LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Soundcheck & Curtis McKenzie) & Friday Concert Previews!!

Another busy weekend is upon us, so we'll have to split up our hard rock/punk weekend concert previews into two posts once again. As such, this post will look at shows taking place tonight and tomorrow in some form or fashion, with shows on Saturday only (Stephen Pearcy, Teenage Head, Project 906, and Tym Morrison) being previewed tomorrow, so look for those then! Now, let's lead off this weekend's previews with some SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!

Former Project 421/Eclipse frontman Curtis McKenzie will return to The Dive Gastro Pub for a "Think It Over Thursday" concert TONIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced yesterday on both Curt's Facebook page at The Dive's new Facebook page (they deleted their old one and started anew for unannounced reasons), with Curt indicating that he "just got the invitation". TONIGHT's show is effectively a rescheduling of Curtis' once-booked Dive show this past Thursday, which was never publically advertised until he revealed that there was a double-booking, so no harm no foul there! Fans may have last seen him break out his acoustic guitar for sets at the Rowdy Ranchers Horse Show in Laird this past weekend, and while he has yet to post any videos of his 2024 gigs on social media, you can see his full setlists and some photos from the weekend on his Facebook page!

TONIGHT'S indoor concert at the former Low & Slow has an earlier 7:00 PM start time, a 19+ age limit, and no cover charge. Visit the above links for more details on what should be a fun night of hard and alternative rock covers, and for a preview, here's Curt live a few years ago!

Next up, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to Jay's Piston Broke Pub for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Again, apologies for the short notice, these shows were only announced yesterday on the band & venue's Facebook pages. These will be Soundcheck's first shows in three weeks, and first at Jay's (members filling in with The Hoovers at the ARCH Run aside) since early July, so if you've missed Terry, Cameron, Jim, and Glen at this Korah Road staple, be there TOMORROW and/or SATURDAY! In fact, the guys (sans Cameron) will dust off their old jam night hosting hats tonight as well, returning to be the house band for the conceit for one night only, so if you want to enjoy the music or join in with ¾ths of Soundcheck, keep tonight's festivities in mind as well! Just a reminder that we don't cover jam or open mic nights as "concerts" on the SMS due to their in-built unpredictability for who performs what on any given block.

Note as well that Soundcheck will reportedly be playing at one more car show at the newer A&W on Great Northern Road on Sunday, and I will be previewing that in Saturday's news post given that it's further out and so much different from the Jay's shows (incidentally, they played an A&W car show the weekend they last played at Jay's, but at least this one had better online advertising!). You can enjoy Soundcheck's hard rocking and varied covers TOMORROW & SATURDAY at 9:30 PM with 19+ age limits and no cover, and jam night would be much the same. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Soundcheck live!

Now to two big shows that did have advance notice, starting with a special benefit concert TOMORROW NIGHT called Band Together To Rock Cancer! As you may know, Mustang Heart guitarist Lorenzo Fabbri is battling cancer, so his bandmates are returning to the stage tomorrow at The Tarentorus Sports Club at 56 Avery Road alongside other local cover rock bands to help raise money for his family at this difficult time! Four bands will take the stage at the west end curling rink/events hall tomorrow, including classic/hard rock cover quartets Double Down and Generations, classic rock veterans RPM, and Mustang Heart themselves in their first show of 2024, with Lorenzo's Stages bandmate Sam Spadafora and ex-Double Down guitarist Adam King joining them as special guests. Refreshments and a cash bar will also be available for attendees tomorrow night, and there will be a door prize for attendees & support ticket buyers.

Admission tomorrow night is $20 at the door or via advance tickets available through Mustang Heart members, and support tickets are available for $15 for those who want to help Lorenzo but don't want to/can't attend the concert proper. Doors open at 7:00 PM, and there's no stated age limit. It is great to see four local rock bands join forces to help Lorenzo and his family at a trying time, and hopefully lots of donations and good will are raised at the Tarentorus Club tomorrow! Having lost my mother to cancer, I can absolutely relate. See above for more details, here's Mustang Heart live at Rotaryfest 2022, and get well soon, Lorenzo!

Finally for today's preview post, we'll head to The Whisky Barrel, where Hamilton outsider folk/punk musician B.A. Johnston will play his fifth local headlining date TOMORROW NIGHT! An outlier in multiple ways from the Gore Street nightclub's usual acoustic music fare (The Devil's Sons at month's end acknowledged), this will be B.A.'s first Sault Ste. Marie date since he rocked Outspoken Brewing in August 2023. All of his shows here have been at different venues, so a wide array of audiences have bore witness to his irreverent sense of humour, audience interaction, and punk-infused brand of self deprecating acoustic punk music, and trust me, it's far better to see B.A. Johnston in person than to read some guy's write-up on his live show! Wyld Stallyns frontman Rob Speers will open tomorrow as he continues his ever-busier slate of acoustic gigs away from the band. Hopefully he warms things up well before B.A. hits the stage!

Despite the touring headliner, tomorrow's concert has NO cover charge, it is 19+, and it has an early-ish run time of 8:00-11:00 PM. Bring Hawkins Cheezies at your own discretion, but B.A. does like them! Fans of acoustic rock, especially on the more eclectic and humorous side, won't want to miss tomorrow's action at The Whisky Barrel, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's B.A. live!

That's all for now, but look for more weekend concert previews on the SMS next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Theatre Of Night) & Heavy Lies The Crown Updates!!

Tonight's post is 100% devoted to Sault Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula, and while it's mostly about one band in particular, we are leading off with a big LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this fall that Christmas fans will want to mark down, so here's what you should know!

Local classical metal band Theatre of Night are slated to return to The Soo Theater for their annual local Christmas concert on Saturday, November 30th! The band has yet to confirm this booking on their own social media, but the Ashmun Street theater announced it on their own Facebook page on September 5th via this poster for upcoming shows during the fall/winter season. As you may recall, this venerable project played their first local concert since 2019 at the Ashmun Street theater on the Saturday after the American Thanksgiving last year, and said scheduling will be repeated in two months, so Theatre of Night will be kicking off the Christmas season in style! This will presumably be Theatre of Night's second local concert with new singer, bassist, and narrator/backing vocalist Marquita, Luke, and Sandi Bernard in the fold, but they have spent most of 2024 posting teaser "Reels" on Facebook, so who's to say if things will look exactly as they did last year.

Expect lots of metallized Christmas carols with a narrative theatrical flourish once again over the US Thanksgiving long weekend from this experienced and professional group no matter what, including another Christmas tour with extra shows downstate! The local concert will start at 7:00 PM, it should be all ages once again, and while admission price/ticket details are not yet known, note that last year's Theatre of Night show had admission by donation with a recommended amount of $20. Visit the above links for more details on what should be a fun and festive night of metal!

Next up, let's get further caught up on St. Ignace metalcore band Heavy Lies The Crown, who we last left off with after their headlining set at the 2nd Street Music Festival in their hometown last month and their announced guitarist switch, so what was next on their docket? The band had a busy weekend just over a month ago, as they first headed to Grand Rapids on August 23rd to open for shoegaze metal band Glassfield at Skelletones, in what was their last show with Nathan Switzer back on guitar (his replacement, Katharsys Theory drummer Kaycee Mason, debuted with H.L.T.C. last month but did not make the trip to Grand Rapids). The guys seemed to have some sort of hang-up on the 4 hour trip southwest, judging by this "Reel" of their vehicle stopped on the side of the road, but as the woman's voice says, "But we did make it!". To hype the show up, this video was posted of members loading gear into the venue.

Courtesy of their Facebook page, frontman Brandon West & drummer Blaze Beairl are seen entering Skelletones, alongside running commentary by the filmer. Not a ton to look at, but it's unique as local band videos go! If you actually want to see their set from this night, two videos were live-streamed on the 23rd, with the longer of the two embedded below (here is the shorter one). Unfortunately, both videos were shot vertically, the very blue lighting is not ideal for clarity, and the longer video is VERY quiet, so prepare your volume dials in advance. What we see in the clips looks brutal in good ways, and hopefully Nathan had a good sendoff, so check out Heavy Lies The Crown in Grand Rapids above & below!

The following day, H.L.T.C. headed to Alpena (2 hours southeast of St. Ignace) to play at this year's French Road Bash, an outdoor metal festival there that they have played at before. On that afternoon, they rocked the Bluegrass Bar Stage as the second of six scheduled bands there, with new guitarist Kaycee Mason's band Katharsys Theory co-headlining (the closing band was Alpena's own Citrus Orange). It was implied on Facebook that Kaycee was involved in the sound for the French Road Bash too, and it sounds like his new band approved of the results! Two videos from Heavy Lies The Crown's set were shared to Facebook, including one of them playing "Knucklebutter", but I'm not embedding it here because they did that thing where a horizontal video is uploaded in vertical dimensions with huge pillarboxing. Why do some pages leave tiny videos like that up rather than re-upload them in a normal 16:9 full-screen orientation?

Instead, embedded here is their set-opening performance of "Bounty" last month, and yes, it was uploaded in the orientation it was filmed in! From where the filmer was standing, bassist Christian Cook was often obscured by that tree, but this is a solidly heavy song that plays to Heavy Lies The Crown's strenghts, and the ambiance of them playing in front of a thick forest is sure neat! Give their French Road Bash videos a watch above & below, and hopefully the festival was a smash hit across the board!

Finally for today, we can officially say that we're caught up on Heavy Lies The Crown updates after this! Last week, Brandon shot and uploaded this video to their Facebook page where he reminded everyone about their new song "These Walls" (wrote during Nathan's return stint), which he says is "comin' out decently soon", later noting that it would come out this fall. He also reminded everyone about the recent lineup changes, including ex-drummer Jaxon Massaway's impending return as their second guitarist, and Brandon noted that this will mean that H.L.T.C. will have three drummers in their lineup! What he didn't mention there is that they are scheduled to make the 3 hour drive to Escanaba at the re-opened Delft Theater on October 19th (source here), though I haven't found much in the way of public details on that event. It will be neat to see Heavy Lies The Crown play a show in Escanaba (in da moonlight?) if it's still in the works!

It remains to be seen what else Brandon, Jaycee, Jaxon, Christian, and Blaze have in store for the rest of 2024, but stay tuned to their social media pages for more as it rolls in, and check out Brandon's update video below!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Half Past), A New Local Band, The Damn Truth Preview, And More!!

Today's post is full of big news and notes, including a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, a mid-week concert preview, and a high profile new cover video, but let's lead off with a kinda sorta new local metal band, so here's what you should know on them on this Monday night!

We have a new-ish band to add to our Sault Ontario band links, and they are local "progressive tech death" metal quartet Bardo! I say "new-ish" because they're kind of a renaming and a replacement band all at once. Initial advertising for the Selias-headlined concert at Soo Blaster on September 28th had promoter Tyler St. Amour's mid-2010s death metal band Them returning after a seven year hiatus on this night, but it has since been confirmed on Facebook that they'll instead be going by the name Bardo, and a separate Facebook page was launched to reflect the new-ish band. Given everything, I'm treating Them and Bardo as separate bands (with Them back in our inactive links), especially given the gap since 2017 and that Bardo are not a duo and are playing more technical material, so there has been a clear evolution! No word on what Bardo means, for the record. Tyler aside (who is on vocals and bass), who else is in this group?

The lineup is not given in writing on social media yet, but it looks like two of Tyler's old March Into Regression bandmates are in this group, namely his brother Travis St. Amour (best known from Bring The Fallen) on drums and Christopher Neveau on guitar, but I have yet to identify who the second guitarist is. We'll let you know when things are confirmed publically! Two videos have been shared to Bardo's Facebook page so far, and while both have them short-handed (only one guitarist in the newer clip, and Tyler isn't playing bass in either), but these point to a brutal and more refined sound than Them were known for, and they should turn heads at Soo Blaster! Check out their first original "Blood Moon" below!

Next up, here's that LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, as local hard rock quartet Half Past will return to Soo Blaster on Saturday, October 12th for a big headlining date! The reunited foursome will actually debut there at the aformenetioned Selias-headlined concert, but they will be the topline attraction next month, in their first headlining gig since rocking Shooters early last month. As far as I can tell, there's no frills or raison d'etre for this show beyond playing some hard rocking tunes live, so don't miss out on Jordan, Alain, Arthur, and Jonny's encore at Soo Blaster two weeks after the Selias concert! Half Past will have an opening act next month as well, namely Bullet Train frontman Cory Murchison, who will break out his acoustic guitar for the occasion. Promotional materials credit him as "Cory Daniel", which is the handle used when he opened for Fort Creek in 2022, despite playing shows since where his last name was used in advertising.

Fans of Half Past's original 2008-2012 run will recall that Cory was active then fronting Sense Of Truth (and he played with Jonny in Skeyes Of Seven afterwards), so they're well acquainted, and it should be a fun atmosphere! Given the large upscale venue, this is a ticketed event, so admission will be $10 in advance at this link (physical tickets are available through the performers and at Soo Blaster), and the door price will jump to $12. This will be an ALL AGES event, and Cory kicks off the night at 8:00 PM. Hard rock fans will get their fill on this night, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details on all of the action next month!

Also, here's a special Tuesday night concert preview, as Montreal classic/hard rock quartet The Damn Truth will headline at the aformentioned Soo Blaster in their local debut TOMORROW NIGHT! This retro-styled band have been getting some good local press attention this week, getting a brief write-up by Brian Kelly for The Sault Star (at this link) and some high praise on The Borderline's website, so you know that this female-fronted group will deliver a solid night of 1960s-inspired melodic rock originals, and no less than Bob Rock produced their new material, so you know they're on the up & up! A varied local opening roster includes local alt-punk trio A Dire Setback (in their second show of 2024 and first in Sault Ste. Marie city limits in over a year) and alternative rock trio The Haze (née Skinbox) in their first show since they added an unspecified new band member, so find out who is joining Steve, Jordan, and Brad in The Haze tomorrow!

Another show promoted locally by Mikhal Muto, tomorrow's concert has advance tickets running for $20 at this link and presumably at the venue, with the door price jumping to $25. Like the Half Past show next month, the music starts at 8:00 PM, though it was not stated if there will be a 19+ age limit here or not. The Damn Truth should turn heads tomorrow, especially with Lee-La's distinctive Janis Joplin-esque vocals, so don't miss out if you can swing this work/school night event! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's The Damn Truth live!

Finally for today, here's song #13 in local punk supergroup project Mikey & His Uke's 30th anniversary series of remotely filmed covers of Green Day's breakthrough album "Dookie"! Posted to their YouTube channel last week, this video came just two weeks after the previous cover of "Emenius Sleepius", in the quickest turnaround in covers for this series since song #7 ("Basket Case") went up in March, which is good to see! In the penultimate credited song on offer, Mikey & crew tackled the thirteenth track on "Dookie", namely the short deep cut "In The End". As always, Bookclub frontman Mikey Hawdon is on guitar and (initially) ukelele, with Goldfinger alum Darren Pfieffer back as the house drummer for the "Dookie" covers, complete with another hockey jersey. Vocals here are provided by Authority Zero frontman Jason Devore, while Buck-O-Nine bassist Andy Plafoot returns for his seventh turn on the low end in the "Dookie" series

Aside from Jason putting on a mask during his footage, there's no major frills to note from the filming locations and activity, but it's well edited as you'd expect, and the performance is strong, with Jason's vocals fitting well with the experienced musical hands on offer! Unless they tackle the bonus unadvertised song "All By Myself", the "Dookie" cover series will wrap up with "F.O.D.", which could arrive at any point up to October 21st based on past release timeframes (the current average would be September 27th). Check out "In The End" for yourselves below!

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

Handsome Sandwich Updates & Videos From The Past Few Weeks!!

Here's the latest from local alternative hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich, so what have they been up to as of late? Well, they're on the road right now for two shows in Southern Ontario, which started when they returned to Ottawa on Thursday night for a show alongside Ottawa pop punk band Holly Acres as part of The Overflow Brewing Company's "Indie Series"! That concert was plugged by Holly Acres in this "Reel" and by Handsome Sandwich in this short & vertical video (thankfully not a "Reel") on their Facebook page featuring the whole band outside of the brewery. They haven't posted on their Facebook page since, but hopefully that concert was a hit for all involved! The other (and better hyped) tour date this weekend will see the Sandwich head to Cookstown in Simcoe County tomorrow afternoon to open for Kill/Death Radio on Stage 1 at this year's Gussapalooza Music Festival, which should be a big one for them!

Only one other band at Gussapalooza tomorrow (past Go North Music Festival performers Propter Hawk) are familiar to me from past local dates, but they're playing on Stage 2. To promote tomorrow's concert, an unidentified band member was interviewed by Jenna Melanson of the music website Canadian Beats (who have heavily been promoting Gussapalooza), and you can read the full interview at this link. There, the band member talked about their music so far, how they sound (picture a mix of Paramore, The Foo Fighters, and Limp Bizkit?!), getting picked to play this festival, and their upcoming new material. While they have since clarified on Facebook that their seven new studio songs will be released as an EP, this interview again points out that "we are leaning toward a release of singles", implying that they could just post them individually on streaming services. Hopefully they are collected as an EP for convenience and mp3 downloads' sake!

Good interview, if with a lot of hypotheticals and unknowns given the Gussapalooza expectations angle of many questions, so check it out above! If you're wondering why Handsome Sandwich went three days between these shows, it's because Brandon & Johnny's folk/bluegrass side project The Golden Scoundrels joined them on tour, and they were booked for the Black & Bluegrass festival in North Gower (outside of Ottawa) tonight, where they played alongside past Whisky Barrel headliners Bastards & The Buzzards, among others. Nice to see the Scoundrels spreading their wings, and hopefully that show went well for all involved too! Now to a pair of new live videos from Handsome Sandwich's set at last month's Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir (definitely not the final one based on their Facebook page's latest updates!), and the first one uploaded from their Forest Stage set was a video of them playing their newer song "Change A Bit", so what can you see there?

Filmed by attendee Adam Willis and posted to Facebook on the Monday after Northern Vibe, this 65 second clip was shot from beside the Forest Stage, with a unique (if sadly vertical) vantage point of Taylor, Jesse, Brandon, Rafael, and Johnny rocking out, including some views pointing towards the night-obscured audience (and a nice bonfire!). I wish this was the full song and shot horizontally, but the audio quality and unique views sell it, so check out Handsome Sandwich changing a bit below!

Note as well that, in the description for the above video, they noted that "we have been lucky to play (at Northern Vibe) every year since we became a band". They're counting "since we became a band" as when Taylor joined in 2021, as I don't believe they played at Northern Vibe from 2017-2019 during their pre-pandemic run as a genre-less cover trio, but Poplardale Road has been a reliable end-of-summer locale for them since their relaunch! The other video from Ophir was officially uploaded to the band's YouTube channel, and while it was also shot by Adam, this is both the full song and in horizontal landscape orientation! The video has the band playing "Partyfuel" (officially all one word), and the song features Wyld Stallyns saxophonist Josh Norling, who previously played on "No Entry" on the band's debut album "Deconstructed". Note that, in the video description, Josh and ex-guitarist Mitch Sirie share in the writing credits.

This would seemingly be a strong hint that Josh will guest on this song on their upcoming EP, but I haven't seen that in firm writing anywhere. The "Partyfuel" video starts off with Adam filming from the lawn in front of the Forest Stage, but he makes the rounds to both sides of the stage and even on stage while the band & Josh are rocking out. The video quality is great, and you get some excellent angles of the Forest Stage that we don't normally see from publically uploaded Northern Vibe videos, so kudos to Adam for getting some excellent footage! I'll hold comment on the song pending our review of the EP (assuming it's not solely released as seven individual singles), but check out "Partyfuel" for yourselves below!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tarnished), More Weekend Concert Previews, And New Videos!!

I hope everyone is having a good and not-at-all-unlucky Friday the 13th! Today's post wraps up this weekend's hard rock concert previews, including SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, but we do have new videos from a band whose show this weekend was seemingly cancelled. Here's what you should know for the rest of this weekend!

After a month off from the local stage, Sault Michigan hard rock/classic metal band Tarnished will play two shows TOMORROW NIGHT, namely a matinee at the Little Bear East Arena & Community Center in St. Ignace in conjunction with this year's annual Richard Crane Truck Show & Parade Of Lights, before heading back home to the Soo for a traditional nighttime show at The Merchants Bar! Apologies for the short notice on both gigs, Tarnished only announced them on their Facebook page this week. Tarnished were last seen in our coverage range opening for Heavy Lies The Crown outdoors in St. Ignace a month ago, with road trips to Grand Marais and Rose City in the interim. TOMORROW's St. Ignace show will see Alex & Josh (and Chris & Ron?) rock out during the truck show proper at the 275 Marquette Street arena, and they should provide a fun soundtrack to all of the quality trucks on display before that night's parade!

TOMORROW NIGHT'S show at The Merch will be their first at this popular local nightclub since May, and if you want a more standard night of hard rocking originals and old school covers, you know where to go! The truck show concert is at 2:00 PM TOMORROW (running until 5:00), while the Merch show is at 9:00 PM. Both events have no announced cover charge, and while the former is likely all ages, the latter is 21+. Visit the above links for more details on both of Tarnished's shows TOMORROW, and for a preview, here they are live at The Merch earlier this year!

Next up, let's head north to Sault Ontario, where local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down will rock The Esquire Club TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! With the venerable Second Line West nightclub resuming their live music schedule for the fall season, Double Down jumped on that, and will actually be playing there in two weeks as well as this weekend, so fans of the Syrettes, Brad, and Ric's hard rocking and varied covers won't want to miss out on their four shows this month! You can unleash the rhythm with Double Down tonight and tomorrow at The Esquire Club at 9:30 PM, these are 19+ events, and there is no announced cover charge. No frills to note here, just two solid nights of rocking covers from this talented collection of Griphook, Mojo, and That's Chester alumni, so don't miss out this weekend, and for a preview, here's Double Down live, and we'll have more from them soon!

Lastly for this weekend's heavier shows, let's return to the Eastern Upper Peninsula, where Sault Michigan hard rock quintet The Nameless will make their debut at Huck's Pub & Grill in nearby Rudyard TOMORROW NIGHT! This show did have question marks over it for a time, thanks to frontman Joshua LaCoursiere's recovery from a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting last month, but nowhere in the advertising for tomorrow's show is it said that he will be absent. The last update on his condition from the GoFundMe page to help his family was on August 27th, so fingers crossed that Josh's recovery has went on track or better, and that The Nameless' hard rock attack goes over well at the former Joe's Bar & Grill tomorrow! This one-night-only event has a 21+ age limit, 8:00 PM start time, and no cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and click here for their sole (and unembeddable) public video!

Today's post would have been rounded out by our preview of Sault Ontario southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225's show at Shooters Downstairs Lounge tomorrow night, but that concert appears to have been quietly cancelled, as per it's removal from their website's concert calendar. A reason for the show being called off was not publically announced, but the band hasn't mentioned it since first announcing it on said calendar last month, and Shooters never confirmed the booking on social media. Hopefully all's well in Bone Yard's camp, and they are still advertised to return to Shooters for a one nighter on October 5th! I won't completely scrap them from this post otherwise, as they did post two videos from their "uncorked" show at The Water Tower Pub on August 30th onto their Facebook page on Tuesday! The videos (shockingly both filmed horizontally) include an acoustic cover of The 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up?", a favorite song of theirs to film.

I've never understood the appeal of this song among local bands (even for ironic reasons, given that so many bands tackle it), so yeah, keep it mind if you wanna know what's going on. It is a lively choice for a live audience, I suppose! Embedded below is their lengthy unplugged cover of The Jimi Hendrix Experience's "Little Wing", which is a much better showcase of Greg, Alex, and Warren's skill set! The blue/purple lighting could stand to be dialed back a bit, but this is a strong performance for classic rock fans, so don't miss out below, and if you want to see them live, don't miss your local 225 plugged in at Reggie's next weekend!

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

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

Another busy concert weekend is upon us, necessitating two posts to cover it all. As such, look for our previews of this weekend's Bone Yard 225, Double Down, Tarnished, and Nameless concerts in tomorrow's second preview post, so don't worry, they are coming! Now, here's what you should know, starting with a big punk show TONIGHT!

Leading off this busy weekend is the long awaited return of Pomona, California hardcore punk legends Total Chaos, who will headline TONIGHT at The Stellar Door under The Distraction! The second basement show at the former East Street barbershop, this space won rave reviews when The Ripcordz played there this summer, and hopefully the good vibes of a good old fashioned punk basement show continue for Total Chaos in their first local concert appearance since they rocked the former Oddfellows Hall fourteen years ago. Hardcore punk fans won't want to miss their established and newer original fury, so don't miss out tonight! Opening here are Ottawa "post street punk" band BALM Squad in their local debut, and they'll be a strong lead-off band with their hard hitting original sound, so don't bypass them tonight either! Surprisingly, this show does not have any advertised local opening acts.

Note that local/Barrie crossover thrash band Spades GT opened for BALM Squad in Toronto in July, and will open for The Exploited at two GTA shows this weekend, so the local connection goes further than you think! If you hadn't bought the limited $25 advance tickets by now, door admission is via a "$20 or pay what you can" setup, the Mikhal Muto-promoted concert starts at 9:00 PM. and this is definitely an ALL AGES venue (no alcohol, please respect the space). Despite being on a work/school night, this should be a great night of hardcore punk action, so don't miss out at The Stellar Door under The Distraction tonight, and here's Total Chaos live!

Next up, let's dive into musicians on the weekend cover circuit, starting with prolific local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison, who will wrap up his summer 2024 arrangement at The Mike Case Memorial Stage outside of The Trading Post TOMORROW NIGHT before returning for another matinee  on SATURDAY at Misty's Fifties! As The Mike Case Stage only hosts live musicians seasonally, their live music schedule ends in early-mid September, hence why this is Tym's last Friday evening gig there of the year. If you like seeing Tym playing outdoors way down Great Northern Road, this is your last chance until (likely) mid-2025, so keep tomorrow's show in mind! If you prefer seeing him indoors and earlier in the day, his Misty's Fifties run continues until at least the end of the month, and we'll let you know if it gets extended at all. You can enjoy his unplugged classic & hard rock covers tomorrow at 7:00 PM and Saturday at 4:00 PM.

The Misty's show is likely 19+, and neither has a cover charge. For his outdoor swan song for 2024, tomorrow's Trading Post concert, we're looking at sunny-to-clear skies with temperatures at around 23°, so it should be a fine evening to wrap up the season's schedule with! Visit the official Facebook event pages linked here and here for more details, and for a preview, here's Tym live!

Also this weekend, former Haggith/Eclipse frontman Curtis McKenzie will hit the road just outside of town to play at the Rowdy Ranchers Horse Show at the Laird Fairgrounds TOMORROW & SATURDAY! This annual event is hosted by the local Rowdy Ranchers Round-Up horse club, and will see lots of family enterainment, vendors, and horse/pony shows and exhibits, so if you ride or just love horses, you might want to head out to Laird for all of the action this weekend! Visit the above links for more on the non-musical specifics. Curt will be the matinee musical entertainment during the day throughout the weekend, though he nor organizers have stated when exactly he's playing each night. On Saturday, there will be a nighttime headline band (pop rock cover quartet Lime), but given the formatting of this event, I hesitate to say that Curtis is "opening" for Lime. Regardless, the Rowdy Ranchers Round-Up is FREE & ALL AGES with gates opening at 8:00 AM.

Note that, according to Curt's Facebook page, he had been booked to play at The Dive Gastro Pub tonight but the show was cancelled, as the former Low & Slow had mistakenly double booked tonight's "Think It Over Thursday" gig (the actual performers there tonight are Aaron Lucas & Jeff July). Curtis hadn't announced a September 12th show in advance anyway, but hopefully we see him back at The Dive soon! As for the Rowdy Ranchers Horse Show, this may seem more like a country music-amenable event, but hopefully Curtis' hard rocking covers keep the good vibes going in Laird this weekend! See above for more details, and here's Curt live!

Finally for this weekend, we'll head back into city limits for local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations' return to Jay's Piston Broke Pub TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Last seen at the former Reggie's West early last month, these shows will be joined by Generations hosting Jay's weekly Thursday jam night tonight, so if such events interest you as a spectator or prospective performer, keep that in mind! It is worth noting that Generations frontwoman Valerie Powley does not take part in their jam nights, a'la Cameron Oliver missing Soundcheck's, but she will be back to sing all night this weekend, and the guys have teased having new Bob Seger and The Outfield covers to debut in their sets. Tomorrow and Saturday's traditional concerts (and jam night tonight) are 19+ affairs with no announced cover shows, and the normal concerts have 9:30 PM start times. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Generations live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for the second half of our weekend concert previews next! Thanks everyone!

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Drayton Fever

It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, and after a Sault Ontario summer for this series, we're spotlighting a Sault Michigan band to kick off the fall season! As always, this monthly feature looks at a randomly selected local metal, hard rock, or punk band from the past, in order to showcase and promote their run and accomplishments for modern readers, and it is quite fitting that this month's selection is a band who readers in the early 2010s will remember from releasing music on Friday the 13th, a date that returns this week! Here's what you should know!

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Drayton Fever

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie/Paradise/Hulbert Township, Michigan

Genre: Thrash Metal

Lineup:

Doug Reed (Bludgeoned, Half A Man), all instruments

Audio/Video: Surviving media from Drayton Fever's run is only publically available on their label Werehold Records' YouTube channel, which features four songs that they recorded for Werehold's former Friday the 13th new music posting events in the early 2010s, as well as this clip of Doug recording "The Browning" for the Friday the 13th event in June 2014. An album called "The Longest Summer" was in pre-production at his old Half A Man bandmate Erik Rintamaki's own Hot Box Studios in Brimley, which would have had eight songs, but it was never completed as planned. A song named "Mary Kelly" was once streamable on their MySpace page as well. Here's the intended opening song for their album, "And On With The Killing"!

Info/Analysis: Active from around 2008-2014, Drayton Fever was the long gestating solo project from veteran E.U.P. metal musician Doug Reed, who signed to his Swampghas bandmate Jason Mills' now-defunct indie label Werehold Records in the latter half of their run. Updates through 2011 are largely gone thanks to MySpace's degradation, but Doug was working on "The Longest Summer" throughout the turn of the 2010s, describing the album as "a brutal collection of (my) life journeys & interests over the past 12 years in sickly brutal musical form, none of which is pretty". The album would have featured unspecified guest singers and drummers, and the songs on offer were influenced by bands like Exodus, Machine Head, Slayer, and Acid Bath. Drayton Fever only updated their Facebook page in 2012, and while they took part in Werehold's Friday the 13th new music events through June 2014, they were not involved in the series' mid-2010s installments, and likely fell inactive by 2015.

Full-on "metal" like this hasn't always been an easy sell in the E.U.P. (not that Werehold managed to release completed albums from their roster), but Drayton Fever were a solid and reliably heavy project that deserved to get bigger in this area! Doug is a talented multi-instrumentalist with a good ear for what works in thrash and groove metal on songs like "Beatnik" and "Fleshwork", and vocals were optimally deployed when used. It's a shame that Drayton Fever could never publically break through beyond one-off songs on Friday the 13th, but hopefully we haven't heard the last from Doug in some musical form or fashion!

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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! For the first time in over two years, this series will have two bands featured in the next installment, as the first randomly selected project doesn't have much in the way of public details, so a similarly slight project was picked to fill things out. As such, look for our profiles of Sault Ontario metal solo projects The Shaner and Sir Hell on or around October 10th, and for weekend concert previews on the SMS next! Thanks everyone!

R.I.P. Dennis Becker (1953-2024)

I'd like to send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of former Sykotyk Rampage bassist Dennis Becker, who passed away on Saturday at the age of 70 after a long battle with cancer. His obituary is now up on SooToday, where it notes that he is survived by his wife Sylvia, two daughters, two step-children, his dog Lily, and his brothers Rutger, Paul, and Dirk, among his other extended family members. Dennis was also predeceased by his brother Terry, a musician himself who played guitar in bands like Phlashback. While there will be no funeral, a celebration of life will take place at a later date. Donations in Dennis' name can be made to the Sault Area Hospital Foundation Cancer Care Fund by way of An Evening At Hogwarts, and arrangements are entrusted to the Northwood Funeral Home. While arguably best known to SMS readers from his long association with his brothers Paul & Dirk's band Sykotyk Rampage, he has many other credits to his name dating back to the 1970s.

Dennis was among the members of Zak's All-Stars in the 1980s, and more recently performed with local blues musician Paul DellaVedova (including on his "Born With The Blues" CD in 2012), among other projects. Modern streaming credits on Sykotyk Rampage's 70 albums often seem very generalized, so I'm not 100% sure what material Dennis (a.k.a. "E'Or") recorded on, but he was involved with the masters of the crash in their early run and their first few albums in the early-mid 2000s, likely including 2006's "E'Or - Den" (fans may want to check out "Dirty Washroom Blues" from that album in particular, as Terry Becker guested on it!). Dennis' presence was still felt in the Sykotyk camp even this year, with "Sinned" being among the protagonists (all with band members' first names reversed) on their new concept album & comic book "Waerlogas Sagas 1", which will be reviewed here later this month.

I didn't know Dennis personally, but my mom was friends with Dirk and Paul dating back to high school, and I was very aware of how close the Becker brothers were throughout the years, on and off the stage. Dennis definitely came across like a good man who loved his family, and he was a talented musician from what I have heard. Having lost my mom to cancer as well, my thoughts are absolutely with Erin, Megan, and the entire Becker clan at this difficult time, and hopefully there are lots of positive remembrances to come from those who knew him. R.I.P. Dennis!

Spades GT Updates From June-July 2024!!

Blame a busy summer schedule for the delay here, but let's take time today to look at recent-ish updates from local/Barrie crossover thrash quartet Spades GT in this post! We left off in mid-May, with the former Jack Spades spending most of the rest of the month plugging their summer concert schedule, with their first show of the season being a headlining date at The Casbah Lounge in Hamilton on June 8th. The band claimed that this was "our first time" in Hamilton, and that is surprisingly true, though they did drop out of a planned set opening for Death Perception there in July 2023. Starting with this gig, Spades GT actually welcomed a second guitarist to their live lineup, namely Matthew "Fang" Voros, who fronts the Burlington psychobilly band The House Of Haunt (Spades bassist James Roy Daley has played with this band in the past). They have not said if Matt has joined the group full time, but he played at every show of theirs in June & July.

Spades GT's next show was on June 11th in their Barrie homebase, which was allegedly the "only Barrie show we('ve) got for 2024". This show saw them and two other bands open for the legendary Dayglo Abortions at The Queens Nightclub, in a make-up date of sorts for the planned Dayglo/Spades tour run in December that was cancelled after Murray "The Cretin" Acton underwent cancer surgery. Surprisingly, videos (let alone their vertical recap videos) were not posted on the band's Facebook page from either of these dates, but they would shoot one three days after the Dayglo concert! Spades made their way to Cornwall on June 14th, where they and ex-guitarist Jay Sarrazin's metal band Hellrager opened for Montreal hardcore punk icons The Ripcordz at La Maison Tavern. The recap video (still vertical but thankfully not a "Reel") was uploaded to their Facebook page on June 18th, so what is there to see here?

This recap video is an "extended cut" running for almost five minutes, which is more than welcomed! It features Spades arriving at the venue, checking out the interior, hanging out with the guys in The Ripcordz and Hellrager, and writing out their setlists, before we see very brief footage from the concert proper, and without any live audio from the bands (this isn't shocking for these recaps, but still). The video ends with the guys praising the gig and hitting the road. I still kinda wanna see raw (and horizontal) video of full songs, especially given Matt's presence, but this was a fun and well edited highlight reel for fans, so check it out for yourselves below!

Also in the fallout of the Ripcordz show in Cornwall, drummer Tyler Reiner starred in this Facebook video from June 16th where he wished everyone a happy Father's Day, hyped up how well the Cornwall gig went (they even consider Cornwall to be a "second home"), and they plan to come back there even heavier and faster next year. He also heavily hyped Duck Tape (a young Cornwall punk band) for their encouraging opening set. Not a lot here of a directly local relevance, but you can tell that everything went well at La Maison Tavern in June, so check this clip out below!

The band next played live in Toronto on July 11th when they opened for fellow Saultite Andrew Kiteley and his Oshawa hardcore punk band Random Killing at The Dance Cave above Lee's Palace. This show also featured Ottawa punk band BALM Squad, who will make their local debut at The Stellar Door under The Distraction this Thursday when they open for Total Chaos (preview forthcoming). The Toronto concert did not get the recap video treatment, but attendee Miles LeBlanc's extensive photo album from The Dance Cave was shared by Spades GT on Facebook, and he got some excellent shots throughout the night, so don't bypass them! The following day, Spades returned to Spiderfest in Meyersburg for the first time since 2021, which will be familiar to Jack Spades-era fans, given that they made the pilgrimage there annually for a number of years while still fully based out of the Soo! The guys opened for the likes of The Ripcordz, Random Killing, and The Bunchofuckingoofs there on July 12th, and while photos were shared on Facebook, there were no videos.

Unless stuff from their June-July gigs were belatedly posted to social media in the ensuing months, that's two months caught up for Spades GT's recent activity! When we pick things back up with J.D., Daniel, James, and Tyler (and Matt?), it will be in late August after they took a month+ off from the stage, so stay tuned for all of that soon! Thanks everyone!

Northern Vibe Festival Videos From Mike Haggith & The Dirty Mystics!!

I've put this off for too long as it is, so here's coverage of public videos from two bands that played at last month's Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir! Before then, we have some promising news about the Poplardale Road festival's future, as 2024 might not have been the final installment as organizers had hinted at in advance. A poll was posted on their Facebook page on Tuesday where they were asking if supporters would attend a fundraising event featuring bands and/or DJs that would help raise money to improve the band-centric Forest Stage. They wouldn't float that idea if they weren't hoping to return in 2025, after all, so speak up there if you'd come to or perform at such an event! Now to videos from that weekend, and while we're not going in performance order here, I did want to highlight Sudbury psychedelic hard rock trio The Dirty Mystics first, as Northern Vibe IX was their first ever public concert in any location!

Yes, a non-local band made their debut in our neck of the woods, which is neat! While they have teased that "more videos & music from the show are coming soon", they definitely had their own cameras (note the plural) rolling for their set, and you can see brief multi-camera footage of their Saturday evening set below courtesy of their Facebook page. It's just 9 seconds long and overlaid by text, but it's certainly better than nothing, so give it a watch below, and hopefully some much longer videos from their Northern Vibe set turn up soon!

Perhaps aided by paid wifi being offered to attendees this year, there are a few more public videos than normal to check out from this year's Northern Vibe, and most substantially of all is a full concert video from local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith and his Big Finish Band! Before then, I should finally address their full-set video from last year's Northern Vibe Festival, which I hinted at in May when Mike posted a song from it on Facebook, but the full multi-camera livestream from Chalykoff Studios was finally uploaded to his YouTube channel at the end of that month. No word on if the interview that Mike's band recorded with Chalykoff Studios last year will ever see the light of day, but last year's full concert (shot across five cameras) is now fully available! Remember, Mike's band then featured Jacob Quarrell on bass, and only included current guitarist Elly McWatters as a backing vocalist on the last two songs.

In his first public concert after his freak knee dislocation at last year's Rotaryfest, Mike and crew played (in order) "All You Do", "Hot & Cold", covers of Gnaeus' "Lovers" & Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City", "MorningStar", "Missing" by The Din, "Love Will Light The Way", "I've Seen It Before", a cover of Bizotic's "Subway Delay", "The Nature Of The Times", and "Twist Of Fate". I won't go into great detail on the set proper (I already did last year from its single camera live-stream), but the footage here is excellently shot and edited, so kudos to Justine and crew for putting in great work to make Mike's set last year look this good! Check out Mike & The Big Finish Band's 2023 Northern Vibe set below!

Now to this year's Mike Haggith concert in Ophir, which he posted as a "delayed live-stream" on his YouTube channel on August 27th, as poor data coverage on Mike's end led to it being posted after the fact. This is a single camera video, but Chalykoff Studios was on hand once again, and multi-camera footage like last year will eventually go online when complete (though remember that last year's final copy was only posted on YouTube in May). Mike's band (now including Gnaeus' Matt Fronzi on bass) played another 11 song set, this time as the Friday night co-headliners. Interestingly, Mike did not play guitar at all at Northern Vibe, which would seem to be a huge endorsement of Elly's increasing guitar abilities! This year, Mike and crew only played original songs (not even a Din cover), and their set started with a brand new song of Mike's entitled "Brand New Day", which blended directly into his existing track "Back Away Slowly".

The 43 minutes-long set continued with "An Act Of Strength", followed by the two new original songs that debuted at Rotaryfest, namely "I Really Hope This Gets To You" and "No Love". The rest of the set was made up of existing originals, starting with "Hot & Cold" (one of just three songs carried over from Northern Vibe 2023). After introducing the band and acknowledging this being the potential final year of the festival, they played "From The 55th Parallel", "Carousel" (after Elly switched guitars), "The Nature Of The Times", "All The Best", and finally, "Twist Of Fate". Strong set for fans of Mike's substantial solo career, and this band definitely had these songs down well, including Elly in her first full set in Mike's band (she didn't play guitar on three songs at Rotaryfest). Good energy and well shot from this stationary angle, even if the multi-camera mastered footage is still to come! I did notice that Mike didn't say much between songs though.

Perhaps they were trying to cram as much as they could into a 45 minute slot, or they were behind schedule with The Golden Scoundrels waiting to close, but if you want to see Mike talk to the fans, check after "Hot & Cold" and during the end of "All The Best". If you love Mike's Thompson and Barrie-era original material, you'll definitely want to check out these lively rock renditions below, and we'll let you know when Chalykoff Studios' pro-shot multi-camera footage eventually goes live!

Yes, we will have Handsome Sandwich's new video from Northern Vibe in an upcoming post, as well as Mike Haggith's lengthy video interview from last month, so stay tuned for those and much more on the site as September continues! Thanks everyone!