The Soo's Got Talent At Bon Soo, An Inactive Band Note, And Much More!!

Here's a new news post to check out on this Tuesday night, and it includes some assorted shorter notes, a surprising band dissolution, and leading off, here is lots of fallout from a recent young artist showcase!

As you may recall, this year's Bon Soo Winter Carnival kicked off this past Friday at The Machine Shop, with finalists from last year's Soo's Got Talent competition performing before the fireworks, and we have fallout from that to touch on here! Five of last year's seven finalists hit the big stage, and both SooToday's Darren Taylor and SaultOnline's Megan Pounder were on hand to take photos of the performers, so click on each website's link to see their pictures! Darren only posted seven pictures from this concert, including 2 each of The Apocalypse Afterparty and Adrian Sullivan, while Megan uploaded eight pictures, albeit omitting The Dancing Diva. Keep the above notes in mind, but they are all solid! SaultOnline's YouTube channel also posted this 27 minute video featuring the opening song each from all 5 acts, though it curiously calls them "the final five" from The Soo's Got Talent, despite the absence of fourth place finisher Coulson Perri. Maybe that refers to the 5 finalists who were able to perform?

The first act performing here was local rap/metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty in their 2020 debut, and their first show since their advertised temporary bassist search in December to fill in for the absent Alice Rose. The bassist was unveiled at Bon Soo, and while he does look familiar, I don't have his name off hand. The A.A. are seen here playing their original song about being on an island, and it's a lively rendition that shows why they turned heads last fall! The other performances (in order) include reigning Soo's Got Talent champion (and Uncanny Valley frontman) Adrian Sullivan playing his song "Something To Believe In", runner-up Juliana Regan covering Melody Gardot's "Your Heart Is As Black As Night", Killabeatz delivering a trademark beatbox performance, and 1/3rd of The Dancing Divas (no word on where the other girls are) covering Katy Perry's "California Gurls" with edited lyrics to reflect our northern locale. Note the on-stage branding for The Soo's Got Talent 2020, though formal details on year #3 are to be announced.

Everyone performs well and showed why they deserved their deep runs into this competition last year, though things did seem a little rushed in the back half, and much like in the actual competition, everyone was capped at two songs or less (even the video is structured identically to what aired on ONNtv.) Give everything a look below, and watch for details on T.S.G.T. 3!



Next up, I have a surprising band to delete from our active band links, that being local Tool tribute band Parabol, whose Facebook (and only online) page was quietly taken down at some point in the past month. A reason for the band's apparent demise was not announced, but they had not issued a public statement of consequence or played live since their headlining concert at Soo Blaster in October. Despite that, their year-long run (kickstarted at J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween party in 2018) went above and beyond the life-span and activity level of most locally-originated tribute bands, which saw them headline a number of notable local concerts, as well as perform at the Shelby Kerns benefit show last June. I have no idea what happened to Parabol, but they had an extremely talented lineup who could tackle Tool classics with ease, and they were always welcomed on stage. Best of luck to John, Steve, Al, and Anthony in the future!

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

• In their first updates since November, local extreme metal solo project Awokest revealed on their Facebook page today that their new album is "halfway done", while also sharing a cryptic Facebook event page for an apparent Sudbury event in May called "The Secret Rites of Stray Dogs & Raccoon Gods". Is that a concert, or is it to mark an album release of the same name? Will this be a proper paid album, or a free posting a'la the 12 EPs of Christmas? Stay tuned!
• The Music City Sault Ste. Marie organization launched their own Facebook page last fall, as part of their efforts to encourage further musical development and promotion locally. The page has mostly devoted it's activity since to sharing links to news articles on local musicians  and upcoming concerts, but hopefully this is just the next step for their lofty goals! Become a fan above, and Music City SSM is now in our "Other Local Metal Links"!
• Local record/book/skate/etc. store The Rad Zone closed it's doors at The Wellington Square Mall on January 28th, following two months of close-out sales in advance of their move to the former Foch Cleaners at 721 Queen Street East. That said, their Facebook page has revealed that the store will re-open there on Friday, February 14th, so circle that date on your calendars to you can check out the new digs! I know I'm excited to see how things look there!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and weekend concert previews on the site shortly! Thanks everyone!