Friday, March 22, 2019

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (The Go North Music Festival & West Of Hell), The Ozbourne Concert Preview, And More!!

As promised, we're capping off this weekend's hard rock concert previews today, but to fill things out, we have a pair of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the coming months, and leading off, a surprise band discovery from about 14 years back, so here's what you should know!

While this will hardly make up for the 50 or so bands removed from our band links earlier this week (thank you, Myspace), we do have a newly discovered band to add to our defunct Sault Ontario band links, namely Nowhere Fast! A young all-female alternative/punk trio that was only visibly active for a brief period from April-May 2005, their lineup was comprised of singer Andrea Crofts, guitarist/bassist Rhiannon "Rhi" Jones, and drummer Jess Walls, none of which I'm familiar with from other local bands. No word on if "Kel" in the band's sole picture is a former band member or a nickname of Andrea's, as I don't know any members personally. Their Tripod page is inconsistently detailed (only Rhi has a full biography or thank-yous here), and their sole blog posting isn't musically related, but they had a clear sense of humour throughout available posts. Nowhere Fast had planned to write original songs, while covers were listed from bands like Switchfoot and Rise Against to Edwin McCain and Sarah MacLachlan, among various others.

I have no way of knowing how Nowhere Fast would have sounded as a live band, and Rhi's shared band roles indicate that they may have still needed to add a full-time bassist before then anyway, but an all-female band was a local rarity in the mid-2000s, and it would have been interesting to see where they would have went! Give them a look at the above links!

Next up, here's a pair of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, starting with the first true concert of 2019 from local metal promoters Six, Two, Oh., as Vancouver death metal quintet West of Hell will make their third local concert appearance on Wednesday, April 17th when they headline at The New American Pub! Last seen over 5 years ago at The Oddfellows Hall, this show will take place during their Infidels Tour of Canada, and their melodic brand of extreme metal will still be well primed for face melting next month! Fellow Vancouver metal quintet Expain are joining them for this tour, and they'll be bringing their own explosive blend of progressive thrash metal to the The New A as well, so be sure to check them out! Local openers will surprisingly include local cybergrind solo project Malignant Neoplasm (led by C.T.W.'s own Tyler Gibson.) I can't recall if Malignant Neoplasm have ever had a formal live concert set, so I'm curious to hear how their noise attack translates live!

The surprise opening act will be local rapper Conika, who may seem like a major outlier on an concert billed as having "1,000% Metal", but she is a talented MC, and Six, Two, Oh. are no strangers to booking musically disparate acts on the same bill. Hopefully she sets the tone nicely! A $5 cover charge is in effect for this 19+ concert, which has a 9:00 PM start time. Visit the official Facebook event page for full details on what should be a brutal night of extreme metal intensity, and stay tuned for potential updates!

Also newly announced, local Celtic punk quintet Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide will hit the road for Richards Landing on nearby St. Joseph Island (45 minutes southeast of Sault Ste. Marie) to take part in the third annual Go North Music Festival on Saturday, July 13th! As far as I know, The Tide are the first punk, metal, or hard rock band to ever play at this one-day festival, and with their folksier Celtic side, they should fit in well! Held at the Centennial Grounds at 1511 Richards Street (previously the site of Cornfest), this family-friendly event will feature food vendors, craft beer, local artisans, children's activities and entertainers, and overnight camping, so be sure to visit the official website and/or Facebook page for full non-musical details. The diverse musical lineup will also include Toronto alt-folk band Birds of Bellwoods, Juno-winning local country singer Crystal Shawanda, Toronto indie rock quintet Sun K, Toronto folk singer/songtwriter Skye Wallace, ...

...London rock singer/guitarist Sarah Smith, Hamilton indie rock quartet Another Crush, and local indie rock solo artist Jesse Merineau & his solo band, with The Rising Tide listed as the festival openers. Tickets run for $30 until March 30th, $40 in advance afterwards, and $50 at the gate, while youths 13-18 in age can get in for $15, and kids 12 and under are FREE. You can buy tickets and camping packages at this link or at regional merchants to be announced. Sounds like a fun time, especially if you love folk and indie rock, and hopefully Dustin & company set the tone well in Richards Landing this summer! Visit the above links for complete current details!

Finally for today, let's wrap up this weekend's hard rock concert previews, as Winnipeg-based Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath tribute band OZbourne will make their Sault Ste. Marie debut TOMORROW NIGHT when they rock The Canadian Nightclub! 8 years removed from Blizzard of Ozz's show at the same venue, we can finally take in some more touring tribute action with OZbourne, whose sound is faithful in sound and visual appeal to satiate any Ozzy fan, so be sure to give them a look before you head to The Canadian tomorrow! The local openers are blues rock trio The Paul DellaVedova Band (replacing The Bearded Lounge) in a rare support appearance from them at a non-festival, and while they may not be your first thought as openers for an Ozzy tribute, remember that Paul and company have some hard rock songs in their setlist, and blues music was a big influence on Black Sabbath, so they should deliver strongly to kick things off!

Moved up to tomorrow from it's original March 29th scheduling, this 19+ concert has a likely 10:00 PM start time, and admission will be $15 at the door. If you love Ozzy and/or Sabbath, you'd be well served to check out Ozbourne tomorrow night, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Ozbourne live!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

2 comments:

Nayeem Rayhan said...

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