The Jamestown Massacre Concert Review!!

Hey guys, here's my review of Thursday night's Jamestown Massacre! I apologize for it being so late (and for missing the Riding Shotgun show last night), but I was working on an summer geography essay for most of yesterday evening, and that took up a lot of my time. We're back on track now though, so let's discuss this concer!

First, I'll note that there was a disappointingly low turnout. I don't think there was even 20 people in the bar itself for the headliners, but I know it was nearing the holiday weekend, so it could have been worse! The opening band was local punk trio Redundant, who I hadn't seen live since the Ypres Metal Fest in April, and in the interim, they seemed to add a lot more originals into their setlist than I'd remembered. They sounded good, and if you were a fan of frontman Justin Langlois' original work with The Scary Uncles, these will be familiar and easy to get into! They also played some well received covers, including some amusing asides to Eminem & TLC material, and it showed their sense of humour well! Talentwise, Redundant gave exactly what I expect out of them, and bassist James White didn't let his birthday get in the way of playing as good as he ever does. I also liked the "R.I.P. Tony Sly" shirt that Justin wore, nice of him to honour the late No Use For A Name frontman! It was good to see Redundant live again, and hopefully it won't take 4 months for me to see them tear through some well done punk covers & originals (plus some fun on-stage banter) again!

Next up was the original crash band themselves, Sykotyk Rampage, but they looked slightly different thanks to the absence of bassist Brian Cattapan, who I believe couldn't come home for the show on Thursday. However, instead of playing without a bassist (like at the Zombie Walk afterparty), Sykotyk Rampage instead enlisted a guest bassist for their set, that being Tony Briglio, who you may recognize from the inactive "don't call them punk" trio The Fury! It was good to see him back on stage after so long, and he seemed to fit in well with Sykotyk Rampage in Brian's place! Their set was somewhat abbreviated from a usual Sykotyk Rampage concert, with only a couple of non-drinking songs (including "Acreage") and a bunch of songs to have a beer with, like "Roll A Doobie", "Drinking on the Weekend", and a well-received cover of Flogging Molly's "Fuck You, I'm Drunk" that this show's booker J.D. Pearce joined in on! For the most part, Sykotyk Rampage's improvised mix of punk, metal, alternative, and blues sounded as creative and entertaining as usual, and Paul Becker was a workhorse on drums and singing, but I did notice that guitarist Dirk Becker didn't sing a whole lot, and that includes backing vocals. Sore throat, or just not enough songs? Either way, they had fun and it was good to see them back!

Co-headlining The Jamestown Massacre was local punk/classical trio RedD Monkey, and they sounded as energetic and unique as ever. Their Canadian tour definitely didn't sap their energy, and they seemed happy to be home! Playing most of the songs from their CDs "Thought Control Tower" and "All Baroque" along with their cover of Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" and some non-album originals, they shown the high tempo speed and punk intensity that we've come to love, and the fans that were there definitely enjoyed RedD Monkey's set! If anything, frontman Steve Mozarowski's voice did seem a bit strained at points, but that's my only major complaint. Steve's guitar work was often blisteringly fast, Joe Bumbacco's drumming kept up well and set great pacing, Pete Mozarowski still plays the cello better than anyone I've seen locally, and even when rapping about four dozen cookies, it fits with their sound! As always, I enjoyed RedD Monkey's set, and they're definitely one of my favourite active punk bands in the Soo!

And your main event on Thursday night was Calgary hard rock trio The Shotgun Dolls, and I have to give them props from the start for their cool light setup on stage that actually almost made it look like a different venue altogether! You know a band's good when even a small crowd is overly praising them & calling for an encore, and I can say the same for The Shotgun Dolls, as they delivered a high energy mix of hard rock and punk to who remained inside The Rosie on Thursday, and though the Lion Ride comparisons I'd made earlier in the week were visible, they had a bit more vocal freedom and some heavier guitar work to compliment their array of original material! Turner Midzain had solid vocal control and guitar skills throughout the night, Mike Badmington' bass playing was top notch, and though drummer Ty Gogal looked like he was melting under the lights, he kept up well on drums! The guys seemed happy to play here, and their songs definitely had a lot of aggression and attitude without getting too over the top, and I just wish they could have shown their sound off to more people. Great closing set by The Shotgun Dolls, and hopefully they're back in town soon!

Overall, this was a fun concert, if under-attended, and it never hurts to a see a show with more of a punk flavour! I did get some photos, so click here to check them out or visit our Facebook page, and yes, I have a couple of videos too! Here's Sykotyk Rampage (featuring J.D. Pearce) covering "Fuck You, I'm Drunk" and The Shotgun Dolls playing their song "New Blood"!





That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Sault Ontario Weekend Concert Previews!!

For the first time this month, it's time to preview this weekend's upcoming slate of metal and hard rock concerts! Due to the amount of shows, I'm going to break up the previews by nationality, so we'll cover the Sault Michigan concerts in a post tomorrow, and just for reference, those will include at least one new concert weekend. So today, we have a bunch of notable concerts ranging from a cover concert weekend to out of town headliners to F.A.T.I.L.'s latest gathering, so here's what you need to know! (Updated at 2:55 PM)

First, we'll cover "The Jamestown Massacre", a metal/punk concert going down TONIGHT at The Roosevelt Hotel, and it's the first of two Sault Ontario shows this weekend featuring a band with "Shotgun" in their name! The headliners of this concert will be Calgary hard rock trio The Shotgun Dolls, and if you've ever wished Lion Ride could have played at The Rosie, these guys will offer up a similar sound! Nice melodic and punk tinged brand of hard rock n' roll, and they have some very catchy originals in their setlist, so definitely check them out tonight and online! Three local opening bands have been secured for this concert, including local classical/punk trio RedD Monkey (fresh off of their Canadian tour), blue Chinese metal crash punk quartet Sykotyk Rampage (in their first concert appearance since the Humane Society Battle of the Bands in April), and local punk standouts Redundant, who themselves will kick off a very busy weekend of concerts as the first band up tonight! All are known to inject some metal into their sets occasionally (especially Sykotyk Rampage), and if you've missed any of the local bands in recent months, you won't wanna miss them at tonight's concert!

Note that this is NOT a Roosevelt Hotel metal night despite flowing with the recent bi-weekly Thursday schedule for that series, as this is being promoted by Frightlight/T. Rex Manning frontman J.D. Pearce, who also put on the Die Mannequin-headlined Thursday nighter in May outside of that series, but I'll keep you posted on the metal nights' return when I hear more! There will be no cover for this 19+ show tonight, and a 10:00 PM start time is advertised. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! The Jamestown Massacre sounds like an intriguing concert with enough heavy music to appeal to metalheads and punk fans alike, so I'll see you guys there! For a preview, here's The Shotgun Dolls' video for their song "Graveyard Girls"!



Continuing our theme of shotgun-named bands playing local concerts with Redundant opening, two touring Ontario hard rock bands will descend upon The Canadian Nightclub TOMORROW NIGHT for what should be an entertaining concert in it's own right, and this show's shotgun-named headliners are Toronto hard rock quartet Riding Shotgun! Though there's a familiarity with their sound I can't place, they have solid hard rocking grooves and great guitar riffing, and fans of a more radio friendly hard rock sound might take to Riding Shotgun over a band with harsher vocals! Opening for them will be Ottawa alternative hard rockers Project Mars, who will deliver an interesting mix of old school influences and some solid hard rocking sounds into their set tomorrow night, and you won't wanna miss them either! The local openers will once again be local punk trio Redundant, in their second of three shows this weekend, which conclude with a solo acoustic headlining set at the new Coch's Corner on Saturday night. Interesting openers choice, but their talent will speak for itself as the local openers for this concert! Admission will be $3 tomorrow night, a 9:00 PM start time is advertised, and unlike other recent Canadian Nightclub shows, this will be a 19+ event. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

This should be a fun hard rock concert in it's own right, and I plan on making it out to take in all of these bands! I think I can handle two shotgun-named bands in one weekend, and hopefully some of you guys will pop up at The Canadian tomorrow! For a preview, here's Riding Shotgun's press kit video, featuring live and studio clips of them in action!



Now to the other Sault Ontario metal shows this weekend, and while there's no shotguns or redundancy left on the schedule, there's lots of entertainment left, including the latest concert weekend from Caveman Morrison TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Continuing with their busy stretch of concerts, the popular metal cover trio will return to The Roosevelt Hotel this weekend for the last of their latest batch of shows at The Rosie and The Nic, and these should be good as you'd expect! Remember that these shows were postponed from their original mid-July date for unannounced reasons, but at least they're still going on! Though who their current bassist is is still unknown to me, their hard hitting covers should entertain all at The Roosevelt Hotel this weekend, so don't miss them tomorrow or Saturday! Admission should be free with a 10:00 PM start time and 19+ start time both nights. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! These should be some solid new concerts from Caveman Morrison, and though I hope they have more on the horizon, they should knock it out of the park this weekend no matter what! For a preview of their next two shows at The Rosie, here's 2/3rds of their current lineup covering Living Colour's "Cult of Personality" in 2010!



Finally for this weekend in the Sault Ontario is the F.A.T.I.L. Requiem! After the success of Sault area death metal quartet For All That Is Lost's "gathering" at 436 Neebish Road in Laird in June, they're hosting another concert event there on Saturday night for what should be another entertaining evening of metal! However, due to noise complaint issues, things are both shorter and better organized this time around, with five bands rather than the nine who played at the gathering in June, and since we last updated you guys on the lineup, it's noticeably changed, so here's who to look out for! As expected, For All That Is Lost will headline at 10:00 PM, with local death metal bands The Valentine's Day Massacre (in one of their last pre-move concerts) and The Bear Hunters on at 9:00 PM & 8:00 PM respectively. Here's where the changes start though, as with Crimson Crusade dropping out of the 7:00 PM slot, and planned replacements Winkstinger not being able to play, that slot now belongs to new local progressive hardcore band With Blood Builds Character, who have been bumped up from 5:00 PM to fill this open slot!

W.B.B.C. will essentially look like March Into Regression if only Jeremy Hannah is on vocals, though they are separate bands. As far as I know, M.I.R. drummer Travis St. Amour will be behind the kit for their debut, but he's not staying full time (I think he goes back out of town for college next month), so while the two bands will look similar, With Blood Builds Character is a different band, and promising in their own right, so look out for them at 7:00 PM on Saturday! The 6:00 PM slot now surprisingly belongs to an out of town band, that being the Drummondville, Quebec experimental band Slaughter Slashing, who had been searching for a summer date in the area earlier in the year. Slaughter Slashing are an interesting and creative metal band, and they're slightly hard to describe, but if you like extreme metal with some avant garde flourishes, you'll enjoy their set on Saturday evening, and kudos to F.A.T.I.L. for snagging them for this concert! However, with the lineup shuffling, the 5:00 PM timeslot is currently vacant, but if it's filled, I'll let you guys know. Admission will be $10 for the F.A.T.I.L. Requiem, it is all ages, everything starts at 4:00 PM, and there will be refreshments and camping room if you're staying the night. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page!

This sounds like a very brutal and entertaining concert event, and it's definitely above and beyond any house party! I can't say whether I'll be able to go or not, but I hope I can, as there's a quality lineup of metal bands scheduled for this requiem, including an our of town band, one new local act, and much more from there! Make the trip out to Laird on Saturday if you can, and for a preview, here's For All That Is Lost playing "Graves of the Ancestors" outdoors in the Soo in May!



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