LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Silent 9), The Selias Concert Preview, And More!!

Before we begin this otherwise all-Sault Ontario post, I wanted to apologize for a missed concert in last week's previews, as Sault Michigan hard rock quartet The Nameless headlined the Brimley Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 9023's annual Veteran's Day ATV ride this past Saturday. While the event was publically attendable, the band did not publicize it in advance, though maybe I should keep better tabs on it, as Project 906 did the honours in 2023 & 2024. I'd have happily covered it had I known or someone had said something, but hopefully The Nameless, veterans, and riders had a great time! Now, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, one more weekend preview, and more recent Sault Ontario notes!

While their public concert calendar for 2025 (the Searchmont Ski Runners holiday mixer aside) ends this weekend at The Esquire Club, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9 have announced their first few 2026 shows via their website's concert calendar, so when can you see them in the new year? Unless something is announced in the interim, their first gig of 2026 will see them headline at the Bon Soo Winter Carnival's opening ceremonies for a second straight year on Friday, February 13th! As far as I am aware, this will take place inside The Machine Shop at Mill Square once again, which is the site of their live concert debut as well, so hopefully this fan-friendly foursome delivers a strong night of covers to kick off Bon Soo 2026 in style! They'll be on at 8:00 PM with admission via a Bon Soo button, and with no announced age limit. For normal nightclub gigs, when can you see Jess, Ryan, Paul, and Steve afterwards?

As of this writing, their next solo headlining nightclub concert will be on Saturday, March 14th, when they make their debut at Beck's Bar! Kinda surprising that they haven't played there yet, but hopefully the luck of the Irish is on their side for this pre-St. Patrick's Day concert in the west end! Expect a 9:00 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no cover. We'll hold their September show for a future post given the 10 month gap, but stay tuned for more from Silent 9 when announced, and don't miss them this weekend at The Esquire Club!

Next up, here's one more SMS-amenable weekend concert preview, as Toronto melodic death metal quintet Selias will rock Soo Blaster for a third time in a fourteen month span TOMORROW NIGHT! Previously seen here in September of last year and then again in March (with Spades GT drummer Tyler Reiner in tow for the former), Selias have quickly proven to be a reliable favouite touring attraction for extreme metal fans, and their technically sound but crushing brand of original music should get a solid reception tomorrow, especially given the Saturday timing! Your local openers tomorrow include hard rock quintet HeadF1rst, online page-less metal quintet The Sault Side Squad (now featuring The BAG's Spencer MacGillivray on vocals), and party metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty in their first of two Soo Blaster shows this month, preceding the Robbie G hip-hop concert in two weeks.

Of course, The S.S.S. and HeadF1rst respectively opened one of Selias' prior local stops each, so it is neat to see them get an encore! Promoted once again by Heavy North Entertainment, this stop on Selias' Ontario Onslaught tour (in support of their new album "Killkarma") has a 7:00 PM start time, no age limit, and ticket prices of $15 at the venue or at this link.  Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Selias live!

Also today, we have an act to move to our inactive band links, namely local acoustic punk solo project Slumshine. We have not heard of a public update from them since opening for Rory Taillon at Soo Blaster in September of last year, and despite playing shows off and since returning from their last public hiatus in August 2022, they haven't updated their Facebook page in any fashion in over four years. Led by Hails frontman Brenton Ellis with his requisite pink knit ski mask and ultra personal song lyrics, Slumshine initially returned from a year+ break at the 2022 Fringe North Festival, and became regulars of the Sault Ste. Marie Museum-hosted arts & culture event for its most recent three installments, but them and the Rory Taillon show are it for public activity since. Brent has definitely been keeping busy with Ha!ls in the past year, and he has even carried over some Slumshine songs to the full band, so follow them to see what he's up to nowadays!

To close today, here's a very rare video that was posted to social media this week, and it is the only known video filmed at Woods of Ypres' recording sessions for their final album "Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light"! As you may recall, frontman David Gold and guitarist Joel Violette recorded the album at Beach Road Studios in Goderich, Ontario back in August 2011 with producer Siegfried Meier, who filmed this brief 30 second clip of David tracking drums for "Keeper Of The Ledger" and sent it to Shiver James as part of the work being done on his upcoming biography Deepest Roots: The Woods Of Ypres Story. The video had a fuzzy retro filter put on it that really hampers the video quality (it's hard to even see David behind the kit), but unless there's something in the vault from fall rehearsals, this may be the only video featuring David playing anything from "Woods V" on camera.

Kudos to Siegfried for sending this video after fourteen long years (let alone producing that classic album), and to James for posting it to the book's Facebook page! I'm glad that someone is telling David and the band's story after all these years, so follow the book's progress and the teaser postings above, and here's the video of David playing "Keeper Of The Ledger"!

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