LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Banned & Nudge), Sault Michigan Weekend Concert Previews, And More!!

Now that I'm back home and settled in, let's help clear out this glut of news from the past week starting with an all-Sault Michigan news post! We haven't had one of these in a while, partly thanks to an overall slowdown in news across the river, but this weekend's pretty big for metal in the Sault Michigan area, so it fits to give everything some extra attention today! That said, our preview of LemmaFest is coming tonight, as I want to give it more of a focus than it could have in this post due to some new shows, so in this post, we have LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for this month, a preview of a notable band's live return TONIGHT, and more news from them, so here's what you need to know!

Kinross hard rock quartet Banned will return to the Sault Michigan area TOMORROW NIGHT for their first ever concert at The Cozy Corners Tavern & Grill in Barbeau! Though they've kept busy in the last couple months with shows all over the Eastern U.P., their Cozy Corners debut will be Banned's first show within 45 minutes of the Soo since their March 15th stop at The Bird, so if you've missed their hard rocking covers, take note of their Barbeau gig tomorrow night! I apologize for the short notice too, as this show was only announced on the band's Facebook page on Wednesday, and I've only had time to mention it now. Also, if they're having any guest performers, their page hasn't announced them. Details are scant for this show, but Banned's set will come after the festivities wrap up for a walleye fishing tournament that The Cozy Corners Tavern is hosting on Saturday. A cover charge has not been announced, but a 10:00 PM start time and 21+ age limit are both likely. For more details, visit the above links! It's nice to see Banned back in the area on Saturday, and hopefully the guys deliver a great weekend of hard rock classics and maybe some originals tomorrow! For a preview, here's Banned playing their original song "Plaid Girl" last month in Gould City!



Also in new Sault Michigan shows, Marquette hard rockers Nudge have lined up another set of weekend dates at The Satisfied Frog next week! Just 4 weeks after their last shows at The Frog, this hard working and talented U.P. band will rock Sault Michigan once again, and with the frequency of their last 3 weekend engagements here (all are just 4 weeks apart), it's great to see Nudge making up for lost time following their early-2012 absence from the area! Also note that frontman Danzo McCracken's solo show will return to The Satisfied Frog on Wednesday and Thursday before Nudge crank up the rock on Friday & Saturday, so if you wanna mellow out a bit, keep Danzo's solo sets in mind next week as well! There's no announced cover charge for Nudge's shows next weekend, you must be 21 to attend, and there's an advertised start time of 10:00 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Sounds like a good time to me, and hopefully Nudge can rock The Frog to it's core with plenty of great heavier covers next weekend! Stay tuned for updates on these shows if they come in!

Now to a preview of one of the metal concerts in Sault Michigan this weekend, and while our LemmaFest preview is forthcoming in our next post, the band that opens this year's Michael Lemma tribute festival tomorrow will also be playing a long awaited concert TONIGHT as well! Brimley metal trio Half A Man will play their first concert in 13 months tonight at The Bird (a.k.a. Golanka's Bar), and this has definitely been a long time coming for the guys following recording sessions, delays, lineup changes, and more! As such, this will also be their first show as an official trio (though they temporarily played with 3 members at their 2010 live debut), and it will be their first concert since the departures of guitarist Denny Breslin & singer Dillion Semasky, though only Denny had played at any prior Half A Man shows. Tonight's concert seems fairly standard compared to Half A Man's earlier concerts, but the Facebook event page does confirm that there will be a barbeque at The Bird prior to their set, so come on out for that as well! There's no cover charge for tonight, you must be 21 to attend, and the concert itself actually has a listed start time of 8:00 PM, which is oddly early. Check the above links for more details!

Sounds like a great show to me, and it's awesome to see Erik, Gary, and Mikey back on stage after so long! This caps off a busy Friday for Half A Man after being interviewed by Scott Cook & Brian Davie on Rock 101 this morning, and I hope many of you guys knew about the interview and tuned in, as I was busy this past week and couldn't get a moment in to remind you guys. I hope someone recorded it too, it'll be a great listen if someone did! Also remember to follow Half A Man on their new Twitter page too, especially as you can only read their tweets if you're a confirmed follower on your own Twitter account. Go see Half A Man TONIGHT at The Bird, stay tuned for our LemmaFest preview later tonight, and for a preview of tonight's show, here's the new "radio version" (less swearing) of their original song "Drunk", courtesy of their YouTube channel yesterday! Sounds very good and still potent, but make note of their live return tonight!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for our extended LemmaFest preview later tonight, and possibly more news! To accomodate that, I'm postponing this month's YouTube Channel Profiles to tomorrow so we don't flood the site with posts today or de-emphasize the LemmaFest preview by putting it up tomorrow morning, as it begins early tomorrow as it is. Stay tuned!