Joni Radford Memorial Concert Previews, Plus More News & Updates!!

Today's SMS post concludes this weekend's concert previews with a massively extended preview of a big memorial show tomorrow night with a very unique angle, but we also have some assorted shorter stories to close things with, with more to come. For now, here's what you should know!

The highly anticipated benefit/memorial punk concert for the late Joni Radford goes down at The Algonquin Hotel TOMORROW NIGHT! Over a month after her passing, and following her lengthy battle with breast cancer, her friends and fans in the local music scene will gather to honour her memory for "Punk Rock Princess - An Evening in the Memory of Joni Radford", with seven local bands joining forces for a celebration she'd surely appreciate. Alongside the music, a slideshow will be showing pictures of her throughout the night, limited sweaters and t-shirts will be on sale, and there will be some form of guest speakers & presentations as well. All concert proceeds (including the $10 tickets/entrance fee) will go to Sault Area Hospital and the St. John’s Ambulance Pet Therapy Program in her name, which are great and fitting causes! Be sure to visit the Facebook event page for all non-musical details. This event is 19+, and as far as I know, admission covers both floors.

Seven bands are scheduled for tomorrow, but in a surprise announcement that only broke publically this week (following scattered personal Facebook hints), the bands will be playing on both floors of The Algonquin Hotel, with 4 bands playing upstairs at The Rockstar Bar and 3 bands playing downstairs at The Algonquin Pub (a.k.a. Spin Nightclub), and the bands will more or less be playing concurrently! That's definitely a unique idea to have a specific multi-level event like this there, and it presents a challenge if you want to see every band, but I will try my best, and thanks to Destroilet's Christian Foisy for his help in the schedule confirmation and timeslots!

Starting our band previews upstairs, the memorial concert will be headlined by online page-less punk quartet The Cover-Up unopposed at 12:00 AM, and might we hear frontman Dustin Jones' "Punk Rock Princess" tribute song to Joni for the occasion? Hardcore punk veterans Destroilet will finally end their 2+ year concert hiatus when they co-headline at The Rockstar Bar half at 11:00 PM, and I'd fully expect their cover of The Rebel Spell's "Murderers" (which Joni guested on in studio) to turn up! Returning co-vocalist Brent Ellis will not be in the lineup. Indie/punk quintet Northwest will deliver their original attack upstairs at 9:00 PM, while the opening band on this floor will be funk/hard rock quartet The Elements. Very solid & punk-heavy lineup at The Rockstar Bar alone, so keep the upstairs entertainment in mind for tomorrow night! I still don't have a public Cover-Up video for a preview, so in lieu of that, here's Destroilet covering "Murderers" live!

Meanwhile, the three bands playing at The Algonquin Pub all have a common thread, namely guitarist Tiffany Stocco, so while she has a long night ahead, at least she can keep her gear on one floor! The closing band on this floor will be punk/metal quintet Jack Spades at 10:30 PM in their first show in 6 months, so they should provide a solid blast for the occasion, and if you're planning to stay downstairs, they'll end in time to see the last two bands upstairs! Local punk trio Stegadeth will co-headline on the bottom floor at 9:30 PM, while Distillers tribute band Coral Fang will play their third public concert set to lead off the night at 8:30 PM (and they're unopposed until The Elements begin at 9:00, so keep that in mind also.) The lineup at The Algonquin Pub is solid as well, so don't bypass either floor tomorrow, and I will see you guys there to help honour Joni the right way! See above for complete details on this huge memorial show, and here's Jack Spades live!



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

• Local death metal veterans The Bear Hunters quietly unveiled the cover art & final track order for their second studio album "The Dead Testament" on their Facebook page on February 17th! The artwork is surprisingly minimalistic, with the band logo and album name on a black textured background, but maybe simple is best? As of the 17th, the design is complete, and "printing shall commence", but when will see this long awaited CD? Keep tabs for updates!
• Dynowaves/ex-Bizotic trumpet player (Francine) Louise Lamothe is looking to join or launch another local band, but in this case, she indicated that she'd love to sing lead and help organize concerts eventually. A genre range wasn't given, but if you're interested in working with Louise, message her at this link or via her Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from yesterday!
• This came to our attention on too short of notice to mention here, but the reunited This Is Your Band On Drugs and the debuting Full-Send (p.k.a. PCxFascist?) quietly dropped out of Tuesday night's Rotopsy-promoted grind/death metal concert at The New American Pub, as per updates on the Facebook event page. Reasons for the withdrawals were not announced, but hopefully nothing bad happened in either camp, and remember that Chase did still play as Awokest. Local rapper Mike "Reeder" Reed-Lecuyer was added to replace one/both acts, and hopefully he added a strong element!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post next, and much more news soon! Thanks everyone!