Wednesday, November 9, 2016

A New Local Band, Bret Michaels Concert Videos, And More!!

Before we dive into another weekend's worth of concert previews, we have a new news post for your Wednesday afternoon, and it includes a new video appeal to local musicians, some long awaited videos from a recent major Kewadin Casino concert, and first, a new yet familiar local band, so here's what you need to know!

We have a new local band to add to our Sault Ontario band links, and they are Stegadeth, who are more or less the successors to the 2011-2014 local punk/metal band T-Rex Manning! Returning from that band's original lineup are singer/bassist Bill "Orthae" Bennett (also of Stereo North), guitarist/singer Tiffany Stocco (formerly of Jack Spades), and drummer Daniel MacDonald (who recently moved back to the Soo.) With singer J.D. Pearce absent, Stegadeth can also be seen as a renamed revival of Pools of Booze, the band name that Tiffany, Bill, and Daniel played under during their 2012 trio gigs in the first place. Presumably continuing the dinosaur name theme by combining "stegosaurus" & "Megadeth", Stegadeth describe themselves as "a fusion phenom of rock", which leaves things open to what they will play, but if you saw T-Rex Manning or Pools of Booze live, you'll have a rough idea of what to expect! With all of that said, when will we see Stegadeth on stage for the first time?

Though not yet confirmed by promoters, personal Facebook postings and event shares have indicated that Stegadeth have been added to the lineup of November 19th's Live 705 concert at The Oddfellows Hall, presumably to replace the now singer-less Eclipse, but we await an official public statement. Regardless, it's great to see 3/4ths of the original T-Rex Manning back in this new band, and in particular, this will mark Daniel's return to the local stage after four years, so keep that in mind too! Stay tuned for more from Stegadeth, and presumably look for them live on the 19th!

Next up, we finally have some YouTube videos to share from Saturday night's Bret Michaels concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino! We'll start with five from prolific local concert filmer Christopher Paci, who made it out to this show as well and posted these clips to his YouTube channel yesterday, so what did he get? Primarily Poison covers, including "Nothin' But A Good Time", "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", "Something To Believe In", "Talk Dirty To Me", but embedded below is a video featuring a crowd-rallying medley of everyone from The Red Hot Chili Peppers to DMX to Bruno Mars(?!), before launching into Poison's "Unskinny Bop", and closing with a drum solo by drummer Mike Bailey. Bret and his solo band (including Cinderella bassist Eric Bittingham) sound pretty good for fans of hair metal and Poison, with Bret nicely engaging fans, and the packed crowd responding in kind! Kudos to Chris for getting more great local concert videos, and check out Bret live in the Soo above & below!



Also, note that in the "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" video, Bret alludes to coming back with Def Leppard next year.... he also teased a full Poison show a few years ago that has yet to occur, but hey, keep that in mind just in case! Now, you may have seen a shout out to a fan named Mario Rocchetta in the video above for donating a lot of money to Bret's Life Rocks Foundation, but as it turns out, it was more than that. Apparently, high donating fans could get special perks, and Mario (a local author, teacher, and self-help coach who has guested with That 90s Band) donated enough to get a chance to sing on stage with Bret himself, joining him for a cover of Kiss' "Rock & Roll All Nite" that was uploaded to his own YouTube channel on Monday. That's a nice incentive and bonus for fans, and while Mario seems overwhelmed at first, he gets into it and is clearly having a blast! The video angle is great too, coming central and very close to the stage, so check out Bret & Mario covering Kiss below!



Finally for today, here's a new video from local alternative/hard rock trio The Din that was posted to their Facebook page yesterday in the wake of the divisive online conversation surrounding both Project 421 and Eclipse's lineup in recent days. Though The Din don't acknowledge the bands or ex-frontman Curtis McKenzie by name (despite the bands' long histories), the video serves as an attempt to try & keep the peace, while pledging to stay out of matters that don't concern them, albeit with as much of a light-hearted mood as they could manage, though watch for some swearing. I won't rehash the situation otherwise, but again, I continue to hope that things aren't as bad as what I've read. Give it a look below if you want!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next! Thanks everyone!

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