More Weekend Concert Previews, New Videos, And More!!

As promised, let's wrap up this weekend's hard rock concert previews today via the shows that did have advance notice before Saturday, with some videos & recent updates to round things out. Here's what you should know!

We'll start by hopping the border to Sault Michigan, where Traverse City classic metal trio Peril will return for concerts TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino! Last seen north of the Mackinac Bridge when they rocked The Rapids Lounge in January, these should be more prime opportunities to check out Jeff, Dave, and Brooks' brand of old school metal and hard rock covers, and while not as active on stage as Scarkazm, Peril's reputation and longer history in Northern Michigan speaks for itself! You can check out Peril in the Soo tonight & tomorrow night at 9:00 PM with no cover charge, and these are both 21+ events. Visit the official Facebook event pages linked here & here for more details, here's Peril live, and stay tuned for their next regional dates!

Next up, let's head back to Sault Ontario for this weekend's only hard rock/punk shows there that had more than five days' advance notice online, as local southern hard rock quintet Fort Creek will return to Jay's Piston Broke Pub for headlining concerts TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Still hard at work in studio on their long-gestating debut EP, this weekend's concerts will be Fort Creek's first since opening for Destroyer at Soo Blaster last month, and their first at the former Reggie's West in over two months. Should be a good weekend for fans of Fort Creek's heavy covers and newer originals, so don't miss this experienced group this weekend! In tonight's show only, former Sense of Truth/Skeyes of Seven frontman Cory Murchison will serve as an opening act, in a set that will likely be similar to his dormant acoustic band Short & Sweet, if minus the Sweet. Always good to see Cory on stage, and hopefully he sets the tone nicely with his unplugged covers!

Both shows have 19+ age limits, no cover charges, 9:30 PM start times, and no finite word on if they're doing merchandise giveaways. See above for more details, and for a preview, here's a new live concert video of Fort Creek at Soo Blaster last month covering The Allman Brothers Band's "Midnight Rider"! Filmed by attendee Justyne Gilbert for her personal TikTok page and re-posted by the band on their Facebook page last week, it was notably uploaded sideways to correct for Justyne filming/uploading it sideways originally (you can tell by the TikTok handle on screen). Strong full cover here that effectively makes it heavier, so check it out below!

While we're on the subject of bands playing live this weekend, let's cycle back to new local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down, who will play at Reggie's Place on short notice TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! We previewed those shows on the site yesterday, but there are more live videos from their debut weekend last month (also at Reggie's) to check out, including a 19 second video of them setting up for their debut concert that was filmed for Reggie's Facebook page. Not a lot to see, but it gives a window into their setup process, which will no doubt be similar TONIGHT! In terms of actual performance videos, PROV3RB5/Saturday Nights drummer Phil "Philly Gee" Greco posted two videos that he shot onto the band's Facebook page that Saturday. Alas, a title eluded me on both songs, partially as I couldn't make out Joel's vocals in the beginning of the 20 second clip, which was otherwise instrumental.

I normally would have embedded the other video below, namely a 72 second clip of Double Down playing an instrumental number, but I don't believe Phil's settings allow external video embedding given that they were posted to his personal account first and shared with the band later. The vertical camera-work is unfortunate, and I apologize for not having titles for them, but they do sound good and are a positive harbinger for TONIGHT & TOMORROW! Give the Reggie's teaser from last month a watch below!

Finally for today, here's three  shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or venue name:

 

• After a 2+ week closure, Gateway Casinos re-opened their Sault Ste. Marie branch this past Friday! As you may know, a ransomware attack forced the casino chain to close their Ontario locations, the Soo's included, on April 16th, and you can get more on the incident and response at this link. The Bay Street location does sporadically host heavier concerts on Saturday nights, and the closure did scuttle a planned Wyld Stallyns show there on April 29th. Good to see Gateway Casinos across the province back up & running, and stay tuned for concert details when available!
• I have moved local hard rock solo artist Shane "The Shaner" Solomon back to our inactive band links, as I haven't seen verifiable updates on his Reverbnation page in over a year (full disclosure, Reverbnation is not set up for easily dateable posts, which has always irked me about that platform). Hopefully Shane resurfaces in some form down the line!
  
• In a couple of "Reels" on her solo Facebook page, Handsome Sandwich "frontwoman" Taylor "Tea" Emlaw plugged the band's album release concert at The Loft last week, while also playing a clip of their song "Okay" as set to her hanging out with bandmates Mitch Sirie and Jesse Cook to plug the "Deconstructed" album proper. Short but sweet hype on both fronts! While Taylor has mostly focused her solo page on Handsome Sandwich promotion as of late, this is where her purely solo activity has went, so follow her there for updates in that regard!
  

 

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