Holiday Season Concert Previews, Including The Bret Michaels Concert!!

It's time to preview a small but notable stretch of metal concerts taking place over the next little while, so after you guys open your Christmas presents and spend time with the family, there's some shows to hit that you guys should definitely know about! They're the sole focus of this post, but rest assured, there's a lot more on the David Gold front to report that I hope to get to over the next while, among other stories. Stay tuned, but for this Christmas Eve, let's stay positive and focus on these upcoming concerts, so here's what you need to know!

First for this batch of post-Christmas metal/hard rock shows is the long awaited Garden of Bedlam CD release show! Over a year after recording sessions at Stereo Soul Studios wrapped up, the prominent local metal quartet will hit the stage for the first time in 5 months when they rock The Canadian Nightclub on Monday night with their new album "Everything Will Die" in tow! Fans have been anticipating this album's release for months, and now, fans can officially buy it Monday night at the site of some of Garden of Bedlam's biggest shows, themselves returning to The Canadian 21 months after last playing there! I can attest to the quality of this new album, but if you want to be the first to buy it, and check out a full set of Garden of Bedlam mayhem, be at The Canadian on Monday night at 10:00 PM! There will be a $5 cover charge (I'm unsure what the CD will cost, but I'd bring at least $10), there is no opening band for this show, and you must be 19 to attend. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be an awesome night of metal from one of the area's biggest bands, and you know that they'll be pumped up to finally unveil the fruits of their labour on their fans this coming Monday!

Though I don't know release details for the album beyond this show, you'll absolutely wanna be there for all that will be going on! I wish I could be there to rock out with you guys, but I'm in Detroit through Wednesday. Best of luck, stay tuned for my review of "Everything Will Die" before New Years Day, and for a preview of this huge CD release show, here's Garden of Bedlam playing the CD's opening song "Against The Grain" at Rotaryfest last year!



Now to a pair of entertaining hard rock concerts taking place on Tuesday, starting with the last major headlining concert at The Dreammakers Theater at Kewadin Casino of 2011, and it features the return to Sault Ste. Marie of Poison frontman Bret Michaels! A hair metal legend and a recent star of a few reality television series, this talented singer will make his (at least) fourth appearance in the Sault area on Tuesday night, following successful Kewadin appearances in 2008 & 2010 (the latter as part of Kewadin's 25th Anniversary Summer Festival), and an earlier solo gig at the former Eastgate Hotel in Sault Ontario in 2005. This time, Bret's sure to have loads of great solo and Poison material ready to rock out with, ranging from classics like "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" and "Talk Dirty To Me" to newer solo tracks like "Go That Far" and "Wasted Time", so there's no shortage of quality material in store for Poison & Bret Michaels fans on Tuesday night! Unlike his last couple of area stops, there is no announced opening band. Tickets ARE still available (though only standing room tickets for general seating), and they are still $42.50 American, so click here to buy them online, or you can presumably visit the Kewadin box office in person or call 1-800-KEWADIN to get hooked up while you still have time.

I believe this show is all ages, and there is a 7:00 PM start time. For more details, check the above links! It's great to see Bret back in action for another local stop, especially after all of his health issues last year, and hopefully he'll prove once again why he's one of the area's favourite major touring acts! I'm admittedly not a huge fan, but Bret's work with Poison speaks for itself in hair metal circles, so definitely consider snagging some tickets if you haven't already! For a preview, here's SooToday's recap video from his stop at The Dreammaker's Theater on his birthday in 2008!



Finally for concerts over the next couple of post-Christmas days, it's the Green Christmas Bash at Coch's Corner on Tuesday! This is the second straight "Green Christmas" show promoted by local cello punk trio RedD Monkey, following one on Boxing Day 2010, and though this year's variation has had a lot of changes since being originally announced, there's still fun to be had! Only two bands are now scheduled for this concert, including headliners RedD Monkey and local blue Chinese metal crash punk quartet Sykotyk Rampage, making their Coch's Corner debut (I think), their first local concert appearance since October's Soo Zombie Walk afterparty, and they'll have bassist Brian Cattapan joining them for the first time on-stage since June! Now, this concert has had a lot of alterations since it was announced in September, including a move from Feedback (who hosted last year's Green Christmas show as Foggy Notions) to Coch's Corner and a date change from today to the 27th, both for unexplained reasons. With the date change, the previously announced View To A Kill and Ye Olde Mold Pickers both dropped out of this concert, with Sativa Rose pulling out earlier this month due to family commitments for singer Marisa Valois. That said, the two bands we still have will deliver a unique night of punk and crash for fans at Coch's Corner, so definitely consider attending this show on Tuesday night!

There is no cover charge for this concert, you must be 19 to attend, and a 10:00 PM start time is listed. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Regardless of the changes and band dropouts, this will be a unique seasonal concert for your holiday concertgoing needs, and you know that both RedD Monkey's classical infused punk rock and Sykotyk Rampage's harsh and very original jam music will entertain all night! For a preview, here's RedD Monkey covering Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" last December at what's now Feedback!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news (David Gold or otherwise), our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on Repetitions, our final Christmas surprise post, and more as the holiday season continues! Stay tuned, and if you're not around the computer over the next few days, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!