Before we begin this post, just a heads up that Silent 9 (who are leading things off today as it is) do not appear to be playing at The Tap Room at Northern Superior Brewing Co. on Saturday anymore, as per the show's deletion from their website's concert calendar. It's possible that the date was a remnant of their Wolf Fest II booking last week, as that event was later in the year last year, but regardless, they're not playing there on Saturday. However, today's post has LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for later this year and a new video to check out, so here's what you should know!
The Esquire Club at 103 Second Line West has resumed hosting concerts on weekends after their annual summer break! After experimenting with week-by-week show announcements in the spring, they have posted a schedule through Christmas onto their Facebook page, albeit an AI generated one (note that none of the bands use the assigned logos). The fall band schedule started last week with Mid Life Crysis, and we'll address this weekend's band (it's not technically Soundcheck) in this weekend's concert previews, but the first of the non-short notice hard rock bookings is courtesy of classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9! In their only Esquire Club gigs for the rest of the year, they have secured the Thanksgiving long weekend, so you can see them there on Friday, October 9th and Saturday, October 10th. Still riding high on the success of Wolf Fest II (a shareable, non-"Story" video is coming soon), don't miss out on their west end gigs next month!
In one more new Silent 9 show announcement, their website's concert calendar confirms that Silent 9 will return to Beck's Bar on Friday, October 30th! This has yet to be corroborated by the venue (it may not be until the week of), but the timing hints that this could be a Halloween-themed event. Of course, October 31st is a Saturday this year, but we'll let you know when/if confirmation is made about spooky goings regardless of day! Next month's Esquire Club shows are at 9:30 PM, Devil's Night at Beck's will be at 9:00 PM, all are 19+, and none of the three have age limits. See above for more on this fan-favourite cover hard rock band's October gigs!
Next up, we'll jump ahead one week at The Esquire Club, as local classic/hard rock cover quintet Headrush will return there for a weekend in all three months ahead! They'll rock the west end nightclub on October 16th & 17th, November 13th & 14th, and December 11th & 12th, giving fans of the Johns, Wes, Gino, and Frank lots of opportunities to see their 1980s-leaning cover attack in the last quarter of 2026. Given the venue's summer break, Headrush haven't played here since April, so consider welcoming them back in mid-October after six months away, but you have no shortages ahead! As with Silent 9's shows there next month, expect all six upcoming dates to have 19+ age limits, no cover charges, and 9:30 PM start times. See above for more details, and stay tuned for more Headrush updates when they roll in!
After October finishes out with bands that largely don't cross the hard rock line (the aforementioned Mid Life Crysis drew the Halloween weekend this year), local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck (no space) will pick things back up at The Esquire Club with scheduled weekends on November 6th-7th and December 18th-19th! Note that this weekend's shows are technically not Soundcheck, but a "separate" band will be playing then (details forthcoming). The November weekend will be Soundcheck's first at The Esquire with new bassist Dan Beaupre, while December's will be the venue's last concerts for 2026, as Christmas and Boxing Day are on a Friday & Saturday this year (as such, that may be a very quiet weekend locally but time will tell for other venues). Good to see Soundcheck (7.3?) getting some more publically advertised bookings this year!
At press time, neither Esquire Club weekend is branded as an "epic crossover" with their sister band Separate Wayz, but that doesn't mean that we won't see Nicole pop in as a guest singer either. Regardless, all four of Soundcheck's upcoming shows there are 19+ with 9:30 PM start times and no cover charges. See above for much more on all of the hard rock-leaning shows hitting The Esquire Club to end the year, and look for more from Terry, Travis, Dan, and Johnny (and Nicole) in both bands soon!
Finally for today, here's a new video of local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 live at the Bruce Mines Fall Fair this past Friday! Live-streamed to their Facebook page (alas, so you have until around October 11th to see it before it is deleted), the video sees Greg, Alex, and Warren covering Van Halen's version of John Brim's "Ice Cream Man". Shot vertically (though at least zoomed out enough to show the full band on stage simultaneously), this is a fun cover for what we see, and the stage for this post-demolition derby concert looks huge, so give it a watch below while you can, and we'll have more from last week's Beck's show in an upcoming post!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the SMS next! Thanks everyone!
