The Rest Of This Weekend's Concert Previews, Cancellations, And New Videos!!

Before we begin this post, just a heads up that Traverse City, Michigan hard rock band Scarkazm are not playing at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino this weekend, and are instead playing two Lower Peninsula dates in Thompsonville (source here.) As best as I can tell, Scarkazm themselves never advertised any concerts for this weekend in the Soo, with those dates originally being reported on Kewadin's entertainment page when they announced early 2020 lounge bookings here and in St. Ignace. This weekend's scheduled act was quietly changed by the venue to local classic/hard rock cover quartet Highway 63, but given frontman Henry Switzer's own shared post on their Facebook page last month referring to his own recovery from a heart ailment and being unsure when he will be able to play a full show, I will err on the side of caution and not cover Highway 63 as playing this weekend unless they publically confirm the dates.

Whether Scarkazm had a scheduling conflict or Kewadin simply made a mistake, this is disappointing, but Adam, Dave, and Jeff will be back in the E.U.P early next month at the St. Ignace Kewadin, so if you can't wait until their next advertised Sault Ste. Marie gigs in October, keep the St. Ignace stops in mind! Now, we do have two more weekend concert previews to tackle today, plus some videos of note, so here's what you should know!

We'll pick things back up with Sault Ontario hard rock solo artist Tym Morrison's ongoing weekly concert slate at Gliss Restaurant, as he'll be back there like clockwork for dinner-time matinees TOMORROW & SATURDAY! That's not all though, as Tym will be playing two other relatively unfamiliar venues from his recent live slate this weekend, including an afternoon matinee at Northern Superior Brewing Co.'s on-site Taproom on SATURDAY (sandwiched between the Gliss shows), before capping off the weekend with a return to The Kiln at Searchmont Resort for one more matinee concert on SUNDAY! No late nights over the St. Patrick's Day weekend for Tym's upcoming shows, but his acoustic hard & classic rock covers should find another strong audience, and might you still see green beer given the impending St. Patrick's Day festivities? The Gliss shows tomorrow & Saturday are at 6:00 PM, the Northern Superior gig on Saturday is at 3:00 PM, and Sunday's Searchmont concert is at 4:00 PM.

None of these four dates have age limits (all are matinees anyway), nor do they have announced cover charges. Sounds like another entertaining weekend of music from Tym Morrison, a skilled guitarist and singer with years of live experience, so keep these four shows in mind if you want some early unplugged hard rock cover action! Visit the official Facebook event pages linked here, here, and here for more details, and here's Tym live!

Lastly for this weekend's concert previews, we'll head to LopLops Lounge, where local Celtic punk quintet Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide will play their first announced concert of 2020 THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! This concert will have a two-pronged raison d'etre, including a big pre-St. Patrick's Day bash, as is customary for The Tide each year. Given the seasonal angle, expect green beer and holiday frills for the occasion! The other big occasion on Saturday is that this show will take place on LopLops owner Stephen Alexander's birthday, and what better way to celebrate than with a popular and talented group of local music veterans playing Celtic-tinged punk music? Of course, we should hear some new material from The Rising Tide's upcoming new album, so keep that angle in mind too! There are no advertised openers for this 19+ & 10:00 PM concert, which has a $10 cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Dustin & crew live!

Finally for today, here's a belated acknowledgement of a collection of videos that Lansing, Michigan promoters Meridian Entertainment have posted online as of late to hype their recent major headline concerts bookings at the Kewadin Casino branches in the Soo, St. Ignace, and Manistique. These occasionally find their way onto Facebook, and we have featured a few here in the past, though these often get deleted from there once the concert in question comes and goes. However, Meridian's YouTube channel has a bunch still online if you are at all interested! I won't spend hours discussing them all, as most are under 30 seconds and just feature members of a band playing here hyping up a concert that has already occurred, but these do include a number of recent hard rock bands that played here, including members of Autograph, Buckcherry, Faster Pussycat, Kix, Pop Evil, Tantric, and Theory of a Deadman, plus Chris Jericho promoting Eric Martin's show here.

Two upcoming hard rock concerts have a similar shoutout video, including clips from members of Tripp n' Dixie and The Lows (who each play at The Rapids Lounge in June for their Rapids Sessions series), plus the video embedded below, which features Candlebox frontman Kevin Martin hyping up their Dreammakers Theater show on April 18th, which The Lows are also opening, but their video above is specifically for their June gig. These videos can often seem cookie cutter, but it's nice to see artists directly plugging local dates, and hopefully they help drum up interest and ticket sales! Give these a look above and below, and get your tickets A.S.A.P.!



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