LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Highway 63 & The Wyld Stallyns!!)

Before we begin today's post, I wanted to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali, who passed away earlier today at the age of 68, after a year+ long battle with pancreatic cancer. The longest serving member of the pioneering Los Angeles metal band, and the face of the group since their 2010 reunion, Frankie drummed on all but Quiet Riot's first two albums, and was behind the kit for their platinum selling LPs "Metal Health" & "Condition Critical". Local fans will recall seeing Frankie & Quiet Riot with Dokken & Skid Row at The Dreammaker's Theatre at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino in October 2005, and perhaps earlier still, though I won't get into everything surrounding their cancelled March 2017 Sault Ontario date. Frankie was a skilled drummer who fought cancer bravely, and Quiet Riot's role in metal's commercial explosion in the 1980s cannot be understated. R.I.P. Frankie, you will be missed!

Now, today's news post deals with (believe it or not) LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS on each side of the border, one a SHORT NOTICE one for this weekend, and one coming next week from a familiar group we've only seen in videos as of late! With all of that said, here's what you should know!

Sault Michigan classic/hard rock cover quartet Highway 63 will end their local run with one final public concert set on SUNDAY outside of frontman Henry Switzer's own business Hank's Body Shop! Apologies for the short notice, the show was only announced via the band's Facebook page on Monday. After an over 6 year run on the local scene, Highway 63 are reportedly disbanding due to guitarist Nathan Switzer (Henry's son) moving out of town, so this event will serve as a send-off party for him. This "farewell jam" will be Highway 63's first live set as a band since the pandemic shutdowns, and this is absolutely a public event despite the non-traditional locale. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, refreshments are strictly on a "bring your own beer/food" model, but admission is free, and a 12:00 PM start time is advertised. This show is weather permitting, and while a lot can change before then, note that 9&10 News is calling for scattered thunderstorms that day.

For curious attendees in the E.U.P., Hank's Body Shop (who fix, buy, and sell used vehicles) is located at 3757 South Mackinac Trail, just down the road from Dondee Lanes, and the band will be set up behind the shop. Now, what does Nathan's big move mean for his St. Ignace-based progressive metal band Heavy Lies The Crown? I don't expect it will change a lot, honestly, as personal Facebook postings indicate that he's moving downstate to Holland, where drummer Cale Krist already lives. H.L.T.C. have never been a regular sight on local stages, and so far, they've managed to run just fine with Cale not living up here. However, Nathan's move will definitely take adjusting for local fans familiar with his cover repertoire with his dad, not to mention his original output in prior solo and band projects. He's a talented guitarist, and I know he'll be a musical asset wherever the road takes him!

Note that Nathan was never a member of Highway 63's side project Mackinaw Trail, who also promoted this event on Facebook, but will Henry, George, and Ron continue forward in that band? Time will tell, but Highway 63 had a good run locally and achieved a solid fan base with their hard rocking covers, and hopefully the weather cooperates to give Nathan a strong send-off THIS SUNDAY! Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Highway 63 live in Sault Ste. Marie last fall!



Finally for today, here's that other new concert, as Sault Ontario acoustic hard rock quartet The Wyld Stallyns will end their live concert drought with a one night only event on Friday, August 28th at The Rockstar Bar! After 5 months without live bands at The Algonquin Hotel's upstairs nightclub, they are starting to bring back live music this weekend with jam-encouraged solo shows by ex-Phatstick frontman Jason Taillefer (details here), but next Friday's show will be their first with a band. The Stallyns have not played a Rockstar Bar show since 2019, with a February date there called off due to a band member falling ill, so if you've been waiting to see the Speers', Jesse, and Jonas together in person for the first time post-shutdown, next Friday is your next chance! Venue advertising does not blatantly outline the bar's social distancing rules for this event, but it's safe to assume that face masks are mandatory to enter the building.

I would imagine that they'll be operating at reduced capacity given the ongoing pandemic, and of course, please use common sense if you are thinking about attending. Hopefully Jason's shows and next weekend's will be a good harbinger of things to come at The Rockstar Bar! Otherwise, expect a 19+ age limit, no cover charge, and a 9:00 PM-ish start time. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and stay tuned for more news and notes in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: FRANKIE BANALI & Amanda Brown

With a slow news patch and a forecasted quiet concert weekend ahead, I expect to do some condensing this week, so let's keep the site active with this month's YouTube Channel Profiles a day early! Our monthly spotlight of 1-3 randomly selected YouTube channels with at least 50% local metal, hard rock, and/or punk content has taken us to two channels this month, including one unfortunate video hyping a show that didn't happen, but more still from a unique local band who we haven't seen nearly enough of on stage. Here's what you need to know!
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FRANKIE BANALI (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBO9pKFVZd0rB-EtNqiwwbg)

Owner: Unknown (the channel is named for Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali, but I don't think he'd launch a YouTube channel solely to advertise a single concert.)

Channel Timeline: Launched on March 29th, 2013; Only video uploaded on March 13th, 2017

Channel Summary: Posted two weeks out from their planned headlining concert at The Machine Shop on March 30th, this short video features Frankie Banali hyping up Quiet Riot's intended local return show, as well as noting that tickets were selling fast. This video felt slightly rushed, but it was solid promotion for this show, straight from the metal legends' longest serving member! It's too bad that promoters CSA International indefinitely postponed the concert due to "reasons beyond our control", and it's not clear if the show will ever be re-booked, so keep that in mind when viewing this clip. Also, this channel has not been publically used otherwise.


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Amanda Brown (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBO9pKFVZd0rB-EtNqiwwbg)

Owner: Noochin' Lanterns drummer, Apocalypse Afterparty songwriter, and Smokin' Heroines co-founder Amanda Brown, a.k.a. Apocalypse Afterparty MPC sample player "z"

Channel Timeline: Launched on May 23rd, 2014; Videos posted from that August through December 2016

Channel Summary: Ostensibly a personal use channel, Amanda has devoted five of her six videos to early performances and songwriting by her band The Apocalypse Afterparty, though all of these videos precede the debut of "z" in their lineup. Her only other video is of her and boyfriend/bandmate Paul Stanghetta touring their new house this past December, and is not otherwise music related.

Why You Should Watch: You should give Amanda's channel a look primarily as a source for early footage of The Apocalypse Afterparty, before their public concert debut and expansion beyond two man sets, so if you're curious to see this elusive band in action, this is a good spot! However, this channel doesn't feature any content from The Apocalypse Afterparty's public concerts or later quartet lineups, nor does it feature footage of The Noochin' Lanterns, though Amanda's last noticeable usage of her channel isn't that long ago, so newer videos could easily turn up.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out

The Apocalypse Afterparty- The Crowd: Four of Amanda's five Apocalypse Afterparty videos come from their set at Six, Two, Oh.'s private concert festival Das Bunkerfest in Garden River back in August 2014, where The A.A.'s initial duo lineup were among the openers for The Archaics. Featuring founding singer/bassist "Z" & former drummer "X" (a.k.a. Paul Stanghetta & ex-Smeltzer bandmate Steve Mozarowski), they're seen here playing two untitled songs (linked here & here), as well as a cover of Lorde's "Glory & Gore" and, in Amanda's most popular video, a rendition of "The Crowd" from Paul's old band The Fury. Solid crowd reception here for this masked twosome, complete with a British accent & a dress, and these videos capture The Apocalypse Afterparty's unique rap/metal hybrid sound in it's minimalist early months! FYI, their public concert debut occured the following month.



New song!: Shortly after her Das Bunkerfest uploads, Amanda posted this video of her and Paul working on a new song for The Apocalypse Afterparty, with Paul rapping and playing the piano one-handed, and both handling percussion. The song doesn't sound familiar to the four tracks that made the cut for their 2017 debut EP "Bufflesnort", but it has a lively sound for fans of The A.A.'s more hip-hop-based material, and Paul does handle the drums and piano fairly well given that he's doing them simultaneously!


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profiles! Next month in this series, we'll again be looking at multiple profiles, as our next random selection gave us a channel with a single video, so we randomly chose one more channel with two distinct video types to round things out. That said, we'll look at YouTube user lukera81's channel (featuring a video from Kiss' Kewadin Casino concert in 2007) and local funk/hard rock quartet The Elements' official YouTube channel (featuring videos from two October 2015 concerts) next month, so look for these then, and stay tuned for more news and concert previews soon! Thanks everyone!

415E Concert Previews, Unsalted Audio Updates, And Much More!!

Let's round out this weekend's hard rock concert previews today, but also, we have some more recent updates to touch on, including some assorted recent updates from a few different sources, a new hype video for a big upcoming concert, and some news and notes regarding a fast-rising local recording studio. Now, here's what you should know!

Firstly, we'll close this weekend's announced hard rock concert previews with the return of Sault Michigan hard rock quartet 415E to The Northern Pines Lounge at the Kewadin Shores Casino in nearby St. Ignace TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Last seen during the Pop Evil concert weekend in the Soo last month, tonight's concert will of course give you a chance to partake in St. Patrick's Day potent potables tonight, so keep that and potential holiday promotions in mind if you're not planning to go elsewhere! As for tomorrow's show, 415E have hyped on their Facebook page that "a very special wedding anniversary" will be celebrated that night, so keep that angle in mind if you plan on coming Saturday (congratulations to the couple!) 415E aren't advertised to play anywhere next month, so if you can't wait until their May weekend in Sault Ste. Marie, prepare for 21+ age limits, no cover charge, and 9:00 PM start times tonight & tomorrow, as usual for their Kewadin gigs.

Check the above links for more details, don't miss 415E's hard rocking & Van Halen inspired covers tonight & tomorrow, and here they are live!



Next up, we can add Id Iota guitarist/Mike Mikus bassist Dustin Goodall's recording studio Unsalted Audio to our "Other Local Metal Links" section, as he's finally launched a website for the company! Ambitiously calling the studio "the future of music production in Northern Ontario", the website extensively lists the production equipment he uses for recordings, and outlines his goals and ambitions to provide artists (local or otherwise) with "world-class audio quality at affordable rates", while emphasizing that "mediocrity is the enemy" and aiming to establish emotional connections between artists and their intended audiences. So far, you'll have heard Dustin's production for Id Iota's debut EP, The Pixo Control's only CD, and Mike Mikus' debut single, while he also mixed and mastered AlgomA's half of their split with Chronobot, Inner City Surfers bassist Brad Example's 2015 solo single, and Jack Spades' third of their "Fed Up!" split CD.

In terms of upcoming projects, he has finished producing Mike's yet-released solo CD, while the website finally confirms that Id Iota are indeed recording their second CD currently and first full length album, and he's currently in pre-production for local death/thrash metal trio Pillory's second CD and a solo EP from Winkstinger frontman Keith Gagnon (though I have no idea what his solo music will sound like.) The website's a little wordy, but Dustin talks a big game and backs it up with his production quality so far, so be sure to contact him at goodalldustin@gmail.com or via the above links for quotes or information if you want to work with him on some studio music!

Also, here's a new YouTube video from this past Monday where Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali hypes up their show at The Machine Shop on Thursday, March 30th! This is a short video that does feel slightly rushed, but it's good promotion straight from Quiet Riot's longest serving member, and he's right, tickets are going fast, with half of available seats now sold out. Give it a look below, and click here to get your tickets A.S.A.P.!



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

• Rising Tide frontman and Tidal Records head Dustin Jones is featured in the cover photo of this week's issue of Sault This Week, where he's seen entertaining his son Jaycee through a puppet theatre at the Best Start Hub program at Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School last week. Cute photo, and it's nice to see Dustin back on a local stage of sorts, so look for the photo in the latest issue of the weekly free newspaper!
• Are local hard rock quartet Eclipse reuniting? Four months after their very messy breakup in early November, the band noted on their Facebook page that "we will be performing April 1st", while prior past tenses regarding their status have quietly been removed as well. I'm not going to jump to conclusions just yet, as this is April Fool's Day after all, but in case this is a legitimate reunion, stay tuned for updates!
• Local concert promoters Live705 have revealed on their Facebook page on Wednesday that their next concert will be an Easter holiday weekend event on Saturday, April 15th, breaking their pattern of one show every two months. A Facebook event page is forthcoming, alongside games and giveaways of some description, so be sure to stay tuned for details on those, not to mention the concert's venue, bands, and more!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for last month's poll results and our new poll tomorrow! Thanks everyone!