Sabrina Pelchat Funeral Details, Speak Easy Battle Of The Bands Updates, And More News

I hope everyone had a great Halloween, despite the rain! Our first post of November includes new live concert videos, assorted updates, and updates to an upcoming battle of the bands, but first, here's some details on final services for a departed local musician, so here's what you should know!

The obituary for late Chronic Demonic singer Sabrina Pelchat has been posted on SooToday, which confirms that her services will be held on Tuesday at 3:00 PM at the Northwood Funeral Home at 942 Great Northern Road, with visitation beginning there at 1:00 PM. Helen Smith will officiate the service, and interment will be at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. She is survived by her parents, four siblings, partner/Shadowthrone bandmate Robert Sartini, her grandmother, and numerous other extended family members. The family is asking for donations to the Sault Ste. Marie Humane Society in her memory, and you can also offer condolences at this link. This is all still very sad for family and friends of Sabrina's, but hopefully everyone can remember the good times on Tuesday, and if you were a friend or colleague of hers, definitely consider going to the service on Tuesday, and/or the memorial concert at The Rednecks Saloon later this month!

Next up, here's some bad news for fans eagerly awaiting the second Speak Easy Battle of the Bands on Thursday, November 19th, as it has been postponed until March 2016. Co-promoter Jordan Leach (now going under the name Ye Tang Che on Facebook) revealed the news on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group on Friday, citing "sponsorship issues" for the delay. He didn't elaborate further on what the issues were, other than to say that he announced the postponement "with great distaste, but there's no way around these difficulties." A fixed March date for the battle will be announced "within a few weeks", and while the four previously announced acts (Mike Haggith & The Din, Pillory, Jesse Merineau, and the yet-to-be-revealed Eclypse) are still signed up for the battle, they are free to drop out if necessary for scheduling or other concerns. Jordan was hoping for 8 competing bands the last time out, so if you're interested in playing the delayed Speak Easy battle in March, message him above or at this link!

This is disappointing news, but honestly, the lack of updates regarding the lineup and prizes in recent weeks was a giveaway that something was up with the battle. At least with a March date, it'd (in theory) begin an annual pattern for the battle to be held in March like it was this year, and I'd assume it will be on a Thursday like before, but specifics are to be confirmed. Could it fall on March 3rd to loosely be a one year anniversary? Will these four acts remain come then? Who exactly are Eclypse? Stay tuned for more updates!

Also, here's some long teased media from Ten Kings guitarist Joe Jenkins' Instagram page, which has no less than 224 videos uploaded, far more than on his YouTube channel! There's beyond too many solo videos to cover at the moment, so while I figure out how to best approach covering them, Joe did upload three short clips there of him performing with Ten Kings in the past year! They include a guitar solo of his (song unclear) from July's Theory of a Deadman concert at The Dreammaker's Theater, and two brief clips from concerts at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino, including one of the second guitar solo from their cover of Guns 'N Roses' "Paradise City". Embedded below is a snippet of Ten Kings' cover of Billy Squier's "Lonely Is The Night", his only band upload that isn't of a guitar solo, and while you don't hear a lot, the guys sound good! It'd be nice to see more videos from Ten Kings concerts, but give Joe's Instagram clips a look above & below!

\m/ #guitar #guitarist @tenkingsband #cover #billysquier #classic #rock #musician #band #drums #fender #stratocaster #peavey #mapex #sabian #jackson #shure #guitfiddlin #likeforlike #tone #tonegeek #toneheaven #live #livemusic #supportlocalmusic #savethemusic #samplessuck #knowyourtone #instarock #instalike #beard

A video posted by Big Joe Jenkins (@bigjoeguitar) on Oct 14, 2015 at 9:02pm PDT

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

• Local post-punk quartet Gnaeus launched a contest on their Facebook page on October 19th, where they're looking for silly suggestions. The best suggestion (which would presumably be performed by the band) would net the winner a free copy of their upcoming debut CD "Loomings" and a chance to touch guitarist/synth player Brad Irwin's hair. If you're interested in submitting a suggestion, visit the above links!
• In a pair of house cleaning notes from last night's annual Halloween Party at The Algonquin Pub, The Elements enlisted Lake Effect saxophonist Josh Norling to round out their Sublime tribute set (nice touch!), while a personal Facebook post by Jack Spades drummer Johnny Belanger indicated that the one-off punk tribute band that he played in last night apparently had the ribald name of Ball Licker Inc. (but I have not seen references to that name elsewhere.) No word on who played what in the band, but we'll let you know if we hear anything! I wish I could have been there!
• Once again, Asylum Country/ex-Mourning Wood drummer T.J. Case is looking to join a new local band, as per his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post on October 13th. T.J. is a very skilled drummer, as fans of his band work will surely know, and he has experience in hard rock and punk acts, so message him at this link or above if you want more details!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post tomorrow! Thanks everyone!