Apocalypse: The Musical Review!!

Tonight, we have our fourth post in two days, and it's my review of last night's Apocalypse: The Musical at The Canadian Nightclub! Of course, check out this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post from this morning below this review. Last night was devoted to just tribute bands, none of which are complete regular bands in the local scene in the forms we saw last night, so things were fairly unique for this medium-attended show, but at least there was a good contingent of fans on the floor for the bands! That said, how'd the bands do last night?

After a bit of a delay, the opening band was the one-off Motley Crue tribute band Loud Lazer (replacing Late & Loud and the Metallica-covering Pillory), who were essentially the full lineup of Lazer Queen, just with Benn Garside trading the keyboard for the bass, hence the direct link to Late & Loud. Their set saw them cover 8 Motley Crue classics from their heyday (including "Dr. Feelgood", "Looks That Kill", and "Kickstart My Heart"), and though there were some self-deprecating jabs at how they sounded, the guys did alright! It was a good move having Kate Drew handle lead vocals, as she has a good voice that fits Vince Neil material much closer than the guys in Late & Loud would have had they played. They all generally looked the part and showed some good energy and enthusiasm, with guitarist Jonathan Tiberi even hitting the floor for some guitar action with the crowd! The members and music fit well and gave a good Crue vibe, but Jon and Benn's backing vocals were hit and miss, only fully fitting the songs when they did gang shouting.

Overall, solid set from Loud Lazer, and if you like what you heard, go see Lazer Queen in full for a more varied night of rock covers! I'm a bit surprised that the full Lazer Queen didn't play, as normal bassist Josh Hatherley was in attendance, but given that Motley Crue don't generally use keyboards, I don't know how it'd gel if Benn played them last night rather than bass.

The middle band last night was Misfits tribute quartet The Fiend Brigade (a.k.a. T-Rex Manning with Rick White on drums in lieu of Daniel MacDonald), and they pushed out 11 Misfits covers for a nicely receptive audience! Including covers of Frightlight/T-Rex Manning favourites like "Helena" & "Halloween", they also covered songs like "Hybrid Moments" & "She", and even capped off with the T-Rex Manning original "She Banged The Mayor" for good measure! Though frontman/promoter J.D. Pearce took many shots at how they didn't practice the songs, they still sounded pretty good (with all the past covers and inspirations from them, how could they sound bad?), and his vocals held up well along with the other members' musical contributions! Tiffany Stocco shone on guitar, and Bill Bennett's bass work also help up nicely! The guys even welcomed a few guest performers on some songs, including Frightlight alums Kevin Powe & Jeff DeRose on guitar & drums, and a guest singer whose name I didn't place.

The Fiend Brigade put in a fun set of Misfits classics, and it was good to see the Frightlight body parts on stage again, especially with Frightlight's recent absence!  These guys know their Misfits and do justice to them each time out, and hopefully we'll see J.D. and company back soon, no matter what name they're under!

Headlining last night were Welland doom metal trio Xanadu in their first ever local appearance (though we're very familiar with frontman Jon Tiberi), and they covered early Black Sabbath classics for their set last night! Just the first four albums got attention, including Sabbath hits like "N.I.B.", "Children of the Grave", and "Iron Man", and despite the occasional tick (and a microphone issue at one point), they got the crowd's attention with these early metal classics! The big problem with their set was Jon's singing, as his voice was very hoarse and scratchy, which made him almost inaudible during much of their set, and when covering Ozzy Osbourne, singing clearly would help a lot. Musically though, the guys put in a very energetic and fun effort, with Mike Agostini in constant motion with some very solid riffs, and Scott Brady's drumming was on form and technical when need be! Jon's dark wizard-esque costume was cool as well, it helped set a good introductory mood, and by nid-set, the fans were very vocal and active!

I'd like to see Xanadu play locally again, as they have the talent and spark dating back to the old Welland days, so hopefully they'll come together next year in the Soo! If they do, hopefully Jon's voice will be back to normal, and maybe we'll get some Sabbath covers from the 1980s? It'd be cool to see a band cover "Zero The Hero" here, but that's just me.

Great concert overall, and while there were some hit & miss elements, there was a little something for everyone musically, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the performers! I did get plenty of photos, so click here to check them out (or visit our Facebook page), and for videos, here's Loud Lazer covering Motley Crue's "Shout At The Devil", The Fiend Brigade covering The Misfits' "Angelfuck", and Xanadu covering Black Sabbath's "Snowblind"!







That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news shortly! Thanks everyone!

This Weekend's Sault Ontario Metal/Hard Rock Concert Previews!!

Let's wind down this relatively slow month of February with one last post, as we have a busy weekend of metal and hard rock shows in the Twin Saults to preview today! I'm gonna move the lone Sault Michigan previews (Nudge's latest local concert weekend) to tomorrow's news post to spread everything out better, so as a result, we'll focus on three notable concerts from today through Saturday in Sault Ontario. Without any further adieu, here's what you need to know for your weekend concert plans as we close up one month and enter another! (Updated at 5:47 PM)

We start TONIGHT at The Rockstar Bar, where Hamilton hard rock quartet 40 Sons will make their long awaited return to Sault Ontario! Last seen here at the old Coch's Corner in late 2009 & early 2010, this band is sure to be familiar from both their first local stops and from a long successful run in Southern Ontario, opening for numerous major artists, and even seeing their song "Hurricane" used at the UFC 152 pre-show! It'll be good to see their unique blend of modern hard rock back in the Soo after a 3 year absence, and thank local concert promoter J.D. Pearce for bringing them back! Uniquely for The Rockstar Bar, there will be NO COVER tonight, but there is still a 19+ age limit for this 9:00 PM event. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be a solidly entertaining concert for you hard rock fans, so don't miss out! The vocals are unique for the genre, but the music is reliable, often heavy, and very catchy, so head to The Rockstar Bar TONIGHT for 40 Sons! For a preview, here's the video for their single "Hurricane"!



Keeping in the vein of J.D.-promoted concerts, a somewhat unique show hits The Canadian Nightclub tomorrow night to help kick off March, as Apocalypse: The Musical brings 3 tribute bands to the local concert stage! Similar in theme to last January's Merves/Frightlight gig at The Canadian, all three bands tonight feature local musicians playing tribute sets of one major artist's material, including a headlining out of town band featuring a local frontman, and this time around, the headliners are Welland doom metal trio Xanadu! Playing their first gig in over 4 years (I think), Xanadu features prolific local metal musician Jonathan Tiberi on vocals & bass alongside his old bandmates Mike D'Agostini on guitar & Scott Brady on drums, and for the occasion, they'll cover a set full of Black Sabbath classics for their Sault Ste. Marie debut! The Facebook videos that I've seen of Xanadu show a promising metal sound, but who knows how they'll do tomorrow after such a long break? I'm very curious to find out though! Also on board for tomorrow night is Misfits tribute band The Fiend Brigade, who are essentially T-Rex Manning (J.D. Pearce, Tiffany Stocco, and Bill Bennett) alongside J.D.'s Frightlight bandmate Rick White (not the previously announced Frank McCormick) on drums in place of the relocated Daniel MacDonald.

Whether this is officially the new T-Rex Manning lineup or just a one-off tribute set is yet to be determined, but the guys (and girl) do have the chops to do justice to The Misfits, and I'd expect another fun set of covers from them tomorrow night! The opening band was originally slated to be local thrash band Pillory (covering Metallica), and then the returning Late & Loud, but with both dropping out for various reasons, we instead get the one-off tribute band Loud Lazer, who will be covering Motley Crue classics as Late & Loud had intended! The name implies a combination of Late & Loud (via guitarist Jon Tiberi & bassist Benn Garside) and local rock quintet Lazer Queen (via frontwoman Kate Drew & Pillory drummer Bret Shuttleworth), but the complete band is almost a full Lazer Queen lineup, just with Benn on bass instead of the absent Josh Hatherley. This lineup has a lot of chemistry already, and the four members are all quite talented, so I'd expect them to knock out some solid Crue classics tomorrow night!

Apocalypse: The Musical has a $5 cover charge and a 19+ age limit, and everything starts at 10:00 PM tomorrow night. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! I'll definitely be there for this local tribute metal/punk extravaganza, and hopefully many of you guys will roll in for all of the action! For a preview, as Xanadu have no embeddable YouTube videos, here's The Fiend Brigade (more or less) covering The Misfits' "Bullet" at the Humane Society Battle of the Bands last year!

Finally for the Sault Ontario metal/hard rock shows this weekend, Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison will return to The Road House Bar & Grill on Trunk Road tomorrow night, in his latest of many recent gigs at the East End venue! As always, these shows will see Tym covering tons of unplugged version of metal, hard rock, and classic rock hits, and he knows tons of them, so there's a little something for everyone at every Tym Morrison solo gig! This latest solo date will of course be tomorrow at 10:00 PM, with a likely 19+ age limit in place, and no announced cover charge. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! If you're up for something a little more reserved and intimate than the norm, why not take a trip to The Road House on Trunk for some unplugged metal covers tomorrow night? For a preview, here's Tym covering Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" at Bossy's!



That's all for today, but stay tuned tomorrow for the Nudge concert previews, a new local band and label, and more! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Caveman Morrison & Annex Theory), A Band Looking To Play Here, And Much More!!

It seems like forever since we've had a real news post on here! Monthly features and video-centric posts aside, we haven't really touched on news on the site since Thursday the 24th, so it's good to end this drier spell with some news and notes on this Wednesday morning! Today, we have updates to one of our monthly feature posts, assorted recent news, and a band looking to play here, but first, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for a West End venue next month that should intrigue many of you guys, so here's what you need to know!

Sault Ontario classic metal trio Caveman Morrison will finally make their first live concert appearances of 2013 (and their first in over 2 months) next weekend at The Roosevelt Hotel! The band had originally been scheduled to play at The Rosie three weeks ago in the first weekend of the new year, but the shows were suddenly cancelled the night of the Friday gig, so it's great to see Tym, Dutch, and Johnny back at the Korah Road venue next weekend! Announced this past Saturday, Caveman Morrison's shows on February 8th & 9th should be 19+ affairs with no cover charge and 10:00 PM start times. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! It's great to see Caveman Morrison back at it next weekend, and hopefully Tym and company deliver a great night of metal and hard rock covers to their fans at The Rosie to kick off the year next weekend! Stay tuned for any updates if they come in, but note that this is just the start of a busy month at The Rosie for Caveman Morrison drummer Johnny Belanger, which we'll know more about below!

The other new show is a very promising extreme metal show on February 21st at The Rosie featuring two returning local metal bands along with headlining Winnipeg progressive death metal sextet Annex Theory! Last seen in the Soo opening for Laika at the 30th Roosevelt Hotel metal night in August 2011, this fast rising band featuring ex-Quo Vadis frontman Trevor Birnie should be raring to go with their technical and original take on the genre, so don't miss their return after a year and a half! The opening bands will sure be welcomed back by many local metalheads, as melodic death metal quintet The Bear Hunters & grimecore trio Shit Liver will finally return to the live local stage! Though they both played live in Sudbury in December, neither has been seen at a public concert in the Sault area since the summer, with The Bear Hunters last seen at the F.A.T.I.L. Requiem in Laird in August, and Shit Liver (who opened for Annex Theory at the 2011 show) having last played a public local set at the 46th Rosie metal night in June, so it's certainly been a long time coming for both! Plus, it's no major secret that both bands have been working on studio material in the past year, so that has to bode well for their setlists!

This concert is being promoted by Frightlight/T-Rex Manning singer J.D. Pearce, and with this lineup, isn't it fitting that it's taking place on a Thursday? Though not a revival of the dormant Rosie metal night series, it marks J.D.'s fourth Thursday night show at the Rosie in the past 9 months, so it's definitely familiar ground! There will be a 19+ age limit and $3 cover charge for this 9:00 PM show, and click here for more details! This should be an awesome concert, and likely very overdue for many a metalhead, so don't miss this metal onslaught on February 21st, and stay tuned for any potential updates!

Speaking of upcoming live dates, here's a show that could use a promoter, and this could be a big opportunity! Earlier this month, I got an e-mail from Apocalyspe Productions out of Montreal concerning possibly bringing Russian folk metal band Arkona to Sault Ontario this year, as unlike most of the other bands he promotes, this will be a cross-Canada tour. A preferred date wasn't given, but he's looking for metal promoters in the Soo who can help secure a date for Arkona here. Though not really common, Sault Ontario has hosted European metal bands in the past (i.e. Heaven & Hell, Behemoth, Napalm Death), so this isn't completely out of the realm of possibility, but can you help? Arkona are a well regarded metal band in Russia, and their female fronted blend of folk and doom metal with Pagan influences is very interesting, so if you can help promote or book Arkona in Sault Ontario this year, message here for any extra information, and check the above links for more information!

Next up, here's three assorted shorter stories relating to some of the above bands and personalities, so as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band or promoter name:

• If you were curious as to the identity of the Misfits tribute band The Fiend Brigade that are playing the all tribute-band concert at The Canadian Nightclub on March 1st, then I can confirm that they are essentially local metal/punk band T-Rex Manning with Francis McCormick on drums in place of Daniel MacDonald, who moved out west last year, though no word yet on if Frank's fully in T-Rex Manning too. Thanks to frontman J.D. Pearce for the confirmation!
• The aforementioned J.D. Pearce has started a Facebook group named "Johnny Pints Presents..." to promote and get the word out on concerts that he books, which is a great idea to keep everything in one place for reliable announcements! Join the group above, and it's now in our Other Sault Ontario Metal Links section on your left!
• In a Facebook page posting on Saturday, Shit Liver alluded to their show at The Rosie on the 21st, while also hinting that their debut album could be done by then (but there's no guarantees), and they already have ideas in mind for a second album. Believe it or not, I think this is their first ever acknowledgement on band pages that they're working on studio material, but it's great to hear something finally, and hopefully 2013 is Shit Liver's biggest year yet!

Finally for this post, here's the rest of our recent updates to our Battle of the Bands Rewind profiles from last year! In our profile of the Kiss Battle of the Bands, I restored a photo, updated the band aftermath section to reflect finalists Wishbone's breakup & Stiffler's Mom's reunion, and added a link for Crank Sound Distribution, who provided sound each night. In terms of that profile's section on later bands with battle alumni, I replaced Big Wheel & The Spokes, High Road, March Into Regression, and That's Chester with 415E, Bone Yard, Giwakwa, and Pocketful of Scoundrel to better reflect newer & more recently active bands. On the Sault College Battle of the Bands profile, I added newer folk band The Soft Shoe Shufflers (featuring 2/3rds of battle winners' Blackwater) to that same section on newer band with battle alumni. Finally, I edited the Downtown Showdown profile to reflect competitors' SBD's now inactive status, while adding Giwakwa & Sykotyk Rampage to the same newer bands section. That's it for that batch of updates, and stay tuned shortly for more updates to another of our monthly feature post series!

That might be all for today, but stay tuned for more news as it trickles in (maybe not until we preview this weekend's metal concerts), and of course, our review of Destroilet's new CD! Thanks everyone!

Concert Lineup Additions, What You Don't Know About Concert Photography, And New Videos!!

I've got some more news and notes for this cooler Wednesday afternoon, so here's what's on tap! Today, we have new videos from a pair of talented local guitarists, an interesing article on the truths of major concert photography from a prominent local journalist, and some new bands on a pair of summer all ages shows, so read on below for these latest stories!

Let's start with lineup additions to two upcoming all ages concerts with metal bands at The Oddfellows Hall this summer! First, a new out of town band has been added to the June 20th Weak Ends-headlined punk/metal show, and they are the Regina garage/punk quartet The Royal Red Brigade! Promoter/Bear Hunters guitarist Mitch Sirie quietly added them to the lineup on the Facebook event page this afternoon. The Royal Red Brigade have a fairly unique blend of genres while still unleashing some solid punk riffs and aggression, and make sure to not miss them on June 20th as part of a two pronged Saskatchewan punk onslaught! Nothing else new is out yet, so tickets aren't yet on sale, but I'll keep you guys posted on this show (also featuring Frightlight & Redundant) as news comes in! The other new band on an upcoming all ages Oddfellows Hall show is Desbarats death metal quartet Inhuman Methods (pictured), who were quietly confirmed recently as the 8th band for the Sewer Swampstravaganja II concert on July 13th! This will be both their Oddfellows Hall debut and their first gig with new singer Anthony Tverdal, who replaced Curtis Moir in the band late last month. No idea how he sounds yet, but hopefully he does well, and best of luck to Curtis in the future for sure! Stay tuned for more news on these and other concerts as they roll in!

Next up, I wanted to give some deserved attention to a new blog posting by SooToday journalist and photographer Donna Hopper. Her official photography website (which I've just changed her link to in our "Other Local Metal Links") now featured a post entitled "What you think you know, but don’t", which outlines many of the realities and truths about being a concert photographer at major concert events (Essar Center & Kewadin Casino mainly) and what you may not realize about what she does. Some people are known to criticize her SooToday photo albums for their size, content, or angles, but from what Donna writes, this is mostly out of her hands. I won't detail every point she makes, but I encourage you guys to read the article at this link, as it's interesting to see what photographers have to go through and sign off on to be allowed to take professional shots at concerts. Let's just say Bret Michaels sounds much cooler about concert photography than Bryan Adams does. Photojournalism sounds rewarding, and Donna's great at what she does, but some artists are too restrictive and particular in many cases, and legal hangups can prevent some great photos from reaching a wider audience or from being taken at all.

Personally, I'm fine taking pictures from the crowd, as it gives the feeling that that's what a fan would see, but professional photography has a place and shouldn't be as tied down. On the same token, readers and fans shouldn't be shocked or annoyed that Donna and photographers like her can only get so many photos of certain bands, from certain angles. You've gotta play the game in many cases, and she's not just taking the photos she does to irk anyone. Very interesting read, I highly recommend it!

We'll close with some new videos, starting with this new performance video of Trail's End guitarist Chris Hubbard! Yes, he's back on guitar here, and he's showing off his new OLP Eddie Van Halen signature Music Man guitar with over 7 minutes of solo riffing and soloing. Posted on his YouTube channel on Sunday, Chris' immense talents are on display here, and his love for Van Halen is as clear as ever throughout (gotta love the Frankenstrat-painted stool), so definitely give his new video a look below, and stay tuned for more solo (and band?) clips from Chris as they come in!



Finally, a new recording of ex-Browbeat frontman Dutch Vanderploeg's original song "Brighter Day" was uploaded to his YouTube channel yesterday! Featuring former bandmate James White (now of Redundant & Caveman Morrison) on bass and production, it's still fairly soft compared to Dutch's usual original output, but it's well performed and has a heavier riff & a nice guitar solo late laid in with his lighter singing! Interesting contrast, but it all works well, so check out thsi new recording of "Brighter Day" below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews, last month's poll results, this month's new poll, this week's classic video, and more shortly! Thanks everyone!