LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), Mid-Week Concert Previews, And An Inactive Band Note!!

No rest for the wicked, as while the weekend concert previews are over, there are also a healthy amount of weekday concerts to preview over the next few days, so let's address them tonight (including a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT), so here's what you should know, along with a prominent band now back in our inactive links!

Firstly for this mid-week batch of previews, local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will bring his acoustic solo act back to The Mike Case Memorial Stage outside of The Trading Post on WEDNESDAY, but after that, he will debut at The Up & Down Lounge on THURSDAY NIGHT as well! Apologies for the short notice on THURSDAY'S concert, it was only announced via its Facebook event page yesterday. The Up & Down Lounge (at 24 Second Line West beside the Surplus Furniture & Mattress Warehouse) is scarcely known as a concert venue, last seen on the SMS when Silent 9 played a private event last fall, but they're experimenting with outdoor patio concerts on THURSDAYS this summer, with Dodge This' Jason Taillefer first up there for weeks #1 and #2, though as best as I can tell, musicians perform indoors. They are looking for more artists too, leaning towards acoustic acts and DJs.

Message the lounge/indoor golf simulator venue at this link for details! Preceding his Up & Down debut on THURSDAY, Tym is back at The Mike Case Stage on Wednesday, so you have two outdoor(?) chances to see his unplugged hard rock covers mid-week! Wednesday's Trading Post show is at 6:30 PM, the Up & Down show runs from 6:00-9:00 PM on THURSDAY, the latter show is 19+, and neither has an announced cover charge. 9&10 News currently has 21-24° temperatures on Wednesday with sunny skies, and if things are 100% outside, it should be even warmer the next day. Click here and visit the above links for more on Tym's back-to-back mid-week solo concerts, and for a preview, here he is live!

Next up, we'll head to Beck's Bar, where they will host a special Tuesday concert TOMORROW NIGHT headlined by Cornwall hardcore/metal quartet Hellrager! Last seen locally at 2023's Northern Vibe Festival (after dropping out of the last two), this will be their first show in Sault Ste. Marie proper, and will also mark the local return of former Spades GT/Caym guitarist Jay Sarrazin, who filled in on bass with the former Jack Spades at Northern Vibe in 2022. It's good to see Beard back in town, and hopefully Hellrager melt faces with their bluesy yet in-your-face attack tomorrow night! Local openers tomorrow at Beck's include local death metal quartet Eden Plague, in the former Bear Hunters' first gig since Rotaryfest earlier this month, as well as their debut at the 232 Goulais Avenue nightclub. Also joining them tomorrow is extreme metal quintet With Gunfire in their first concert set of 2026.

No idea where the former Sault Side Squad have been lately, but hopefully more of their promising original slate is unleashed tomorrow! Promoted by Eden Plague drummer (and fellow Spades alum) Johnny Belanger, tomorrow's concert runs from 6:30-10:00 PM, which is just as well given the work/school night timing. This will be a 19+ show, but surprisingly, it will have no cover charge, so if you need an extra excuse to come out, now you have it! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details on tomorrow's intriguingly heavy concert in the west end, and here's Hellrager live!

Also, let's go downtown for another free concert TOMORROW NIGHT, this time from local Pearl Jam tribute band Even Flow! Last seen at the first Downtown Street Party of 2026 last month (more on the second one soon), tomorrow evening's concert will see them gather under The Roberta Bondar Pavilion tent as the fifth of eleven bands in the City of Sault Ste. Marie's annual Summer Concert Series, which sees live covers-leaning local bands perform free concerts on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in July and August. Even Flow are the second and last SMS-amenable band scheduled in the series for 2026, and hopefully this supergroup delivers a fun evening of grunge and alternative rock hits from the Pearl Jam catalogue for assembled fans tomorrow! Summer Concert series shows are all FREE & ALL AGES, and they run from 7:00-9:00 PM.

9&10 News is calling for sunny skies tomorrow evening with temperatures in the 20-21° range, which sounds perfectly agreeable, so visit the above links for more on Rob, Steve, Cameron, Mike, and Derek's big downtown concert, and here they are in a recent jam session!

Finally today, I have moved local midwest emo/post-hardcore trio Fuller to our inactive band links. The reunited band has not issued a public update since their headlining Stage 2 slot at Rotaryfest last year, though remember that bassist Mark Rand (who missed that concert) and drummer David Peredun both live out of town nowadays. After their successful 2002-2005 local run, Fuller surprised many by reuniting for a December 2023 concert at LopLops Lounge, later confirming plans to record their Mark-era original material in studio, with their full length album "II" released to major digital platforms in March of last year. To date, the album isn't on CD or vinyl, but their Rotaryfest set was a fitting culmination of their reunion era, Mark's absence aside. While my music tastes lie heavier, it was neat seeing a staple of my early local concert-going years back at it, and hopefully frontman Jamie Vincent revisits Fuller in some form when the time is right, as they were a welcomed attraction!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Hellrager & Krash), A New Local Band, And More News & Notes!!

Another packed news post is ready to check out for this Tuesday night, and it includes some recent shorter updates, two LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for later this summer with a common band, and first, a new addition to our links & coverage, so here's what you should know!

We have a new-ish local band to add to our active links, and they are local alt-rock quartet The Reeves! You may recognize this band from their debut set at Toystock in November, but at the time, I wasn't sure of their general sound, aside from what their predecessor bands played. The Reeves are basically the successors to 2023-2025 alternative band The Haze (f.k.a. Skinbox), with singer/guitarist/synth player Brad Irwin (ex-Gnaeus) and guitarist Steve Edwards (ex-Pixo Control/Vol.) returning from that group. The rhythm section here is filled out by former Long Shot bandmates Adam Dawe and Jeremy Ganuelas on bass and drums, and it is good to see them back in a new project! While sound descriptions of Skinbox/The Haze pointed to them playing alternative/indie rock and Arctic Monkeys covers, the write-up on Rotaryfest's website says that The Reeves "combine elements of hard rock/blues and other genres to create their own unique vibe".

No word on if the name is an allusion to small town mayors, celebrities named Reeve/Reeves, or some other reference, but their second public concert will see them as the first scheduled band at Rotaryfest Stage 2 on Saturday, July 18th, and their set will reportedly feature "a collection of songs that will become their debut EP". No media of The Reeves is publically streamable yet, but this is a talented group on paper, and they do have descriptions pointing to a heavier sound than The Haze/Skinbox had, though be advised that Steve or Brad took down The Haze's social media pages when that band broke up. Stay tuned for more from them when things go public!

Next up, relaunched local death metal quartet Eden Plague have announced two upcoming indoor concerts that they'll be rocking out at, so besides Rotaryfest, when can you see the former Bear Hunters next? The first of the two will be on Tuesday, July 28th, when they make their debut appearance at Beck's Bar, and the headliners will be Cornwall hardcore metal band Hellrager in their first regional concert since playing at the Northern Vibe Festival in 2023! That's not for a lack of trying, as they dropped out of the last two Northern Vibes, but it will be good to see Hellrager in city limits for a change! Nice punishing sound that is reminiscent of bands like Clutch and Motorhead, and remember that guitarist Jay "Beard" Sarrazin was a member of Spades GT from 2022-2023 (playing with them at Northern Vibe 2022 as a fill-in bassist). He previously came to the Soo with his old band Caym twice in the mid-2010s.

Joining Eden Plague as openers are local metal quintet With Gunfire (the former Sault Side Squad) in their first concert of 2026 and first since finally launching their own Facebook page. Hopefully their recent break has been fruitful towards their promising original slate! Promoted by Eden Plague drummer Johnny Belanger, this stop on Hellrager's Jurassic Punk tour will have a 19+ age limit, no cover charge(!), and an early runtime of 6:00-10:00 PM, which is just as well given that it's a work/school night. This should be a fun one for metalheads across the board, with lots of familiar faces, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

The other new Eden Plague show ahead will be at Blaster Powerhouse on Sunday, August 16th, and apologies for the almost month-long delay in this making the site. Compared to the metal show three weeks prior, this is more of a genre hybrid event as put on by promoters Underground Events SSM, and it will be headlined by Saskatoon "D-beat hardcore punk" band Krash in their local debut. If you like down and dirty hardcore punk with aggressive vocals, Krash will deliver the goods, and they should take names when they rock the former Soo Blaster in two months! Note that the Facebook event page claim that "we're getting our first Saskatchewan band in the Sault!" clearly only refers to Underground Events SSM bookings, as The Sheepdogs played here in April, among other bands from there in the past. Promoter Mikhal Muto's ska punk/"crackrocksteady" band A.S.D.P. are slotted ahead of Eden Plague in the band order here, and may be the last band if you believe the poster.

While not a hardcore punk act, it's only natural that Adam Smith Death Parade get in on this one! A 7:00 PM start time is advertised on the Facebook event page for this all ages concert, and tickets cost $10 in advance (I presume at the venue and through the local openers, as I haven't seen an online ticket sale page). The door charge will jump to $15, and given that this too is on a work/school night, Mikhal pledged that the show will end early due to that. Add another intriguing concert to the pile for your summer plans, just don't krash when driving to Blaster! Visit the above links for more details on both upcoming Eden Plague shows!

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

 

• While not yet confirmed by name within the band's slim social media presence, it looks like former One Shot guitarist Tucker Lidstone has joined the aforementioned A.S.D.P., making them a quartet. Tucker had previously performed at common folk punk-leaning events with frontman Mikhal Muto, and has been pictured in recent photos with the band, including at the Write-Ups show at The Speak Easy in May (source here). No word on if he is the guest guitarist "Keagles" from their debut album "Atom Bombs & Lemonade", but hopefully Tucker is a solid addition to their live roster! 
• Remember when a mystery act named "Benny's Acoustic Thing" was booked to open the Saturday bill at The Northern Vibe Festival last year? Well, that was supposed to be Ben "Boom" Poitras, the singer/bassist for the aforementioned Hellrager, but he and the band both dropped out of last year's festival after the heavy rainstorm severely damaged the Forest Stage overnight. It would have been interesting to hear how his acoustic thing sounded, but alas, blame Mother Nature! Thanks to former Forest Stage curator J.D. Pearce for confirming who Benny was.
• This is old news now, but it looks like the Sunday Night Vinyl Series ended on 104.3 The Fox and their sister Rogers Radio rock stations at the end of 2025, as did the conceit of on-air theme weeks (which always tied in with that week's album of choice). The 8:00 PM series featured Howard Mandshein from 92.1 CITI in Winnipeg spinning a classic rock album from front to back while discussing its backstory and legacy. While inconsistent depending on musical preferences, the Sunday Night Vinyl Series was an informative listen during The Fox's first year! I would have liked to seen newer bands/albums selected though, as well as more Canadian content.

 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the SMS soon! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Dopethrone), A New Local Band, And The Pop Evil Concert Preview!!

Today's post is stacked with big news and notes from the past week, including a very notable LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for extreme metal fans next month, our slightly delayed preview of a big headlining concert on Sunday night, and leading off, a very delayed addition to our Sault Ontario band links, so here's what you should know on this Friday night!

Local metal quintet With Gunfire have finally launched a Facebook page, so we can finally add them to our active band links! Why it took this long, I don't know, especially as their first gig was in July 2024, but better late than never! Originally known as The Sault Side Squad (a parody of The Suicide Squad) before adopting their current name in December, With Gunfire's lineup is (as far as I am still aware) comprised of The B.A.G.'s Spencer MacGillivray on vocals, A Dire Setback/Big Finish Band guitarist Chris Nielsen, former Jack Spades/Sativa Rose guitarist Anthony Orazietti, A.S.D.P./ex-Stoned To Deaf bassist William Wardlaw, and former Soldiers Of Misfortune/Elements drummer Jonas Gasperas, who played with Anthony in Winkstinger. The original Sault Side Squad singer was ex-As It Stands frontman and rapper Justin "Nadj" Pregent, who quietly left this band by September 2025.

Brand new content is slim on With Gunfire's Facebook page, but two new "Shorts" videos were shared from Jonas' YouTube channel, including this slideshow with silent live footage set to their studio original "M.F.C." (ignore the AI-generated image claiming a title of "A Hate Supreme"), but embedded below is a performance at the Fist Magnet/Spigots reunion concert at Soo Blaster in December that they opened and debuted their new name at. Some of the vertical videos here were uploaded as plain videos, so I don't know why this is a "Short", but the song here is promisingly thrashy despite some fans being in the road of the camera. Give it a watch below, and stay tuned for more new content from Jonas' channel!

Next up, here's that LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, as Montreal "slutch metal" trio Dopethrone will return to Sault Ste. Marie for a headlining concert at Jay's Piston Broke Pub on Monday, May 25th! Readers may recall seeing this long running doom metal outfit at the former New American Pub on Victoria Day in 2019, and while the same holiday is a week prior this year, it is great to see Dopethrone back after just over 7 years away, and they should keep things down and dirty (yet still brutal) at the former Roosevelt Hotel! Also joining Dopethrone on tour is Vancouver gothic/doom metal quintet Tribunal, a majority-female and cello-infused band that should turn heads with their brutal and atmospheric sound in their local debut, so don't bypass them! While most of this tour is a co-headlining jaunt with Portland black metal project Mizmor, they are not advertised for the Soo date.

The local openers are extremely notable on their own, even without the touring bands, starting with the surprise reunion of local/St. Catharines grindcore trio Shit Liver, whose last concert of their original run was the Dopethrone show at The New A! Concert advertising specifies that they are only playing a 15 minute set, so I'm reading this as a one-off reunion and not the start of anything major (remember, the now-short haired Josh Penno is largely focusing on The Golden Scoundrels nowadays), but this is a fitting way to see Shit Liver (at least) one more time! The other opening band is named Eden Plague, who are the renamed and relaunched local death metal band The Bear Hunters! A reason was not publically announced for the name change, but a fresh start after a year+ hiatus is as good a reason as any. Guitarist Mitch Sirie previously used the Eden Plague name for a short-lived black metal project in 2010 & 2011, distinct from his other solo work.

Of course, Mitch is no stranger to being in bands who had late period name changes (i.e. Stillbroke/Borderline Divine and The Suicide Kings/Beaumont Avenue). No word on if there will be any other changes to the band in sound or lineup, let alone if their 2023 "final album" plans are still around, but we'll let you know when we hear more from The Bear Hunters Eden Plague! A rare promotional effort by the aforementioned Josh Penno, this Memorial Day concert is a 19+ affair at 7:30 PM, and $20 advance tickets are on sale at Jay's and The Rad Zone (the door charge jumps to $25). A nice throwback death/doom metal show will be well worth seeing next month, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Finally for today's post, here's our preview of this weekend's main event, as Muskegon, Michigan hard rock quintet Pop Evil will return to our area for a headlining concert at The Machine Shop in Sault Ontario on SUNDAY NIGHT! Buzz for this show hasn't been as high as I had assumed, but this is notable because Pop Evil have a lot of Billboard rock chart success in the US, get frequent airplay on Rock 101, and have played in Sault Michigan seven times in the past decade & a half, most recently at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino just over three years ago. With hit songs like "Footsteps", "Skeletons", and "Waking Lions" in their back pocket, it will be interesting to see Pop Evil on the Canadian side of the border, and hopefully there's a strong turnout for their catchy original rock! Your openers on Sunday are Waterloo hard rock quartet Sierra Pilot (a former band of ex-Spades GT guitarist Jay Sarrazin).

Expect a diverse but explosive set of rocking originals from them in their local debut in three nights' time! This stop on Pop Evil's What Remains Tour is an all ages event at 8:00 PM, and tickets run for $45.20 (plus processing fees) at this link, at the door, or at the in-person box office at Station Mall. If you're curious, the ticket price is comparable to Pop Evil's 2023 show in Sault Michigan after you convert this ticket cost from CAD to USD. Hopefully this show (the third hard rock headlining event at The Machine Shop in less than two months) is a success, so visit the above links for more details, and here's Pop Evil live at Kewadin Casino the last time out!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next! Thanks everyone!

The Quite Frankly Concert Preview, Night Ranger Videos, And New Studio Recordings!!

Here's a new news post to check out on this Friday night, and along with finishing this weekend's hard rock concert previews, we have an upcoming EP release, a new studio track from a rising local metal band, and videos from a big local concert from last fall, so let's get things rolling!

We'll start by wrapping up this weekend's known hard rock concert previews, as reunited local classic/hard rock cover band Quite Frankly will debut at The Water Tower Pub TOMORROW NIGHT! One day removed from TONIGHT's Dodge This show at the same venue,  this will be their first show since rocking Beck's Bar in November and just their second public gig since their relaunch last summer.  It's worth noting that the Beck's gig last month actually featured new lead vocalist Linsaey L.W., not the departed Haley Alopaeus, so I apologize for the erroneous credit when we covered their Beck's video (embedded below) on here. Video quality on that assemblage of clips really varied, and the band didn't formally announce that Linsaey came on board until after that show had came and went, for what it's worth. Hopefully show #2 for the new Quite Frankly goes well tomorrow night, and that there's a solid turnout for their first gig of the new year!

As usual for The Water Tower Pub, tomorrow's show is an 8:00 PM affair with no announced cover charge and a 19+ age limit. If you haven't seen the revived Quite Frankly yet, get ready for a crowd-pleasing array of hard and classic rock covers tomorrow! Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here they are at Beck's last fall!

Next up, let's head across to Sault Michigan for some recent updates, starting with local metal solo project X's & Y's, who are releasing a new EP/single next month! It and its title track are named "Face The Moon, Forgive The Stars", and it sees project leader Jason Mills dipping into doom metal, drone, and horror territory on its four tracks. You can hear the title track in versions with and without vocals on their Bandcamp page, and while this is technically their first song with lead vocals, they did use spoken word on 2024's "The Obsidian Dream". Along with that song's two variants, tracks named "Hands Of Cydonia" and "Crater" will be included on the final product, which will presumably make its way to streaming services along with CD copies on its scheduled release date of February 13th. Jason even uses a tremoloa (a vintage zither used in part to replicate the Hawaiian steel guitar) here!

No word on what CD copies will cost, especially as this is a shorter EP, but X's & Y's first two albums cost $10 USD. Alas, our backlog of new album releases to review is massive, so I can't promise a review of "Face The Moon, Forgive The Stars" until August, but it's great to see a new EP soon to be on sale, especially from a talented Yooper project like X's & Y's! Stay tuned for more from them when it rolls in! 

Also today, here's some newly discovered videos from the Night Ranger concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at the local Kewadin Casino in October! These were filmed by attendee Nick Cepecawer in the first uploads on his YouTube channel, though he also filmed at Foreigner's show in Sault Ontario the following month. We didn't cover the Foreigner show here because I wouldn't say they're a "hard rock" band, but he got solid videos from that night! Nick did not film openers Nelson in November, but he did get eight videos of the headlining San Francisco hair metal quintet, including videos of Night Ranger playing "Sentimental Street", "Goodbye" in two chunks (here & here), part of "When You Close Your Eyes", the drum solo (that the whole band takes part in... literally!), "Sister Christian", and as embedded below, "(You Can Still) Rock In America" (which he accidentally uploaded twice).

While more distant from the stage than we tend to see for Kewadin concert videos of this stature, Nick was relatively central and used his zoom where needed, and the audio generally holds up! His videos help accentuate more how Night Ranger spreads the wealth for members taking lead vocal turns, and the drum solo is a fun diversion while it lasts! If you're a loyal Hair Scare listener, you'll enjoy these videos above and below!

We'll close today with a studio original recording from online page-less Sault Ontario metal band With Gunfire! Along with the previously-covered live videos on drummer Jonas Gasperas' new YouTube channel, the former Sault Side Squad are the stars of this upload, which lets us hear their song "M.F.C." (short for "Motherfucking Consequence") in clear studio quality, complete with gunshot sound effects added in post. It's amazing that this beat anything from Spencer's other band The BAG's upcoming album "Succubus" out! I don't know if this is a sign that With Gunfire are working on a proper album or not (I had seen a personal Facebook posting implying that it was recorded for a compilation of some kind), but the song has promise and takes from a lot of metal subgenres, including chugging groove metal riffs and diverse vocal styles, including gruff straight-forward singing and some harsh growling.

The guitar solo is quite good too! I don't know if Lamb Of God were an influence on the songwriting, but the pacing of some of the verses is reminiscent of "Redneck", especially if you speed the track up in the settings. It will be interesting to see what With Gunfire have cooked up with 2026 in full swing, so give "M.F.C." a listen below! 

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Headrush & Generations), Plus New Media From The Gambit & With Gunfire!!

Plans to put up this month's Defunct Local Band Profile have been slightly delayed, as LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS have crossed my radar, one on SHORT NOTICE! To round things out, we have new songs from a band who's more active than I realized, and more new live videos from a band we just talked about yesterday, so here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will rock The Full Throttle Saloon on Wellington Street West for the first time TONIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was first announced on the venue's Facebook page on Monday. Their second show of 2026 and third with new guitarist Joe Miller will see Generations making their way to the former Primavera Hall, so it will be good to see this veteran quartet make their way to a new locale, and hopefully things go well for them, the venue, and fans! Of course, if you're still unfamiliar with the amenities and other offerings at The Full Throttle Saloon, the venue's own promotional image will happily fill you in. TONIGHT's concert has a 9:30 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more on Generations' show TONIGHT, and here they are live!

Next up, let's stay at The Full Throttle Saloon, as fellow local classic/hard rock cover quintet Headrush will return there in three weeks' time, on Saturday, January 31st! As you may recall, the Johns, Wes, Gino, and Frank debuted at the new-ish Steelton nightclub last week, and the show was well recieved with a strong attendance, even if bassist John Amendola's teased photos from the gig never made their way to their Facebook group. Headrush don't play live as regularly as other local cover bands do, so things must have went well for them to get booked twice in January 2026 alone, and hopefully they end this month with a bang! The venue's Facebook page did get a video last week of Headrush, but I'll hold that for our preview of the new date. Like with Generations TONIGHT, Headrush at month's end are on at 9:30 PM with no cover and a 19+ age limit. Visit the above links for more details!

Also today, here's a mild surprise, as local punk supergroup The Gambit are still active and have launched a Bandcamp page featuring four studio original songs! We hadn't heard of anything from the former Sick Sons since they played at Rotaryfest Stage 2 in 2024, but unbeknownst to me, those new songs were posted in May and December of last year! Had I known that, they wouldn't have been moved to our inactive band links last summer (they're back in the active listings again), but they only belatedly acknowledged one of the songs on their Facebook page last month. As fans who have seen The Gambit live since their 2019 debut know, they have included original songs in their sporadic live dates, and the four on Bandcamp are named "Lonelier Tomorrow" (a tribute song to the late Guy Thiffault), "Border, Border" (inspired by the Canada/US border), "Fault Line" (about finding love in tumultuous times), and "Click-Bait" (which is self-explanatory).

The songs are posted individually as singles and not as a collective EP, but if you want to buy them as mp3s, they cost $1 apiece. There's a nice diverse array of punk-leaning styles here, including multiple lead vocalists, and while not as ripping and fast paced as Lucas, Steve, Christian, Dave, and Clint's 1990s and 2000s bands could get, genre fans will find a lot to like! "Lonelier Tomorrow" is obviously the most reserved of the four, given its memorial nature, and it naturally goes over well in concert! It's great to see that The Gambit are alive & well, and hopefully they have a busier 2026!

We'll close today with one more new live video from newly renamed (and still online page-less) local metal quintet With Gunfire, courtesy of drummer Jonas Gasperas' YouTube channel! When we touched on their videos from last month's Fist Magnet reunion concert at Soo Blaster, I did notice that Jonas had uploaded two more clips of them playing their original "Well Of The Dead" at different concerts. One of the videos was actually from last month's Broke & Hungry charity concert for Christmas Cheer at Beck's Bar, and if you're curious, the teased live-stream of the concert is now considered to be a private video. If Twitchy did indeed stream the event on YouTube on December 17th, then it was truly only to be seen remotely that night, alas. I'd love to recap it here if he did and publicized the video! The other video is embedded below, as it's longer and horizontally shot, but from what concert does it come from?

Based on the logos on the screen, this 100% came from the Napoleon-headlined concert at Soo Blaster that the then-Sault Side Squad played in September, and yes, new singer Spencer MacGillivray was in the band by this point. For visual quality (from orientation to how fans on the floor were placed), this is our best look yet at With Gunfire, who can definitely tear it up with varied extreme metal influences. Imagine them with a larger pit! The Broke & Hungry video isn't bad sounding, but it's more distant and vertical. Give both and more from With Gunfire a watch above & below!

That's all for now, but our next Defunct Local Band Profile is definitely coming next! Thanks everyone! 

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Project 906), The Headf1rst Concert Preview, And More Recent Updates!!

Tonight's post wraps up this weekend's hard rock concert previews (including a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT), but new videos from a newly renamed band and some assorted recent updates round things out. Here's what you should know on this Friday night!

Sault Michigan hard/blues rock quintet Project 906 will begin their year with a one-night-only concert TOMORROW NIGHT at The Merchant's Bar! Apologies for the short notice, the band quietly announced this show on their Facebook page on New Year's Day, which slipped us by late last week. After taking the last couple months of 2025 off, this will be 906's first concert since their Halloween gig in Rudyard, and while they played often prior, the guys haven't played a public gig in the Soo since the Musicians Unite fundraiser in March, and they last rocked The Merch in July of 2024. It's been a while regardless, so it's good to see Billy, Joe, Dustin, Jason, and Brian back at it at a familiar local venue, and hopefully they deliver for assembled fans as expected TOMORROW NIGHT! This show has an 8:00 PM start time, 21+ age limit, and no cover charge. See above for more details, and here's Project 906 live!

Next up, we'll wrap up this weekend's known hard rock concert previews, as Sault Ontario hard rock quintet HeadF1rst will play their... first concert of 2026 TOMORROW NIGHT at Beck's Bar! Last seen just over a month ago at Shooters, west fans won't have seen this talented quintet at the former Vibe Lounge since June of last year, and hopefully they have a good turnout for their hard rocking covers and originals to kick off another new year! This show has a 9:00 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no announced cover charge as usual for Beck's. Tomorrow's matinee performer at 3:00 PM is newer local acoustic duo Whiskey Hippy, who have their own separate 4 hour timeslot and are not "opening" for HeadF1rst, but you can hang around to see bothif you want. Visit the above links for more details, and here's HeadF1rst live!

Also, let's finally look at videos of the band formerly known as The Sault Side Squad when they opened the Fist Magnet/Spigots reunion concert at Soo Blaster last month! On the night of December 27th, the online page-less metal band revealed that they had officially changed their name to With Gunfire. No idea if they gave a reason for the name change at that show, but their original name (a play on "Suicide Squad") did seem to get a mixed reception. While Kevin Campbell didn't arrive in time to film With Gunfire's set for his YouTube channel, drummer Jonas Gasperas did upload four videos shot by attendees to his new YouTube channel! All are of original songs named "Beatdown", "Nuisance", "Well Of The Dead", and embedded below, "M.F.C.". Alas, all four were shot vertically, but these are our first proper videos of this band that aren't technically unlisted.

These also give us our first look at the former Sault Side Squad with The BAG's Spencer MacGillivray on lead vocals in lieu of Justin Pregent, and if you're familiar with heavier BAG originals, you'll approve of what Spencer brings to the table here, with some harsher vocals and yelling mixed in. A newer local metal band with this stacked lineup of familiar faces should be getting more attention (they debuted in 2024, they really should get social media pages going), but they have a very heavy sound that straddles a few genre influences, and Anthony and Chris have strong guitar work throughout, so With Gunfire's first truly public videos a watch above and below! We'll have more from them soon!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual for these short form stories, these are in alphabetical order by band or company name:

 

• I have moved local hard rock trio Bullet Train to our inactive band links. The band last posted a public update regarding their activity on their Facebook page on Christmas Eve 2024, where they promised that they would "be seeing you in the new year", but their only post in 2025 was in memoriam to the late Ozzy Osbourne. This union of Sense of Truth and Fort Creek alumni released three current events-driven original songs in 2024, but plans to release two EPs never went publically far. Hopefully we hear more from Cory, Bones, and Tony when the time is right!
• While not announced publically on social media prior, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down's show at The Water Tower Pub on Saturday was without bassist Dan Beaupre, but he was out of town in this case, rather than the ailment that knocked him out of most of their late 2025 concerts. Mid Life Crysis bassist Lori Reinholtz (their primary fill-in when Dan was out of action) returned on the low end for this one-nighter. I hope the concert was a hit on all fronts, and that Dan's trip went well!
• Rogers Radio closed their physical office at 642 Great Northern Road in October, with a "for lease" sign currently in the window of the building. This is part of a consolidation into remote operations from radio employee's homes or alternate locations for certain smaller markets, including the Soo and Timmins, as per this article from Broadcast Dialogue. No local jobs at either 104.3 The Fox or Kiss 100.5 were affected, though note that local mid-day DJ Dan Koo previously left the former Q104 in August, with North Bay's Mitch Belanger replacing him on our dial. Not ideal, but at least the stations are alive and well, and today is actually 104.3 The Fox's first anniversary as a rock station!

 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next! Thanks everyone!