Before we begin this post, we have a concert cancellation to take note of, as The Raygun Cowboys are not playing at The Whisky Barrel tomorrow night due to "an artist scheduling error", as per promoters Piecing It Together Shows' Facebook page yesterday. The show is still being advertised by the Edmonton psychobilly/punk band on social media, but note that they are scheduled to play in Ottawa tonight, and did not have a show lined up afterwards until Thursday in Alberta. Hopefully all is well with The Raygun Cowboys and that they try here again on a future tour! Remember that this show was always going to have no cover charge or tickets.
Now, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS and related updates on the heavier side of things! Firstly, if you missed the all-local metal concert named The Pit at Soo Blaster on Good Friday, then you'll want to take note of its sequel, named The Upheaval, and it goes down at the same venue on Saturday, June 28th! This is a very similar show, with two returning bands both making their second local concert appearances on this night, including headlining progressive/djent metal quartet Convergence and new local hard rock quartet Maynard Hayes! No word yet on the former's teased tour run, but we can now confirm (most of) Maynard Hayes' lineup, which features singer/guitarist Damon King (ex-Infamous) and Convergence drummer David Peredun alongside guitarist Nathan Snider and a bassist who uses the handles "gabdontlike" and "gabnolike" on social media (I don't know his real/full name to my knowledge).
Maynard Hayes still have no public videos on social media, but there is some personal media out there! The third and final band at The Upheaval will be The Sault Side Squad, the online page-less (not even Instagram) metal supergroup that played three shows in mid-late 2024, most recently opening for Cross Dog in October. Good to see them back in the new year, but hopefully they get some public online material soon! Despite having one fewer band than at The Pit, this show has a $15 ticket cost and $20 door charge, $5 higher in both cases. Click here to get your tickets for this all ages show, which has a 7:00 PM start time. Another intriguing show for metalheads, so see above for more details!
Next up, here's some more extreme metal action taking place deeper into the summer, as two Swiss death metal bands will be rocking Jay's Piston Broke Pub on Sunday, July 6th! Yes, as in from Switzerland! The bands in question are Zurich progressive death metal quintet Virvum and Geneva blackened death metal band Stortregn, obviously both making their local debuts. Fans of extreme and death metal will be very interested in this show, with Virvum's technical brutality and Stortregn's more atmospheric intensity both boding well, so definitely check both groups out to prepare for this intriguing concert! Local support will come by way of metal trio The BAG, who are also opening for Sentiment Dissolve at Jay's on Monday, preview hitting the site tomorrow. I don't know if The BAG are the promoters/facilitators for the former Roosevelt Hotel's return to hosting touring extreme metal bands, but hopefully things go well both tomorrow night and in July!
This 19+ concert on Virvum's Canada Takeover tour starts at 8:00 PM and has an advance ticket cost of $15.99 at this link (I don't know if you can buy advance tickets at Jay's or via BAG members, or if admission fees will jump at the door). Just from being hosting two European metal bands alone, this show will be of note, even on a work/school night for many, so definitely visit the official Facebook event page for more on this huge death metal show!
Also today, promoters Heavy North Entertainment finally announced the local openers for the Derev-headlined concert at Soo Blaster on Friday via the new official Facebook event page on Tuesday, so what familiar faces are opening for the Toronto progressive metal band next week? One will be local hard rock quartet Sylo in their first public concert set since their Soo Blaster headlining date in August, and if you want to know more about them, bassist Alder Devries actually has launched a website for them on Wix! As such, we can finally give them a proper link here that doesn't reflect their original run as Raincourt (though their two singles from then are linked there). The site hasn't been updated to reflect new guitarist Owen Middleton joining the group yet, but if lack of content and information on Instagram has stymied you on Sylo, do check out their website! A video of Sylo is also there, so what should you know on that?
The clip sees Eli, Alder, and Jakob playing "War Times" at Soo Blaster last summer, and it has a good casual hard rock groove that will serve them well during their (summer?) return! You can watch the video at this link, but be warned that, while Sylo aren't on Facebook, this is basically a Facebook "Reel", as it's vertical, unplayable in background tabs, and unembeddable on external websites. Also, why would the filmer have shot it vertically to accentuate the crowd levels on the floor like that? Back to the Derev show, your other openers on Friday are party metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty in a rare Soo Blaster appearance opening for an actual band as opposed to a touring rapper, while prolific local folk punk/extreme metal solo artist (and new Eagles Club jam night host) Chase Wigmore will open in an increasingly rare appearance at a multi-band concert like this. Solid lineup of diverse opening local talent!
Note that, as of Tuesday, Heavy North Entertainment were openly looking for a co-headlining band for this concert (none of the three openers were labelled as such), but at press time, one had not been added. We'll let you know if they find one late! As for other specifics that this show didn't have when it was first announced, a start time of 6:30 PM is listed on the event page, and tickets run for $15 in advance at this link or $20 at the door. Nice to get some big specifics about the "mayhem" in store on Friday, so visit the above links for more on this concert, and stay tuned for more news and notes over the long weekend! Thanks everyone!
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