LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (HeadFirst, Silent 9, And Headrush!!)

On this blustery Monday night, let's devote it to LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the months ahead, including for a popular nightclub's upcoming schedule and a big booking for a prominent act, so here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9 will headline the opening night concert at this year's Bon Soo Winter Carnival on Friday, February 7th! This booking was announced on the band's Facebook page yesterday, and marks their return to The Machine Shop, a venue that they've played multiple times as both openers for touring acts and for private functions. The official program also lists this concert, among multiple other family events at the Canal District and downtown for Sault Ste. Marie's annual winter carnival, though I don't believe any of the other Bon Soo-linked concerts fit the SMS' coverage. Silent 9's concert caps off a busy first day for this year's Bon Soo, so definitely read on there to find out what all is going on on day #1 for the opening ceremonies and beyond! This all ages concert takes place from 8:00-10:00 PM, and admission is free with your $12 Bon Soo button or $8 jacket tag. See above for more details!

Next up, the early 2025 band schedule for The Esquire Club was (re-)posted on their Facebook page yesterday! The Second Line West nightclub had previously posted a schedule that was quickly taken down and amended (it's mostly similar but I did notice that the now-defunct Soundcheck were listed for a weekend in the spring on that version). Like in recent years, the schedule stops at the end of June, with the venue taking a two month break from live bands in the summer before picking things back up in September, so aside from this month's mostly-concluded slate, who is coming to The Esquire Club in the first half of the year among hard rock-leaning acts?

First up is local hard rock quintet HeadFirst, who will play their first local dates of 2025 on Friday, February 14th & Saturday, February 15th! This talented young group have not corroborated these bookings yet on social media, but they just played their first ever Sudbury gigs at The Coulson Entertainment Center over a week ago, which has hosted Bone Yard 225 on multiple occasions in the 2020s, and despite teasing working on stuff behind the scenes otherwise to start the year, they have hinted at more dates to be announced. As it turns out, HeadFirst (who last played at The Esquire Club in mid-December) drew both the Family Day long weekend and, in the case of the Friday nighter, Valentine's Day for scheduling, so keep both angles in mind if you're coming out for either gig next month! You can enjoy their hard rocking originals and covers next month at 9:30 PM with 19+ age limits and no cover charges. See above for more details on HeadFirst's upcoming activity!

Next among SMS-amenable acts is the aforementioned Silent 9, who will return to The Esquire Club for their first times this year on March 21st & 22nd before returning on May 9th & 10th! If you have missed seeing Jess, Ryan, Paul, and Steve's fan-friendly blend of classic and hard rock covers in a normal nightclub setting, you'll want to keep both of these spring weekends in mind, especially given the gap since they last rocked The Esquire Club just after Halloween! Speaking of which, neither of these 2025 weekend bookings fall on holidays (the former gigs are after St. Patrick's Day and well before Easter, and the latter are a week out from the Victoria Day long weekend). Like with HeadFirst above, expect these shows to be 19+ affairs with no announced cover charges and 9:30 PM start times. Visit the above links for much more on Silent 9's 2025 schedule, and look for them after Bon Soo's opening ceremonies next Friday!

Lastly for now, fellow local classic/hard rock cover quintet Headrush (not to be confused with the aforementioned HeadFirst) will keep the good times going on Second Line West when they return to The Esquire Club on March 28th-29th and then on May 30th-31st! This skilled 1980s-centric group played their first shows of 2025 here just this past weekend, and while a different Head____ band will be there next month, fans of Headrush will get their fill later this spring, when the snow should be gone to boot! No word yet on if we'll see them elsewhere before late March, but neither of these weekends falls on a Canadian holiday either. As with the shows above, expect Headrush to take the stage at 9:30 PM on both nights with no announced cover charge, and you must be 19 or older to attend. For more details on Headrush's upcoming gigs, visit the above links!

Other existing bands on the early 2025 schedule are not hard rock-leaning that I am aware of, but I do want to point out that new local rock cover band Separate Wayz (scheduled for weekends in April and May) appears to be the new band from former Soundcheck bandmates Terry Eaton and Jim Michaud, alongside Terry's old Mourning Wood/Soundcheck bandmate Steven Flint, but we await full details on their sound and lineup. Click here for more on them as it's announced! That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site shortly! Thanks everyone!

Life Like Fire Concert Preview, An Upcoming Live Album, And New Videos!!

Here's a new news post for your Tuesday night delectation, so what's on tap? New videos, mostly, with one attached to album news from a prominent solo artist, but let's kick things off with a preview of a special Wednesday night concert featuring out of town talent that you can hopefully check out!

Calgary hard rock quartet Life Like Fire will make their local concert debut TOMORROW NIGHT when they headline at The New American Pub as part of an all-touring package of bands! This female fronted group have an edgy yet accessible brand of rock n' roll to bring to Soo fans tomorrow, and if you like bands like New Years Day or Halestorm, you might not want to miss this stop on their ongoing It's Too Spicy Tour if you can help it! In fact, this show is a merger of converging tours, with Life Like Fire sharing the New A stage tomorrow with Powassan, Ontario alt-hard rock band The Long Nines, also making their Sault Ste. Marie debut here. Solid, no-frills melodic rock sound from this rising Northern Ontario group, and they should put in a well received set also, especially with their new single "Northlander" now out! Temagami folk/indie rock solo artist James Crate will open as part of his ongoing dates opening for The Long Nines, and he should set the tone well with his reserved material!

Seemingly promoted in-house (albeit with involvement from The Long Nines' label Ego & Pessimism Records), this 19+ concert has an advertised 8:00 PM start time and a 10:00 PM start time. While the Wednesday night scheduling and lack of local openers may not be optimal for many fans, this should be a solid triple bill of performers, with a little something for every heavy music tolerance level, so consider a trip to The New A tomorrow! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Life Like Fire live!

Next up, here's the latest from prolific local alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith, so what's he up to in his current Thompson, Manitoba homebase? You may have caught some of this already in last week's "Where Are The New Albums?" post, but either way,  Mike returned to Thompson's annual Nickel Days summer festival on June 22nd for a second solo set, and like last year, he recorded the set for another live album! Similarly to "From The Nickel Stage" (his first album release since the big move), Mike worked with Thompson's The Music Makers to record his whole headlining set, and while Mike disclosed some difficulty with the single tracking technique therein, he does seem pleased with how everything turned out. A sample video was posted on his Facebook page on June 28th featuring Mike's newer original "Come On Home", and the featured image, presumably the album cover, indicates that the live album will be called "Carnival: A Live Spectacle By Mike Haggith."

As precedence for our monthly CD reviews goes to studio albums, I won't immediately review "Carnival" upon release, due to the (hopefully) impending release of his upcoming CD "Bridges", but I can tell you that the audio recording sounds good, and this will be reminiscent of many of Mike's Thompson-era videos, where many of these songs were already in an acoustic setting. Give the live Nickel Days version of "Come On Home" a listen below, and stay tuned for more on "Carnival" & "Bridges"!



Also today, here's a new video from the Slaughter-headlined concert at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino last month, courtesy of attendee/Troy's Trail co-organizer Annette Chandler's YouTube channel on Sunday! Like her videos from 2017's Bret Michaels show in Sault Michigan, this is an untitled clip, but it's actually of opening Pasadena hair metal band Autograph playing their song "Send It To Me." Nice and melodic performance that suits their style well, and the house looks nicely packed for this one, so kudos to Annette for filming this one! Check it out if you want below!



Finally for today, here's a new video of Kinross/Mount Pleasant hard rock solo artist Alex Traynor live at Biggby Coffee in Sault Ste. Marie during his two most recent acoustic matinee gigs there! One is from his Independence Day show there on Thursday, where the ex-Banned frontman and an uncredited guest performer are jamming a familiar instrumental piece for the requisite tips and coffee. Short video on a vertical camera angle, but Alex and the guest sound good together, so check it out below! For what it's worth, the new video that wasn't working during Facebook's outages on July 3rd was actually a re-upload of his Stevie Ray Vaughan cover from March.



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Bon Soo Marquee), Treble Charger Concert Preview, And More!!

Today's second post rounds out the weekend's hard rock and punk concert previews, and it's very much themed around the 52nd annual Bon Soo Winter Carnival, including an extended preview of a big opening night concert TOMORROW, a related recent news article, and all of the details (at last) on this year's Marquee entertainment stage (also TOMORROW), so here's what you should know, and check out more previews in the post below this one!

The lineup for the third annual Marquee performance stage at this year's Bon Soo Winter Carnival was finally announced yesterday via this SooToday press release, so what should you know? Moving from The Roberta Bondar Pavilion to the Mill Market at Bon Soo's new home of Mill Square this year, The Marquee (as previously reported) is only a one day event this year, but now being held on Bon Soo's opening day. Once again, it is being promoted by Sault College's Public Relations Event Management program in cooperation with Bon Soo itself. As for the performer lineup, there is one punk band playing tomorrow, so consider this a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT! The band in question is Stereo North, who some readers may remember from their search in December for a bassist on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group. They identified as playing punk and modern rock, and their drummer is Brett Norton, but I know nothing else on them yet. Hopefully we'll all find out more tomorrow, and we'll let you know when more comes out!

The full lineup for The Marquee also includes local acoustic cover duo Frankly Speaking, solo artist Jesse Merineau, and local beatboxer Robert "Killabeatz" Drolet (all of whom played at The Marquee last year) alongside North Shore frontman Jeremy Hannah, Aardvark the Magician (my dad!), local DJ Michael Babcock (a.k.a. Soldjure), the cast of Korah Collegiate & Vocational School's production of "The Phantom of the Opera", Thunder Bay's Eric the Juggler, local progressive rock quartet Mannapool, the aforementioned Stereo North, and local blues/country musician Cody Watt, with Mr. Bon Soo and "a special surprise" also teased. Quite a varied lineup, which isn't necessarily a change from last year, just condensed into one day. The Marquee kicks off at 4:00 PM tomorrow at Mill Market at the former St. Mary's Paper site, complete with a new film-themed stage, though I can't 100% confirm if The Marquee will still be outdoors.

Admission will be via a purchase of a $7 Bon Soo button at the door, at Wal-Mart (either location), or at Scotiabank, and this is definitely ALL AGES. For more details, visit the above links! I was hoping that Marquee organizers would (be allowed to?) promote the lineup and advertise the acts playing more visibly and with more advance notice, especially after last year (which had a Saturday crowd of 1 person; myself, at points), but given that The Marquee is now part of Bon Soo's opening night, that should be an easy fix for the attendance. I love the concept of an outdoor winter concert festival, and hopefully that is proven this year so it can grow for the future! Keep it in mind for TOMORROW, and apologies again for the short notice!

Of course, that's not all for SMS readers at Bon Soo's opening night, as local punk/alternative veterans Treble Charger will make their long awaited return to the stage when they headline at The Machine Shop at Mill Square TOMORROW NIGHT! Hyped as the official opening night for this Huron Street venue (though they have hosted sporadic events in the past, like the 2013 Gino Vanelli concert), this will also be the first major event following the announcement of Treble Charger frontman Greig Nori's new partnership with Mill Square and Algoma University, which will see his recording studio and more concerts brought to the site in the coming months. This well advertised concert (which has even had commercials on MCTV) will be Treble Charger's first in the Soo since a Searchmont Resort fundraiser last January, and this Juno-nominated quartet should be raring to rock their hometown once again tomorrow with classics like "American Psycho" and "Red", with guests and surprise covers also teased (source here.)

Opening for them will be local roots collective Frank Deresti & The Lake Effect and young alternative/grunge trio The Pixo Control (pictured), and while neither are perfect genre matches, they're both very talented and will bring a lot to the table, so don't miss them either! Tickets for this show cost $39.95, and while that does seem high, they're less than half of what the Searchmont fundraiser admission was, so keep that in mind (there are limited VIP tickets with meet & greets for $69.50 as well.) This is an ALL AGES concert AT 7:30 PM tomorrow, and tickets can be bought at this link, at the door, or at the LIFEforia Wellness Club at 681 Pine Street. For more details, visit the above links, plus SooToday and The Sault Star's coverage of the show! Among other coverage of this concert, a new Sault Star article from Brian Kelly went up on their site yesterday (and presumably in yesterday's paper) featuring interview excerpts with Greig Nori, so what should you know on that?

Entitled "Nori jams with Algoma U", the article goes further in-depth on Greig's new local plans, which include returning full time to the Soo this summer to teach commercial music production courses with Algoma's existing music program, something he's done at a few Southern Ontario schools since the late 2000s. The plans still involve construction of a full recording studio at The Machine Shop, he wants students to get experience recording and filming bands that play there, and he's working on getting a similar position here for Treble Charger bandmate Bill Priddle. The article also confirms that Greig and Bill wrote four or five new Treble Charger songs last fall (their first in over 12 years), but they're holding off on recording them until the Algoma program starts so they can involve students.

And yes, Greig really is coming home, he's purchased a new home here, and he said in the interview that he knew he had to move back when he saw the development going on at Mill Square, which he's enthusiastically hyped in prior interviews with local media. It's a solid article that sheds more light on what Greig is planning for the Soo, and while there's still a lot to do and reveal, I'm cautiously optimistic! Check it out above, and be sure to see above for more details on the Treble Charger concert TOMORROW NIGHT at The Machine Shop! For a preview, here's Treble Charger playing "Brand New Low" live in Southern Ontario in 2013!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes over the weekend, plus Treble Charger (and Marquee?) concert fallout as well! Thanks everyone!