LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Beaumont Avenue & Late Shift), Plus New Video Finds!!

Kicking off a new week at the site, let's cover some recent news and notes today, including LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the coming month, more videos from a major recent concert, and a cool punk video to share on here, so here's what you need to know!

Local hard rock cover quartet Late Shift will return to the stage THIS FRIDAY for a solo headlining gig at The Rednecks Saloon! This will likely be the first appearance by this internet page-less band at the former Nicolet Tavern, and if we haven't missed any in the interim, their first public concert appearance since playing at LopLops Lounge in May. Featuring alumni of Fingerbone, Redefined, Northwest, and The Groove Committee, you may also recognize Late Shift from the Amy Ellis benefit show at The Canadian last fall, and if that and their scattered early 2014 gigs (public & private alike) are any indication, they should have a solid cover set in store! No word on why they're not playing on Saturday though, but there might be a prior booking that day. Regardless, there's no announced cover charge, you must be 19 to attend, and there's a 10:00 PM start time in effect. For more details, visit the Facebook event page, and stay tuned for updates if we get them!

Speaking of new shows at The Rednecks Saloon, local hard rock quartet Beaumont Avenue (formerly The Suicide Kings) will return to the old Nic for a full weekend on Friday, July 25th & Saturday, July 26th! Oddly, these shows were only just announced on Friday via the new cover photo on their Facebook page, which still bears their old name as of this writing. Following their second appearance at Rotaryfest in a couple of weeks, these will be their first shows at this venue since May, so if you're up for a weekend full of hard rock originals and covers (especially as you won't see the originals at Rotaryfest), be at 304 Albert Street West on the last weekend of the month! Like this Friday's Late Shift show, expect 19+ age limits, no announced cover, and 10:00 PM start times. For more details, visit the above links, and don't miss the newly renamed Beaumont Avenue then or at Rotaryfest!

We'll close this post with new videos, including what's likely our last fallout from last month's Heart/Jason Bonham concert at The Essar Centre! As you may know, crew from SooToday and Local2 were on hand for the show, filming footage among their other articles, and some of their material made it in the newest episode of their ongoing video series Tuned with Donna Hopper, which went online on Wednesday! The main articles of the episode include Donna's interviews with Southern Ontario rockers The Weber Brothers (the first band she ever interviewed in 2006) and local folk band The Faraway Neighbours (with performance footage of each), while the concert calendar segment plugs The Archaics' show at The New American on July 15th. The last chunk devoted to more Local2 footage of the Heart show, including clips of Heart & Jason playing "Barracuda", "What About Love", and Led Zeppelin covers, some of which were seen before, but they're solid all the same! Click here for the full episode, as Local2 videos doesn't allow external embedding.

And as for embeddable videos, YouTube user hbogie123 uploaded six more videos from the show onto their YouTube channel last week, joining the 13 existing videos that we covered on here! All from the Led Zeppelin cover portion, these videos (generally incomplete again) include Heart & Jason playing "The Ocean", "Immigrant Song", "Kashmir", "The Rain Song", a 13 second clip of "The Battle of Evermore", and as embedded below, their show-stopping rendition of "Stairway To Heaven", which fans will definitely want to check out! Solid quality with a good angle as before, so give hbogie123's last videos a look above & below!

Finally for today, I wanted to slowly begin sharing some local punk videos on the site, and to reserve certain ones for our YouTube Channel Profile Series, we'll feature some from channels without a 50% majority of SMS-fitting videos on the site just to give them some solid attention! This one was originally a Shaw TV Sault Ste. Marie news piece by ex-Free Beer frontman Christian Lemay that aired on Channel 10 last January, and it's focused on the Searchmont Resort fundraiser that month at The Water Tower Inn that featured a concert set by local punk/alternative standouts Treble Charger! While largely focused on the fundraiser and it's impact on the resort from staff, the latter half of the video features footage of Treble Charger's set (their first with a full quartet lineup in the Soo since 2003), and it's nice to see clips of them in town! As I remember, this fundraiser had expensive tickets, but it was for a good cause, and it looked like a successful event! It'd have been interesting to see Greig or Bill interviewed on camera though. Check out the full report below, and see more Shaw TV pieces at their YouTube channel!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and band features this week! Thanks everyone!

More Heart Concert Fallout, A Band Breakup, And Much More!!

Before we get too deep into this post, I'll send a special good luck to the guys in AlgomA, Bad Back, The Bear Hunters, Crucify The Whore, and Shit Liver as they all rock the Touch of Death Metal & Punk Festival in Cochrane this weekend! Knock it out of the park, and make the Soo proud! Today, we have new local ties from a recent local news article, a band breakup to note, and a new interview featuring a prolific local artist, but first, here's some more fallout from a major recent hard rock show!

We'll begin with some more fallout from last weekend's Heart/Jason Bonham concert at The Essar Center, including an interview with The Sault Star's Jeffery Ougler that was published on their website (and presumably in the newspaper proper) last Wednesday! Apologies for being so late with this, I only just found the article the other day. Entitled "Straight From The Heart", the interview is with Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson, and while it's largely based around the contents of Nancy and sister/lead singer Ann Wilson's new autobiography "Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock & Roll", she does talk about the current tour and working with Jason Bonham too. Solid read, if not too focused on the local date, so read it at this link or in last week's paper (though note that you'll have to watch a 15 second advertisement for access to it online, which is new to me for Sault Star articles.) Lastly for the known Heart fallout are some new concert videos, so what should you know on them?

These are 9 new Heart videos from YouTube user hbogie123, who only had 4 up on their Youtube channel when our original post was written up (it was auto-posted during the Anciients show, and the last of these videos went up yesterday.) All incomplete, the new videos include Heart playing their originals "These Dreams", "Alone", "Magic Man" (in parts linked here & here), and "Crazy On You" (also in 2 parts, here & here), plus covers of Led Zeppelin's "The Battle of Evermore" & "Four Sticks", but embedded below is one of the longer videos, of Heart covering "No Quarter". Like before, these videos have a good quality and angle from close to the stage, so check out hbogie123's new videos above & below!



Next up, Haggith drummer & local solo musician Mike Haggith received some cool promotion the other day as the featured artist on Betty on the Go, an online music webseries from XEAYZ.TV out of his Windsor hometown. As originally streamed on Thursday evening, it's now posted to watch on YouTube, so what should you know? After introductions, host Betty Gudel and Mike talk about numerous topics in this half hour video, including his recent work towards becoming a licensed pilot & what that could mean for his music career, his songwriting inspirations, his musical beginnings & preferences, his work with Paperclip Productions and the band Haggith, among other subjects. This runs for about 20 minutes before Betty does some local advertisements (with Mike providing some running thoughts), and after a brief clip of a local summer theater camp, Mike sings his original song "This Potato May Be Used As A Flotation Device" from his newest EP "A Place Of Our Own", which you can jump straight to at this link if you're interested.

There isn't a lot in terms of breaking news for future shows & such, but Mike did elaborate on the formats of his earliest out-of-print albums, and detailed the story of how he joined what became Haggith in the interview. While I'm a little surprised that Mike didn't go into details about his Windsor-era band work with bands like S.C.A.R., this was a solid interview, and way more extensive than I'd have guessed going in! The webstream video quality is what it is, but Mike sings well at the end, and it's nice to see him get this kind of a feature, so check out the full interview below!

Also, I have deleted local hard rock duo Re-Born (formerly the original Brutaly Fatal) from our band links due to the closure of their Facebook (and only online) page in recent weeks, which was likely related to the band's recent breakup. A reason for either has not been announced, but there was a falling out between members & Blood Shed Productions co-founders Tyler Gibson & Austin McCrea after Austin and the second version of Brutaly Fatal (now The Revolution) left the label last month. Out of respect to both parties, I won't go into further details on the split, but it didn't sound amicable. The original Brutaly Fatal (which was largely Austin's solo project) were one of the launch acts for Blood Shed Productions in late 2012, releasing a handful of demo CDs and playing a few live sets through last fall. In early 2014, Tyler joined on drums, and they changed their name to Re-Born, along with drifting to hard rock & punk covers, but their activity was limited to scattered video posts & some unannounced gigs, last making an online update in February.

While their original solo death metal style was an acquired taste (and I never understood the missing L from "brutally"), Austin always had bass talent and growling ability, and if he can shore up his stage presence, he should go far with The Revolution! Re-Born might always be one of those "what if?" projects due to the minimal online media and lack of announced shows, but hopefully things aren't as bad as they appeared late last month. Tyler's also got a good thing going with his current grind projects, so look for more from both this year, and best of luck all around!

Finally for today, remember how Toronto hard rock quartet Public Animal headlined at The Rockstar Bar yesterday? Well, there were more local ties beyond The Role Models' opening set and the C'Mon show two years ago, as Public Animal drummer Ryan Gassi is actually from Sault Ste. Marie! As outlined in a new SooToday article from Donna Hopper,  Ryan drummed for notable local bands like blues rockers The Rhythm Rats and punk notables The Kite-Eating Maples before moving to Toronto, where played in bands like The Lying Cheats & Memory Bank. In the article, Ryan discussed how he was almost going to quit drumming in bands before frontman Ian Blurton asked if he wanted to join his new band Public Animal, who are heavier than Ryan's past bands. I'm not sure how I didn't connect the dots before on Ryan's local past when researching Public Animal, but it's great to see him still playing and coming back home for a show! In fact, Public Animal will be the next band profiled in our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile Series next month, so look out for that, and hopefully Public Animal come back to the Soo down the road!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news soon, plus our review of Mike Haggith's new EP by Monday! Thanks everyone!

Heart Concert Fallout, Including Videos & Local News Coverage!!

Before our review of last night's Anciients/Havok concert goes up, we have our long awaited post with fallout from Friday night's Heart & Jason Bonham concert at The Essar Centre, including articles and media from local news websites and some new concert video footage, so without any further adieu, here's what you need to know!

In terms of coverage of the show, SooToday's Donna Hopper was in attendance to photograph and review the proceedings on Saturday night, with her article on the show (entitled "Part Zeppelin, all Heart"), which she definitely praised in the write-up! It also confirmed an attendance of around 3,000 people,and detailed much of their setlist, which included numerous originals, a Paul McCartney cover, and the promised Led Zeppelin cover set. As for the photos, there are 18 nice quality shots above (though sadly, none of the audience), and they also provide the interesting sight of Jason Bonham drumming simultaneously with existing Heart drummer Ben Smith (that's something you don't see every day!) Leading from Village Media related coverage of the show, another staffer was filming video footage from the other side of the stage for Local2, and you can view their highlights video at this link, though note that we can't embed videos from their video host on here. So, what lies within this video of the concert?

The 7 minute clip includes assorted segments of Heart playing their songs "Barracuda", "Heartless", and "What About Love", before concluding with clips of them covering Led Zeppelin songs like "The Battle of Evermore" and "Four Sticks". Very nice footage, and you can see how well Ann Wilson's voice has held up over the years on their classic songs, plus the Led Zeppelin material! I did notice "Barracuda" was slowed down a bit, but other than that, all's well if you're a Heart fan! Lastly for SooToday-related Heart fallout, editorial writer Mac Headrick reviewed the show as part of a new opinion piece named "It's Only Rock and Roll" that went up on the site on Sunday. Mac said that he liked the show, but he was more inclined to attend based on the Led Zeppelin tribute aspect of it, which he tied into a comparison of major concerts today in relation to the late 1960s & early 1970s, specifically Led Zeppelin's 1971 Toronto show and the Heart gig this past Friday, both of which he attended. Very interesting read, especially from someone who's lived and experienced both eras, so give that a look at the above links, plus Village Media's other Heart coverage!

We'll close this post with videos that we can embed on the SMS, including two videos of Heart originals by attendee Cami Hubbard, who posted these to her YouTube channel on Monday! Her first hard rock concert uploads since her (sadly now deleted) videos of her son Chris' band 415E's debut show last year, she filmed Heart playing "Heaven" and (as embedded below) "Crazy On You" at the concert, plus a preceding acoustic guitar solo by Nancy Wilson, so how'd these turn out? Cami had a good angle of the stage from the left hand side of the bowl, but the video can be fuzzy when zoomed in, and the lighting distorts many details through this camera. Nice encompassing view of the stage though, and everyone sounds great, so give the "Crazy On You" video a look below, and check out "Heaven" above!



The other new videos are courtesy of attendee hbogie123, who uploaded their videos from the Heart show to their YouTube channel yesterday. Far from the first Essar Centre concert videos shot for this channel (Kiss and various others came first), hbogie123 filmed four incomplete videos from Heart's set, including their cover of Paul McCartney & Wings' "Let Me Roll It" and Heart's own songs "Dreamboat Annie", "What About Love", and (as embedded below) "Even It Up", so how do these videos compare? Far closer to the stage from the floor seating, they got a nice central angle for the Wilson sisters on this camera, and the quality is nice when not impeded by fans walking in front! I just wish hbogie123 had gotten longer clips of the songs. Check out "Even It Up" below, and see much more above!



That's all for now, but hopefully some more videos turn up, including hopefully some more from the Led Zeppelin portion of the night! Keep an eye out, and stay tuned for our Anciients/Havok concert review later today! Thanks everyone!

Sault Ontario Weekend Concert Previews (Including Heart), Plus New Videos!!

Hey guys, it's now time to kick off this weekend's metal & hard rock concert previews in the Sault area, but to give it proper emphasis and to pair it with some other Sault Michigan stories, our preview of the fourth annual LemmaFest will go up on the site tomorrow, so look for it then! Today, we have previews of a major Essar Center show and a regular acoustic attraction on the Canadian side of the border, plus new videos from two local solo artists, so read on below for what you need to know!

Seattle hard rock legends Heart will bring their classic sound to Sault Ontario for a rare hard rock headlining show at The Essar Centre TOMORROW NIGHT! Arguably the first major hard rock event to hit the arena since Kiss played here in 2010, this will be the fifth stop on Heart's Rockin' Heaven tour of Canada this month, and with memorable songs like "Barracuda", "Crazy On You", and "These Dreams" under their multi-platinum selling belts, I'd expect a great show from Ann & Nancy Wilson and company in their local debut! As well, Heart will be joined by ex-Foreigner drummer Jason Bonham (son of late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham) for a special Led Zeppelin tribute set to cap off the night, and if you saw Heart & Jason cover "Stairway to Heaven" last summer, you'll understand how good of a fit this will be on this tour! Tickets are still available for this ALL AGES show for $69.50 and for $40 in the upper back bowl of The Essar Centre (which will be in a half-arena setup), so pick them up A.S.A.P. at this link or at the in-person box office if you haven't already, and everything starts tomorrow at 8:00 PM. Check the above links for more info!

I'm very curious to hear how this show does, as it's success (plus the Brad Paisley show this fall for you country fans) could go a long way to prove the Soo's readiness for more big concerts on the Ontario side of the border. Heart have definitely held up over the years, and their songs remain memorable whether rocking out or playing a softer ballad, so if you're a fan of theirs (or of Led Zeppelin), do not miss this concert TOMORROW NIGHT! For a preview, here's Heart and Jason Bonham covering "Kashmir" last year!



Next up, Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison's ongoing weekly concert arrangement at The Harp Bar & Grill is scheduled to enter it's 29th consecutive week with solo gigs TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Though unannounced on Facebook as of yet, these shows are confirmed on Tym's website, and unlike some recent weekends, Tym will likely be playing both nights again, with his hosted jam night tomorrow and a normal acoustic solo gig on Saturday. Featuring a diverse and often heavy cover setlist (which does indeed include some Heart material), fans up for a softer and more intimate night of hard rock will want to keep this weekend's shows in mind at the former Madison's Pub, so don't bypass them if available to go! There's no announced cover charge this weekend, you must be 19 to attend, and there are 10:00 PM start times both nights. For more details, check the above links, and for a preview, here's Tym's newest original song posting via his YouTube channel on Tuesday!

This is a late Father's Day gift of sorts for his dad, as it's a song named "My Dad" about him and the impact he's left on Tym's life. Not a heavy song, but it's upbeat and melodic, and is has clear emotion & passion, which Tym has always been good at showcasing! The first original upload on his channel in 5 months, give Tym's new song a listen below, and don't miss his cover attack at The Harp this weekend!



Finally for today, here's a new video from Ashes To Dust guitarist Alex Hemy's solo YouTube channel! His first upload there in 2 months, this shakes up his usual norm by both being shot outside at night, and by featuring a guest artist, singer/keyboardist Jon Scott (who I'm not familiar with from other local music work.) Posted on Sunday, this is of their cover of Kodaline's "One Day", and while I don't know this group offhand, the cover does fit Alex's recent cover choices. The video is well shot and very well lit, and both Alex and Jon show clear talent, with Jon's singing voice showing a strength that would be nice to hear again in other projects! Check out this unique video below, and stay tuned for more from Alex's channel hopefully soon!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our LemmaFest preview and more from the Sault Michigan area TOMORROW! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Heart & Tym Morrison), Plus Some New Videos!!

Apologies for this being a day late given one of the big stories within, but let's make up lost ground! Today, we have a HUGE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for this summer,, some more new shows for this month, and some new YouTube uploads, so read on below for what you need to know!

Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison's weekly concert arrangement at The Harp Bar & Grill will continue throughout this month for another 4 installments, though not all on Friday. As recently announced on the calendar on his website, he'll return to this Pine Street pub THIS SATURDAY and next Saturday (February 8th & 15th), before returning to his normal Friday night placement on February 21st and 28th. A reason for the two week shift to Saturdays hasn't been announced, but given that it appears to be temporary, I'd assume a scheduling conflict is likely to blame. Regardless of day, Tym's entertaining acoustic metal & hard rock will be welcomed in his tenth-thirteenth weekly shows at the former Madison's Pub, and remember, all four nights double as jam/open mic nights if you're up to perform! Admission is likely free for each night this month, you must be 19 to attend, and each has start times of around 10:00 PM. Check the above links for more details, and stay tuned for more later this week!

Next up, we have a huge headlining show in June to announce, as Seattle hard rock legends Heart are coming to... The Essar Centre?! Yes, for the first time in almost 4 years (unless you count the ZZ Top show), a heavier headlining band is coming to Sault Ontario's downtown arena, and Heart should deliver a great show in the midst of their Rockin' Heaven tour of Canada when they rock the Soo on Friday, June 20th! Led by Ann & Nancy Wilson, you should be familiar with Heart from classic songs like "Barracuda", "Alone", and "Tell It Like It Is", and while their often hard rocking originals should bring in plenty of fans, this concert will be closed with a special 30 minute tribute to Led Zeppelin, where Heart will be joined by Zeppelin drummer John Bonham's son Jason Bonham (ex-Foreigner) in what I've heard is a great closer, so don't miss out on any of this action! Tickets go on sale THIS FRIDAY for between $44.50 (for upper bowl seating) and $89.50 (for the floor), but click here for full details on that front before Friday, with tickets available online at this link or at the arena box office.

This is an ALL AGES event, and an 8:00 PM start time is advertised. For more details, check the above links and SooToday's coverage of the announcement from yesterday! This is huge news (if a long time coming), and hopefully the Heart show in June is a great success to encourage some more hard rock bands to play at the arena! We got a decent amount in the early 2000s after it opened, but things have been generally quiet for too long, so hopefully this will help shift the tide! Stay tuned for updates as they roll in, and GET YOUR TICKETS ON FRIDAY!!

We'll close today with new videos, including some new YouTube song uploads by local goregrind solo project Crucify The Whore! The band led by Tyler "Ringsnaps" Gibson uploaded three videos to their label Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel earlier today, including a remastered live version of "Bunk, Shake, and Headache" and two brand new tracks named "Batch Cones" & (as embedded below) "Hallway of Auditory Hallucinations". Presumably to be featured on their upcoming full length disc "Welcome To Earth", the former is just 6 seconds long on purpose, while the latter is a full song with samples and enough grind action to satisfy existing C.T.W. fans! Note that recent indications on their Facebook page have indicated that "Welcome To Earth" will likely be delayed, which he connected to some personal reasons in a recent personal posting, but hopefully things resume before too long, as the ambition and talent are there! Check out "Hallway of Auditory Hallucinations" below, and hear more above!



Finally for today, Theatre of Night keyboardist Craig Harrison has posted a new solo performance video onto his YouTube channel! His first solo clip in 4 months, this is of an original composition named "Ida's Song", though no word yet on if this is for a Theatre of Night song or not. Heavily filtered in a similar way to some of his old band End of Existence's videos, this is a well played track, but fans of Craig's heavier Sault Michigan-area band work might not take to it the same. Check out "Ida's Song" below, and note that Theatre of Night's Facebook page said "...Almost Done..." along with pictures of recording sessions on January 30th, so are we close to a new CD release? Looks like it, but stay tuned for details!



That's all for today, but stay tuned by Thursday for this weekend's concert previews, including the first installment of Heavy Thursdays at The Rosie! Thanks everyone!