Our Lady Peace/Collective Soul Concert Fallout & Videos!!

We've put things off long enough (partly to let videos accumulate), so let's cover what went down at Sunday night's Our Lady Peace-headlined concert at GFL Memorial Gardens in today's post! The legitimately sold out concert was covered by newer SooToday reporter Greg McGrath-Goudie for this article that features ten photos from the Toronto alternative/hard rock band's closing set, but the focus isn't on the concert at large so much as one song. When O.L.P. broke into their classic ballad "Life", frontman Raine Maida prefaced it by noting that music programs are "automatically" the first to get cut at schools when they decide to cut costs, so they invited members of Superior Heights Collegiate & Vocational School's student rock band Steel Rock to sing the song with them. That huge opportunity was thanks to the work of Superior Heights teacher Eric Williams reaching out to the band about working with the school.

Kudos to Our Lady Peace for teaming up with Superior Heights and giving the kids one huge opportunity, one that they've been practicing for all winter, and it sounds like it went over well! You can see the performance below in one of (surprisingly) just two YouTube channels who have visibly posted content from the concert so far. YouTube user MasonTheGoat was on hand to film Our Lady Peace's set (nothing of the openers), and along with "Life" embedded below, he also filmed them playing "Clumsy", "Innocent", "In Repair", and "Whatever". Alas, all five videos were shot vertically, but while Mason wasn't especially close to the stage, he has a good clear view of the band in action. Honestly, Steel Rock are hard to hear as the song goes, but it's a solid performance of one of O.L.P.'s bigger hits, and the audio quality across all five videos is pretty good, so give Mason's footage a watch for yourselves above and below!

The only other YouTube video from the show that I've seen comes from YouTube user Mike Malott, who filmed Our Lady Peace playing "Whatever", which some readers will recognize as the 2002-2007 theme song of WWE wrestler Chris Benoit. The band hadn't played it live since 2003, let alone following the Benoit murder-suicide in 2007, but they reintroduced it in this current Canadian tour, with Raine telling fans at their show in Calgary that they wanted to "reclaim it" (source here). Mixed responses are online to the band bringing "Whatever" back, for obvious reasons, but it's a good performance shot from a much closer (and horizontal!) angle, and it is one of O.L.P.'s heavier cuts, so check it out below!

Finally for this post, has anything surfaced in terms of videos from the openers? Not a lot. I haven't seen any public videos of local openers The Northwest yet at all, and as for Georgia alternative rock veterans Collective Soul, the only public clip that I've seen actually comes from Sault Michigan rock radio station Rock 101's Facebook page. The 76 seconds-long clip sees Collective Soul playing one of their biggest hits "Shine", which is frequently heard in 101.3 FM's rotation. While shot vertically, the station staffer filming had a very straight on view of the stage from where they were, and it puts a good emphasis on the fans on the floor enjoying the show. Strong rendition, if slightly slowed down, so give Collective Soul's clip a watch below!

That's all for today, but we'll have more from the Our Lady Peace show when/if it surfaces, and more news on the site next week! Thanks everyone!

Local Metal Video Showcase!!

All video post on this Tuesday evening, including some recent concert videos from both the Soo and out of town, along with an apology for a recent missed show, but let's lead off with videos from two different bands at the same major venue in recent weeks!

Let's start with lots of videos from The Glorious Sons' headlining concert at The Sault Community Theatre Centre last month, and while I've only found YouTube videos from one source, they're thankfully from Christopher Paci's awesome YouTube channel, so you know he got a solid fill of content! Whether he's a big fan of theirs or whether he was adjusting for the lack of an opening band, I can't say, but Chris filmed eleven videos of the Kingston roots/hard rock quintet at the former Kiwanis Theatre, including (in performance order) "I Want Ya", "Mama", "My Poor Heart", "One Church Town",  this song that he couldn't title (the lyrics don't match anything on Google so it may be new), "Lean On Me Love", "Young King", "S.O.S. (Sawed Off Shotgun)", "Everything Is Alright", "Kill The Lights", and as embedded below, their set-closer "Amigo", which is typically extended to 8+ minutes in live appearances like this.

Chris was not in the closest seating section, but he had a good central view of the stage and fans ahead of him, which especially works to the benefit of "Amigo" with all of the clapping in time with the song mid-way through! The audio on heavier stretches can be scratchy, which is nothing new, but softer parts come through nicely, and fans of The Glorious Sons should take to all of these videos, which you can watch above & below!

Next up, here's the latest from young local hard rock quartet Raincourt, and first off, I do have to apologize for missing a concert of theirs, as they played a publically attendable concert at the aforementioned Sault Community Theatre Centre this past Wednesday! The humongous venue is explained by it being on the campus of White Pines Collegiate & Vocational School (which Raincourt's members currently attend), and White Pines has been hosting a Coffee House concert series there during the 2021-22 school year, with last week's being their semester-closing event, including a show for students only at 1:00 PM and a show open to everyone at 7:00 PM. The main attractions were The White Pines Concert Band and their Mustang Sally-esque school group The Pine Tones (who feature all of the guys from Raincourt), but other student artists performed, including Raincourt proper. I profusely apologize for missing this show, hopefully it was a huge hit!

If you missed this event, never fear, as a video of Raincourt (sans face masks!) covering The Beatles' "Come Together" was uploaded to their Facebook page on Friday. Solid cover from a nice and close angle, with Elijah showing some nice grit & swagger with his vocals and stage presence, and everyone has a strong handle on this classic rock favourite! Give it a watch below, and apologies again for missing the White Pines Coffee House show last week on here!

Also, local/Barrie punk/metal quintet Spades GT have launched their official YouTube channel and have posted three performance videos there to check out! Two were also uploaded to their Facebook page, including the jam session clip of "Crossroads" (albeit still with audio from the Jack Spades studio version dubbed overtop) and a brand new video from their set opening Anvil at The Rockpile in Toronto last month, where they played "Cenobites", a song that debuted with Jack Spades but isn't on an album yet. Embedded below is their full 28 minute return set in April opening for Random Killing at The Queens Nightclub in Barrie, and yes, it has the live original audio! In order, you'll see J.D., the Daniels, and Tyler play "They Live", "Rise", "Cenobites", "Crossroads", "Fear Corps", "Motorwolf", "Negative Headspace", a cover of Turbonegro's "All My Friends Are Dead", and finally, their own song "To The Left".

Note that in the song introductions, J.D. first calls the band "Jack Spades" still (old habits die hard?), but later acknowledges that they used to be "Jack Spades SSM" before relocating. This set will be very familiar for local Jack Spades fans, as nothing here wasn't seen in their local sets in 2019, only the venue and two new faces will be different. Great video quality with multiple camera angles and a nice crooked angle of the stage and front row fans, and Daniel Rodbard & Tyler Reiner compliment J.D. & Daniel nicely here and on the new Toronto clip! More videos are teased to be forthcoming, but give all of these a look above & below!

Finally, here are three videos of new local acoustic hard rock duo Short & Sweet's opening set for Parabol at Soo Blaster this past weekend! Uploaded to frontman Cory Murchison's YouTube channel yesterday, these feature him and bandmate/fellow Skeyes of Seven alum Kyle Sweet covering Breaking Benjamin's "Forget It", Slipknot's "Vermilion Pt. 2", and as embedded below, a stripped down version of his old Sense of Truth song "Anything At All". Despite some jittery camera work, the videos are nicely angled and capture Cory and Kyle in a good element with some strong vocal & guitar work, and they'd definitely be added to our links if they got a Facebook page or something! Give these a watch above & below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: adamscovers' channel

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile, our monthly look at 1-3 randomly selected YouTube channels with at least 50% of their videos being relevant to local metal, hard rock, or punk concerts, in order to spotlight their content and material! We had originally planned to look at the YouTube channel #TrebleCharger, an auto-generated channel of Treble Charger studio tracks, but none of the videos work for me for unclear reasons (their links weren't pulled, they just don't play.) Instead, we've replaced it with the next closest alphabetical channel (punctuation precedes A on YouTube), and this has some solid recent cover performances from a few years back, so here's what you should know!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

adamscovers (http://www.youtube.com/adamscovers)

Owner: Village Media videographer and local musician Adam Gualtieri

Channel Timeline: Launched on April 22nd, 2011; Videos posted from that December through March 2014

Channel Summary: Adam's channel is (with one exception) devoted to at least 6 performances that he and fellow local musician Liam Seymour (The Boatload Killers, ex-Sailor's Tongue) made during sets at Superior Heights Collegiate & Vocational School when both were students there in the early 2010s, with both alternating guitar & bass duties. 13 of Adam's 14 videos are from Superior Heights sets, all with varying & uncredited drummers (one likely a teacher), including covers of the likes of Foster The People, Phillip Phillips, Traffic, Gnarls Barkley, and Mumford & Sons. The extra video is of his own solo composition, "Questions Without Answers".

Why Should You Watch: This is a solid channel to check out for fans of hard and classic rock covers from two up & coming talents (if they had a band name, it's not credited), and if you're a fan of Superior Heights and Dunnplugged events, this is a good source with multiple camera angles! Also, "Questions Without Answers" is a solid original, if rough and not "heavy", and it's a nice showcase of his talent! Note however that this channel hasn't been updated in a year, possibly due to Adam's graduation and resulting lack of further sets there. As well, a cover of Shinedown's "If You Only Knew" has since been privatized for unannounced reasons.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

Communication Breakdown Cover♫: Among Adam's earliest uploads are three videos from a Superior Heights set circa February 2012, where he, Liam, and a drummer covered The Beatles' "Helter Skelter", Alice In Chains' "Rooster", and (as embedded below) Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown". Adam only sings lead on "Rooster", with Liam tackling lead vocals on the other two, and while both have good voices, Liam's range is quite impressive, as fans of The Boatload Killers will attest, especially on the Zeppelin cover! Like on later videos, all three also make use of multiple camera zoom, post-effects, and titles., and they're a solid showcase of Adam & Liam's talents, and are among the heaviest videos on this channel!



December Cover♫: The next month, Adam posted videos of him, Liam, and (I think) another drummer covering Boston's "Smokin'", Foghat's "Slow Ride", Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean", and (as embedded below) Collective Soul's "December", which took the guys into more of a classic rock spin compared to their last uploads, which were focused on indie and folk rock. The only video from this day that was made black & white in post-production (despite being the newest of the four songs, ironically), this is my favourite demonstration of Adam's singing on the channel (Liam sings lead on the other three), and all are predictably good for their age at the time!



Lonely Is The Night Cover♫: Joining the now-private Shinedown cover from a pair of April 2012 uploads (Adam's last of a heavier or classic rock nature), this cover of Billy Squier's "Lonely Is The Night" is his most viewed overall, and it improves visually on older videos by featuring multiple camera angles (the angled one of old, and one in front of the stage), plus cleaner zooming. Strongly done again, with Liam's singing fitting nicely, and both he and Adam handle guitar & bass duties well! No word on if Adam and Liam still do any collaborative music work, but it'd be nice to see the two of them pick things back up in some form!


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile!  Next month in this series, we'll be looking at two channels, as the first randomly selected channel only had two distinct type of videos, so we randomly added one more to fill it out. Next month, we'll be looking at Skeyes of Seven frontman Cory Murchison's YouTube channel (featuring three videos from his older band Sense of Truth's debut show, plus a solo track) and YouTube user WhiskeyBar1's channel (featuring a Winkstinger concert video), so watch for these on or around July 22nd! That's all for now, but stay tuned for a new news post later today! Thanks everyone!