Thursday, January 12, 2023

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Project 906, Soundcheck, And The Wyld Stallyns), Plus Gambit Updates!!

Here's a new news post on this Thursday night, which would normally feature weekend concert previews, but in all my searching of band and venue pages, I can not find any verifiable hard rock concerts in the Twin Saults and area this weekend. Either I missed something or anything heavier is on really late notice. That said, looking for shows this weekend did lead me to some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for later in the month, plus details on a revived local punk band, so here's what you should know!

Local funk/hard rock cover sextet The Wyld Stallyns will return to Shooters Downstairs Lounge for concerts on Friday, January 20th & Saturday, January 21st! The Dennis Street nightclub announced these dates via two Facebook event pages (linked here and here) earlier today as part of their announcements of January concerts. Good thing too, just in case The Stallyns don't promote these shows on their own Facebook page, as they don't always do so. With their Outspoken Brewing show last Friday being cancelled, next weekend's shows will be The Wyld Stallyns' first gigs of 2023, and first at Shooters since a one nighter in September. Hopefully the Speers' and crew deliver a solid weekend of fan friendly and often hard rocking tunes at Shooters later this month! As usual for Shooters, expect 8:00 PM start times, no cover charges, and 19+ age limits. See above for more details!

Next up, we'll hop across the border to The Strongs Tavern in nearby Eckerman, Michigan, where local blues/hard rock quartet Project 906 will play their first show of the year on Saturday, January 21st! This will be Billy, Joe, Dustin, and Odin's first show since rocking Huck's in Rudyard last month, and their first at The Strongs Tavern since November, and the raison d'etre for this show will be similar to that one. In November, the concert coincided with a number of staff/regular patron birthdays, staffer Heather among them, and next Saturday's show will coincide with her 7 year anniversary working there, as per advertising on the venue's Facebook page. Hopefully Project 906 prove to be a fitting soundtrack with their hard rocking covers and select originals next weekend! This show will have an 8:00 PM start time, 21+ age limit, and no cover charge. Visit the above links for more details on Project 906's 2023 debut!

Heading back north to Shooters' January band schedule, L!me played there last weekend and Angry Joe & The Growlers do the honours on Saturday. For classic/hard rock cover fans, you can enjoy Soundcheck back there on Friday, January 27th & January 28th! Last seen at this venue for their New Year's Eve party two weeks ago (and with Esquire Club shows ahead next week), these will be a good opportunity for fans of Soundcheck's diverse and prolific setlist to enjoy some old school and country flavoured hard rock hits, so don't bypass their Shooters return at month's end for all of the action! Like with The Wyld Stallyns next weekend, Soundcheck's shows are 19+ affairs with no cover charge and 8:00 PM start times. Visit the Facebook event pages linked here & here for more details!

We'll close today with the latest from local punk supergroup The Gambit (née The Sick Sons), who played their first show since the onset of the pandemic when they opened for The Northwest at LopLops Lounge last month! True to their quiet Facebook page update, they have indeed expanded to a quintet via adding a third guitarist (hey, it works for The Northwest!), but the band has not revealed his identity online at press time. Local bands seem to publicize their lineups & changes therein on Facebook less and less. I'm not great with identifying musicians on sight, so I apologize for not immediately knowing who the new guy is, but he looks familiar and has a nice beard! He also appears to sing on at least one song live, judging by the pictures shared on The Gambit's Facebook page from the concert, but they spread the wealth vocally already.

Our first look at The Sick Sons Gambit is this 35 second clip of the guys covering the last chorus of Rancid's "Nihilism" at that show, as uploaded to their Facebook page yesterday, and as you can see, guitarist/primary singer Lucas "Sal Velinus" Schmiedendorf sings lead here. Just as well, as the filmer is only really focused on him, partly due to both the vertical camera angle and the surrounding fans blocking out the rest of the band. It took me a few listens to figure out the song being covered, as the audio quality isn't superb, but the guys sound good for their first show in two years (and with three guitarists), so give it a look below!

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

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