Before we begin this news post, just a heads up that Curtis McKenzie did not play at The Dive Gastro Pub on Saturday despite announcing the show on his Facebook page. Curt confirmed that "an accidental scheduling conflict" was to blame, but I don't know if it was on his end or the venue's (though note that The Dive never publically announced a Saturday musical act on their Facebook page). Disappointing for fans, but he will be back at The Dive before you know it, check back in our next weekend concert preview wave for proof! Now, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS and other recent assorted updates from Sault Ontario bands!
Local hard rock quartet Half Past will return to Beck's Bar for one night only on Saturday, October 11th! While we just saw them open for Napoleon at Soo Blaster earlier this month, this will be this talented veteran act's first solo headlining concert in five months, so they must have been among the local covers-leaning bands who took a summer break. It's good to see Jordan, Alain, Arthur, and Johnny back in their element as four-set headliners at a local bar, and hopefully this Thanksgiving long weekend concert is a big hit! No word yet who is playing in the Saturday matinee slot that day, Beck's will no doubt announce it on Monday the 6th, but remember that Beck's hosts DJs on Fridays. This show has a 9:00 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no announced cover charge. Should be a fun time for hard rock fans in the west end, so visit the band's Facebook page for more details on this concert!
Next up, local death/thrash metal trio Pillory will indeed release their full-length album next month via a CD release party at Soo Blaster on Saturday, October 25th! The album will be named "Old Soul" (apologies for erroneously giving its name as "Old Stone" last week), and it was recorded earlier this year at Unsalted Audio with producer Dustin Goodall. Pillory plan to release the album on major streaming services on October 27th, but concert attendees will get to buy it on CD two days early, and a vinyl pressing is also in the works. Fans will have heard the likely songs from "Old Soul" dating back to their late 2010s rebirth as a death metal act, and it will be neat to hear them fully realized, especially 12 years after their demo EP "Cringe At The Cross" came out, so come on down to Soo Blaster next month to check everything out! Support will come by way of progressive metal quartet Convergence and crossover thrash quartet Hails, so expect a very heavy night of local metal!
Admission for this presumably all ages concert will be $20 in advance through band members and at Soo Blaster "within the next week", and the door charge will jump to $25. Doors will open at 7:00 PM. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and stay tuned for more from Pillory and this album as it rolls in!
Also, we have a band to move to our inactive band links, that being skate punk trio Vanity First. We have not heard a public update from them since they headlined a free barn show just outside of Thessalon on September 21st of last year, past our one year inactivity threshold. Since then, guitarist/vocalist Mikhal Muto, drummer Keeghan McAllister, and occasional late-era guitarist Carmen Muto (Mikhal's cousin) have focused on playing in the aforementioned hardcore punk/crossover thrash band Hails, with singer/bassist Brenton Ellis in place of Vanity First frontman Andrew Beggs. Known simply as Vanity until March 2022, they debuted in 2020 and became a reasonably prominent young punk band as we emerged from the pandemic, releasing a self-titled demo in 2022 followed by their studio album "Identity Crisis" in the summer of 2024. Fans may recall seeing them open for bands like Leash, Inconsistent Me, and Rent Strike in the early 2020s, along with multiple headlining dates.
It's fairly obvious now that everyone (sans Andrew) have moved onto Hails as their primary band, after they co-existed with Vanity First for most of 2023 & 2024, and while Ha!ls are a heavier band on average, there is obviously shared DNA there. Don't bypass them if you miss Vanity First, and while I hope we haven't heard the absolute last of that project, best of luck to Andrew and Nick in their next musical outlets as well!
Finally, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:
- SooToday's Brandon Walker got a picture of local alternative/punk supergroup BookcluB's set at Outspoken Brewing's Oktoberfest street party on Saturday for this article on the event, confirming there that the band played as a quintet sans guitarist Brandon Ruch. It was already known that Brandon moved to Barrie earlier this month, but he did come home to help BookcluB open for Forever Seger, so it remains to be seen if that was his farewell with the band or if he will keep coming home for BookcluB shows when able. We'll let you know if something is said about their second guitarist slot, but hopefully the Oktoberfest set was a hit!
- In the newest video from the aforementioned Ha!ls' Facebook page on August 22nd, guitarist Carmen Muto is seen playing through their original song "All Systems Go" from their new self-titled album. I'll hold comment on the song pending that album's review next month, but Carmen shreds beyond his years in this clip, as fans will be well aware, so if you like Ha!ls' ferocious original attack, give this playthrough video a watch above! Unfortunately, Facebook content matched the studio recording that Carmen played along with in the video, so I can't embed it here.
- Online page-less metal supergroup The Sault Side Squad have quietly added The BAG frontman Spencer MacGillivray as their new lead singer, replacing Justin Pregent, as confirmed via the artist profiles on the Facebook event page for December's Broke & Hungry benefit concert at Beck's Bar. A reason for Nadj's departure wasn't announced, but remember, The Sault Side Squad don't have an online page to announce lineup changes with. I don't even know when Spencer joined, but note that The BAG haven't issued a public update since opening for Virvum in July. Hopefully all is well with Justin, but based on what I know of The S.S.S.'s setlist, Spencer will fit in with them well going forward!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
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