Friday, August 16, 2024

The Rest Of This Weekend's Hard Rock/Punk Concert Previews!!

Before we begin our second weekend concert preview post, I wanted to offer our deepest condolences to the family & friends of former Great White frontman Jack Russell, who passed away yesterday at the age of 63, a month after retiring from touring following his diagnosis of Lewy body dementia. Visit your preferred music news websites (like this) for more details. The classic and longest tenured frontman of the Los Angeles hair metal icons best known for tracks like "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" and "The Angel Song", Jack fronted versions of Great White at least thrice in the Soo area, including on New Years Day 1990, where they opened for Alice Cooper at Sault Memorial Gardens. Great White would headline at The Dreammakers Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino 19 years later, before the splinter version Jack Russell's Great White headlined outside of the St. Ignace Kewadin in June 2017.

Jack wasn't in the original Great White anymore when they opened for Ace Frehley at the St. Ignace Kewadin last month (he had already retired anyway), but fans of theirs will absolutely recognize Jack's talents as a singer and frontman from their late 1980s-early 1990s heyday until the modern era, and hopefully fans have lots of good memories, both from his local gigs and beyond. R.I.P. Jack!

Today's post otherwise completes another round of hard rock/punk weekend concert previews in the Twin Saults, and we'll pick things back up in Brimley, where a rare multi-band event with a touring artist goes down at Pickles Bar & Grill TOMORROW NIGHT! Two known SMS-amenable local bands are playing Brimley for the first time, those being Sault Ste. Marie rock quintet The Nameless and 2023 LSSU Battle of the Bands-winning punk band The Sole Aggressors, so if you like what these rising groups bring to the table, head to Pickles to see them in action! The headliner here is Detroit electronica musician R. Solomon, with Detroit experimental duo Sean & Diego also making the trip north, and if that seems out of left field, remember that promoter Brighton LeBlanc of Serious Business brought in a diverse mix of genres in his Satisfied Frog show in November featuring four touring acts from around the state, so this genre mix isn't new.

This 18+ (not 21+) concert takes place at 9:00 PM in the lower level of Pickles at 11204 West Lakeshore Drive tomorrow night, following an unrelated matinee gig by local jazz duo Midnight Sun at 5:30 PM, and it has a $10 cover charge. It is great that the E.U.P. is getting some promotion of multi-band shows with touring musicians like this, and hopefully tomorrow's festivities are a huge hit so Brighton keeps this up with even more! See above for more details, and for a preview, here's The Sole Aggressors live!

Before moving to our remaining Sault Ontario concert previews, just a heads up that Bone Yard 225's debut gigs at Gino's Fired Up Kitchen & Bar tomorrow night and on the 31st have been cancelled, as per bassist Warren Reville in comment replies on our Facebook page earlier today. Warren implied that Gino's have stopped/been prohibited from hosting live music period, but I haven't heard an announcement from the restaurant on this front (their social media last referenced hosting live musicians on July 27th). Hopefully this isn't 100% it for acoustic concerts there, but if all else fails, you can still see Bone Yard at the Laird Fair tonight!

Resuming this weekend's previews, let's head to Shooters Downstairs Lounge, where local hard rock quintet HeadFirst will return for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! This will be HeadFirst's... first concert since their CD release party for their debut EP "Head Trauma" at Shooters three weeks ago (our review of it is coming up this month), and while there's no raison d'etre for tomorrow's concert beyond just playing live, the band should have CD copies of "Head Trauma" on sale. With momentum at their backs, hopefully tomorrow's concert is a huge hit full of their entertaining hard rock originals and covers! A one-nighter due to Shooters' Friday DJ nights this year, tomorrow's concert has a 9:30 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and here's HeadFirst live! Yes, I am well aware of their new Rotaryfest video, we'll finally resume our Rotaryfest 2024 fallout coverage on the site soon!

Finally for this weekend, let's head to Soo Blaster, where a rare all-local concert goes down on SUNDAY NIGHT featuring four local groups and two solo musicians! In a mild surprise, young local hard rock band Sylo (the former Raincourt) will headline in their second public show of the year and first since parting ways with bassist Owen Dearing. Sylo's social media presence has been slim at best since they returned from hiatus earlier this year, but given that frontman Elijah Russell is reportedly moving from the area for college shortly, this could be your last chance to see the band for a while, so keep Sunday's show in mind! Joining Sylo at Soo Blaster on Sunday are local punk quartet (assuming that Carmen did join) Vanity First, thrash metal trio The BAG, and comedy rock band The Floor Between Us, alongside prolific local folk punk/extreme metal musician Chase Wigmore and anti-folk/outsider singer/guitarist Shae Tull.

Notably, we haven't seen Chase at a public concert since February, and it's good to see that he's still gigging despite his prior teasers about stepping away from music after his next album comes out! Unlike most of Vanity First guitarist Mikhal Muto's recent blitz of self/co-promoted concerts at The Distraction and Soo Blaster, Sunday's festivities do not have advance ticket sales, just a flat cover charge of $10. It is definitely ALL AGES, and doors open at 8:00 PM. An all-local show with this many acts, especially not attached to a festival, isn't as common as it once was, so don't miss out on all of the action on Sunday! In lieu of a Sylo video (they haven't uploaded anything since the name change), here's Vanity First live!

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

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