LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison) & Project 906 Concert Previews!!

After a pair of very busy weekends for local hard rock and metal fans in the Twin Saults, things are slightly less hectic to kick off August 2024, as I'll only need two posts to cover this weekend's heavier concerts! To spread things out, I'll hold our previews of this weekend's Tarnished, Half Past, and Curtis McKenzie shows for our next news post hitting the site hopefully by tomorrow. Now, here's what you should know on both sides of the border, including LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, some on SHORT NOTICE! (Updated at 1:07 PM)

Local classic/hard rock cover singer/guitarist Tym Morrison has another full month of acoustic solo concerts ahead at his usual seasonal haunts, starting with a show at The Mike Case Memorial Stage outside of The Trading Post TOMORROW NIGHT and a matinee at Misty's Fifties on SATURDAY! Apologies for the short notice on this weekend's non-Dive shows, I should have rolled in all of his August dates on the site last month. While we're on the subject, the former Caveman Morrison frontman will bring his unplugged classic and hard rock covers back to The Trading Post (weather permitting) on Friday, August 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th, while west end fans will be able to see him on Saturday, August 10th, 17th, 24th, and 31st at Misty's! Remember that he only plays at the former venue seasonally, and that arrangement ends for 2024 late next month.

Yes, this weekend's shows fall on the Civic Holiday long weekend for many readers, while the August 30th-31st shows are on the Labour Day long weekend, so if you get either Monday off, keep the scheduling in mind! Note that Tym was originally scheduled to play a "Think It Over Thursday" concert at The Dive Gastro Pub tonight as well, but it was cancelled due to illness, as per the venue's Facebook page earlier today. No word on if Tym's health will impede TOMORROW or SATURDAY's shows, but we'll let you know if we hear anything, and hopefully he feels better soon! TOMORROW'S and this month's Mike Case Stage shows also begin at 7:00, and SATURDAY'S and this month's Misty's matinees are at 4:00 PM. None have a cover charge, and the Misty's Fifties show is presumed to be 19+. Weather-wise, 9&10 News is calling for sunny skies TOMORROW with temperatures hovering around 25°.

The forecast implies that we're coming out of the humid snap that has hit the Soo hard this week, but it'll still be a warm one for fans seeing Tym out on Great Northern Road TOMORROW, so stay cool and hydrated where possible! Visit the official Facebook event pages linked here and here for more details on all of Tym's August concerts, and here he is live!

Next up, let's head to Sault Michigan for some live hard rock concerts this weekend, starting with local hard/blues rock quartet Project 906, who have a busy weekend ahead via two outdoor concerts in the E.U.P.! The guys will first head to Pickford TOMORROW NIGHT for an outdoor set at this year's Pickford Hay Days, taking place this week throughout the town, but 906 will be performing at Pickford Township Park at 287 Harold Street #279. Food trucks will be on hand thanks to the Hay Days festival, but there will be a more poignant cause to support as well. Guitarist Joe Jenkins' wife Mary Jo has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and while tomorrow's concert is free, the band is raising money to help support Mary Jo and the family at this difficult time. The Curbside Cravings food truck at Hay Days will also be donating some proceeds to Mary Jo tomorrow.

Having lost my mother to ovarian cancer, I can definitely relate to what Mary Jo and the Jenkins & Croft families are going through right now, so our best support and wishes go out to her during this fight! You can enjoy Project 906's hard rocking covers tomorrow night at 7:00 PM with no cover charge or age limit, and weather is expected to be similar to Tym Morrison's Sault Ontario show TOMORROW, with sunny-clear weather at 73-80° Fahrenheit (23-27° Celsius). Visit Hay Days' Facebook page for full details on remaining festival events and the official Facebook event page for more on 906's show proper! That's not all for the #summerof906 this weekend though, as Billy, Joe, Dustin, and Jason(?) will also head to Cedarville for another special outdoor concert on SATURDAY when they join three other bands for this year's Government Bay Barge Bash, literally playing on a barge on the water off the coast of the Les Cheneaux Islands!

Project 906 will literally be rocking Lake Huron just off the coast of Government Island (near Bumpas at 74 East Hodeck Street) as the second of four bands on Saturday, joining Sugar Island rock quartet Dirty Musky (more on them soon) at 6:00 PM, Cedarville classic rock veterans Shipheads On Shore at 4:00 PM, and veteran pop rockers The Mark Bowen Band at 12:00 PM (906 are at 2:00 PM). For the record, the Barge Bash is not openly tied to any charitable drives for Mary Jo, but I doubt they'd turn away any support there. There's no age limit or cover charge for the Barge Bash, but as it's being held on the water, attendees with boats or a love of the beach/swimming will obviously benefit. As this is outdoors, the current weather forecast is calling for a high of 84° Fahrenheit (29° Celsius) with sunny-clear weather, so very similar to tomorrow in Pickford. If you love the warm summer weather, it should be ideal waterfront conditions then!

Whether you'd prefer to see Project 906 on terra firma in Pickford or in Government Bay surrounded by water and boats, you have some very appealing outdoor options this weekend! Visit the above links for complete details on both of their shows ahead, and for a preview, here they are live!

That's all for now, but we'll wrap up this weekend's hard rock concert previews next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Project 906!!)

Sault Michigan blues/hard rock quartet Project 906 have announced their summer concert slate via their Facebook page, which is the sole topic today! No word on where they've been since their last date in February, but they have multiple dates around the E.U.P. scheduled in July and August, while also announcing solo dates from frontman Billy Bernier in Mackinac Island (which is outside of our coverage range) and at The Islander Bar in Hessel tomorrow night. I'm not sure if Billy's solo show is basically Project 906 unplugged or if he explores less hard rock in his sets, so I won't cover that show on here just in case, but keep it in mind if you're in Hessel! If you want to see the full splendour with Joe, Dustin, and Jason too, they have two private bookings next month, but their first public date in five months will see them rock the aforementioned Islander Bar on Friday, July 5th with a return planned for Saturday, August 10th!

The former show is a normal affair, but the latter will be a special matinee set during the Les Cheneaux Islands Antique Wooden Boat Show, an event that 906 did play last year as well, albeit at a normal nighttime timeslot then. It's too soon yet to know what possible changes could be in store on August 10th, but last year, The Islander Bar had four nights of live music from different nightly acts the week of the boat show. Stay tuned for any updates! On Saturday, July 13th, Project 906 will return to The Well Diggers Watering Hole & Feed Lot in nearby Kinross for an outdoor concert, and their first show at this venue since last summer. Should be a good time in a relatively unique setting, so keep their Well Diggers return in mind also! Then on Friday, July 26th, the guys will return to the Soo for a concert at The Merchant's Bar alongside "special guests" The City Lines, so who are they?

As best as I can tell, 906 are actually opening for The City Lines, a power pop trio from Ann Arbor whose frontman is Sault Ste. Marie native and Sault Tribe member Patrick Deneau. Not the heaviest band going, but fans of indie rock and midwest emo (let alone more recent material by The Northwest) will take to The City Lines, and it's cool to see Patrick play a show at home like this, let alone the rare sight of Project 906 opening for a touring band! Moving ahead to August for another festival set, Project 906 will make their debut at Pickford Hay Days on Friday, August 2nd, and while they didn't specify the locale beyond saying that it'd be outdoors, the festival's Facebook event page confirms that they're playing at Pickford Township Park (no word on extra bands). Click here for full non-musical details on Hay Days, but food trucks will be nearby for festival and/or concert attendees, and you are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.

The last of the newly announced Project 906 shows will see them play in Cedarville on Saturday, August 3rd for this year's tenth annual Government Bay Barge Bash, which I am pretty sure is returning to its literal location on a floating barge in Government Bay in front of Bumpas at 74 East Hodeck Street. Promotion for this year's Barge Bash has not begun that I've seen, but this event has featured multiple bands in recent years, and how unique is it to see bands playing literally on the water? Note that one of the bands that played last year's Barge Bash (which didn't have known-to-me hard rock bands at the time) was Dirty Musky, a new band featuring 415E alumni Dave Menard and Brett Blackwood alongside Brett's dad Fran (of Clownsack fame). Despite that lineup, Dirty Musky have given no indication of their set/sound on social media, so I won't rush them into our coverage, but keep them in mind!

Most of these shows have 8:00 PM start times, but the Pickford show is at 7:00 PM, the Cedarville show is to be announced (remember, multiple bands play that), and the Hessel boat show gig in August is a 4:00 PM matinee. The Islander Bar, Well Diggers, and Merch shows are all 21+ while the rest are all ages, and while none have a stated cover charge, do inquire within as far as the annual festivals go. It's great to see Project 906 back (even without Strongs Tavern returns booked, surprisingly), so look for their hard rocking cover slate at multiple E.U.P. venues in the coming months, and stay tuned for more news on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Wyld Stallyns), Weekend Concert Previews, And More!!

For our first news post of August 2018, we're mostly diving into weekend concert previews, including a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, but we also have a new solo video to check out as well. Here's what you should know!

Local acoustic hard rock trio The Wyld Stallyns will return to Room 21 for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT as part of... Fish Bowl Friday?! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via it's official Facebook event page on Tuesday. After taking a month and a half off from public concerts, the Elements side project will return to the Low & Slow sister bar for another night of unplugged and fan-involved action TOMORROW, so whether you're a fan or thinking about joining in, you know where to be tomorrow! As noted above, this is not Finger Food Friday, and it's too late in the year to be a Fishbowl Festival reference, so what's the theme referencing? While the venue didn't elaborate on Facebook, other websites imply that drinks will be served in fishbowls as a special offer, so if drink specials and large receptacles are a drawing card, keep that angle in mind for tomorrow night!

As usual for The Wyld Stallyns' Room 21 shows, TOMORROW'S concert has a 19+ age limit, no announced cover charge, and a 10:00 PM start time. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here they are live!

 

Next up, we'll move to previously announced concerts, starting with Sault Michigan hard/blues rock quartet Project 906's trip to nearby Pickford TOMORROW NIGHT when they play at that town's annual Hay Days festival! As noted in the official program, 906 will be the featured musical attraction the outdoor stage on Main Street tomorrow at 7:30 PM, preceding a dance party featuring music mixed by Dance Commander DJ. There's lots of family entertainment going down at Hay Days tomorrow, as well as today, Saturday, and even some closing events on Sunday, so be sure to visit the above links for more on the non-musical events there and elsewhere! This year's Hay Days theme is actually "Making Music", and there are some more concerts going down on other days, notably including Thieves In The Night at The Sundown Lounge on Saturday. Private gigs aside, this will be Project 906's first public concert set since their Strongs trip a couple of weeks ago.

I can't confirm the other "local talent" teased for tomorrow's outdoor concert action, but Project 906's fan favourite hard rocking covers should be a boon for attending Hay Days fans, so don't miss out on the action in Pickford! This is a FREE & ALL AGES concert tomorrow evening, so visit the above links for more details, and here's Project 906 live!

 
Lastly for known hard rock/punk concerts this weekend, we'll head back to Sault Ontario for the local debut of Montreal ska/jazz punk quartet The Costanzas, who will headline at The Rockstar Bar THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! Already making waves with their edgy but fun blend of sub-genres, The Costanzas' rocking punk originals should get a solid audience at The Rockstar Bar on Saturday, so give them a listen in advance of this one! Local punk trio Stegadeth will play their first concert set since their Spiderfest road trip on Saturday, while the second opener was quietly confirmed late last month, namely extreme/death metal quartet Winkstinger, who will be making their first live concert appearance of 2018, in what could be a preview of their Oh!No festival set in September. Great to see them back at last! This concert is brought to you by Six, Two, Oh., in apparent association with The Killennials, a mysterious new agency or company that we await further information on.

This stop on The Costanzas' Canadian tour has a $5 cover charge, a 9:00 PM start time, and a 19+ age limit in effect. Punk fans would be well served to check out this concert, especially with a dash of metal for good measure, so visit the Facebook event page for more, and here's The Costanzas live!



Finally, here's a new video from prolific local hard rock musician Tym Morrison's new YouTube channel! Not sure why he'd launch a new one (or name it after his defunct band Caveman Morrison), but Tym's first video there is actually of an instrumental techno song named "Advanced Dance". This is definitely against his usual type, but as he noted in the description, "I'm not just a guitar shredder." The song is well programmed, and it's an interesting change of pace, so give it a listen bellow! Note that Tym has no advertised solo shows this weekend, but his personal Facebook page had mentioned a recent private gig, plus fill-ins with The Dorian Gray Band.



That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post tomorrow morning! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Project 906), Tym Morrison Concert Preview, And More!!

On this Saturday morning, let's finally wrap up this weekend's hard rock concert previews (and a related missed show apology), while also tackling a recent concert video, some assorted recent updates, and leading off, some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for next month in the E.U.P.!

Sault Michigan hard/blues rock quartet Project 906 have a busy month ahead, so where can you see them live in August? After a couple of weeks off (a private event this weekend aside), this fan favourite band will make their debut appearance at nearby Pickford's annual Hay Days festival on Friday, August 3rd on an outdoor stage on Main Street, as part of the varied festivities and events on the festival's fourth of six days in operation. Other "local talent" is hyped as part of the day's program, but aren't outright stated by name. In any event, 906's set is slated to begin at 7:30 PM, and this is a FREE & ALL AGES event. Click here for full festival details on the 3rd and elsewhere! Next, Project 906 will play a solo concert at The Superior Cafe in Sault Ste. Marie on Friday, August 10th, in a rare headlining appearance in their hometown, so look for more hard rocking hits from them there! This show will be an 8:00 PM evening affair with no announced cover charges or age limits.

These join another new show in Paradise on Saturday, August 18th as part of their annual Wild Blueberry Festival, but Paradise is just outside of our coverage range (1 hour's drive time from Sault Ste. Marie.) That said, if you're not near Rudyard for that afternoon's Musicians Festival set, this is another valid option! Project 906 have a lot of fun family concerts lined up for August 2018, so visit the above links and their Facebook page for complete details on these and other previously announced dates!

Next up, here's one more concert preview for this weekend, as former Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison will play a belated birthday concert at Room 21 in Sault Ontario TONIGHT! Originally scheduled for last night on his birthday proper, this concert was postponed to (Sangria) Saturday due to yesterday's concert from Toronto guitarist Harley Card, which hopefully was a hit! This is Tym's second straight appearance there as the Sangria Saturday headliner, and for the occasion, there will be drink specials and half-price drinks when bought for Tym, so keep those angles in mind, and we do wish Tym a happy birthday as well! This may seem like a quiet weekend for Tym, especially in week one of his Gliss Steak & Seafood hiatus while that venue relocates, but not really, as he actually played an acoustic set on Thursday evening during the Downtown Street Party, playing outside of Tamar's Trends & Flower Shop. Unfortunately, we didn't hear of that set until it was too late to cover here.

I profusely apologize for missing that, but hopefully Tym had a great outdoor set, and we'd have covered it here had it Tym announced earlier than Thursday afternoon! As well, while he's never played Rotaryfest as a solo artist, he will be performing there today as part of the one-off classic rock band The Sun Dogs that's on Stage 1 at 3:00 PM, so look for him at Clergue Park too! As for tonight's Room 21 show, that has no cover charge, a 19+ age limit, and a late 11:00 PM start time, presumably to avoid conflicting with The Stampeders' featured Rotaryfest set. Visit the official Facebook event page and the above links for more details, and here's Tym live!



Also today, here's a video of Reading, Pennsylvania technical death metal band Rivers of Nihil from their headlining set at The Rockstar Bar two weeks ago, as live streamed onto promoters Live705's Facebook page! Apologies for the delay in this making the site. While unfortunately filmed on a vertical camera angle, the audio quality is solid, and you do get 25 minutes of the headliners' set to enjoy! Don't let appearances deceive you either, the video's only filmed so distantly for the first 4½ minutes, before the filmer moves to the corner of the stage, which gives a nice angle of Jake's interaction with the front row fans in particular. Give this video a look below!



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

• It looks like reunited local funk/hard rock/improv collective Gianni Gagoots did indeed drop out of the Road Waves concert at LopLops Lounge last Friday, as per their quiet removal from the Facebook event page's description, with no replacement opener stated. This, combined with the second deletion of their Facebook page, does not paint a good picture for their active status, though for what it's worth, they are still listed for the Northern Vibe Festival next month in Ophir (date unclear.) At this rate, I doubt they're playing that event, but stay tuned in case something is said either way!
• Before rocking Spiderfest in Meyersburg once again last week, local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades and their sister band Stegadeth played a concert at The Atria in Oshawa the previous day. Hopefully that concert was a blast, and look for both bands on a local stage near you in the coming weeks!
• As part of this article from The Other Side Reviews featuring performers on the final Vans Warped Tour, an unidentified member of local punk trio Redundant was interviewed briefly about their Warped Tour memories and 2018 plans. Short but sweet promotion! Aside from teasing a possible fall tour, there wasn't anything new to report there. Redundant's one-off Warped Tour date in Toronto took place on Tuesday when they co-headlined the Full Sail Stage to a positive reception, and while copies of their debut EP were reportedly on hand (source here), we have seen no reference to their contents or local availability yet. Stay tuned!

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