New Videos From & Prior To Recent Concerts, Plus Upcoming Event Details!!

I hope everyone had a good Easter long weekend! We're back with a full news post on this Easter Monday, including pre-concert teaser videos from a recent extreme metal show, new live footage, and leading off, new details on an upcoming charity event, so here's what you should know!

When we first covered local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225's spring concert calendar on the site last month, I noted that one announced date was a "promo party" for this year's Dragonfly Run motorcycle rally for the Algoma Regional Community Hospice, to take place at the Downtown Plaza on Saturday, May 24th. I listed it in our calendar despite the lack of information, but we can rectify that now, as a Facebook event page has been launched for the event, entitled "Hearts & Horsepower"! This pre-party will see Bone Yard take the stage at the plaza at 12:00 PM, along with a motorcycle show and on-site donations for ARCH, helping set the stage for and promote the Dragonfly Run proper in August, as it enters its tenth year, third as the Dragonfly Run, and second at The Grand Gardens. Weather permitting (covered stage for bands acknowledged), hopefully this is a great time to help get the word out for the rally!

Hearts & Horsepower has a 10:00 AM-2:00 PM timeframe, no age limit, and no cover charge, though if you want information as to how to display/enter your bike into the event, contact Bone Yard 225 and/or frontman Greg Simpson on Facebook for details. This should be a fun event for motorcycle and/or rock fans alike, and hopefully ARCH gets some much needed donations before the big event takes place later this summer, so visit the above links for more details on this Dragonfly Run pre-party!

Next up, here's some videos of two bands from Friday night's The Pit metal concert at Soo Blaster, albeit not of the actual show itself (yet). We'll start with headlining death/thrash metal trio Pillory, who posted one more rehearsal/jam session video to their Facebook page on Saturday as "a nugget for everyone until we get some edits of the show up". The video sees Robert, Blair, and Bret playing an instrumental take of their newer original song "A Drop Of Shame In An Ocean of Guilt". While filmed in the same place as their "Specimen Of Egotism" video from the 14th, this was clearly shot at night, but this new video is both better and worse visually. The lighting is cooler for a metal performance, and nicely accentuates Bret's kit, and we're not staring at Blair's back for the duration here, albeit because he's sitting for the duration. Still not ideal placement, especially as Robert doesn't step into frame of the camera at all. He's definitely there, so why not move the camera?

This song is suitably brutal and heavy for fans of Pillory's, and it does have a fittingly dark quality to it to go along with the lighting, but will we see it in their teased official video content from Soo Blaster on Friday? We should find out soon, but check out this new rehearsal clip below!

Also, here's the rest of the pre-debut hype "Reels" from local progressive/djent metal quartet Convergence's Facebook page in the lead-up to The Pit on Friday! In their pre-concert "Reel" from April 12th, things start with the guys having fun during rehearsals (including new singer Stephen Gagnon-Ruscio standing "like Elliot", a reference lost on me), before we see screenshots of band members' conversations, leading into guitarist Jake Valois acknowledging curveballs on their road to their debut gig. While they were able to run through the whole set together with vocals, band members were also falling ill so it was tough to get everyone in the same room. Jake felt good about everything by the end, though! The last two "Reels" were posted after The Pit came and went, starting with this one featuring the guys (minus Jake) rehearsing for the show on Wednesday, which is a light watch without major scoops.

The last "Reel" (which I'd embed here if I was able to embed "Reels" externally) features Convergence  hanging out at Soo Blaster in preparation for their set. Mostly very light for content but there are some brief glimpses of familiar faces not in Convergence, including a couple of split second views of Pillory's headlining set, strongly hinting that someone in or affiliated with Convergence filmed the bands proper on Friday. Drummer David Peredun did acknowledge how well ticket sales went, which is good to see! We'll have more from The Pit and/or Convergence's debut set on the SMS soon, but give these "Reels" a watch for yourselves above!

We'll close today with a brand new video from local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down's Facebook page... well, publically shared from drummer Ric Datson's personal Facebook page! This 16 minutes-long video heavily edits together bits of songs played at Jay's Piston Broke Pub over the April 4th-5th weekend (the specific day was not given), but over two dozen songs are excerpted in this montage captured at three camera angles. One is in front of the band, one is an overhead angle like previously seen in their A Flock Of Seagulls cover, and one is a drumcam video of Ric performing. He implied that filming may have been curtailed due to leaving extra camera batteries at home, so keep that in mind. Of course, I'd prefer to see full songs, but at least these are professionally edited (and horizontal) videos, and if you're curious to sample Double Down's current sets with Dan on bass, this is a good way to do it in a relatively short time!

Double Down are currently next slated to rock The Water Tower Pub on Friday, May 2nd (if they have a short notice gig or two this weekend, we'll let you know), so this video will give a taste of the diverse covers and surprise picks to hear from the Syrettes, Dan, and Ric in concert, so give it a watch for yourselves below, and stay tuned for more from their camp!

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