Saturday, May 20, 2023

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Bookclub), The Queen Tribute Concert Preview, And New Videos!!

Packed news post on this Saturday night over the Victoria Day long weekend, including new videos and related updates, the last preview for this weekend's hard rock/punk slate, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month! Here's what you should know!

Online page-less local alternative/punk cover quintet Bookclub will return to the stage on Friday, June 16th for an outdoor set at the corner of Queen Street East and Gore Street as part of the third annual Summer Moon Festival! If you're unaware of this event, the S.M.F. is an annual arts festival that grew from outdoor murals amid pandemic restrictions in 2021 to a full scale festival with arts and music events at multiple downtown locations over the Father's Day weekend next month, so definitely visit the official website for complete details on the Summer Moon Festival itinerary this year! Live music debuted at this festival last year, and while the vast majority of the artists don't fit our active coverage, Bookclub will provide a rock respite during the Street Yourselves Street Party on the 16th alongside a meet & greet session with muralists who painted in the area, a mini-comic/collector's convention, and vendors from restaurants in the area of the street party proper.

Bookclub will be joined by local roots rock veterans The Hustle Brothers for the street party, and in a mild surprise, The Wyld Stallyns will not play at the Summer Moon Festival at all, which (I believe) is a first for a Bookclub gig. As far as the Street Yourselves Street Party goes, this is an all ages event at 8:00 PM with no cover charge, and bars in the vicinity of the stage will be open. Weather permitting, this should be fun for outdoor concertgoers, so visit the above links for more detail!

Next up, we'll wrap up this weekend's hard rock concert previews by heading east to the Sault Community Theatre Centre, where Australian tribute band Queen: It's A Kinda Magic will return for another high profile local concert TOMORROW NIGHT! As Queen fans may recall, this tribute played here in May of last year to a strong turnout, despite being postponed twice across an almost two year span due to the pandemic. Assuming that there isn't another deadly pandemic breaking out this weekend, this Sunday's concert should hold, and if you saw Queen: It's A Kinda Magic last year, you'll know that their faithful looking and sounding stage show will deliver the goods compared to what you know of Freddie, Brian, John, and Roger's heyday, particularly their 1986 world tour! While selling well like last year, tickets are still available from the fourth row and back (side sections) and the eleventh row and back (centre section).

Tickets for this all ages & 7:00 PM concert are available at this link or at the S.C.T.C. box office at Station Mall for $72 (adults), $43 (kids 12 and under), and $67 apiece in a group of 6+ adults, price points all being $10 higher than last year. Hopefully things go just as well for this bohemian rhapsody of rock classics from Queen: It's A Kinda Magic tomorrow night, so visit the above links for more on their returne, and here they are live!

Staying in the realm of new videos, I was unable to attend the Dayglo Abortions/Random Killing concert at Soo Blaster last night due to a trip, but we can get a glimpse of the headlining Victoria, B.C. hardcore punk band's set via the video below! Uploaded to promoters Live705's Facebook page earlier today, this 6 minute clip captures three songs from The Dayglos' set, though there's not much in the way of breaks between them, so note that when checking this out. It features most of "Two Dogs Fucking", "My Girl", and "Dog Farts", and don't shoot the messenger, I didn't title these songs! While unfortunately shot vertically, and including an odd aside where the filmer left the bar proper during "Dog Farts" (did he take the suggestion if he wanted to work or not?!), the video comes through nicely and was shot with good stable views of the stage and even some of the fans! I like the video projection behind the drumkit too.

Murray's vocals can be hard to hear, complicating my work identifying the songs, but fans of The Dayglo Abortions will take to this video below, and we'll let you know if any more footage from last night turns up!

We'll close with some updates from local/Barrie crossover thrash quintet Spades GT, starting with the reveal that they are shooting their first ever music video! The former Jack Spades didn't make one for their local output, but despite their bigger platform in the GTA, they did call home to get this video done, specifically bringing in ex-Shit Liver frontman Josh Penno's Spacebag Productions for the shoot! He's also filming a video for guitarist Daniel Horton's other current band The Fast Life while in town. Lots of teaser images from the set have been shared on the band's Facebook page, indicating that they're playing in a (well lit) barn, with a plotline involving an axe wielding maniac (played by bassist James Roy Daley) stalking a female victim. Based on the video plot, it seems likely that the song in question will be "Final Girl". It'll be interesting to see how the final product looks, presumably before June 2nd!

Before wrapping things up, the band released one more advance single from their forthcoming album "Sewer City Radio" to their YouTube Music channel on Thursday! The song in question is "XS" (as in "excess"), which is the track featuring Fast Life frontman Andrew Moorehouse on a guest verse. I'll hold comment on the song pending our eventual album review, but the band said that it is a "lil (sic) something different for us", so judge for yourself below, and stay tuned for more from Spades GT!


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

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