Saturday, March 10, 2012

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Paraside

As expected, the 10th of the month is bringing us another monthly feature post at the SMS, and it's our latest Defunct Local Band Profile! As always, this series features a profile on a local metal or hard rock band that have either disbanded or have been visibly inactive for a full year, and like the rest of the entries in this series, this month's band was randomly chosen from our local metal/hard rock band links. This month's band (our 25th profiled since this series started) didn't last a long time, but they were frequently seen at their height, so read on below for what you need to know this month! (Updated on May 7th, 2013)
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Genre: Alternative Metal/Hardcore

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members:

Jake Vachon, vocals
Brock Kinnunen, lead guitar
Greg Sacco, rhythm guitar
Michael Hagerman (Changing Waves), bass
Alex Hagerman (Changing Waves), drums

Audio/Video: Online media from Paraside's brief local run is in short supply, but a few pages have samples of how they sounded! Their MySpace page features low quality live recordings of their original songs "Butterfly" and "M.I.A." (along with their "Alarm" intro track), and I've since uploaded each one to our YouTube channel. Also, their Facebook group features three short (and also low quality) videos from early 2008 jam sessions. That's all from Paraside that I know of, but you can see their three jam videos as one combined YouTube upload (with brightened video quality) below!


Info/Analysis: Paraside were a young local hardcore band that were frequently seen at local concerts between November 2007 & April 2008, mostly at all ages hardcore/punk shows at The Oddfellows Hall. Paraside opened for notable out of town bands like The Rebel Spell, The Flatliners, and Three For Fallacy during their run, along with sharing the stage with local hardcore quintet As It Stands on at least three occasions. Details on Paraside beyond their concert dates are minimal, though according to their Facebook group, singer Jake Vachon likely left the band in the spring of 2008. Paraside's likely last show was on April 20th, 2008 as openers for Dead & Divine, and they last used their MySpace page on May 27th, presumably going inactive that summer. Band members Michael & Alex Hagerman were highly visible locally in the hardcore quartet Changing Waves through mid-2012, while guitarist Greg Sacco has worked on a solo acoustic project in later years. It's hard for me to critique Paraside due to the low audio quality of their posted material, but I can tell that they had good energy, solid guitar work, and a well varied sound, and I do detect band chemistry. It'd be nice to get clearer audio or video of Paraside, but check them out and see if you like what you hear!
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There, I hope you guys liked this month's profile! So, what's in store for this series next month? Well, our next 1-1-1-1-1 cycle between the twin Saults begins next month, but because the first band I chose doesn't have enough substantial information to support a whole post, we're doing two bands from each of the twin Saults next! Yes, both bands were chosen randomly. So next month, we're looking at the short lived 2009 hardcore band Lorax (formerly Loyalty Is Dead), and the late 2008 Sault Michigan metal project Hands of Betrayal (that I think featured Slackjawed Rats alumni), so watch out for these on the site on or around April 10th! That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news this weekend! Thanks everyone!

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