LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Jack Spades), Swampstravaganza Updates, And New Videos!!

I know this is late notice, but the Downtown Diversity event from Friday at Passport To Unity featuring local hard rockers The Pixo Control and local pop rock band The Frasiers was rained out and will now take place TODAY at 4:00 PM at The Essar Centre, so if you wanna see that show finally, keep this info in mind! Now, before TONIGHT'S Fuck The Facts show, we have a big news post to get to today, including new promo videos for an upcoming metal album, another local band's video commemoration of a recent milestone, and big lineup changes for an upcoming show, but first, here's a long anticipated LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this month!

The long teased Jack Spades EP release show will officially go down on Friday, May 16th at The Rockstar Bar! After seeing it's digital release last month, the local punk/metal quintet's debut disc "The First" will finally get it's physical release that night, with the band also headlining with a set of originals and select covers for their fans, so don't miss this show in a couple of weeks! The only 100% confirmed opening band at the moment is local hardcore punk quintet Destroilet in their first live concert of 2014, but compared to the two year break they came off of last year, this is nothing, so get ready for their chaotic originals and covers at the release party as well! At least one more band is to be announced, but early word of Chronic Demonic or out of town punk rockers The Black Cat Attack playing this show was either premature or fell through in the interim. Admission will be $5, but if you pay $10, you'll get a copy of the EP at the door, so keep that deal in mind! You must be 19 to attend, and there is a 10:00 PM start time in effect.

For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! It's great to finally get confirmation of the Jack Spades EP release show after weeks of hints and tentatives, so make sure to be at The Rockstar Bar on May 16th to get your copies and jack the planet in style! Stay tuned for updates!

Next up, here's some lineup updates concerning the fourth annual Sewer Swampstravaganza at The Oddfellows Hall THIS SATURDAY, so what should you know? Three bands have dropped out of the show, those being local hard rock quartet Ashes To Dust (who also dropped out of last year's installment) and Case's Music girls vocal groups the Neon Stars and the Runaway Voices. Reasons for their exits haven't been announced, but Ashes To Dust haven't issued a public update in 11 months, and the vocal groups never did seem like perfect fits for this style of event. Hopefully things are amicable though! Ashes To Dust have not been replaced on the lineup, and as a result, all of the non-open mic acts (save headliners The Bear Hunters, Sykotyk Rampage, and the Haggith reunion) have been bumped up an hour. The vocal groups's shared timeslot at 3:00 PM was bumped up too to 4:00 PM, but they were replaced by promoter/RedD Monkey frontman Steve Mozarowksi in a solo set! Steve originally was a tentative performer under the name "Faceityoureametalband", and it's nice to see him back for a fourth straight year, even if it's not with Pete and Joe!

Finally, the open mic block hosted by Greg Callaghan will remain at 1:00 PM, but has been lengthened to run until 2:45 PM as a result of the lineup removals (still no word on the performers though.) The dropouts are disappointing, but there will still be 10 artists & the open mic block, and for just $5, this is still a wicked deal with a lot of entertaining bands, so I hope to see you guys at The Oddfellows Hall on Saturday night, and stay tuned for our preview later this week!

We'll close today with new videos, including two clips that commemorate the recent 10 year anniversary of local classic hard rock cover quintet That's Chester! Uploaded to (I believe) drummer Ric Datson's YouTube channel yesterday, the videos compile assorted photos, advertisements, and live concert audio of the band from their 2004 run onward, and there's some creative use of transitions and titles throughout! Note that the audio is just scattered clips from their concerts rather than full songs, but the first clip is a customized intro cover of Saliva's "Ladies & Gentlemen". The first video concerns their 2004-2008 era with original singers Ritch Fullerton & Jim O'Leary, and it includes many rare photos of the band, family members, fans, and even some advertisements from various shows and festivals, including sets at Rotaryfest and even at the OLG Casino back when they were more frequent for band bookings, even confirming a handful of out of town gigs in Thessalon and White River!

The second video covers events since 2009 and the addition of current singer Greg Simpson, and the style is basically the same for featured photos and music, though it kicks off with former local radio DJ James Warner-Smith plugging them on air. Aside from not mentioning their 2012-2013 breakup, the videos cover a lot of solid ground of their run together, and it will be interesting to see where the guys go from here, as they're definitely one of the longest active bands that we cover on the SMS! I'll have to screen capture some of the ads for archival purposes too. Check out the first anniversary video below, and watch them both above!



Finally for today, Sault Michigan classical metal band Theatre of Night also posted two linked compilation videos onto their YouTube channel on Friday, though these are promo videos for their still-forthcoming third album (also their first all-original release and first with singer Gaby Koss.) Both videos are comprised of assorted instrumental clips of recordings for the album as accompanied by slideshows of the band and related imagery, with both followed by samples of Gaby's vocals from their yet-released "Christmas Night" reissue with vocals, and very brief video footage of the band's local members (Craig Harrison and the Giles brothers) at a recording session. The videos also confirm that vocals are being recorded, and that the album will be mixed and released at some point this year. It seems like this album has been in progress forever, but it's still in the works, and what I'm hearing sounds promising to go along with their past classical metal renditions! Check out the first video below, and the second video at this link and above!



That's all for today, but I'll hopefully see you guys at The Oddfellows Hall TONIGHT for Fuck The Facts, Empyrean Plague, the return of Shit Liver, and much more! Thanks everyone!