LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Viscera), The Bimbo Concert Preview, And New Mammoth Concert Videos!!

Today's news post is 100% devoted to Sault Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula, including the last of this weekend's heavier concert previews, a related LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, and some new live concert videos, so here's what you should know on this Friday afternoon!

Local hardcore punk trio Viscera will return to Pizza Hut at 225 Ashmun Street for another basement concert on Saturday, May 16th! Taking place on the Victoria Day long weekend (for passport-holding Sault Ontarian reference), this will be their second show in a two week span at the chain restaurant, but unlike tomorrow's Bimbo concert, this is more of a mixed genre event, as they'll be local support for two non-rock, including local/Detroit electronic solo project Priority Waste (check them out on Soundcloud) and Grand Rapids drone rock/shoegaze trio Scanners, both in what I believe is their local concert debut. Definitely a jump in sounds from these three acts, and Scanners' slow and repetitive music may be a particularly acquired taste for some, but even if you include Sault Ontario, how often do you get shows like this? This concert is definitely promoted by Serious Business, who aren't listed by name on the Bimbo poster, but I believe that is their doing also.

This 18+ concert takes place two weeks from tomorrow at 7:00 PM, and admission will be $15 at the door (no word on if there will be advance ticket sales). Should be an interesting night of varying styles of alternative music, so see above for more details, but what about Viscera's next concert?

Well, here's our preview of that very show, as they'll rock Pizza Hut TOMORROW NIGHT when they open for Marquette art punk duo Bimbo and Detroit electronica solo artist Nicholas "R. Solomon" Sapounas for another basement concert! This one leans more towards hard rock/punk territory, with Bimbo's siblings delivering a noise rock-inflected punk attack that delivers a full sound despite their minimalist trappings, and they should make a good impression tomorrow! R. Solomon previously headlined at Pickles in Brimley in 2024, and will be familiar recently for mixing local punk trio The Sole Aggressors' album, and he has some entertaining music for electronica and techno fans! Tomorrow's show will be Viscera's first with new bassist Chris Lovins, so welcome him in style for their hard hitting cuts from their debut EP "From Feast To Famine"! Local punk/hard rock duo About:Blank will open the proceedings, as they did for Viscera last time.

No big updates from their camp as of late, but a Facebook "Story" from their most recent at Three One Three On Ashmun in March was shared on Facebook in the past week featuring Parker and Kade (no new third member yet) playing an aggressive song, but alas, "Stories" vanish after one or two viewings and it wasn't posted on its own as a separate permanent video. Bimbo, R. Solomon, and locals hit the stage tomorrow at 7:00 PM with a $15 cover charge (same as in two weeks), and I'd assume that the 18+ age limit is the same tomorrow as well. After last fall's Permanently Pissed concert proved that Pizza Hut can sustain a local concert, hopefully this one is a hit! See above for more details, and here's Bimbo live!

Now let's move to some new videos from last month's Mammoth concert at The Dreammakers Theater at the local Kewadin Casino, and this is a good time to finally get to them before we get back into GFL Memorial Gardens concert videos on the Ontario side of the border! YouTube user Thomas (a.k.a. topdollar187) uploaded 13 videos from the show to his YouTube channel, and while most of his concert videos are from downstate, we did feature his videos from the Cheap Trick concert in St. Ignace here. Of his 13 videos, all but one are of the headliners, where you can see Wolfgang and crew playing "The End", "Don't Back Down",  "I Really Wanna", "Take A Bow", "Something New", "The Distance", "Resolve", "Happy", "Stone", "Epiphany", "The Spell", and as embedded below, their set openers "One Of A Kind" and "Another Celebration At The End Of The World" in one combined 10+ minute video.

Thomas wasn't in the closest rows, but he was in the center section and well placed to capture Mammoth, the video screen, and the silhouette effect of closer fans' heads, so it's a good view of what has to be most of the (if not the entire) set! Audio is a little muffled at points, but everyone sounds good, and Wolf can sure shred when the songs call for it, so give these Mammoth videos a watch for yourselves above & below!

Finally, Thomas also filmed openers 10 Years playing their song "Now Is The Time (Ravenous)", and no, he did not film (or at least upload) any videos from James & The Cold Gun's set. Not one of their bigger singles, but still a catchy hard rocker here that fans of the Knoxville-based quintet will easily take to, and it has similarly good quality for camera angle and vantage point, so check it out below as well!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes soon, plus this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Bimbo) & Ripcordz Concert Updates!!

Before we begin this post, I wanted to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of veteran radio host Bob Kevoian, who passed away yesterday at the age of 75 after a battle with cancer. Read more about this news at this link. Many readers will remember Bob as the long-time co-host of The Bob & Tom Show, the nationally syndicated morning zoo crew show that locals could hear on Classic Rock: The Bear throughout its 2002-2010 run on the local dial via WIHC 97.9 FM in Newberry. Long before The Bob & Tom Show began out of WFBQ in Indianapolis, Bob and Tom actually started working together much closer to here than you may think, at radio stations in Petoskey in the early 1980s. They moved to Indiana in time to debut their show in 1983, which went national in 1995. The Bob & Tom Show left the local dial when Northern Star Broadcasting took WIHC (now Strong Tower Radio) dark in February 2010 upon selling off their E.U.P. stations.

Save for a 2017-2023 spell where The Bear replaced Bob & Tom with local morning shows (it aired on sister stations then), the program has continued to air on The Bear's network, including its current tip-of-the-mitt home on WWSS 95.3 FM in Tuscarora Township, which gets fringe reception in the Soo. Bob retired from the show in 2015, but it still carries his name, and while I preferred Scott & Brian back in the day, Bob & Tom certainly had their moments, especially if you stuck with the show regularly to get their in-jokes and recurring gags. Along with Tom Griswold, Bob gave so many listeners a lot of laughs over the decades, and he will be missed. R.I.P. Bob!

Today's post otherwise mostly keeps is in the E.U.P., with a brief Sault Ontario detour, but we'll start with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for Sault Michigan, as Marquette art punk duo Bimbo will make their local debut on Saturday, May 2nd at... Pizza Hut? It's hard to be shocked about that conceit when the Ashmun Street chain restaurant hosted Permanently Pissed, Werewolf Jones, and locals in November, so why not an encore? Like then, this is expected to be in Pizza Hut's basement. Bimbo are a brother-and-sister band with noise rock influences and an minimalist yet distinct and abrasive original sound, and it will be neat to see them make their way east in two weeks! Detroit electronica musician Nicholas "R. Solomon" Sapounas will return to the Soo as well, who you may recognize as the mixer of local punk trio The Sole Aggressors' self-titled album, but he also headlined locally at Pickles Bar & Grill in Brimley in August 2024.

Nice to see an extra local connection from R. Solomon, and this will definitely be a diverse bill! Two local bands will open here, including the new local hardcore punk band Viscera, who you may recall making their local debut at Three One Three On Ashmun last month! For this concert, they will expand to a trio, as they have added Chris Lovins as their new bassist, as per their Facebook page. I don't know anything about Chris musically, but hopefully he compliments Blind Bob and Mitchell well next month! Another band who was a duo at the aforementioned Three One Three gig will round out the bill, namely punk/hard rock band About:Blank, though I don't know if Parker and Kade have found a new guitarist/bassist in time for this show. While I don't know if this Pizza Hut show is a Serious Business-promoted event, they did host the last Pizza Hut concert. This concert has a 7:00 PM start time, a $15 admission fee, and will have an 18+ age limit. 

While multi-band, originals-leaning concerts in the E.U.P. have been trending upward in the mid-2020s, this is still now the most common thing, especially compared to Sault Ontario, so come on down to Pizza Hut in two weeks to see this diverse array of musicians rock out! See above for more details!

We'll close this post in Sault Ontario with some notes relating to the previously announced Ripcordz show at Beck's Bar on Saturday, July 18th! The venue confirmed this show months ago, in arguably their biggest touring artist booking yet, but a Facebook event page with the particulars went live this week, including the openers, including Nanaimo, British Columbia pop punk quartet Danger Box, who first played here at the still-closed Distraction in May of last year. Good to see their hardcore punk-tinged original attack back in town this summer, so don't miss them! Local crossover thrash band Hails (who opened last year's Danger Box concert and were playing at The Ripcordz' Distraction show last year when the cops pulled the plug) will fittingly do the honours in July! At press time, this will be Ha!ls' first show of 2026, as well as their first gig since the departure of founding guitarist Mikhal Muto in January.

Unlike last year, this will presumably be a 19+ event, it will have a $10 cover charge, and bands start at 9:00 PM. Some fans will also have two chances to see Danger Box in July, as on the way east on tour before looping back, they'll actually be headlining a private house party concert on Thursday, July 2nd alongside local openers A.S.D.P. (fronted by Mikhal) and 5 Dollar Bribe. While a publically advertised event with an admission fee, the address is not public, so if you want to go, "ask a punk", and click here for more details! See above for more on The Ripcordz' return, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS soon! Thanks everyone!