Before we get into today's post, just a heads up that the Adelitas Way-headlined concert at The Dreammakers Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on May 18th has been cancelled, as per Allstar Promotions' Facebook page yesterday. A reason for the cancellation was not announced, but refund details will be sent to those who purchased advance tickets. Disappointing to hear, but hopefully the bands all find their way back up to this area in due course! Now, we have some new videos and a big LOCAL CONCERT ALERT to take note of in Sault Ontario and area, so here's what you should know to kick off the month of May!
Local indie/punk quintet The Northwest will hit the road for nearby Richards Landing on St. Joseph Island as part of this year's fifth annual Go North Music Festival on Saturday, July 8th! Debuting in 2017 with a two year pandemic hiatus in the middle, this festival will return to Centennial Grounds at 1511 Richards Street (where Cornfest was) for another weekend full of live music and entertainment, including food and arts vendors, a family zone with kids activities, and on-site camping. Be sure to visit the official festival website for ongoing festival details! The Northwest will take over for the dormant Uncanny Valley as this year's local support act, with the headliners this year being Juno Award winning Toronto alt-rock trio The Monowhales in their local debut. Given their critical acclaim and rising profile on Canadian alternative radio, they are a big get, so don't bypass their set in Richards Landing in two months!
Four more touring acts will play on Saturday the 8th, including London alternative rock quartet Texas King, Guelph garage rock trio The Royal Castles (who dropped out of Go North last year following COVID exposure isolation), Toronto country/folk musician Jeremie Albino, and retro-styled Toronto rock quartet Propter Hawk, and the five bands are in that order on the website promotion with The Northwest opening, though timeslots are not out yet. No word either on if organizers will bring back the "family stage", where select bands played a second earlier set geared at families/kids elsewhere on the grounds. The shorter program on Friday, July 7th will be country-centric, and will feature Toronto honky tonk band The Holy Gamblers, Port Hope country artist Nickola Magnolia, and Kingston roots/country musician Solomon Woodland. This all ages festival has gates opening at 6:00 PM on Friday and 3:30 PM on Saturday.
Tickets are available at this link, with adults running for $71.28 (full weekend), $60.55 (Saturday only), and $28.34 (Friday only), while 13-18 year old student fees are $33.71, $28.34, and $17.61 respectively (kids 12 and under are free). VIP parking passes are also on sale. Of course, Richards Landing is 40 minutes southeast of Sault Ste. Marie, so if you want some entertaining and diverse live music, with a dash of punk, in some nice natural settings, it won't be too far of a trip! Visit the above links for more on Go North V, and stay tuned for updates!
Next up, I have forgotten about this video for far too long, namely the newest Mikey & His Uke collaborative cover! Posted to the project's YouTube channel on March 31st (apologies for the delay), this cover sees Bookclub/ex-Inner City Surfers drummer Mikey Hawdon and a remotely-filmed all-star band covering The Circle Jerks' "Live Fast, Die Young", with Mikey on guitar and (initially) ukelele once again. Joining him this time from afar are Mighty Mighty Bosstones singer/ex-Jimmy Kimmel Live announcer Dicky Barrett (who split vocals on the Rancid cover in December), his Defiant bandmate (and Smashmouth guitarist) Greg Camp, prolific session bassist Hasma Angeleno, and Tosh "The Drummer" Peterson, a rising young artist who has drummed with modern rap/pop musicians like Young Thug and The Kid LAROI. Yes, the video is in a 4:3 standard-definition aspect ratio.
The cover is really good and if you wish Dicky's gravelly voice was on something a little less ska, this will be up your alley! Nice and intense performance on all fronts, including solid camera work on Hasma's end, and Dicky singing in the back seat of a moving vehicle. Mikey performs here in a less obvious locale than in his recent videos, appearing to be some kind of industrial area with bags of insulation. Short cover but it packs a punch, so give Mikey & His Uke's newest video a watch below!
We'll close today with new videos of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck, courtesy of drummer Glen Thomas' YouTube channel! On April 22nd, the band played at a stag & doe, and despite being a private event, Glen filmed two songs there and presumably got permission to do so and upload them. The videos see Soundcheck covering Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" and, as embedded below, Blink-182's "All The Small Things", both featuring Cameron Oliver on vocals without playing guitar. I'm not sure that Blink-182 is a great fit for Cameron vocally, but the covers are well handled and the audio quality isn't bad despite the sometimes jittery camera angles. Check these out above & below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes soon, plus this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post! Thanks everyone!
I have a new news post for you guys to check out on this Family Day (Presidents Day for you Yoopers), and it includes a few new videos, information on two upcoming album releases, and leading off, a big LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for the spring, so here's what you should know!
Las Vegas alternative hard rock band Adelitas Way will return to The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino for a headlining show on Thursday, May 18th! This will be Adelitas Way's second local concert appearance, after opening for Theory of a Deadman at the same venue way back in November 2012, so this is certainly a long time coming! At the time of that show, Adelitas Way were at their commercial peak off of rock radio hits like "Criticize", "Sick", and "Collapse", plus the theme song for WWE Superstars, and while they have not matched that chart success since, they have plenty of up-tempo modern hard rock originals under their belts, so don't bypass them in three months! Support will come via fellow Las Vegas hard rock band Otherwise (who also have Billboard rock charting songs), Seattle rock & roll quartet Moon Fever, and newer Boston alt-metal band Above Snakes.
A presentation of Allstar Promotions (who put on the Theory/Adelitas Way show in 2012), this all ages event will have a 7:00 PM start time. Tickets run for $20 and $25 depending on location, but despite the poster claiming that they are now on sale, I can confirm that they are not as of this writing, either via Adelitas Way's website or Kewadin's ticket page. If you want to inquire within or try your luck in other ways, call 1-800-KEWADIN or go to the in-person box office. Despite the mid-week scheduling, this should be a fun show for modern hard rock fans, and quite an affordable one too, so visit the above links for more details on this concert!
Next up, here's the latest from St. Ignace metalcore quintet Heavy Lies The Crown, who confirmed on their Facebook page earlier this month that they are indeed working on their second full length
album! There had been teasers about them being in the studio, some more
humorous than others, but as of Tuesday, H.L.T.C. noted that instruments
were tracked & almost finished being mixed, with vocal tracking
"and a little more mixing" planned next, and "the finish line is in
sight". In the past five days, they have been posting a cryptic countdown to something via very short videos of band graphics or new images of logos and the mask of their duck mascot Iggy, but on Saturday, they gave more elaboration on the album, calling it "a whole new direction" and sees them looking to the future and not trying to win approval on mainstream radio, rather to write music that they love and that they would listen to.
Allegedly, Iggy will become "our comic book hero" (how literal that will be is up for debate), and the album will very much be a DIY effort in all aspects. Sounds to me that they're going more underground and extreme with this album, and you can sample a song from these sessions below via this teaser video for a full song to be released tomorrow (that's what the countdown was leading towards). The clip is dubbed into a scene from the anime Bocchi The Rock!, with the starring Kessuko Band now playing H.L.T.C. all of a sudden. Give it a listen below, and we'll have more from Heavy Lies The Crown (album or otherwise) soon!
Now to Sault Ontario, and if you're a friend of former Inner City Surfers/Rising Tide frontman Dustin Jones (in person and/or on Facebook), you'll have seen him reference his short term plans for his Jonesy Land solo project, but as Jonesy Land have always been devoid of a public online band page, I've only addressed what has been noted on public sources. We got such an update on Saturday, when Dustin shared a post from his personal Facebook page to both his label Tidal Records and studio Mission Control Studios' Facebook pages, confirming publically that he has been working on Jonesy Land's debut album, named "Zoom - Out". As of Saturday, its sessions were "coming to an end", with Dustin referencing how he has been a "Searcher" throughout his life looking for "all those magic moments that feel gifted to us from something bigger". The post notes that "Zoom - Out" is planned for a release in "spring 2023".
As for the image, I have no idea if it is the planned album art or not, but the square dimensions are noted. One imagines that the first three Jonesy Land singles (2021's "Sunshine Parades" and last year's "Moral Blackout" & "Ain't Dead Yet") will be included along with the other songs to be unveiled. It's great to see Dustin finally shed some public light on Jonesy Land outside of a SooToday article for the first time in quite a while, and it'll be interesting to see how varied the final product is both from musical styles and collaborators. The Tide's fourth album never got completed, so maybe this will fill the gap? Stay tuned for more from Jonesy Land soon!
We'll close today with a new video courtesy of local rap metal duo The Apocalypse Afterparty's Facebook page last month, as shared from frontman Paul Stanghetta's personal Facebook page, and it features he and Amanda playing 30 seconds worth of music at what I think is the Afroman show at Soo Blaster in October (if I'm wrong, it was the Tech N9ne show, but regardless, his upload was well afterwards). The side-stage clip doesn't have pristine audio clarity, but the Stanghettas are in fine form here and have solid energy, so give it a look below, and don't miss them at Broers Jansen in exactly one month!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
Back to the news on this Monday morning, and we have three topics to get to, including a preview for the latest major hard rock concert at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, but first, we have LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for this month from a new local band, including an awesome new charity event, so read on below for what you need to know!
New local hard rock quartet The Suicide Kings will make their live concert debut THIS WEEKEND at The Nicolet Tavern! The new band featuring Bear Hunters, Wishbone, and Limelight alumni actually announced these shows a week ago, but I hadn't gotten more confirmation about their sound then, so that explains why they're later for notice on here. According to the Facebook event page, The Suicide Kings are planning to bring back the rock, and are promising a wild time that doesn't include Lady Gaga or Gangnam Style, which alone is a positive hint! I believe their sets on Friday and Saturday will be covers-centric, but your guess is as good as mine on planned songs in their sets. No matter the case, they'll be on at 10:00 PM both nights with no announced cover charge, but both should be 19+. Check the above links for more details! I'm curious to hear how The Suicide Kings sound in their live concert debut, and hopefully they tear up The Nic on Friday & Saturday! And yes, this photo is new, it's from a recent photo shoot with Jackie Hall from Escape Photography. Very nice, click here for more from the shoot!
Also in new Suicide Kings concerts, they have apparently been added to the lineup of the Toystock charity concert event at The Canadian Nightclub on November 25th! We haven't plugged this on the actual site yet because the bands I know stuff on weren't hard rock-leaning, but The Suicide Kings announced that they were taking the 3:00 PM slot on their Facebook page yesterday. Note that organizers have yet to confirm their addition, but a band named K.I.C.K. (no idea who they are) were originally slotted for the 3:00 slot, so unless there was lineup shuffling, they're likely out. Toystock itself is an ALL AGES Christmas charity concert being put on by local musician Greg Simpson's event company Maxx Entertainment, with the aim being to raise money and encourage toy donations to Christmas Cheer. As a result, admission will be via toy, money, or canned food donations, and the Stuff-A-Bus and Santa Claus will be on site (it is a family friendly event, after all.) Plans are to make Toystock annual, but it already sounds like a fantastic event for great charitable causes, and hopefully it's a huge success!
That said, who all is playing? Saying that The Suicide Kings replaced K.I.C.K. with no other lineup changes, there will be 10 bands playing for an hour each from 12:00 PM onward, all of which are generously donating their time for the cause! The headliners are local rock trio Boxcar Junction (formerly Cleveland Steamer) at 9:00 PM, and in descending order from there, we have dance/pop cover band Cherry Crush at 8:00 PM, country quartet Bone Yard at 7:00 PM, popular rock trio Stiffler's Mom at 6:00 PM (who I believe are back full time now), a couple of bands that I have absolutely no information on at 5:00 & 4:00 PM (Griphook & Lucky 13), The Suicide Kings at 3:00 PM, Asylum at 2:00 PM (who I believe are essentially Asylum Country minus Tyson Hanes), local dance rockers Obsession at 1:00 PM, and country band Summer Thunder at 12:00 PM. Most of these bands are familiar sights at local bars and venues on the weekends, and kudos to them all for taking part in this great charitable event!
I would like to know more about Griphook & Lucky 13 for reference sake before the actual show (i.e. members, genre, etc.), so if anyone out there can identify these bands, be they new, reunited, renamed, or intentionally secretive, let me know at robertfigures@hotmail.com! Same for K.I.C.K. too, I was scratching my head on their identity as well. For more details on this ALL AGES charity event, click here! This should be an awesome event for Christmas Cheer, and here's hoping it's as big a success as is hoped! Stay tuned for updates as they roll in!
Finally for today, we have a major concert preview for TONIGHT, as three notable rock bands will descend upon The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino for the latest concert from Allstar Promotions! The headliners are British Columbia post-grunge quartet Theory of a Deadman, who have attained big success in recent years thanks to hits like "Nothing Could Come Between Us", "Bad Girlfriend", and "Lowlife", and they alone should get a solid response! Although they're not really "metal", the openers cross into the hard rock spectrum, including Las Vegas hard rockers Adelitas Way, who have quickly rose up the charts with hit singles like "Criticize", "Sick", and "The Collapse"! Catchy modern hard rock abounds with them, as it does with the concert's first band, Baltimore quintet The Charm City Devils, who are well known for recent songs like "Let's Rock N' Roll" and "Unstoppable", and they should deliver a fun Shinedown-esque set of radio hard rock themselves! Also, for you wrestling fans, you may recognize all 3 bands for contributing songs for WWE programming and events, so there might be some added familiarity!
This concert is SOLD OUT aside from some standing room only tickets, but if you want to try your luck for any that become available today, click here, visit the Kewadin box office in person, or call 1-800-KEWADIN! Yes, this is an all ages event, a 7:00 PM start time is advertised, and I'd call ahead to see if there will be a meet & greet, as they never seem to get advertised well in advance. Check the above links for more details! I'd expect this to be a hit concert by the ticket sales alone, so hopefully you guys have yours! I'm not high on Theory of a Deadman, but they have a good following and should deliver well tonight, as should the openers! Stay tuned for any possible fallout of this show as it rolls in, and for a preview, here's Adelitas Way's video for their song "Sick"!
That's probably all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes shortly, including hopefully some fallout from tonight's big show! Thanks everyone!
Hey guys, I wanted to apologize for the lack of posts and updates this week. We seem to have hit a very quiet stretch for local metal/hard rock news, and while I've had some stuff to post, it wasn't enough to fill out a full post like usual. I did want to note before we get too deep into what I did compile today that two seemingly obvious topics won't have the updates you'd expect. One is for the Buckcherry/Fuel concert at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on Monday, as I've heard extremely little fallout from it. No local news coverage, no visible YouTube videos, nothing. You'd think there'd be some coverable items from it by now, but hopefully something will pop up! Also, if you were hoping for a Roosevelt Hotel metal night tonight, I don't believe there's one, even though this is next on the recent bi-weekly schedule. No Thursday nighters at The Rosie have taken place since July 5th (J.D. Pearce-booked gigs aside) or since recent promoter Stephane Vincent moved to Toronto as expected last month (best of luck to him!), so I'm unsure what's going on. Is the series on hiatus or dead? Is Mitch Sirie bringing it back at some point? I have no idea, but if I hear anything, I'll let you guys know!
That all said, we do have some stories today, including updates to one of our monthly feature series, new videos from a new local band, and leading things off, this notable LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for this fall, so here's what you need to know!
As first announced on Monday morning on Rock 101, the next Allstar Promotions concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Kewadin Casino in Sault Michigan will go down on November 12th, and it does feature a couple hard rock bands! The headliners will be British Columbia post-grunge/alt-rock quartet Theory of a Deadman, who are bound to be well known for hits like "Bad Girlfriend", "Lowlife", and "Nothing Could Come Between Us", so they'll attract a sizeable crowd on their own in November! Though Theory of a Deadman aren't really heavy, the opening bands are definitely hard rock leaning, and they include Las Vegas hard rock quintet Adelitas Way, who are well known for mainstream rock hits like "Sick", "The Collapse", and the WWE Superstars theme "Invincible", and they have some nice energetic modern hard rock that should entertain the local audience! The concert will be opened by Baltimore hard rock quintet The Charm City Devils, who are slowly making a name on the national rock charts with songs like "Let's Rock & Roll" and their version of "A Man of Constant Sorrow", and they remind me of Shinedown at points, so I expect they'll make a solid first impression on November 12th! In fact, all three of these bands have never played locally before, which is notable in itself!
Tickets are just $28.50 for this ALL AGES show (which is a fairly good deal for this package of bands) and a 7:00 PM start time has been advertised. Seats are still available from the second row and back, so if you're interested, click here, hit the Kewadin box office in person, or call 1-800-KEWADIN! This should be an entertaining enough concert, and there's plenty of solid newer rock bands to entertain everyone in attendance! I find Theory of a Deadman to be too much of a "Nickelback-lite" group myself, but the other bands have some good material, and this show should find a good audience! Pick up your tickets A.S.A.P., and stay tuned for updates if they roll in!
We'll close this post with new videos, both relating to newly discovered local bands! In the last few days, I was alerted to this first band via YouTube postings, and they're a brand new thrash metal band from Sault Ontario named Pillory. Their lineup currently features guitarists Andres Duchesne (ex-Bear Hunters/Social Suicide) and Robert Sartini (more on him in a second) and drummer Bret Shuttleworth, and though they don't have an online page yet that I know of, they appear to be somewhat newer (but I've heard from Bret often that he's been starting or joining bands for a while now.) Robert uploaded videos of Pillory playing three original songs ("Shattered By War", "Fatal Woods", and "Onward To Death") to his YouTube channel last month, and I have to say, Pillory do show promise in these videos! We don't get a lot of straight thrash bands locally (mostly thrash/death hybrids if anything), and they have the thrash trademarks down with some fast heavy riffs and melodies, and if Pillory takes off and gets a bassist and singer, they could be a young band to watch! I've embedded the longest of these Pillory jam session videos below ("Shattered By War"), but definitely check the rest out at the above links!
And speaking of bands with Robert Sartini, this isn't the first band project he's tried to start locally. Though relatively a new sight on our coverage, he briefly led a band named Roadkill last summer alongside drummer Jarrod Sachro, and four jam session videos from their run were also uploaded to his YouTube channel! The videos include a self titled original, songs named "Speed Therapy" and "2083... E.D.I.", and a cover of Diamond Head's "Am I Evil?", so click each link to check them out! I don't know if Roadkill evolved into Pillory or were a separate band entirely, but these songs do show some thrash metal promise, though they are rougher & less complete, and the chemistry isn't as obvious. Interesting stuff though, so check out Roadkill's self titled song below, check the above links for more, and stay tuned for more from Robert's channel!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews (maybe?) and more soon! Thanks everyone!
