LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Ikons Of Rock), More Weekend Concert Previews, And New Videos!!

A slight delay for this second weekend concert preview post, but it is supplemented with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for this fall and some new videos from another band playing this weekend, so here's what you should know on this Saturday morning!

Winnipeg/Las Vegas classic rock tribute band Ikons Of Rock will make their local concert debut on Sunday, October 5th at The Sault Community Theater Centre! This wide ranging tribute pays homage to hard rock legends from the 1970s onward, and as you can see in promotional materials, members (including Harlequin & Streetheart alumni) dress up as the covered legends in questions, with an emphasis on heavier artists, including female rockers and even going as recently as Rob Zombie! Ikons of Rock's multimedia-friendly live show is sort of a "jack of all trades" approach that you might recall from Las Vegas residencies, and there's definitely lots of talent in their ranks, so it will be neat to see them at the former Kiwanis Theater this fall! Unlike the newly announced Steve-O show at the S.C.T.C. this fall, tickets have not went too fast yet, so there's plenty of good seats available for Ikons Of Rock!

This all ages concert has a 7:30 PM start time, and tickets are only being sold in the lower area, not the gallery. All seats have flat prices regardless of location, those being $65 for adults and $55 for kids 12 and under or students with valid student ID. As of this writing, there are open seats in all rows, so act now before things start filling up! Get yours at this link or at the in-person box office at Station Mall, and visit the above links for more details!

Next up, let's finish up this weekend's known hard rock/punk concert previews, starting with new local acoustic punk duo Dos Amigos' involvement in the Lot & Loaded Parking Lot Jam outside of Forty Five Social TONIGHT! This is an outdoor acoustic concert taking place during/after the Sault Ste. Marie Festival Of Beer down Queen Street East, which has bands of their own at the Downtown Plaza (as previewed in our last post), so the 117 Spring Street men's clothing store is capitalizing on the festivities by hosting concurrent live music along with offering cocktails behind the store on their patio and attached parking lot. Of course, Dos Amigos bandmates Dustin Jones & Mikey Hawdon are also playing at the Festival Of Beer at 3:30 PM with their alternative punk sextet Bookclub, so it'll be a busy day for them!

Dos Amigos play at 7:00 PM when the Festival of Beer is slated to end, with veteran local singer/guitarist Jay Case headlining at 9:00 PM, while folk artist Matthew James at 4:00 PM, Pillory bassist Blair St. John at 2:00 PM, and country musician Marty Frolick at 1:00 PM will kick off the program at Forty Five Social. Nice change of pace and alternative for music (and beer) fans today, so keep all of the action in mind downtown, and Dos Amigos' unplugged punk covers should find an amenable audience! Lot & Loaded is a free event, and 9&10 News is currently calling for mostly cloudy weather at 17° with no chance of rain. See above for more details, and no public Dos Amigos videos yet, we'll let you know when there are!

Lastly for this weekend's hard rock concerts, we'll zip across to Rudyard, Michigan, where local hard rock quartet The Nameless are advertised to return to Huck's Pub & Grill TONIGHT! Now, I do want to preface this by noting that the band has not publicized this concert on social media, and also did not do so for their advertised Huck's concert last month, while Huck's Facebook page hasn't acknowledged this show at all since this concert calendar from May 9th. At the same time, no one has said that it isn't happening, so I'll treat it as on unless otherwise stated, but it is odd that The Nameless would promote their recent shows at The Merch but not these. Assuming all is well, tonight's Rudyard gig will be The Nameless' second there with their current lineup, and their first show anywhere since the end of May. They are a talented hard rock band with lots of fun covers, so don't miss them tonight!

Notably, veteran local country musician Gary Hatch is playing a matinee concert today to tie in with Huck's customer appreciation day (complete with a pig roast!), but this is a separate 3 hour concert, and he isn't "opening" for The Nameless. That said, Huck's recent "nighttime" concerts have all had early start times, usually at 6:00 PM, tomorrow included, so don't be late! Expect a 21+ age limit and no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and here's The Nameless live!

Lastly for this post, let's look at some new videos from local hard rock quintet HeadF1rst in advance of their debut at Beck's Bar tonight! To promote the concert, one more teaser "Reel" was shared to their Facebook page, which features frontman Red Jettison and guitarist Rainey Rancourt standing outside of Beck's physical signage while debating ways to get the word out about tonight's concert. Rainey has many ideas, but will Red like any of them? Find out there, and then go see them on Goulais Avenue tonight! For something longer and embeddable, the band posted a second music video from their new album "Road Trippin'" onto their YouTube channel on May 28th (apologies for the two+ week delay), and this time, it's for the song "Steam"! Red compiled this video entirely out of public domain black-and-white cartoons from the 1930s, expanding on that concept after using an early Disney cartoon in the "Slay The Dragon" video.

This video was edited around cartoons that had something to do with trains given the song's allusion to steam engine trains, namely the Looney Tunes short Porky's Railroad and the Fleischer Studios cartoon Betty In Blunderland (a pre-Hays Code cartoon, at that!). I'm a classic cartoon buff, so I approve of re-appropriating public domain cartoons from Porky Pig & Betty Boop in this manner, and while I might prefer actually seeing HeadF1rst in their own video, Red did a good job editing this to match the song. Check out the "Steam" video below, and you may hear them play it tonight at Beck's!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Dos Amigos & Curtis McKenzie), A New Song, And More Updates!!

We've made it to the month of June, and as far as I'm concerned, the summer season has also begun! Starting off things for June 2025 is a new news post featuring LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (one on very SHORT NOTICE), a new single from a local metal project, and some assorted recent notes, so here's what you should know on this Sunday morning!

Former Project 421/Eclipse frontman Curtis McKenzie will return to Beck's Bar for a matinee concert TODAY! Apologies for the short notice, this gig is legitimately a late notice replacement show due to folk singer/guitarist Matthew James dropping out of his planned Sunday matinee date there for publically unannounced reasons. Hopefully all is well with Matthew, but kudos to Curt for slotting in on a day's notice, and if you missed him at The Dive on Thursday, you have another chance to see his hard rock covers earlier than you may have realized! However, TODAY's matinee is a change from the former Vibe Lounge's usual scheduling, as it will have a special start time of 1:00 PM rather than 3:00 PM. This is to accommodate Beck's Bar's late involvement in the United Ironworkers Motorcycle Club 786's annual Poker Run, which will see participating bikers stop in at Beck's en route. Click here for full details on the Poker Run itself.

Should be a unique atmosphere for this concert, especially so recently into Beck's run since re-opening, and hopefully there's a good turnout for Curtis' covers at this Goulais River nightclub TODAY! As usual, expect a 19+ age limit and no cover, and remember, this show starts two hours early for the Poker Run's benefit, so Curt's not guaranteed past 5:00 PM. Visit the above links for more on TODAY'S late notice concert, and here's Curt live!

Next up, new local acoustic punk cover duo Dos Amigos will take part in the Lot & Loaded Parking Lot Jam outside of Forty Five Social on Saturday, June 14th! This special multi-act concert is being held concurrently with the annual Sault Ste. Marie Festival of Beer, and will take place in the parking lot of the men's clothing store in the former Salvation Army building at 117 Spring Street, which is just a stone's throw from the Festival of Beer itself, and "crafty cocktails" will be offered on site while checking out Lot & Loaded. We await full confirmation on the Downtown Plaza music lineup for the festival proper, but the Parking Lot Jam means that Mikey Hawdon & Dustin Jones will be pulling double duty, as they'll be playing prior at some point with their alternative cover band Bookclub. Should be a fun, if busy day for Mikey & Dustin, so don't miss out in two weeks at both locations! At Forty Five Social, Dos Amigos are co-headlining at 7:00 PM, which is when the Festival of Beer itself ends.

Headlining here is veteran local musician Jay Case at 9:00 PM, while the other musicians are the aforementioned Matthew (or "Matty") James at 4:00 PM, Pillory bassist Blair St. John at 2:00 PM, and country music veteran Marty Frolick at 1:00 PM. There is no announced cover charge for this outdoor concert, and while there isn't a stated age limit, remember that this is coinciding with the Festival of Beer. Visit the above links for more details!

Also today, here's a brand new studio single from local deathcore duo Hollow Sky! Their third original song and first in just over a year, the song is called "To Die For", and according to the band, it's streaming "everywhere". Definitely not an accurate claim, as unlike their first two singles, it's not on Boomplay (yet?), let alone Bandcamp, Tidal, and so on. By "everywhere", they mean Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon Music, and Deezer. To promote the single, Hollow Sky ramped up their social media presence in the preceding weeks, including teaser "Reels" featuring the single cover artwork and clips of the song, one featuring guitarist Adam Fahrer playing a djent riff from it. While we're in the unembeddable and vertical portion of this post, they also shared a "Reel" of Adam playing along with Dream Theater's "Strange Deja Vu", a song whose riff he loves. Sounds good to me!

The last teaser video (not a "Reel" despite being vertically framed) features on-screen lyrics for the sample clip, implying that they might be posting a full lyric video for "To Die For", but as best as I can tell, there isn't one yet. Featuring clean vocals along with death growling from Liam Tallon alternating relatively frequently, this track has a catchy bounce to it while still displaying really solid technical guitar work, and the production suits everything well, so it's great to see Hollow Sky back at it! No word on if we'll be waiting another year for their fourth song, but give yourself something to die for below, and stay tuned for more Hollow Sky updates!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

 

• I have moved local hardcore punk solo project Choking On Appendages to our inactive band links. A heavier solo project than we had previously seen from Hails/Agnosticism guitarist Mikhal Muto, C.O.A.'s only public activity was the release of their debut EP "Macabre" on Bandcamp on May 30th last year, with no further social media pages launching for the project. I liked what I heard from Choking On Appendages, and hopefully Mikhal revisits them down the road, but follow his current bands and promoted concerts to see what he's currently up to!
• Also back in our inactive links is local death metal band Chronic Demonic, who have not posted on their Facebook page since one year ago yesterday. A long-gestating group led by ex-Frightlight guitarist Kevin Powe & ex-Faithless Sin bassist Ryan Gratton, Chronic Demonic played live just once, covering The Misfits at the former Roosevelt Hotel back in 2013, though they continued updating fans on their updates (or lack thereof) for over a decade afterwards. Their perseverance was always nice to see, and it'd be great to see that proper concert down the road! Hopefully we hear more from Nik, Kevin, Ryan, Jonathan, and other ex-members soon, and R.I.P. Sabrina!
• In a late addition to the Derev-headlined concert at Soo Blaster on May 23rd, promoter Tyler St. Amour (also using his middle name William in the advertising) opened the show with a solo set, as per his agency Heavy North Entertainment's Facebook page that morning. Tyler's addition was "due to some scheduling conflicts", but whether he was replacing advertised solo opener Chase Wigmore or was an extra act, I can't immediately confirm. As a musician, Tyler is best known as a metal bassist and vocalist with bands like Them and Bardo, but this was implied to be an acoustic set, so it'd be interesting to hear how he sounds in that format!

 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (40 Sons), New Audio Tracks, And SMS Layout Updates!!

Our recent busy stretch at the SMS continues tonight with some more news and notes, so what's on tap? Along with some updates to the layout of the site in recent days, we also have some new audio tracks to share from some heavier local projects, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for a very familiar band's return next month!

Just four days after their well received return to Sault Ontario, Hamilton hard rock quartet 40 Sons will return to The Rockstar Bar on April 5th for their second local concert in just over a month! I've heard fantastic things about their sound, energy, and professionalism from their show on Thursday, and this is an awesome bonus to add to the end of their Hurricane tour on their way back from Manitoba! Such a quick turnaround isn't entirely new for 40 Sons' local dates either, as they played Coch's Corner gigs 3 months apart in late 2009 & early 2010. Beyond the Friday placement, there will be one extra difference on April 5th: a local opening band, as hard rock quartet The Suicide Kings will play their first (likely) Rockstar Bar gig in 2013 to open for 40 Sons! Their first non-headlining gig since Toystock, their mix of hard rock originals and varied covers should lend itself really well for this show next month, and it'll be great to see them back at it! Like their show here on Thursday, the April 5th 40 Sons gig has no cover charge, a 19+ age limit, and a 10:00 PM start time. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

I think I'll have to swing by The Rockstar Bar on April 5th to check out the action, especially with all the positive buzz from last week! Hopefully both bands are awesome, and check the above links for more details!

Next up, here's the latest updates from local grunge band Haggith and their drummer Mike Haggith's solo project! Both have uploaded some new studio material onto their respective Facebook pages, including this new Facebook video of Mike Haggith's solo original "Drown" (well, an instrumental mix of it), as to be featured on his forthcoming 46th solo album "The Present Din". Without giving anything away, the song is softer like his indications of the album's overall sound, but it does build late. I fully expect to review this album later this year upon it's release (maybe in the summer?), but for now, give the "Drown" demo a listen at this location! As a Facebook video, I can't embed it here, but this I can, an audio recording of the Haggith band's original song "Loverbeam" from their upcoming album "Deuce"! Wrote by singer/guitarist Curtis McKenzie's brother/old bandmate Travis, it's a 2 minute original from the guys (minus bassist Caleb Cachagee for unknown reasons), as uploaded to their YouTube channel on Friday.

Fans of Haggith's earlier hard rock/grunge material should enjoy this short rocker, so check out Haggith's new studio track (recorded at PaperClip Productions) below, and stay tuned soon for more news and notes from (Mike) Haggith as it rolls in!



Also in new audio tracks on YouTube, newer Sault Ontario goregrind project Crucify The Whore uploaded a new song named "Fisting Your Nephew" onto label Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel on Saturday! Off of their newest demo "Fetel Pig Dissection", it has a fuller & heavier sound than their past originals that I've heard (despite it's 64 second length), but the pig squeal & grunt vocals are still an acquired taste. Note that due to some of the imagery on the demo's cover art (including a dissected pig, a'la the demo title), I've embedded just the audio here, but you can still click through to see the full video if you want. Though I'm not offended personally, I don't want to risk offending any readers who may be sensitive to some of the imagery, but no offense is meant to Crucify the Whore or Blood Shed Productions! I appreciate what they're doing and respect their stances on their music and artwork, and if you're up for some new local grind/gore music, check out C.T.W.'s new song below!

Finally for today, I wanted to address some recent changes to the layout of the SMS. If you've noticed some minor additions and removals, it's just to balance out the Sault Ontario & Sault Michigan sides of the page, and better categorize certain links. The "Other Local Metal Links" sections on either side were too large and text-heavy for easy navigation, so I moved a bunch of links from there into their own categories in between the band links and "other" links, so what's changed? I added sections for local music festivals on both sides of the border, and for just Sault Ontario, I added link categories for local internet radio stations/podcasts, local concert/musician photographers, and inactive local concert venues with surviving online pages, with link changes & edits where needed. I also moved our monthly polls onto the right-hand side of the page (and added a section there devoted to links to SMS pages on other websites) to help balance out the two sides, as Sault Michigan still has a lot less links and features. Hopefully this makes things easier to navigate and group, so check things out and see what you think!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news in the next few days as we continue a busy stretch to lead off the month of March! 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!