With a quiet weekend for hard rock/punk concerts in the twin Saults and area, let's shift tonight's gaze to the subject of this month's album review on the SMS, namely local/Barrie crossover thrash quintet Spades GT, so what have they been up to in the past month+? On September 24th, they announced on their Facebook page that they will be back for the fourth annual Walterstock fundraiser concert at The Rockpile in Toronto on January 3rd, an event that they have not missed yet. To my knowledge, only one other band (out of 23!) on the bill of next year's Walter Froebrich memorial concert has played in Sault Ste. Marie, namely Barrie blackened death metal trio Out Of Spite, who opened for Selias (then featuring Spades drummer Tyler Reiner) at Soo Blaster in September of last year, though Spades have shared the stage with multiple other bands there. Always good to see Walterstock back, so keep it in mind if you'll be in the G.T.A. at the start of the new year!
After announcing their Orillia concert debut at the Headbang For Paws matinee concert on October 25th (a benefit for a local cat shelter there), drummer Tyler "T" Reiner starred in this new Facebook video on September 28th where he plugged their Quebec debut, when they opened for The Exploited at The Piranha Bar in Montreal on October 26th. That must have been a huge opportunity, and we'll definitely talk about it when we get there in Spades GT's timeline! Even if the show hadn't already happened, I can't embed this video here because Facebook content matched the backing song ("Wrecked" from the new album), but Tyler also plugs then-upcoming concerts of theirs in Southern Ontario, including the rest of their upcoming dates for 2025, Walterstock, and teased new merchandise and 2026 dates ahead. Good stuff that isn't entirely outdated at this point, so give it a look above! Now, let's talk about their actual concerts last month!
The former Jack Spades played six shows in October 2025, with the first coming on October 3rd when they and their friends in G.F.U. opened for Misfits tribute band The Shitfits at Camp Cataract in Niagara Falls. The Shitfits are Danzig-centric morseo than Graves, but I'm sure frontman J.D. Pearce approved regardless! This was a show put on by Sofa City Sounds, whose owner Amanda Schilz has interviewed the entire band (sans Fang) across three different remote video interviews that are linked here. As such, this was Spades GT's Niagara debut, and their usual vertical recap video from this concert was posted to Facebook five days later. Again mostly filmed by guitarist Daniel Horton, we get mingling outside and inside of the venue (did you know that G.F.U.'s frontman is running for mayor?!) before checking out raw video clips of that night's three opening bands, with Spades getting the spotlight at 2:49 for a snippet of them playing "Rise".
Alas, it's just for 24 seconds and remains a vertical video. Better this than nothing, but I'd love to see more full song uploads, let alone in landscape! We do not get footage of The Shitfits for unannounced reasons, but we do see the guys testing out a "Love Meter" before giving final thoughts on the show as a whole, plugging their gig in Windsor the following night, and checking out some of the Niagara Falls waterfront attractions, including some nighttime mini-golf and the falls proper. Fun recap that takes advantage of their first time in Niagara, so give it a watch below!
On October 4th, the guys returned to Windsor for a show at The Cherry Rock Lounge that also featured the aforementioned G.F.U. and Windsor hardcore punk band Avoid The Comment Section, featuring veteran local metal/punk guitarist Ash Richtig. Really cool to see two bands with Soo expats converge on a bill like this, even from 5+ hours away! I wish Ash would bring one of his bands home for a concert here. Despite teasing the recap video being posted the following week, it wasn't uploaded until Wednesday (as in, November 5th), well after recap videos from later concerts were posted. Why the delay, I have no idea, especially as it's much shorter than the Niagara one, but better late than never! This one starts with the guys driving to Windsor and getting A&W (does Dan prefer the chicken there?) before arriving at the venue, where bassist Sean MacNab faced off against guitarist Matthew Voros at a Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition cabinet.
I'll let you find out who won, but happy belated birthday to Sean, who celebrated at the Niagara show! We only get raw footage of Spades here (3:05 in), and while well shot, it's again vertical and only for 23 seconds this time. Matthew takes the lead when summing things up and giving shoutouts and plugs, with an Easter egg at the end with Daniel expressing his big wish for somewhere not to stop on the way back. Effective for what we get, and good to see this finally posted after over a month, so check it out at this link! I can't embed it here due to Facebook content matching the backing music added in post ("Strong" from the new album). We'll pick things up with Spades opening for The Exploited in Toronto next! Thanks everyone!
1 comment:
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