LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Algoma Hope4Haiti), Plus More Hope4Haiti Bands/Lineup Announcements!

It took a while, but we finally have updates on most of the lineups for the Algoma Hope4Haiti benefit concert event taking place on February 19th and 20th! As you're likely aware, this event is being set up by SooToday's Donna Hopper and The Sault Youth Association to raise money for The Canadian Red Cross towards relief in Haiti after last month's devastating earthquake. Eight local bars will host concerts on Saturday, February 20th (with some also hosting bands on the 19th), with all proceeds going to the Red Cross, and for just $10, you can get into all venues! Now I did say when reporting on this event in earlier weeks that metal bands were likely, and I was right! With that in mind, here is a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!!

Local death/thrash metal band Bring The Fallen will be headlining one of the Hope4Haiti concerts, this one at Nite-Life Dance & Comedy Club, marking their first ever performance at this venue! Nice to see Nite-Life involved, I hadn't heard they were in my earlier reports on all of this! They'll be rocking out for Haiti on February 20th, the Saturday of that weekend! But there will be support too, starting with, in their live debut, local hardcore band Out Of The Mouth Of Babes! Yes, the band featuring the instrumental members of As It Stands and Deter/The Fury's Josh McNally on vocals will finally play their first live concert at the Nite-Life Hope4Haiti concert! This sure has been a long time coming to see them live, huh? And though not metal, DJ Spruceau from The Level Vibe Sound Tribe will be performing as well. Hey, it never hurts to give a show some extra flavour, I'm sure he's a great DJ! I'll get to ticket and time information in a second when I go over all the shows, but check out each of the bands performing at Nite-Life on the 20th by clicking on their names! (Also, I love the poster! If it was black and white and photocopied, I'd swear it was a classic 1980s/90s local poster of some type!) Confirm your attendance for this part of Hope4Haiti at this location!

But as you may have guessed from earlier reports, this is far from all that is scheduled next weekend! Now the above show at Nite-Life is, as of 3:30 PM Friday, the only concert with metal bands confirmed for Hope4Haiti, but seeing as all the shows tie together in the same event, it'd be ignorant of me to leave any out. So here's what's confirmed so far at the other 6 bars, in alphabetical order by venue name!

(EDIT, FRIDAY AT 3:28 PM: I have updated the lineups for Hope4Haiti, including the acts playing Friday at Foggy's and The Rockstar Bar. Also, it looks like The Algonquin Pub & Sports Bar itself will NOT have bands. This will be edited if new updates come in prior to my next post. All band info comes from either the Facebook event page, SooToday's article about Hope4Haiti, or the official poster.)

The Bottoms Up Lounge: The bar above Vincenzo's Restaurant on Queen Street East will play host to local indie band The Pine Cones, with special guests Broken House on February 20th. I can't tell you much on either band, neither has an internet page, but they appear to be talented at their genre, and popular among indie circles! No concert on the 19th is scheduled.

The Canadian Nightclub: The only participating venue not downtown, The Canadian will be featuring local country act Thin Ice! You may recognize bassist Josh Donofrio from his work in inactive local metal band Garage Inc.! A frequent sight at venues like Docks and The Canadian, country music lovers should find a lot to like on February 20th, click on their name for more info! No concert on the 19th is scheduled.

Coch's Corner: No bands have been announced as of 3:30 PM Friday. They will only be featuring bands on February 20th. If I was a betting man, I'd put money on Coch's Corner as being likely to get a heavier act, though we'll have to see. I shall keep you guys posted!

Foggy Notions: On February 19th, Foggy's will be headlined DJ Seith, who'll mix some cool tracks for you dance music lovers! He'll be joined by two other local DJs, Aries and DJ Damaging D! Then on the 20th, Foggy's will feature The Tenagens and local punk band The Scary Uncles (featuring Justin Langlois from SIGHdEFECT & Andrew McDonald from Fitswitch), with a band to be named later. Both shows sound promising as well, I'm a fan of The Scary Uncles especially!

LopLops Lounge: The local art gallery/concert spot will host bands on both days of Hope4Haiti. As previously announced on here, Kalle Mattson (featuring ex-Gates drummer Jimmie Chiverelli) will headline the February 19th show with special guests Craig West & Kathy O'Neil. The next night, local funk band Big Wheel & The Spokes will headline at LopLops, with special guests Shannon Moan and Mark Kuntsi from Honeythroat. A silent art auction was also in the works for this location, but updates on it have not came recently.

The Rockstar Bar: Local classic rock band That's Chester (who have been known to cover some AC/DC and Iron Maiden along with INXS and The Kinks-kind of stuff) will be playing at The Rockstar Bar on February 19th AND 20th! You may recognize frontman Greg Simpson from his work in Stiffler's Mom & Sin Stereo! One of the better local cover bands, though not metal enough for the SMS, I do enjoy their metal covers when they throw them into their sets! Definitely worth hitting!

So there's what we know so far bandwise! Start times for each venue's shows will vary by location, I can tell you that the Bring The Fallen concert is scheduled to begin at around 9:00 PM, but I don't know general start times for the rest of them. There will be door prizes at all seven venues! And if you were wondering what happened to Top Hat Billiards, they are just hosting the free pool for ticketholders, there's no concert there. Speaking of ticketholders, tickets are now on sale at these locations: All of the participating venues (including Top Hat), MP Tony Martin's office on Queen Street, the Sault Youth Association office at Station Tower, and at the local Red Cross office on Allard Street! Call 946-1299 or contact organizers on the Facebook event page for more details, and to confirm your attendance! Remember, tickers are $10, but they're good at all venues next weekend, and will give you free pool at Top Hat all night! Of course, I will keep you guys posted as I hear more on Algoma Hope4Haiti! Looks like I might be at Nite-Life on that Saturday, though we'll have to see how the other lineups look first!

News and updates and everything else worth discussing are in the near future! Stay tuned, one and all!

Weekend Concert Previews, Plus 97.9 The Bear & Radio Shakeup Updates

Hey guys, time to update the local metal universe once again! There's three metal concerts this weekend, and more local radio-related news, fans of The Bear and supporters of the fired 99.5 DJs might wanna check that out. But first, here are your local concert previews for this weekend!

We'll start in Sault Michigan for something NOT related to the radio stations: There's two concerts this weekend! Local hard rockers Riot! By Night are back this weekend for a pair of shows at Dondee Lanes! Nice to see them somewhere other than The Frog! No cover charge has been announced, both shows (tomorrow night and Saturday night) have a listed start time of 8:00 PM. If you like some modern rock with feeling, Riot! By Night should fit the bill, they have a bunch of really good musicians, and though we still don't have audio to share, they've played live enough times to pretty much guarantee a good show! Check out more from Riot! By Night at their official MySpace page! If I had more to say on these two shows, I would!

And finally, back in Sault Ontario, a popular tribute band are returning to the area! Who Made Who, The Ultimate Tribute To AC/DC will be playing the Soo for the first time since May of last year when they rocked The Canadian Nightclub! This time, they'll be at Nite-Life Dance & Comedy Club, which you may remember under it's prior monikers GLOW and The Other Place! Actually, this might be the first metal show at what is now Nite-Life since Lion Ride played there in December 2008, but don't quote me on that. But now it's all fixed up and different, so look out for some new stuff if you go! And really, who doesn't love a hard hitting night of AC/DC classics? Tickets are a touch pricey as far as bar shows go, $10 in advance or $15 at the door, but considering their show last year, it'll be worth it! A start time of 9:00 PM is listed on the Facebook event page (confirm your attendance there!), but I'd expect they wouldn't play until later.

I'm not sure if I'll be at this concert, but all signs point to a really fun show! They are quite a solid cover band, the guitarist pulls off Angus' look and mannerisms really well, the band sound enough like the real thing, and they'll get a crowd moving! I saw them in May, I felt really young amongst the older crowd, but meh, I had fun! Hopefully a big crowd turns out! Check Who Made Who out at their official website, and for a preview, here's a live clip of Who Made Who playing "Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap)" at a Toronto show in 2008!



Just as a side note, I will likely be pulling two local concert venues: The Grand Theater and The Verdi Hall, from the venue contact info on the left of the page and moving them to the "Other Local Metal Links" soon unless bookings pop up for either venue in the next few months. The Verdi hasn't hosted a local metal show since Stillbroke's big show there last April, and The Grand (much to my puzzlement) hasn't had a metal band playing there to my knowledge since Sense of Truth played that free Skate4Cancer show last May. Hopefully both get back in the swing of things, they're very nice venues!

Now, radio time! The uproar among Yes FM fans has been stealing most of the thunder, but I fear that the fate of 97.9 Classic Rock: The Bear is getting lost in the shuffle, so I'd like to bring that to everyone's attention again, plus some new stuff I've seen. Now when Sovereign Communications (Rock 101's parent company) bought Yes FM and the 10 other Sault/Iron Mountain/Marquette stations from Northern Star Broadcasting, they didn't pick up one, and it was The Bear. Apparently if Sovereign bought The Bear from Northern Star, they'd violate FCC laws about regional radio monopolies. According to David Helwig's story on SooToday, Northern Star wants out of local radio, but we haven't seen any official statements confirming that.

Here's what else we know about The Bear's fate so far: Northern Star Broadcasting fired 16 employees, including The Bear/Yes FM DJs Jason Mapes (Bad Side's guitarist) and John Gilbert, just before the sale. When Sovereign hired on 10 of those 16 employees, John got his job at 99.5 back, Jason did not. Because The Bear wasn't part of the deal, neither are affiliated with The Bear anymore. Jason changed the name of what was previously The Bear's Facebook group to simply "Classic Rock", with any vestiges of 97.9 removed. John Gilbert posted this on his Facebook page as his job description as on-air DJ with The Bear, ending February 2010: RIP Bear . . . you were a good friend . . . today was my last day, will miss you, Alice, but I hated those bats. No wonder I have no hair . . . Sounds kinda grim for The Bear, doesn't it? Last I heard, The Bear was still broadcasting with Bob and Tom and Alice Cooper still running as scheduled, but I don't know how long that will last. The optimistic side of me hopes a buyer picks it up and saves it, cause even if the reception was patchy, it was still a very good station! But the realistic side of me isn't so sure. If I hear anything more on 97.9 The Bear's future, you'll hear it here! Just in case, listen to it as much as you can now while you can!

Just as a personal comment, it's stuff like this that makes me wish Sault Ontario had it's own FM rock station. If The Bear does die out, we'll just be left with Rock 101 and, IF it's the right block/show, WLSO, as the only full area rock stations. Both are great, but sometimes you like to change the station if a song comes on you don't like, or something. There is Energy Rock Radio, which is awesome, but you need a computer to listen to it. The twin Saults both have country, adult contemporary, oldies, and Christian stations, why can't we both have a rock station each? The Canadian content regulations don't bother me at all, it'd just be nice to have options, and there'll be less for us rock lovers and metalheads if The Bear leaves us. Who's with me on that? (And before someone suggests Sirius XM satellite radio, what local connection does THAT have?)

As for the Yes FM fiasco (which does have a metal connection, as two of the fired DJs are Melissa and Jason from Bad Side), the Facebook group dedicated to boycotting Yes FM until they and the other fired DJs get brought back now has a grand total of.....1,154 members!!! The 99.5 lovers are pissed now, and rightfully so! There's now talk of boycotting everything from 99.5 sponsors to EVERY station that Sovereign owns until they're brought back. Also, most local news outlets have picked up on this story, including SooToday, SooNews.ca, The Soo Evening News, and The Sault Star, click on each to read the articles! Most notable though is an interview that Craig Huckerby of SooNews.ca conducted with one of the laid-off employees (identity hidden), which you can read here! If anything else major comes up, I'll let you guys know! But just as a final note, I've seen some people ignorantly blaming Rock 101 for this mess, like they went in themselves and took over 99.5. No they didn't, their bosses did. Don't drag Scott & Brian and all them into this, blame the higher-ups!

That's all for now, I hope to have lots more news and updates real soon, keep your eyes peeled! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Who Made Who) And The Ultraviolence Concert Preview!!

Shorter post today, but it's important! We have a concert tomorrow night to preview, and a new local concert venue to talk about, but first, we have a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!!

Nine months after they last played locally, Ontario's own Who Made Who: The Ultimate Tribute To AC/DC are coming back here for another concert! However, unlike their May 2009 show at The Canadian Nightclub, they'll instead be at Nite-Life Dance & Comedy Club! They'll hit the stage for their Sault return on Saturday, February 13th, with 9:00 PM as the estimated start time. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door, which is higher than their concert last year, but hey, it's not an obscene amount! This should be a good show, I've never been to Nite-Life since it "opened", and Who Made Who were really good last year! Bit of an older-skewing crowd, but hey, it was fun! Confirm your attendance at the official Facebook event page! As I hear more about this concert, you'll be sure to find it here!

While I'm at it, now that it's finally hosting a metal/hard rock concert, let's talk about Nite-Life! It's located at 119 Gore Street, and in case you're wondering, yes, this is the same spot that The Other Place and GLOW used to call home. Currently, Nite-Life is primarily known for comedians, karaoke, and dance parties, but they've also gotten into booking bands, and now they've got Who Made Who coming! Hopefully this opens the floodgates to even more metal bands, and of course, it's great seeing the former GLOW back in the concert game! Call 945-6483 for more details and to book your band too, and visit their official Facebook group to see what's coming up there!

And finally, it's time to preview a big concert tomorrow night! Here's what you need to know!

Toronto "drunk n' rollers" Ultraviolence are returning to Coch's Corner! Last seen there on September 3rd, they will bring their AC/DC-like style of hard rock to Sault Ontario once again! Very solid band, but this concert may be even better than their last one! Why? Because this time, they have locals Sense of Truth as openers! This will be Sense of Truth's first full local show since the Foggy Notions grand opening last month, and their last concert before they hit the studio to record their debut album! They're promising to debut a new original, and will likely play a mix of their very solid originals and some covers! Also to note: Guitarist Steve Myers won't be present at the show because he's currently on vacation in Cuba, so they'll be a four piece tomorrow night (no word on if frontman Cory Murchison will be on rhythm guitar and vocals like in their older concerts.) The concert is likely going to start at around 10:30 PM tomorrow, with NO COVER! Just make sure you bring drink money and your ID!

Should be an awesome concert, I've missed Sense of Truth way too much in the second half of 2009, it'll be nice to see a full set of theirs for a change! Great band, I know their CD will be awesome when it comes out, check out more from Sense of Truth at their official Facebook group! As for Ultraviolence, also a very entertaining group, any AC/DC fan will find something to like from these guys! Great drinking band too, if you want some high energy Canadian hard rock, these guys should fit the bell very nicely! Check out more of their original material at their official MySpace page, and for a preview of what to expect, here's a live clip of Ultraviolence performing the songs "Jump Motherfucker Jump" and "Trouble Tonight" from a concert last year in (I think) Thunder Bay (Thanks to YouTube user cvaillan for the upload!)



As I said, this is a short post, so that's all I have for now, my next post will either have my review of the Ultraviolence concert, more news and updates, or both! Stay tuned for more!