LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Pop Evil), The Crusade Preview, And New Skeyes Of Seven Videos!!

We're back with new news and updates on this Sunday morning, but what's now up on the site today? Along with some new videos from a recently prominent local band, we have a lot of hype for two events for cancer fundraising, one of which is a preview for a concert TOMORROW, and one of which is a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for the Sault Michigan area, so here's what you need to know!

The next major Dreammaker's Theater concert at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino from Allstar Promotions has been announced, and it will see the long awaited return of Pop Evil this summer! This popular Grand Rapids modern hard rock quintet will hit the Soo Kewadin for the first time in 3½ years when they headline a special all ages benefit concert there on August 14th, with all proceeds going to Team Jessica, a local fundraising campaign to support local high school student Jessica Jorgensen's battle with Acute Lympocytic Leukemia. Allstar Promotions owner Dave Atkinson is a firm supporter of the Team Jessica campaign, and his local graphics company Allstar Graphics has produced t-shirts for the cause as well, so it's great to see him helping Jessica through this major battle! The concert itself will have at least two other opening bands (whether any are local isn't publically known yet), and tickets will go on sale TOMORROW for just $20, and start times aren't announced yet. Check the above links for more details!

This sounds like a great event for an awesome cause, and it may call to mind the two Allstar-promoted Kim Rogers/Kelsey Raffaele benefit concerts (the first of which Pop Evil headlined), so if people can rally around Jessica at a similar level, this is bound to be a huge help with her leukemia battle! As for Pop Evil, they've been missed in recent years, but with their new album "Onyx" now out, and an exciting modern rock sound, you won't wanna miss their local return, so stay tuned for updates, and read on more on Team Jessica at this link!

Next up, here's a very special concert preview for TOMORROW, as local singer/concert promoter J.D. Pearce is holding a cancer fundraising event at The Canadian Nightclub named The Crusade! This is a cause that's very close to J.D., as his mom has beat cancer twice, and I'd assume most people have had it affect their lives, so it's great to see all proceeds from this event going to the Relay for Life and the The Canadian Cancer Society! Though early announcements implied a more varied lineup, five of the six bands tomorrow will be metal or hard rock-leaning, so who's scheduled? In descending order, the acts include J.D.'s own metal/punk band T-Rex Manning (in a rare headlining set) at 11:00 PM, ex-Terminal frontman Greg Callaghan's solo acoustic act at 10:00 PM, Rockstar Bar Battle winners The Suicide Kings at 9:00 PM, battle runner-ups Haggith at 8:00 PM, returning local death metal quartet Crimson Crusade at 7:00 PM, and the newest confirmation, local metal cover trio Caveman Morrison opening the festivities at 6:00 PM!

While most of tomorrow's bands have been seen recently, this will be Crimson Crusade's first show in six months, Haggith's Canadian Nightclub debut, and Caveman Morrison's first show at this venue since (I think) the Kiss Battle of the Bands in late 2009, so make note of them as well! This special concert is ALL AGES, with doors opening at 5:00 PM tomorrow, and admission is by donation ($5 recommended), with some sort of prize draws and vendor tables likely for added fundraising. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! There's a nice diverse lineup of acts tomorrow, from acoustic rock to punk to death metal, and these 20 musicians are all rocking out for a fantastic cause, so come on down to The Canadian tomorrow evening for The Crusade, and I will absolutely see you guys there! For a preview, here's T-Rex Manning (under their one-off Fiend Brigade moniker) covering a Misfits classic there in March!



Finally for today, local hard rock quintet Skeyes of Seven have uploaded a bunch of new videos onto their YouTube channel, all of which come from their second live concert at The Rockstar Bar last month! Joining their earlier upload of their original "Fallen Faith", the band posted six new videos (complete with titles) from the April 26th Garden of Bedlam show yesterday, including their originals "Destinations Unknown", "No One Cares", "Cognitive Dissonance", and "Anything At All", an their covers of Sense of Truth's "Crawling" and Breaking Benjamin's "So Cold", so click each link to check them out! Note that "Anything At All" is not another Sense of Truth cover, the same song name was just used by both bands. Also, I don't know yet if the filmer shot "Fallen Faith" (the earlier video was from a different camera) or their Slipknot, Stone Sour, and/or Tool covers. Shot at a high angle, it's not the clearest angle of the band, but the sound quality's solid, and it's good to hear these songs again!

I've embedded "Cognitive Dissonance" below, but check out more at the above links, and stay tuned for updates on this exciting alt-metal band's next shows and news!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news tomorrow, including some local band lineup additions! Thanks everyone!