Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Big Wreck & Inner City Surfers Concert Video Showcase!!

Today's post is devoted to recent concert videos from the ever prolific Christopher Paci's YouTube channel, as I've put off his videos from last month's Big Wreck and Inner City Surfers concerts for far too long! We'll work our way backwards chronologically by starting with the Big Wreck show at The Machine Shop on November 21 (I apologize for the delay), where Chris filmed eight videos, though none were of Daniel Greaves' opening set. Two of the videos were of opening London pop rock quartet Texas King playing "You" and covering Post Malone's "Chemical", and while I wouldn't say Texas King lean heavier, they showed clear talent and energy in their videos, so don't bypass them! As for the headlining Toronto hard rock quartet, Chris shot Big Wreck playing "The Oaf (My Luck Is Wasted)", "Blown Wide Open", "Hey Mama", "Albatross", "That Song", and as embedded below, both "In Fair Light" & "I Digress" to kick off their set. This video in particular has gotten some strong positive reactions!

The sound quality both at The Machine Shop (from Mike Blair's 705Live Sound Co.) and Chris' camera collide nicely on these videos, as filmed at a good vantage point to capture the whole stage plus the sizeable crowd, so Big Wreck and Thornley fans will be right at home with these videos, so be sure to check them out above & below!

The rest of today's videos come from The Inner City Surfers' reunion gig on November 4th at Soo Blaster, where they and three other bands featuring drummer Mikey Hawdon joined forces to support his then-upcoming wedding. Despite taking place back on November 3rd, Christopher only uploaded these videos to YouTube last week, so I'm still relatively timely to cover them here as a result! Like at the Big Wreck show, Chris did not film the first band here, namely the one-off reunion of Toronto-based Ramones/Joan Jett tribute band The Merves, but he got everyone else from this event. Regarding The Surfers, Chris filmed five videos from their first public set in four years, including their opening cover of Stompin' Tom Connors' "Algoma 69" with bassist Brad "Example" Lacell on lead vocals (plus the "William Tell Overture" opening), plus their original songs "Get High" & "Booze N' Doobs".

Chris also captured their cover of The Beastie Boys' "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)" with Mikey on vocals and AMY/DC's Dean Glover filling in on drums. Embedded below is their set-closer "The Quest", complete with the late-song integration of Corey Hart's "Sunglasses At Night". After covering Brad's live-stream of their entire set earlier this week, it is good to see video of the band in action from the front (Brad is quite well dressed for the occasion!), and while attendee hands and cameras can get in the road, the quality is solid on these videos overall. Check them out for yourselves above & below!

Chris also filmed four videos of Toronto-based AC/DC tribute band AMY/DC, featuring Mikey on guitar and the aforementioned Dean Glover on drums, plus Mikey's Merves bandmate Amy Zucchetto on vocals. Here, you can see them cover "You Shook Me All Night Long", "Highway To Hell", "Sin City", and as embedded below, "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock N' Roll". I am not 100% positive given the video quality, but is that The Wyld Stallyns' own Josh Norling playing saxophone in lieu of the bagpipe parts? Very strong covers of AC/DC classics by Amy and crew here, if with shakier video on average, so give these a watch above & below as well!

Finally, Chris filmed Mikey fronting his online page-less local alternative rock/punk cover quintet Bookclub playing three songs on this night, namely Vampire Weekend's "A-Punk", Men Without Hats' "Pop Goes The World", and as embedded below, Tom Petty's "You Wreck Me". A little further from the stage than he would be later in the night, but you get a better view of the setup for this special concert, if still a little blurry, and Bookclub have a good handle on these covers that you don't hear many other local bands cover nowadays! Give them a look for yourselves above & below!


That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

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