LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Soundcheck) & More Weekend Concert Previews!!

Before we begin today's post, I wanted to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of local concert/mixed martial arts promoter "Big" John Yeubanks, who passed away this morning at the age of 44 after a two year battle with cancer, as per numerous Facebook postings. Click here for details on his fight via a GoFundMe campaign from earlier this year. Based out of Gaylord, Michigan, John was long associated with events promotion in Sault Ste. Marie via his companies Big John's MMA and Superior Entertainment. While best known in the area for his fight cards at Kewadin Casinos, John also co-promoted a handful of high profile local concerts via Superior Entertainment, including 2015's P.O.D./Hoobastank and Saving Abel concerts at The Dreammakers Theater, 2017's Dokken/Firehouse show at what's now GFL Memorial Gardens, and the Josey Scott show at The Rink at The Train Station last June.

Big John's local legacy for many will be via his many MMA cards here (his final fight card was just last month), but he did bring some big concerts up to our area, and despite being from Northern Michigan, he did help put on multiple concerts and MMA shows in Sault Ontario, relatively uncommon examples of local event promotion from across the border. From what I know of John, he was a good family man driven by faith, and he was very candid about his health on social media, so I do hope that he is fondly remembered by all who knew him at this difficult time. R.I.P. Big John!

Today's post otherwise looks at the rest of this weekend's known hard rock concert previews, starting with SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, as Sault Ontario classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to Jay's Piston Broke Pub for traditional concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, drummer Glen Thomas only announced them on his personal Facebook page earlier today, and neither the band nor venue have followed suit publically. TOMORROW & SATURDAY's shows complete another triple-header weekend at the former Reggie's West for Soundcheck, whose usual Thursday jam night hosting duties (sans singer/guitarist Cameron Oliver) are tonight before the full band rocks out all night TOMORROW & SATURDAY to end one month and begin another. Despite the late notice for the normal concerts, hopefully Soundcheck deliver more hits all weekend!

As usual for Soundcheck's Jay's concerts, expect these to be 19+ events with no announced cover charges and 9:30 PM start times. Visit the above links for more details on the festivities TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT, and for a preview, here's Soundcheck live!

Next up, here's some more weekend concerts that did get advance notice, starting with local hard rock quintet HeadFirst, who will return to Reggie's Place for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT before heading to Shooters Downstairs Lounge for a concert on SATURDAY NIGHT! As Shooters hosts DJ nights on Fridays this year, HeadFirst had to look elsewhere to fill out their weekend schedule, and while I don't know which band was signed at Reggie's first, Bone Yard 225 (who are playing a one-nighter at The Water Tower Pub tomorrow night) have Saturday sewn up at Reggie's, so everyone wins in this regard! Unlike Bone Yard, HeadFirst's two shows this weekend both appear to be standard plugged-in fare compared to their launch event at Reggie's two weeks ago for their debut studio single "Don't Care, Don't Mind". Downtown will be rocking all weekend with this fast rising young group, so don't miss out at either locale!

Also, I surprisingly haven't commented on "Don't Care, Don't Mind" yet here, but you can hear it on major streaming services and I've embedded it below as the preview video for this weekend via their YouTube Music channel. It's a solid enough song with good production and a slightly bluesier edge vocally, and fans of HeadFirst should take to it, but I know that they are capable of more melodic and hooky material if they have more studio plans. Tomorrow's Reggie's concert and Saturday's Shooters show have 9:30 PM start times, 19+ age limits, and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details on both gigs, and here's HeadFirst's new song!

We'll close today by heading to The Rapids Lounge at the aforementioned Kewadin Casino in Sault Michigan, where local hard rock quartet Rhythm & Brews will take the stage for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! These will be this local supergroup's first publically acknowledged concerts since the I-500 weekend at the same venue, but you may recall seeing the band's instrumental members guesting with Tarnished at The Merchant's Bar two weeks ago. Formal concerts from Rhythm & Brews are not super frequent (and live videos of them are far less so), but this union of Nixxon Dixxon, 415E, Power Slug, and Highway 63 alumni promise to deliver a fun weekend of hard rocking covers, so don't miss out on all of the action this weekend! Personal Facebook promotion of these shows suggest that Rhythm & Brews will have new songs, a "new atmosphere", and "maybe a few surprises" in store this weekend.

As usual for Kewadin lounge concerts, tomorrow & Saturday night's shows have 21+ age limits, 9:00 PM start times, and no cover charges. We still don't have public video footage of Rhythm & Brews to preview them with, but go see them in person for yourself this weekend, and visit the above links for more details! That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!