Tuesday, March 26, 2024

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Bad Chug

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile, as we once again look at a randomly selected YouTube channel whose content is at least half focused on local metal, hard rock, and/or punk artists and/or concerts! This one has a bit of an asterisk beside it, as this channel is for a band who hadn't moved operations to the Soo yet, but they eventually were based here, if not at the best time for live bands! Here's what you should know!

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Bad Chug (http://youtube.com/@badchug5849)


Owner: A member of 2016-2017 & 2020-2021 local/Ottawa hard rock band Bad Chug, exact identity unclear

Channel Timeline: Launched on June 3rd, 2016; Videos uploaded from the next day until November 29th of that year

Channel Summary: The official YouTube channel for Bad Chug during their original Ottawa-based run, it features a 20 minute live set, each song from it re-uploaded in separate videos, two other live performance clips, a "welcome to our channel" video, and in their last upload, a studio recording of their song "Should Never Be".

Why You Should Watch: Given that Bad Chug's February 2020 relaunch as a local project was severely limited by the pandemic and only saw them play one public concert (opening for Buckcherry at Soo Blaster in October 2021), this channel will be essential if you saw them there and wondered who Bad Chug were! Beyond that, they were not an untalented group and it would have been nice to see them accomplish more & longer both here and in Ottawa! A selection of unique videos can be seen on their Facebook page, but there or on YouTube, they have no videos from after 2016 (visit this link to see fan-shot video of Bad Chug at the Buckcherry concert here).

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

Welcome to the Bad Chug channel: Most local musicians don't bother with a "welcome to our channel" video for their channel's homepage, but Bad Chug did, albeit before becoming a local band. Here, their fans (or "Chuggernauts") get to meet singer/guitarist Aaron Desmoulin, bassist Kyle Dube, and drummer Matt D'Ettore, who hype up the band, promise upcoming shows/content, jam out (without live audio) and open/drink beer, which may have been implied by their name. Accidental(?) video mirroring aside, this was a good way to introduce Bad Chug to viewers!


Bad Chug Live Show: Six of Bad Chug's ten YouTube videos comprise of the same private house party concert from June 2nd, 2016 (considered their first show), where Aaron, Kyle, and Matt played five songs, all separately uploaded as their own videos after the fact. In order, the guys played their eponymous song, "Should Never Be", "Rockin' Hard Place",  and "Primal", before covering Guns N' Roses' "Mr. Brownstone" alongside guest guitarist Kevin Hallarn (Aaron just sings here). They could have used a proper lead singer (shades of Late & Loud there), but their originals had a strong groove with a nice free-wheeling attitude, and it's easy to see how they would have turned heads had they not launched as a local concern on the cusp of a global pandemic! Click here for an alternate angle of their "Mr. Brownstone" cover from this night.


Bad Chug - Sex Doll Live: The only proper concert video (as in, at a public venue) on offer here comes from Bad Chug's show opening for fellow Ottawa hard rock band Nessie at Cafe Deckuf in July 2016. Also their channel's most watched video, it sees the guys playing their original song "Sex Doll" (named Veronika, incidentally), which has more of a funk rock influence. It probably uses Aaron's vocals the best out of all of their posted originals, and it's a solid track that would surely have been a live hightlight, but the video quality does the band no favours. The dark and inconsistent lighting is a constant, and the audio is a little rough compared to the 20 minute set, so it is a shame that this song wasn't seen in another upload! Click here for Bad Chug's Facebook video from Nessie's headlining set.

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around April 26th for a two channel profile, as  the first randomly selected channel (ran by ex-Swampgut guitarist Rob "Rodge MacGodge" MacDonald) only has nine audio recordings by Swampgut, and I'd only want to hand select two of them to feature without getting too repetitive given what it has. As such, I'll fill things out with a channel who only has three SMS-relevant videos, all from the same concert, namely YouTube user metalfu, who filmed at Kiss' 2007 Kewadin Casino concert! Look for those next month, and for more news news and notes on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

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