LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (The Uncanny Valley & The Wyld Stallyns), New Videos, And More!!

Before we get into today's post, I just wanted to briefly acknowledge that today is the 15th anniversary of The Sault Metal Scene's launch in 2007! No big speech or changes or anything like that, things have been too busy for regular posts this summer for me to work on anything special, but I just wanted to thank all of the vast majority of our readers and supporters for the support and readership over the past decade & a half, and fingers crossed that nothing changes for the negative (for the scene at large or myself) any time soon! Now, today's post is devoted to LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS and related updates for an upcoming downtown concert series, so without further ado, here's what you should know!

After a two year break for very obvious reasons, the City of Sault Ste. Marie's Recreation & Culture Division has brought back their Summer Concert Series at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion, so what should you know about this? With one exception, all shows in the series will take place on a Tuesday or Thursday at 7:00 PM under the big tent (as such, weather cancellations are very unlikely), all are FREE & ALL AGES, and a nice mixture of established and newer names, some with original material, will be hitting the Pavilion between tonight and Thursday, August 18th! The poster will obviously give you names of artists coming during the series, an act to be announced next Tuesday aside, but before we get into the hard rock shows, just a clarification: The show on Thursday, July 28th is headlined by Forty Creek, the veteran local country cover band, not Fort Creek, the southern hard rock quintet. I forgot that their names were almost identical!

The two shows that definitely fit into our metal/hard rock/punk-centric coverage take place in August (in the same week, no less!), and we'll start on Tuesday, August 9th, when local funk/hard rock quartet The Wyld Stallyns return to the Pavilion! Just seen there (if partially, more in a minute) on Canada Day, this should be a fun and stress free way to spend a couple of hours with this talented four-some, whose varied and often heavy covers should set the right tone under the tent next month! This is a good time to bring up that The Stallyns' Canada Day show (if not their Poutine Feast gig too) was sort of a merger with Handsome Sandwich, as Rob, Christina, and Jesse joined forces with bassist Mitch Sirie and drummer Johnny Belanger for the set (Jesse is in both bands). No word on why Jonas missed out, but nice to see a full plugged in set again, and it is interesting seeing three former Jack Spades alums rock out nowadays with a very different set!

There is a video from Canada Day of The Wyld Sandwych (how's that for a merger name?) on personal Facebook accounts, but unless it's posted/shared publically, I'll refrain from linking to it here. No matter who is joining the Speers, you can enjoy The Wyld Stallyns on August 9th at 7:00 PM, and this is a free & all ages concert. Visit the above links for more details! Meanwhile, just two days later on August 11th, local classic hard rock quartet The Uncanny Valley will make their debut at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion for a Thursday evening gig of their own! A busy month of July for this rising young band has already seen them rock Soo Blaster, with Rotaryfest and Go North Music Festival sets ahead, but how will they do in a solo headlining date next month? The Valley's old school, psychedelic-influenced brand of hard rock (including originals and covers) should appeal to a wide audience!

Again, this show is a free & all ages affair with a 7:00 PM start time (only tonight's opening show by Mustang Heart deviates from the pattern, as it begins at 8:00 PM). Visit the above links for much more on these and the other shows at The Pavilion this summer, but we're not quite done!

I wanted to also bring up a new-ish local rock band named Westridge who are playing at The Pavilion on Tuesday, August 2nd. I only first heard about this band via the series schedule, and while I wouldn't say they play enough heavier/punk songs to cross our threshold for full coverage, they do have a few covers of note! Launched in 2020 but only making their Facebook page in January, their lineup is comprised of Luke Provenzano, Kieran Fitzpatrick, Mike Meraglia & former Quite Frankly drummer Adam Pettenuzzo. I'm not familiar with most of the members of Westridge, but they are talented in the videos I've seen, and have improved since their 2020 video slate. Among their more SMS-amenable covers are Jimi Hendrix's "Fire", The Foo Fighters' "Everlong", and Bowling For Soup's "1985", but be advised that Facebook videos are typically incomplete. Embedded below is their YouTube cover of Live's "Lightning Crashes".

Courtesy of Luke's YouTube channel, this is the full song, and it's well handled! Westridge have a good ear for melodic and wide ranging rock covers, and they should be a crowd pleaser at the Pavilion next month in their own right! If any more hard rock or punk covers from them surface, I'll let you know, but give their Live cover a look below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for another news post on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!