To end the month of February, here's our first videos from Sunday night's Pop Evil-headlined concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino! There are at least two more to share in the coming days, but for now, what should you check out from this well received show? One video comes from YouTube user Annette Chandler (co-organizer of the local hydrocephalus charity walk Troy's Trail), who filmed the headlining North Muskegon hard rock quintet playing their recent hit song and set-closer "Take It All" on Sunday. Filmed at an angle to the left of the stage, the band sounds solid, and singer Leigh Kakaty has good energy, but the strobe flashing can be distracting. Still, the crowd is amped up to wrap up their set, as you'd expect, and you can see for yourself below!
The rest of today's videos come from prolific local concert filmer Christopher Paci's YouTube channel, and he kept up his awesome work by filming 13 videos on Sunday night, and as far as I can tell, is the only YouTube user so far to post videos of the opening bands! We'll get to them in a second, but first, 10 of the 13 are of Pop Evil, as Chris filmed them playing their songs "Torn To Pieces", "Boss' Daughter", "Divide", "Deal With The Devil", "Monster You Made", "If Only For Now", and "Hero", as well as encore songs "Footsteps" & "Take It All", and as embedded below, their opening song "Trenches". Chris' camera can be jittery at times, but he gets a good zoom on the band in action, and the audio's clearer than some of his Kewadin concerts that he's filmed! These are arguably the best videos from the show that I've seen yet, and for sheer amount, you can't ignore these modern hard rock hits, so check them out above & below, and kudos to Chris again for all of his work!
As for the openers, Chris filmed two videos of Los Angeles hard rock
quartet Badflower, including their songs "White Noise" and, as embedded below, "Animal". Not a bad band, an I like the bluesy, classic rock spin that they put on their music without abandoning a modern style, while the camera work is slightly steadier overall. Give Chris' Badlower clips as well!
Finally for today, Chris filmed Detroit modern rockers Kaleido playing their song "Unbreakable", which was seemingly their set opener. Good energy on this performance, which has an upbeat but still edgy sound, and isn't as poppy as some of their other originals, and hopefully they left a good impression on relatively late notice! Give Kaleido a deserved look below, and hopefully more videos turn up of the openers!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more Pop Evil videos, news, concert previews, and more next month! Thanks everyone
Well, this post should have been up way before now, but I had a massive blonde moment. In recent days, you may have seen me reference TONIGHT'S Pop Evil concert as taking place on Tuesday, and that's just absent-minded on my part. I got this show mixed up with May's Alter Bridge show at the Soo Kewadin from the same promoters, as that show is on Tuesday. Huge apologies for the mix-up (and thanks to Chris Paci for alerting me to my error), so here's our delayed (though not late) preview of TONIGHT'S huge Sault Michigan concert, plus some big updates from two Sault Ontario bands!
The long anticipated return of North Muskegon, Michigan hard rock quintet Pop Evil will go down TONIGHT at The Dreammaler's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino! Apologies again for the lateness of this preview, there's no excuses for the day mix-up. Making their (at least) fourth local concert appearance, and first since August 2013's Jessica Jorgensen benefit show, this hard hitting band has became a staple of rock radio in the past few years, charting #1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock charts four times since with hits like "Trenches" & "Deal With The Devil". This should be Pop Evil's biggest show yet in the Soo, so don't miss out tonight if you're still able to get tickets! Note that this will also be Pop Evil's first local gig with new drummer Hayley Cramer since replacing Joshua Marunde last year. Openers will include Los Angeles hard rock
quartet Badflower, whose old school-flavoured originals should fit right in tonight, while female-fronted Detroit hard rock quintet Kaleido (replacing Ohio rockers Red Sun Rising) will kick the night off.
Kaleido's high energy, pop-infused modern rock will set the tone well to start this show, so don't miss out on them either! Promoted by Allstar Promotions (in their first concert since 2015), there are still a couple dozen tickets available in the outside sections, plus standing room only seating, so you can get hooked up on short notice at this link, at 1-800-KEWADIN,
or at the in-person box office, and yes, tickets are still a great deal at just $23.50. This should be a huge show once again, especially given Pop Evil's fast rise in the mid-2010s, so don't miss out TONIGHT, apologies again for the lateness of our preview, stay tuned for fallout, and here's Pop Evil live in the Soo in 2013!
Next up, here's the latest from Sault Ontario classic metal band Project 421, as guitarist Blair Burch posted their first update since the departure of Curtis McKenzie onto their Facebook page
on Wednesday. In the post, he notes that Curt's departure last fall
"was building for months prior", though he still doesn't know everything
that happened that night, and doesn't want to sort out the full details
at this point, Afterwards, the band took the holidays off, started
slowly getting back into place last month, and resumed full jams this
month. For now, Blair will resume lead vocal duties with Project 421 (as
he previously did upon their debut and after Curt's first departure),
but the band does hope to find a new full-time lead singer. Musically,
Project 421 are planning to drop glam and hair metal material and
replace that with thrash and speed metal, in an effort to bring back
"the attitude" and give Blair songs he can sing more effectively, while
some older originals may be reworked to that end.
As
for as return to the stage, a date isn't set yet, but Blair assures us
"that we aren't going anywhere", and will be back with a fresh feel
"before too much longer". It's great to see that Project 421 are pushing
onward, especially after the ugly reports that followed their intended
last show in November and the related dissolution of sister band
Eclipse, and hopefully Project 421 can return in full force later this
year, as they've been missed over the winter! Read Blair's full
statement at the above links!
Finally for today, here's the latest from local alternative/hard rock trio The Din, starting with opener clarification for their Gore Street Cafe/Fishbowl Festival concert on March 10th (one week from Friday), as Stereo North frontman Andrew Pucci has been confirmed to kick off this show! Our source is the official Facebook event page in recent days. Though the wait continues for Stereo North's return from hiatus, Andrew is a solid choice to open, and he's developing more & more of a profile for his acoustic solo music, so don't be late on the 10th! Note that Mike Mikus and Jackson Reed were once advertised to open, but they either had to cancel, or moved their Fishbowl Festival involvement to this weekend's garage show. Also, The Din have entered this year's CBC Music Searchlight competition to find the best up & coming Canadian musicians, and if you recall how well Northwest did in Searchlight, then the sky's the limit for them!
You can vote for them at this link, and their chosen song to stream there is "Alleyways & Apartments". The Din are one of 24 Northern Ontario entries this year, and as far as I can tell, the only other local band competing is folk rock outfit Tea With Lincoln, who have since relocated to Southern Ontario, but are competing in their home district for Searchlight, so consider shooting them a vote also! First round voting actually ends tomorrow afternoon, so good luck to both bands in making the regional finals! Lastly, in continuing with their teased abundance of videos from last month's headlining gig at LopLops Lounge, two more videos from that show have been posted their YouTube channel in the past week! These feature Mike, Tammy, and Brandan playing their originals "Alleyways & Apartments", and as embedded below, "Up In The Air".
The quality here is no different from their prior videos from this show, given that these are from the same camera, but the capture The Din in solid form from this recent concert, so give them and more a look above & below, and cast your Searchlight votes before it's too late!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for our YouTube Channel Profiles next, and apologies again for the Pop Evil preview delay! Thanks everyone!
As promised, here's this weekend's concert previews for the Sault Michigan area, with a huge returning hair metal legend to cap things off, but let's begin with a huge LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, our first of 2017, in fact!
North Muskegon, Michigan hard rock quintet Pop Evil will return to Sault Michigan for a headlining concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault's Kewadin Casino on Sunday, February 26th! Since we last saw Pop Evil at the Jessica Jorgensen benefit concert in August 2013, they have became a rock radio staple with four #1 singles on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts, including "Footsteps" and "Torn to Pieces", so the interest and crowd levels should be even bigger than ever for their return after 3½ years! Notably, this will also mark their first local concert appearance since Hayley Cramer replaced Joshua "Chachi Riot" Marunde on drums. Akron, Ohio hard rock quintet Red Sun Rising (of the #1 rock hit songs "Emotionless" and "The Otherside") will open in their local debut, and they should be a nice compliment for fans of modern hard rock! Leading off in February are Los Angeles hard rock quartet Badflower, whose classic-tinged hard rock should find a good audience as well, so be sure to check them out as well in advance of the show!
Allstar Promotions will return after a lengthy hiatus to promote this concert, their first since Theory of a Deadman last year, and it's great to see Dave & company back at it! Tickets for this ALL AGES show are just $23.50, and they are now on sale at this link, at 1-800-KEWADIN, or at the in-person box office, while the show itself is advertised to begin at 7:00 PM. It's awesome to see Pop Evil back in the Soo for their fourth headlining appearance (they also played at Kewadin Casino in 2010 and The Satisfied Frog prior to that), and they're as big as they've ever been, so see the above links A.S.A.P. to get your tickets for February 26th, and stay tuned for updates!
Next up, let's tackle this weekend's concert previews, starting with the return of Kinross classic/hard rock trio Banned to The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Continuing their fall string of concerts at Kewadin branches, this will be their first St. Ignace weekend in two months, and the shows come fresh off of their Halloween weekend appearances in Manistique. Alex, Don, and Wayne should be in their usual solid form with their return to the E.U.P. this weekend, so if you're in the area, definitely consider a trip to see Banned's varied and often-heavy sets! There's no announced cover charges for these 21+ shows, which have 9:00 PM start times. Check the above links for more details, and here's Banned live!
Also, let's head north back to Sault Michigan, where local classic/hard rock cover quartet Highway 63 are advertised to rock The Rapids Lounge at the Soo's Kewadin Casino TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT themselves! Returning to one of the sites of their regular monthly concert weekends after a rare non-Kewadin show at the American Legion for Halloween, these will surprisingly be their only concerts of November 2016, as Highway 63 weren't advertised to play at The Northern Pines Lounge this month. As a result, fans won't want to miss this veteran quartet's solid blend of covers this weekend, so don't miss out tonight and/or tomorrow, especially for some post-Bret Michaels rock action tomorrow! As usual for Highway 63's local concerts (and like Banned's St. Ignace shows this weekend), these are 21+ events with no announced cover and 9:00 PM start times. See above for more details, and here's Highway 63 live!
Finally for this weekend, Poison frontman Bret Michaels will make his sixth local concert appearance when he headlines at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! Last seen there over two years ago, Bret is bringing his "The Party Stops Now Tour" back to the Soo this weekend for what should be a huge show for fans of both Poison's hair metal classics and his more recent country-tinged solo material, with the show itself also serving as the "mega pre-party" before Kewadin's 31st anniversary celebrations. We haven't seen a major hard rock show at The Dreammaker's Theater since Theory of a Deadman last summer (Europe last spring for hair metal), so it's great to see the hard rock drought end at last! This concert will also see funds going to Bret's Life Rocks Foundation's charity drives and local charities, with merchandise sales at the show also including vintage memorabilia for the cause, so keep all of that in mind also!
Tickets are still available from the third row and back for this concert, and they go for $48.50 (general admission), $58.50 ("gold" seating in the first six rows in the outside sections), and $250 for VIP admission in the center's first 5 rows, backstage passes, and a meet & greet with Bret himself. You can get tickets at this link, 1-800-KEWADIN, and at the in-person box office, so get yours A.S.A.P. to ensure a good seat! Bret's always been a reliable draw and fan favourite for his numerous Sault Ste. Marie stops, and this weekend's show should be a big hit for Hair Scare loyalists and more, so see above for full details, and here's Bret live in the Soo in 2014!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for some overdue news and notes next! Thanks everyone!
