LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tarnished) & Most Of This Weekend's Hard Rock Concert Previews!!

It may not be the Halloween weekend quite yet, but things are sufficiently busy on the hard rock front to push this weekend's previews to two posts! As such, we'll look at Saturday's Pillory and Bone Yard 225 shows next, plus some extra upcoming show announcements. Here's what you should know to lead off this weekend, including SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!

Sault Michigan hard rock/classic metal quartet Tarnished will return to The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, Tarnished first announced these shows via their Facebook page earlier today, but they had been listed on Kewadin's entertainment page previously (there hasn't been as many hard rock bookings there in 2025, so there have been admitted lapses for checking it on my part). TOMORROW & SATURDAY's bookings are effectively the long-delayed rescheduling of their planned February concert weekend there that was cancelled due to the ransomware attack that affected all Kewadin Casinos locations. They've been to the St. Ignace branch since, but not the Soo, so it is good to see them finally get re-booked at The Rapids Lounge after eight long months! As such, these will be their first Sault Kewadin gigs in just over a year.

Of course, they're booked on a good weekend, as fans who want to keep the live music rolling after the Trixter concert on Saturday (more on that soon) can head from the theatre to the lounge, and Tarnished definitely have lots of 1980s metal in their back pocket! Alex, Josh, Chris, and Ron take the stage TOMORROW & SATURDAY at 9:00 PM with 21+ age limits and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Tarnished live!

Next up, let's head to Sault Ontario, where local classic/hard rock cover quintet Headrush will end their recent break by rocking The Esquire Club TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! This weekend's shows will be the first from the Johns, Wes, Gino, and Frank since they capped off Rotaryfest Stage 1 in July, making this a somewhat delayed summer hiatus. Last seen at The Esquire Club back in May, this talented veteran quintet have promised "tons of new and favourite tunes" this weekend, so make th pilgrimage to this popular Second Line West venue for all of the action! Note that Headrush have since announced that they'll be playing at a stag & doe in November, but generally, I don't cover stags & does on here due to their hyper-personal nature, unless explicitly marketed and promoted as a public event (like the recent Inner City Surfers reunions). Tomorrow and Saturday night's concerts are at 9:30 PM with 19+ age limits and no announced cover charges.

Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's a new video of Headrush (no space) at Rotaryfest! This video was shot by attendee Kevin Girardi and shared to their Facebook group at the time, which I apologize for missing until now. Works for preview purposes though! The 89 seconds-long video features the guys closing their set with AC/DC's "Whole Lotta Rosie" (remember, Who Made Who preceded them). What we hear is well performed, with John Anderson nailing Bon's vocal style, and the fans on the floor (well, lawn) are definitely partying it up, so give this video a look below!

Also this weekend, local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison has a double header on SATURDAY, starting with yet another Misty's Fifties matinee before playing a nightcap at The Fraternal Order Of Eagles Club! It's not overly common where Tym plays two distinct concerts on the same day, but fans in the west end and in Steelton will have double the chances to check out his stacked setlist and clear-as-day talents on vocals and guitar, so don't miss out if some acoustic classics pique your interest! These are Tym's last scheduled shows for October 2025. The busy Saturday slate begins at Misty's on Second Line West at 3:00 PM, before Tym heads off to Aerie #3991 on Wellington Street West for an 8:00 PM start time. A 19+ age limit is more likely at Misty's, and neither show has an announced cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event pages linked here for more details, and here's Tym live!

Finally for weekend concert preview post #1, we'll bookend things back in Sault Michigan at the local Kewadin Casino, where The Spirit Of 1989 Tour descends upon The Dreammakers Theater for a night of hair and glam metal classics on SATURDAY NIGHT! Fittingly taking place on the same night as The Hair Scare on Rock 101 (Scott Cook will be broadcasting live from Kewadin for this concert, as you'd expect), this concert will be headlined by the local debut of New Jersey glam metal standouts Trixter, best known for hits like "Give It To Me Good" and "Surrender". Some readers may recall seeing bassist P.J. Farley backing up Mr. Big's Eric Martin's acoustic Kewadin show in February 2020, but the full Trixter will be fun for hair metal fans! Seventeen years after the cancelled Skid Row show at Runway Park in Sault Ontario that they were to have opened, Illinois hair metal quartet Enuff Z'Nuff will finally play here as co-headliners too.

Look for classic cuts like "Mother's Eyes" and "Fly High Michelle" in their set, while Hollywood's own Pretty Boy Floyd (of "I Wanna Be With You" fame), and the more modern hair revival group Permacrush will round out this stacked bill. A 7:00 PM and all ages show, tickets remain available in the center sections from the fourth row and back ($33) and in close rows in the left/right sections plus standing room only ($25)  at this link, at the in-person box office, or at 1-800-KEWADIN. Hair metal does well at Kewadin, let alone at such an affordable rate for this amount of bands, so keep this show in mind on Saturday! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Trixter live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for our Bone Yard 225 and Pillory previews (and more) next! Thanks everyone! 

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Trixter & Woodhawk) Plus A New Sole Aggressors Concert Video!!

Here's a new news post on this rainy Wednesday evening, featuring two big LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the fall and a lengthy new concert video, so here's what you should know!

Calgary stoner hard rock quartet Woodhawk will make their long-delayed local concert debut on Wednesday, September 10th at Soo Blaster! If the name sounds familiar, it may be because this isn't the first time that Woodhawk have attempted a local booking. The former Oh!No Collective planned to host them at LopLops Lounge in April 2020, only for that show and its associated tour to be cancelled due to the first pandemic lockdown. Like then, Woodhawk are touring in support of their latest album (in this case, "Love Finds A Way"), and their classic rock-influenced brand of stoner originals with strong guitar riffs should find a welcome audience next month, even with the mid-week scheduling! After Oh!No planned for a genre hybrid lineup in 2020 (the tabbed local openers then were A Dire Setback and DJ Seith), this concert will stick closer in genre spirit, including hard rock quintet HeadF1rst in their first show since the Northern Vibe Festival.

As well, online page-less metal quintet The Sault Side Squad will play their first show of the fall as the opening band, and given their stacked lineup, you won't want to miss them! This concert begins at 7:00 PM two weeks from now with a $15 cover (up from $10 in 2020) and no announced age limit. It's still rare to see touring bands reschedule local dates cancelled back in 2020, so keep that angle in mind, let alone Woodhawk's distinct doomy hard rock attack, in two weeks' time at Soo Blaster!

Next up, if you're a fan of The Hair Scare on Saturday nights on Rock 101, how does a live version sound? I don't know if the radio show will be linked in any official capacity, but if you love hair and glam metal, you'll want to stop by The Dreammakers Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on Saturday, October 25th! Your headliners in two months are New Jersey hair metal veterans Trixter in their local debut, though bassist P.J. Farley backed up Mr. Big's Eric Martin's acoustic show here in February 2020. Fans will know Trixter from hits like "Give It to Me Good" and "One In A Million". Co-headliners here are Illinois glam metal quartet Enuff Z'Nuff in a local stop seventeen years in the making, as they were supposed to open for Skid Row in Sault Ontario at the cancelled Runway Park outdoor concert in June 2008. If only L.A. Guns had also rescheduled up here before they broke up!

Enuff Z'Nuff will be best known for classics like "New Thing" & "Fly High Michelle". Also coming to the Soo in October are two Hollywood-based glam bands, including Pretty Boy Floyd (who hit the scene with songs like "Rock and Roll (Is Gonna Set The Night On Fire)" and "I Wanna Be With You"), and the more modern hair revival band Permacrush. There's a lot of talent, glam rock, and vintage sleaze to take in from this package of bands, so don't miss out in late October! This concert will be the first in over a year from local promoters Allstar Promotions, who last brought Ratt's Stephen Pearcy to The Dreammakers Theater this past September. Tickets (including fees) run for $33 in the center section and $28 everywhere else, and there's loads of good available seats available at this link, at the in-person box office, or at 1-800-KEWADIN. This show starts at 7:00 PM and it has no advertised age limit. 

It's hard to believe that, in all of the successful hair metal shows to take place at Kewadin, none of these bands have played at Kewadin before, so if you're up for a night of old school late 1980s-early 1990s hard rock, you know where to be in two months! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details on what should be a fun night of hair metal action!

We'll close today with a topic that straddles both of the twin Saults, as the now-defunct Sault Michigan punk trio The Sole Aggressors posted a video of their set at The Distraction in Sault Ontario in January onto their YouTube channel at the time! Apologies again for the delay in their full-set videos from the past year being so late to get covered here. This was at an all-locals show headlined by Hails, and marked The Sole Aggressors' debut in Sault Ontario, one of a handful of Canadian dates of theirs this year. That was and still is very encouraging to see. In order, their all original set saw them play "Tale Of An American Hero", "Kill A Celebrity", "False Hope", "Kill Thy Neighbour", "Heil Artificiality", "Time To Commercialize!", "Reject", "Melted Plastic", "Teenage Guide", "State Of The World", "Fool", "Hypocrite", "Fast Punk For Fast Food", "Down By The Bay", and "Ventilation".

The set ended with two new songs that weren't played in prior concert videos, namely "Burning Down" and "Humans Aren't Ordinary Monkeys". The lighting in the basement on this night was very blue, so be advised of that going in, but Calvin, Brett, and Isaac are on form here with a nicely varied sound with solid lyrics and punk attitude to spare, so give this full set video a watch below, and there's two more to come!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: SYKOTYK RAMPAGE - Topic

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile! In our last monthly feature post of the summer months, we have another spotlight of a randomly selected YouTube channel whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk music/concerts. This month's selection is a YouTube Music channel for a prominent local band, if not as comprehensive as you may expect, so here's what you should know on it!

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SYKOTYK RAMPAGE - Topic (http://youtube.com/channel/UCrjvSyO3DGjK1fVMyvgT3kw)

Owner:  If anyone, Sykotyk Rampage guitarist/singer Dirk Becker, though the channel is auto-generated to facilitate the band's catalogue being available on YouTube Music

Channel Timeline: Launched on August 19th, 2022; Videos posted that day and on March 19th, 2024

Channel Summary: Four different YouTube channels exist to host parts of the back catalogue of local "blue Chinese metal crash punk" quartet Sykotyk Rampage on YouTube Music, with this particular channel hosting two albums of theirs from 2013, incidentally both part of concept chronologies. 32 songs are hosted between the two albums.

Why You Should Watch: Given how fragmented (and incomplete) Sykotyk Rampage's discography is represented on YouTube Music, this channel is really only for band completionists who regularly consume streaming music via YouTube. Their complete 70+ album discography is available on their Bandcamp page, which should be stop #1 for fans of the masters of the crash, but if you had a particular affinity for these two albums, note their YouTube presence!

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

GATES: The earlier of the two Sykotyk Rampage albums on this channel is "Yamaraja" from August 2013 (its sequel followed two years later), which notably uses one word titles for all songs on offer except the self-titled closing number. Notable for being one of their first albums with bassist Tony Briglio (joining Dirk, singer/drummer Paul Becker, and guitarist Shane Kokis), "Yamaraja" is an album that I have yet to review on the SMS (with how many Sykotyk Rampage have, who knows when I will!), but as good a place to start as any here is the opening song "Gates", which will appeal to fans of their Paul-sung crash rock originals, complete with background chanting to go along with the loose theme around Hindu gods. There's more where that came from on the full album!

Intro to Revenge: The longer and more popular album of the two here is October 2013's lengthily titled "Adventures Of Captain Awesome Sex & Chastity Boy 2: Revenge Of Professor OCD & The Crimson Nipple" (the first album in this series immediately preceded it and the third "Adventures Of..." album came out in 2014). Another concept album ("Chastity Boy" is Tony's band nickname) featuring "story" tracks peppered in between the songs, the most popular upload on this particular channel is the opener "Intro To Revenge". This one features Tony setting up the storyline for the album and where things picked up from the first album in this series. Not a song in itself beyond the backing music, the story being set up is definitely sykotyk and it'd be a fool's errand to sum it up here (especially when I don't know when I'll be reviewing Captain Awesome Sex & Chastity Boy's adventures here), but it'll start you on book #2 of this epic story!

American Dreamer: Of the actual songs on "Adventures Of Captain Awesome Sex & Chastity Boy 2", I most want to highlight "American Dreamer" for its near-7 minute length and the fact that, as of this writing, it has zero hits on YouTube. I know Sykotyk Rampage have dozens of albums to comb through, but no one has played this song there? Starting with a solid bass solo, this is a showcase for Dirk's distinctive punk snarl on lead vocals, which don't get deployed enough on their albums, and the freewheeling nature of their improvised hybrid rock attack comes through well without seeming overlong despite the length! Give this and much more a listen above!

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around September 26th for another randomly selected channel, and this time, it's via Vern03, who filmed six videos at the Heaven & Hell/Megadeth concert here in 2007! Look for that on or around September 26th, and for more news and notes on the site next! Thanks everyone!