Tuesday, April 8, 2014

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Crimes), Rock N' Roar Battle Results, And Much More!!

After an off day, let's get things back into gear at the SMS with a lot of big stories, so what's on tap today? Some assorted recent notes, results from a recent battle of the bands with local participation, and a notable lineup change, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month!

AlgomA drummer Jamie Vincent and Oh! Right Arm! Promotions' second promoted concert of the year will go down on Tuesday, May 13th at The Moose Lodge (host of last fall's Biipiigwan show), and it will be headlined by Montreal hardcore/crust punk trio Crimes! Interesting but brutal trio that Shit Liver and Destroilet fans should like, their streetwise intensity should find a solid audience in time for next month's show, so give them a listen above! The local openers actually won't involve any of Jamie's bands, as Blood Shed Productions metal bands Brutaly Fatal and Rotopsy will make their first appearance at one of Jamie or O!RA!'s shows on May 13th! With their apparent drop out of Dank Fest on April 19th, this will be one of your first public chances to see Brutaly Fatal's new full lineup (more on the first this week), and they and Rotopsy should bring some appropriate doom & grind to the proceedings! Admission will be $7 for this ALL AGES show, and there is a 7:00 PM start time. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! It'll be interesting to see how well this show does given the venue and lineup, but there's a lot of talent within, so stay tuned for updates on this latest all ages metal show!

Next up, local hard rockers The Suicide Kings finished in second place at Saturday night's Rock N' Roar Battle of the Bands in Spanish, and have won $500 and the right to open for Randy Bachman and Honeymoon Suite at the Rock N' Roar festival there on Saturday, August 16th! Though this is their first battle loss in any city, they're the highest finishing local band to date (surpassing Havadder & The Thrill Junkies' 5th place runs in the last two years), and it's awesome to see the guys make a huge impression with a new audience 3 hours east of the Soo! For reference, the winners of the battle were Spanish rock band The Broke Hustlers, while Sudbury hard rockers Of Tall Tales and Anxiety finished in third and fourth respectively, and Espanola metal band Fifth Column (who performed at a Rosie metal night in the fall of 2011) came in fifth. As only the top 5 bands will join the Rock N' Roar lineup, fellow local bands Havadder and the reunited Wishbone fell short of the top, which is disappointing for both (especially after how well Havadder's old lineup did in 2012), but hopefully they made some more fans!

It's great to see the local streak of success continue at the battle in Spanish, so hopefully The Suicide Kings rock the Rock N' Roar festival hard in August, and stay tuned for updates on their next local concert appearances!

Also today, we have a surprising lineup exit to announce, as local classic hard rock cover quintet The Thrill Junkies have apparently parted ways with drummer Scott McLurg. My source is Scott in a recent Facebook e-mail, though note that the band hasn't updated their Facebook page since playing at the former Roosevelt Hotel in January. Scott didn't go into details on why he left the band, but he guaranteed that the split was amicable. He also told me the band's planned replacement on drums, but I'll wait for official word from The Thrill Junkies before going into that on here. This is disappointing news for sure, but never fear, as Scott is looking to join a new local band! According to his post on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group yesterday, he's looking for a singer and bass player to start a new similar local band, and note that he already has a guitarist lined up. If you're interested in trying out, message Scott at this link, and stay tuned for updates on him and The Thrill Junkies!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter stories from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist, venue, or event name:

  • For their latest EP release tease, local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades revealed on their Facebook page last night that their first studio single will be up to download online soon (after some financial matters are taken care of), while they also confirmed that the EP release show (to be held by the end of next month) will feature them alongside Destroilet and the first full live appearance by Chronic Demonic. Very intriguing, stay tuned for updates!
  • In a recent refresh of our venue links, I added the aforementioned Moose Lodge to our active concert venue links, moved The Essar Center back there (due to June's Heart show), moved The Roosevelt Hotel down to our inactive venue links given it's new country-centric ownership, and also added the now-closed Smack Daddy's Bar & Grill (a.k.a. Bossy's Pub N' Grub during it's 2011 hard rock show run) there as well. Hopefully things are a bit more up-to-date now!
  • In another link change, I replaced the link for the Tenaris Second Stage at Rotaryfest on the SMS from their website to it's page on Rotaryfest's website, as the Second Stage site's domain name expired earlier this year. With that said, I have heard nothing to suggest that the Second Stage won't be happening again this summer, and both The Suicide Kings and The Danger Cats have posted on Facebook that they had applied to play at Rotaryfest this year, though it's unclear what stage, and I have not seen a public announcement concerning band applications yet. Stay tuned in case we hear anything!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles later this week! Thanks everyone!

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