Before we begin today's post, I wanted to apologize for two missed concerts, as veteran local ska/hard rock trio Tripod The Dog played at The Esquire Club for Saturday matinee concerts on both March 26th & this past Saturday. I only belatedly heard about both shows via bassist John Amendola's personal Facebook page, as Tripod The Dog have not launched an updated social media page to promote their shows, but The Esquire Club's Facebook page did plug both back in February. I profusely apologize again, hopefully both shows were hits, and I will keep better tabs on The Esquire Club's Saturday matinee series in the future!
Today's post otherwise looks at some assorted recent notes and big updates from an E.U.P. band, but let's lead off today for a special Tuesday night concert preview for a Sault Ontario homecoming, as local/Thompson, Manitoba solo stalwart Mike Haggith will play his first Soo date in over two years TOMORROW NIGHT at the Mane St. Cafe on Queen Street East! While certainly visible to local fans with his live-streamed concerts and new albums, Mike hasn't graced a local stage since playing at Outspoken Brewing in August 2019 (partly due to the pandemic), so it'll be great to see the former Din frontman back in town tomorrow! While this solo acoustic gig is far smaller in scope than his cancelled CD release show in 2020, Mike will play both of his Thompson-era albums "If Ever Comes The Day" & "Bridges" in full tomorrow night, along with select older and newer cuts, so prepare for lots of songs you haven't heard in concert here before!
This show has no opening act, and is presumably on a Tuesday due to Mike's busy personal schedule, especially given his day job. This is a FREE & ALL AGES show with a 7:00 PM start time, and CD copies of his two newest albums will be on sale for $10 tomorrow at the Mane St. Cafe (right near Case's Music). It'll be great to have Mike back in the Soo, if only for one night, so fans of his extensive solo catalog who've missed seeing him live in the pandemic era will want to head downtown for all of the festivities tomorrow, and at least it'll end early on a work/school night! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Mike live!
After announcing on their Facebook page last week that they were "back at full strength", they shared this photo featuring an unidentified drummer (so Brandon won't have to drum on the 26th after all!), while also throwing the idea out of playing a show in Gaylord, which is a 2 hour drive from the Soo, customs/bridge traffic permitting. Yesterday, this video was uploaded featuring slow motion grayscale clips of Brandon, Ted, the new drummer, and their new bassist, finishing by teasing that they will be "announcing shows soon". As of this writing, they have not identified the new members by name yet, and they do not appear to have added a new second guitarist to replace Nathan at the moment, but we'll let you know if they clarify anything (for what it's worth, I don't recognize the new guys). Of course, it's great to see Heavy Lies The Crown getting back into the full swing of things!
Even without their massive lineup overhaul earlier this year, the band has not played live since before the pandemic, but the two year break gave them time to record and release their full length album and get more confidence and studio time under their belt, and with just Brandon & Ted left from H.L.T.C. lineups of yore, stage rust won't be as much of an issue in Saginaw next month. Hopefully we'll see them north of the Mack at some point for local fans, but check out all of their new updates above! External embedding of the new lineup video is unavailable due to Facebook content matching the background music from the band's new album.
Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or show name:
- If you've been following Sault Ontario metal radio show Metal Morpheus on The Borderline in recent weeks, you'll likely know that the series has continued airing reruns in the past month, hence why I haven't recapped any new episodes lately. No word on where Josh has been, but at least in this hiatus, reruns are still being regularly aired on Sunday nights and re-posted after the fact, unlike for most of their winter break. We'll let you know when/if first run Metal Morpheus episodes resume production!
- Vanity First guitarist Mikhal Muto posted again on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group last week, this time inquiring about jamming or writing with "younger punk musicians" around 17 years of age. He can also sing, and he's open to playing covers. What this means for Vanity First isn't clear, and while Mikhal is still listed on their lineup on their Facebook page, the band has not made any updates there in over a month. In any event, if you want to work with Mikhal in whatever's next, message him at this link or above!
- Local/Barrie punk/metal quartet Spades GT will return to the annual Spiderfest in Meyersburg on July 8th! Before the pandemic, the former Jack Spades frequently hit the road for this multi-day punk festival, but now from Barrie, it'll just be a 2½ hour drive. Spades GT are on the smaller Friday lineup without acts familiar to local concertgoers, but Saturday the 9th will see the likes of The Ripcordz & Random Killing, among many others. Hopefully the guys have a great time as usual at Spiderfest this summer!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
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