LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Northwest & Tym Morrison), And The First Of This Weekend's Concert Previews!!

Another busy concert weekend is drawing closer, so let's kick things off with the first of this weekend's previews! Due to the amount, we're covering SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS and the previously announced Scarkazm gigs in St. Ignace today, and saving this weekend's remaining gigs for tomorrow's preview post, namely the Seether and Project 906 shows, plus Banned at the Sugar Island Music Festival. Don't worry, they are coming! Now, let's kick off this weekend's previews with those late notice announcements, with a new song tied into one of them!

Local indie/punk quartet Northwest will play a special outdoor set TONIGHT as part of the second of this season's Downtown Street Parties on Queen Street East! Apologies for the short notice, we only heard of Northwest's involvement publically yesterday via the Downtown Association's Facebook page, but it had been mentioned on personal Facebook accounts for the past week. The second of three such events in 2018 (with the third coming next month), this Downtown Street Party will again Queen Street closed from Brock to Elgin TONIGHT for all night shopping, food and drinks, kids activities, prizes, and more, so visit the above links for complete details on the non-musical activities! The musical lineup was incrementally revealed Downtown Association yesterday, post by post, which confirms that Northwest are opening the March Street stage TONIGHT, and their set will be at 7:40 PM. The headliners at 10:00 PM are jazz supergroup The Hustle Brothers.

The other band on the Spring Street stage is veteran country cover quartet Bone Yard at 8:40 PM. Separately, three other bands (The Ride, Bold Noize, and Johnny & The Revelators) will play at a stage on Spring Street, but the set times there don't appear to conflict with bands on March Street.  TONIGHT'S Downtown Street Party is FREE & ALL AGES, and the festivities proper begin at 6:00 PM. This sounds like another fun event for locals to enjoy and support local businesses & entertainment, and with a dash of punk for good measure, so don't miss out TONIGHT, and for a preview, here's the first new song from Northwest's forthcoming sophomore EP! As quietly uploaded to their new YouTube channel last week, this is their original song "True North", and it will be on their second CD, which will indeed be called "Songs From 2015-2017". Sort of a clunky name, but it gets the point across!

The description also notes that the EP was mixed by Kyle Whittaker at Strange Pumpkin Studio in  St. Catharine's, who previously mixed former Stereo North frontman Andrew Pucci's solo album. Pending our likely review of "Songs From 2015-2017" later this year, I'll hold comment on "True North" for now, but fans of Northwest and their 2014 debut EP will definitely want to take note, so give their new single a listen below, and don't miss them at Queen and March TONIGHT!



Next up, here's some more newly announced concerts for this weekend, as Tym Morrison will bring his unplugged hard rock covers to the stage TOMORROW & SATURDAY at... La Terrazza Franzisi in Richards Landing?! Again, apologies for the short notice, these shows were only announced via their Facebook event page on Sunday. Yes, Tym is hitting the road for these St. Joseph Island concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY, and while the locale is atypical for both his solo shows and our coverage, he isn't new to playing there. Tym played a Richards Landing function of some kind back in September 2011, and has played in nearby Hilton Beach in the past as well, so if you live on St. Joseph Island or are up for a trip east, you know where to go! Located at 1140 Richards Street, La Terrazza Franzisi is an Italian restaurant on the St. Mary's River waterfront, which should prove to be a nice backdrop for Tym's acoustic covers this weekend, so keep the locale in mind!

Much like Tym's on-hold Gliss Steak & Seafood arrangement (we'll let you know when it's new location is open), TOMORROW & SATURDAY's shows are restaurant-set matinee concerts, but with an earlier start time of 5:00 PM to go along with their lack of announced cover charges or age limits. Visit the above links for more details on these concerts, and here's Tym live!



Finally for today's previews, we'll head across to nearby St. Ignace, Michigan, where Traverse City metal trio Scarkazm will return for shows at The Northern Pines Lounge at their Kewadin Casino branch TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! While we're on the subject, the Peril sister band have two more newly confirmed gigs at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino's Rapids Lounge as well, with this concert calendar confirming dates there on September 14th & 15th. Another busy schedule is continuing into the fall for Jeff, Adam, and company in Scarkazm, Peril, and their acoustic side project Project 6 (more on them shortly) and with another high impact weekend of covers and favourites in store for St. Ignace fans tomorrow and Saturday (plus in the Soo next month), you'll want to keep these in mind for some hard rock action in the E.U.P.! These four gigs are 21+ affairs with 9:00 PM start times and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Scarkazm live!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our Project 906, Sugar Island Festival, and Seether previews next! Thanks everyone!