Blood Opera Concert Preview, Crooked Music's Closure, And More News & Notes!!

Today's post wraps up this weekend's concert previews, explores the surprise closure of a local music store, looks at a new hard rock cover from last year, and covers some assorted recent updates, so here's what you should know on this Friday evening!

Here's the remaining hard rock concert preview for this weekend, as Toronto "dead metal/zombie glam" band Blood Opera will return to the Soo TOMORROW NIGHT when they rock Soo Blaster! For the record, this show was quietly relocated from The Queen Of Hearts Club above Shooters to Soo Blaster last month for publically unannounced reasons. Blood Opera first rocked Sault Ste. Marie in May in the afterparty to the Steel City CollectorCon, and this is basically a sequel to that event in every way, as Blood Opera are headlining the afterparty for the related Steel City NerdCon, which goes down tomorrow at the Quattro Hotel on Great Northern Road (click here for full details on the convention proper). Blood Opera's theatrical, horror movie-inspired, and very violent stage show will play very well with attendees once again, even better than in May given that this is the Halloween season!

Local hard rock quintet HeadFirst will be the local openers this time out, which will be huge for them, and if you can't make it tomorrow, they'll be rocking Reggie's tonight! Despite the gory spectacle ahead, this is an all ages event with a 9:00 PM start time, and admission is $20 online at this link or at the NerdCon proper. It'd be foolish of me to try to hype up the stage show that Blood Opera put on, so I highly recommend checking them out online if you missed the CollectorCon afterparty, and this should be a fun spectacle to cap off a busy NerdCon with! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Blood Opera live!

Next up, here's some sad news out of Sault Michigan, as local music store Crooked Music is closing at the end of the month. Owner/local musician Zac Crook made the announcement on their Facebook page on Wednesday, noting that "the benefits no longer outweigh the risks" towards keeping the store open. The costs of being a small business owner in this economy and the availability of inventory were cited as primary concerns, but Zac did thank everyone for their support and encouraged everyone to support other mom & pop businesses and locally owned music stores. For the next two weeks, all remaining store items and fixtures are on sale for 50% off during regular hours. Zac and his wife Christy had bought the former Grooves Music from Gary Hatch in 2017, moving it from 540 Ashmun Street directly across the road to 539 Ashmun in 2019, and they even expanded their repertoire to include clothing, used albums, and books.

Crooked Music serves an important purpose to musicians in the EUP, and it'll be that much harder for musicians to get equipment and lessons now (if you can't come to Sault Ontario, I think the nearest equitable stores are over an hour away). Alas, economics are a concern for many entrepreneurs and business owners, but kudos to the Crooks for keeping the store active for over seven years, and weathering the pandemic in the middle! Visit Crooked Music while you still can at 539 Ashmun Street near the Soo Theater, and our best wishes are with Zac, Christy, and family!

Let's head back to Sault Ontario for a new hard rock cover from local acoustic classic rock/country singer/guitarist Jeremy Logan Newman's Facebook page! We've mentioned Jeremy on here a few times, notably when he opened for Fort Creek at one of their original run concerts, but most of his public media doesn't point to SMS-amenable material. This is an exception, of him and veteran local guitarist/Soo's Got Talent judge Darren Robertson (who perform duo sets under the name Fog Brain) covering Ozzy Osbourne's "Mama, I'm Coming Home" at The Water Tower Pub in August of last year.  The harsh and over-exposed blue lighting is far from ideal, let alone the vertical camera angle (at least both musicians are in frame), but this is an effective rendition that lets Jeremy apply his voice in a unique way, with a tone you may not expect for this classic Ozzy ballad. 

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual for these short form story blocks, these are in alphabetical order by artist or company name:

 

• Dormant local concert promotion agency Live705 have changed their name to Algoma Underground, as per their Facebook page on September 22nd. The change was made to avoid confusion with Mike Blair's 705Live Sound Co., who I believe launched after the members of A Dire Setback started promoting as Live705, but 705Live are far more active nowadays providing sound at local concert events. Obvious AI logo for Algoma Underground aside, hopefully the rebranding is a good sign that they plan on resuming work as promoters next year!
  
• If you were curious what the etymology of new local death metal band Bardo's name was, they have clarified it on their Facebook page. The name refers to a Buddhist belief in a transitional intermediate state between death and rebirth, which is definitely a deep concept, and it'll be interesting to see what slants the Them successors' original songs so far will take in that regard! Follow Bardo above for continuing updates!
• Local southern hard rock band Fort Creek have filmed their first music video for their upcoming single "One For The Road", as per their Facebook page! Golden Scoundrels/ex-Shit Liver frontman Josh Penno filmed the video via his company Spacebag Productions, and it was shot at Jay's Piston Broke Pub, with a black & white teaser image from the shoot also posted on Facebook featuring singer Justin Grayson sitting at the bar. Good sign towards Fort Creek's return to full activity, so visit the above links vor more details on the song and video ahead!
  

 

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