brand new Metal Night at The Rosie Facebook page that Rich just recently launched! Updates on future metal shows there should be posted there as they're confirmed, so become a fan today to stay in the loop! Also, recent plugs on State of Misery's Facebook group have been hinting towards the addition of a second guitarist to the band, who would make his debut at this show. I personally have no clue who it is, but we should find out on Thursday, and when public word breaks, I'll have it here!
The other new shows are courtesy of Cheboygan hard rockers The Darwin Project, who have scheduled a pair of new dates for Sault Michigan in the spring! A month after their one-off show in Rudyard, they'll be back at The Satisfied Frog for a full weekend set on March 18th and 19th! These are their first concerts in Sault Michigan itself since their show at The Savoy in November. Good to see them back up here, they're a solid hard rock band and should deliver some entertaining music in March! Both shows are likely 21+ with no cover charge, and they'll both start at 9:00 PM. For more details, check the above links, and the official Facebook pages for both concerts by clicking here and here! With our admittedly spotty and incomplete concert listings for Sault Michigan, it's nice to see a band using their pages to tell us everything in their upcoming plans, so don't let these shows slip you by! I'll have more from The Darwin Project as I hear it, but check them out!
Next up, new bands are now confirmed for this year's Hempfest, in it's local return after a year's relocation! We previously knew about the planned involvement of Frightlight, Half Past, and a pair of out of town non-metal bands, those being The Killin' Time Band and Northern Lights. Well, there's a bunch of new confirmed bands, three of which are of the metal or hard rock vein! One is quite familiar locally, that being Ontario based AC/DC cover band Who Made Who! They've made a bunch of stops in Sault Ste. Marie over the past few years, and they have the AC/DC sound down well, so they'll be worth checking out for sure! Also joining them at Hempfest this year is Misery: The Metallica Xperience, which as you can probably gather, is a Metallica tribute band! They've played here before themselves, and though I've never seen Misery in particular, they are pretty good! Vocals are a bit off, but they have everything else down well! The other new hard rock band isn't a tribute band, but they're a talented Vancouver hard rock trio named 4Ward, who have some catchy tunes themselves, and should attract a nice crowd at Hempfest themselves! Two more musical acts are now confirmed as well, including Arizona solo artist Scott Huckabay and Blind River's own Josh Odair. Click on all of the above links to check out the confirmed bands to date!
Stay tuned for more Hempfest news as I hear it, and before I forget, huge kudos to Robert Neron for actually telling us about the tentative lineup on the Facebook event page! The last couple years of Hempfest from it's old ownership never officially published lineups that I saw, so this is all very helpful! I'll have more as I hear it!
Fourthly, Lion Ride have given their MySpace page an overhaul, which now includes a number of new items worth sharing! Firstly, you'll notice that they've added the studio version of their new song "Snail Trail" to their music player, but if you've heard it before on other sites, it won't really be a "new" story. Leading from that, any allusions to a timeframe for their upcoming LP's release have been removed completely, so who knows when we'll see it? The page also includes an updated biography, an interview with the band featuring some interesting answers to some band questions, and some new show posters and so forth! The other big news is that the band have officially named Carmine "Cobra Carmander" Romano as their official bassist, removing the "temporary" tag that he'd had since the band enlisted him to replace Brenton "Diamond Brent Panther" Ellis last year. Not much is said in terms of why he's now an official member, but he did leave his old Kitchener rock band The Saigon Hookers earlier this month (source here), and he is listed as a former member of The Saigon Hookers in the enclosed Lion Ride interview, so I imagine that's related. Carmine's added a lot to the band since last year, and he's a great fit! No word yet though on if he'll now be featured on any tracks on Lion Ride's new album. Stay tuned for more news as it comes in, and click here to check out their newly upgraded MySpace page!
And finally for today, it appears that a local hard rock band has returned from a long inactive period! That band would be local glam/punk rockers Dirty Virgin, who I don't believe we've seen on stage since 2009! I can surmise that they're back because frontman Bobby Clement has been plugging their MySpace page recently on Facebook, and the band's pages have been newly updated as well. The changes may look slight at first on MySpace and their Facebook group, but many old postings have been deleted, and their lineup has been changed. Now, it only counts Bobby and bassist Lionel "Rocks" Quinton as band members, with guitarist Ryan Spin and drummer Richard "Dickie" Blackstock not listed. This likely means they're no longer in Dirty Virgin, which is unfortunate, but hopefully Bobby and Lionel find some good replacements! Plus, I heard Ryan and Dickie were working on a new project of some kind, so at least they're still in music! There's nothing else around that I know of to add, but it's nice to see Dirty Virgin back! Things were quiet from their camp in 2010, having not heard from them publically since their promising set at the Kiss Battle of the Bands, but hopefully some interesting news comes out soon! Check the above links for more!
That's all for today, but I might have a new post tomorrow before I head to The Rockstar Bar for some Turner Up! Keep an eye out, as there is definitely more exciting stuff on the horizon! Thanks everyone!
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