LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Banned), More Weekend Concert Previews, And Show Cancellations!!

(Updated at 2:52 PM) As planned, we have our preview of tomorrow's Northwest show here, but with a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, we're now leading off with that in this post! Also, we're rounding things out with one more preview for later this weekend, and a pair of big concert cancellations, so here's what you should know on this Friday morning!

Kinross, Michigan classic/hard rock cover trio Banned will return to The Runway Bar in nearby Hessel for one night only TONIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, we only heard about this show via Banned's Facebook page yesterday, though the venue's Facebook page first announced the set via this photo last week. Banned haven't announced non-Kewadin shows with advance notice in months, which also explains why we missed their April 13th & 14th Hessel gigs for coverage on here last month (belated and profuse apologies for that), but The Runway Bar has announced both earlier than Banned has, so I'll have to pay more attention to their Facebook page in the future. In any event, Alex, Wayne, and Don should have another night full of familir favourites for fans out in Hessel TONIGHT, so don't miss out on all of this action! There is a 9:00 PM start time for this show, which has a 21+ age limit and no announced cover charge. See the above links for more details, here's Banned live, and we will stay more on top of Banned's future Hessel gigs, I promise!

Next up for this weekend, Sault Ontario indie/punk quintet Northwest will play their first public concert of 2017 when they headline at LopLops Lounge TOMORROW NIGHT! After taking a 9 month hiatus from the stage since opening for 1971 last August, this talented veteran outfit will take a break from their recent studio sessions to headline at LopLops with a show full of their established and newer originals alike, so don't miss out on Northwest's return tomorrow! Guitarist Greg Callaghan was confirmed as a late opening act via his personal Facebook page this afternoon, so don't be late for his often evil covers! Also, in case you were curious, Winnipeg country musician Richard Inman is playing at LopLops tonight. Tomorrow's Northwest show has a 9:00 PM start time, a $5 cover charge, and a 19+ age limit. For more information on this concert, visit the official Facebook event page, and here's Northwest live in concert last year!



Also, here's one more concert preview for later this weekend, as local alt-hard rock trio The Din will provide special acoustic sets during SUNDAY'S Family Market on the Greens at Crimson Ridge Golf Course! A very unique locale and event for our coverage, the Fourth Line West location will welcome dozens of local vendors and businesses to the golf course under provided tents to display and sell their wares, while the golf course proper and the on-site Hickory Bar & Grill will also be available to attendees, and there will even be a bouncy castle, games, and more to take in, so visit the official Facebook event page for full non-musical details! The Din will be playing scattered sets throughout the day as a two-piece sans drummer Brandan Glew for unannounced reasons, but as we have seen in the past, The Din acclimate well to an unplugged setting, with or without a drum kit or cajon present, so keep an eye out for Mike & Tammy on Sunday!

Events kick off on Sunday at 12:00 PM for the Family Market on the Greens, admission is FREE, and this is certainly an ALL AGES event. For more details on all of the entertainment and vendors on Sunday at Crimson Ridge, visit the above links, and for a preview, here's The Din live!

Finally, we have a pair of Canadian Nightclub concert cancellations for next month to take note of. One is the planned Rad Zone Battle of the Bands scheduled for next Saturday, with the event page noting that the event will be rescheduled for an unspecified later date. Promoter J.D. Pearce noted to me that slow band registrations were a contributing factor, which is definitely disappointing, but hopefully the battle gets a new date soon! A now-deleted post on the Facebook event page noted that the judges next week would have been Dustin Jones and myself once again alongside Pointless frontman Bill Priddle (replacing Rob Speers), and while I can't speak for potential changes for the new date, I'm happy to return if available! The other cancellation is for the Jesse Merineau/Din concert from Jeremy Hannah's new SaultMusicScene agency on June 30th due to an "unfortunate circumstance", as per the Facebook event page earlier today.

No word on what happened specifically, but Jeremy did direct fans to follow the July 7th Vaultry concert at the same venue from Live705. Hopefully Jeremy can get his concert bookings back off the ground, so be sure to stay tuned for updates on their next gigs! For what it's worth, blues/country outfit The Barn Board Trio had replaced Bizotic as tentative openers prior to the cancellation. That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Din), Two Inactive Band Notes, And A New Video!!

Here's another new post for you guys on this Tuesday morning, so what's on tap for this morning? A new solo performance video, two notes on bands to be moved to our inactive band links, and leading things off, an unexpected LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this month, so here's what you should know!

Local alternative/hard rock trio The Din will play acoustic sets at a unique event on Sunday, May 28th, namely the Family Market on the Greens at.... Crimson Ridge Golf Course?! That's a first for us! This event will see over 40 local vendors displaying and/or selling their wares under a tent outside, with access to the gold course proper and their Hickory Bar & Grill also available that day, and there will even be a bouncy castle for the kids, games, and more, so visit the official Facebook event page for full non-musical details! The Din's sets will be as an acoustic duo sans drummer Brandan Glew (no word on why he's missing out), but Mike & Tammy have adapted to an unplugged atmosphere well in the past, and they should provide a solid soundtrack to the family market one week from Sunday! They'll play at scattered times during the day between 12:00 & 9:00 PM, there is FREE admission, and this is certainly ALL AGES.

And just for clarification given it's unfamiliarity for our coverage, Crimson Ridge is at 418 Fourth Line West, very much in the west end, so keep that in mind if you're curious on the locale. Visit the above links for more details, and hopefully this intriguing family market is a hit!

Next up, we have a band to likely move to our inactive band links, that being local extreme metal quartet Winkstinger. The band hasn't issued a public update since opening for The Bear Hunters at The Oddfellows Hall one year ago on Sunday, which notably comes just over three years after the first time we relegated Winkstinger in our listings for very similar reasons. After a successful local run from 2010-2013 that saw them play numerous high profile concerts and win 2012's Battle for the Blood, the Operation: Killdozer successors fell inactive for 2 and a half years, before guitarist Jesse Cook & drummer Jonas Gasperas brought Winkstinger back in October 2015. Their new lineup returned for two shows last spring, both at The Oddfellows Hall, but no public updates have followed, and members have been working on separate projects in recent months, including Jesse & Jonas' recent collaborative work in The Elements, and solo projects from new members Keith Gagnon & Andrew MacDonald.

Winkstinger's return to the stage was definitely welcomed last year, even if the new members were an adjustment following their successful run in the early 2010s, and I have no idea what's happened to them in the past year. Granted, Jesse has been busy since with Jack Spades (well, until the fall), The Elements, and his new band Handsome Sandwich, but Winkstinger's brutal metal onslaught was always a fun sight on local stages, and the new lineup had promise from what we saw! Best of luck to Keith, Jesse, Andrew, and Jonas (plus other former band members) in the future, and hopefully Winkstinger turn up again down the road!

Also, we have a local hard rock solo project to move to our inactive band links too, that being of Din frontman Mike Haggith. Now, Mike is most certainly still active in the local music scene (as you'll next see THIS SATURDAY), but we're talking about his prolific solo project, as an update reflecting his own solo material has not been posted to his Facebook page since one year ago on Monday, admitting then that his solo work "isn't even a priority" due to The Din's local rise. After launching his solo music career in his Windsor hometown in 2005, Mike recorded a staggering 47 solo albums, including a number of prominent albums since moving to the Soo in the fall of 2010, such as his last solo CD "The Warinside" from 2015. Mike did play scattered solo gigs locally, including at Swampstravaganza IV and at Sault College events, but will be best known on the live stage from work with bands like The Din, Haggith, and The Strange Coyotes.

When Mike first came onto our radars at the SMS, it was a massive influx of back catalog material that initially made an impact, but he's since became a prominent and talented frontman & drummer in locally-originated projects, and has found a lot of success and visibility in that regard! Of course, his solo career isn't entirely behind him, as he's carried over a number of solo songs to The Din (and previously featured some with Haggith), but hopefully he revisits his own solo music down the road, including the unreleased "Neighbourhood Watch Revisited". Stay tuned for much more from The Din!

Finally, here's a new video from Sault Michigan classical metal project Theatre of Night's YouTube channel! Like his Alter Bridge cover from December, this is far more in line with keyboardist Craig Harrison's solo channel postings of late despite being posted on Theatre of Night's channel. An original ballad named "Without Your Love", this maintains the same visual structure of Craig's recent solo videos on either channel (sepia tone, holding a Go-Pro camera selfie-style, cowboy hat), but it has a similar emotional message to loved ones of his, and has dramatic piano accompaniment that gives the song a dark yet familiar feel. Check it out below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews, poll results, and more in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Nudge, The Danger Cats, And Exiled), More Concert Previews, And More!!

Thanks to some SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, our second post with weekend concert previews to start the month is much higher in that regard than we had anticipated! The new shows & one previously announced gig (plus an additional new show later in the month) lead off this post, but we also have some late updates for a Sault Ontario all ages concert tomorrow night, so read on below for what you need to know!

Ishpeming/Marquette hard rock cover quartet Nudge will return to The Satisfied Frog in Sault Michigan for headlining concerts TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, we just heard about these shows last night, though they had been advertised on Reverbnation before recently. These will be Nudge's first appearances in our neck of the woods since rocking the Frog in May, and unless a December return is planned, will be their last Soo stops of 2014, so if you've missed Danzo and company, keep their hard rocking good times in mind for tonight & tomorrow! Note that this weekend's shows will also bookend a mini-golf tournament at 2:00 PM tomorrow between the band and Satisfied Frog staff at Lockside Mini Golf at 447 West Portage Avenue (across from the locks), which you can attend if you want to cheer on the band and/or Frog crew! For the actual concerts, admission is likely free, you must be 21 to enter, and 9:00 PM start times are likely. For more details, visit the above links, and for a preview, here's Nudge covering Alice In Chains!



Also in new concert discoveries for this weekend, Sault Ontario all-female hard rock quartet The Danger Cats will headline at The Rockstar Bar TOMORROW NIGHT! Again, apologies for the short notice, the girls only announced this show yesterday. Hyped as a "the back to school show", this will be their first headlining concert appearance since their weekend at The Esquire Club in July, and with their set opening for The Red Rails still fresh in the memory, their originals and covers should go over well with the Rockstar Bar faithful tomorrow! For reference, this is a one-night-only gig due to the previously announced Summer Thunder show at this venue tonight. A $5 cover charge is likely for tomorrow's Danger Cats concert, you must be 19 to attend, and a 10:00 PM start time is in place. For more details, click here! Late notice or not, The Danger Cats should put on a solid show tomorrow, so keep it in mind for an entertaining night of local hard rock, and for a preview, here are the girls at The Rockstar Bar last month!



Lastly for our known hard rock concert previews this weekend is a previously announced show from new Rudyard, Michigan band Exiled, who also have a new concert to announce for later this month too! They'll first rock Kincheloe TONIGHT as the live entertainment at The Bunker at The Oaks at Kincheloe golf course (at 50 Woodside Drive), which is part of a night golf event to raise money for the autism charity Corner Pieces. Great cause, and a unique setting for a concert (band name typos aside!) Admission to the golf event itself is $30 a person, but I'm unsure if Exiled's set will be independent of that fee or will only be available as part of it. There's no announced age limits, and a 9:00 PM start time is announced. This show precedes a new announcement for Exiled, as they'll be (among?) the entertainment at the "Wild In Da Wilderness" party for the local branch of the Jokers Motorcycle Club of Michigan on Saturday, September 20th, which is publically attendable! Located at 7100 M-129 (close to the 7 Mile Road turnoff), this 21+ event will have live music, food, prize raffles, bike games, and free camping from 1:00 PM on that day, so visit the official Facebook event page for full details!

Both of these shows will also be Exiled's first as a quintet, with the band adding guitarist Joe Jenkins (Full Throttle) and bassist Myke Young (Division of Sanity) to their lineup in recent weeks, and with frontman Donny Newell visibly moving to just vocals rather than playing guitar too. Nice to see a fuller lineup, and with Joe & Myke's bands recently not doing too much, it's nice to see them staying busy with a new project! These are unconventional shows for Exiled, but both are for good causes and connections, so keep each in mind, and don't miss Exiled's night golf set TONIGHT in Kincheloe!

Finally for today, here's some late updates concerning TOMORROW'S IDNS-headlined all ages show at The Oddfellows Hall! In terms of the lineup, it appears that local doom/punk trio The Revolution have quietly been removed from the new band schedule on the Facebook event page, though a reason for the former Brutaly Fatal's exit has not been announced by the band or promoters. Hopefully things are alright in their camp, and we'll keep you guys posted when we hear more from The Revolution! Concerning acts that are playing, local grunge/punk solo project Telephone & Address confirmed on their Facebook page tonight that they will indeed release their new CD "Need Not Apply" tomorrow night! Chris projected $15 sale costs for the album, which has 15 songs likewise, and the cover of one copy is pictured. Nice to see, and the timing makes perfect sense, so keep an eye out for the new Telephone & Address album tomorrow! Remember, tomorrow's concert is ALL AGES, admission is $10, everything starts at 5:00 PM, and I hope to be there too, so don't miss out on one of the first big metal shows of the fall!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post tomorrow, and more in the coming days! Thanks everyone!