Let's belatedly close out showcasing videos from the Black Label Society-headlined concert at The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino today! The delay was just to ensure that nothing else went up belatedly, so I think we have everything publically uploaded in the bag now, but we're not starting on YouTube. Actually, let's start with B.L.S. frontman Zakk Wylde's own Facebook page, as he uploaded three videos taken during and prior to the show there! Go back through posts from May 6th-9th for the local goods. Two of the videos are pre-show clips, including this 14 second video of berserkers who met the band for the meet & greet beforehand in a group shot of the Black Label Society's Sault Ste. Marie Chapter (this happens at all B.L.S. tour stops), as well as this 57 second clip of Zakk roaming backstage just before their set with a Doom Crew Inc. coffee mug while doing a silly voice.
Fun to see some of the pre-show and behind-the-scenes workings at a major Kewadin concert, and look for all of the posters from the previously cancelled B.L.S. dates there! Embedded below is the clip of Zakk & crew playing "Spoke In The Wheel"
from quite a unique vantage point, appearing to be up on a balcony
position high on the side wall, nicely showing how the venue was lit,
gradually going from dark to light as berserkers on the floor are in
view. Given the distance and abbreviated length, it's not an optimal
view of the band, but it's an interesting angle, so check it out below!
Today's other videos come from prolific Rudyard-based musician Jon Johnson's YouTube channel, as Jon uploaded eleven videos from the May 6th proceedings, though be advised that six of them are "Shorts" videos that are intentionally brief vertical uploads not unlike what you see on TikTok. None of those are technically from Black Label Society's set, save for this pre-set clip of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" being played over the loudspeaker. Jon filmed three proper videos of B.L.S. in action, specifically their songs "Destroy & Conquer", "Spoke In The Wheel" again, and as embedded below, their set-opener "Bleed For Me". I didn't embed Jon's take of "Spoke In The Wheel" for variety's sake, as that's what Zakk himself uploaded, but Jon captured some good pre-song banter from Zakk with it, including acknowledgements of the pandemic postponements (though the March 2020 show was the first one cancelled, not the last one held.)
Apparently, Black Label had bus trouble they had en route to the Soo for this concert, so good thing they were able to power through, as could you imagine the show being postponed again? Not to mention Zakk actually losing his voice and having to postpone some dates after May 6th, so we got lucky in a sense! Jon's videos were shot from further back on the floor, so you have to deal with a lot of attendee heads, but he had a good view of the stage, and the audio quality holds up fairly well, so definitely give his videos a look above and below!
Jon did upload three videos of Nita Strauss' opening set, but all of them (including her radio hit "Dead Inside" linked below) are Shorts videos and have an insubstantial length & vertical orientation, and were also uploaded in monochrome. Check out the two instrumental clips here & here, but again, they're basically TikTok videos, and are notably from more of a side-stage angle before centering in time for B.L.S.' set. Give his Shorts clip of "Dead Inside" (with a David Draiman backing track) a watch below!
Finally, Jon uploaded three videos of opening blues rock artist Jared James Nichols' set, including Shorts of him playing his originals "Shadow Dancer" & "Bad Roots" (both remain in full colour). Embedded below is Jared and his backing band covering Alice In Chains' "Man In The Box", and I do have to note that Jon accidentally re-uploaded this credited as Nita Strauss and her band playing her song "The Quest", which may explain why he only had Shorts videos from her set. No word on if Jon still has that actual file to re-upload, we'll let you know if it turns up. Solid video of Jared & crew tackling this grunge staple with a bluesy edge, so give it a watch below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
As promised, it's time to finally dive into some of the fallout from Friday night's Black Label Society-headlined concert at The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, a show quite literally 2+ years in the making! Mercifully, there were no pandemic hangups or positive tests to throw yet another spanner in the works, as the fourth time was the charm for Zakk Wylde and crew to finally rock out with members of the Sault Ste. Marie chapter! I regrettably did not go as I caught a bad cold (not COVID) last week, and was still under the weather on Friday, so better safe than sorry, especially with the remaining pandemic measures at the border. That said, all reports I heard from attendees were very positive, and you can see for yourself via videos from the show, which have popped up from three known YouTube channels so far, and we'll start with a single Black Label Society upload from user Anthony Roy on Saturday!
Anthony filmed just the one clip of Black Label Society playing "You Made Me Wanna Live", and despite being in the vertical cell phone orientation, it's solid quality! Capturing Zakk in his finest kilt and sounding just like you'd expect from their albums, Anthony was in the second or third row on the floor, and the audio on this slower, more deliberate original is nice and clear with a good view of the stage, do don't bypass this one below!
The rest of today's videos all come from the prolific YouTube channel of Christopher Paci in his first concert video uploads since Buckcherry in Sault Ontario last fall, and his first at The Dreammakers Theater since The Hair Scare Live in February 2020 (we all know why it took this long). Good to see that Chris is able to cross the border and see shows across like normal, and he got eleven videos from all three acts on Friday, so let's start with Black Label Society, who were filmed for six of them! Along with 57 seconds of Zakk shredding and this 99 second clip of Zakk and fellow guitarist Dario Lorina dueling with guitar solos, Chris filmed four full songs from B.L.S.' set, including "Demise of Sanity", "A Love Unreal", "Spoke In The Wheel", and as embedded below, their closing song "Stillborn". While not as close to the stage as Anthony was, Chris was far more centered, and you get a good view of the mass of berzerkers in attendance on Friday!
The lighting can be a little overexposed from this vantage point, but Chris got some solid footage of the Doom Crew doing what they do best, and from his videos, you get songs that are both musically and emotionally heavy depending on your preference! Give these a look above and below!
From the openers, Chris shot three videos of Alice Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss' set, including her & her solo band playing her instrumental "Our Most Desperate Hour", her hit single "Dead Inside" (featuring a backing track of Disturbed singer David Draiman rather than live vocals), and embedded below, two different instrumentals, namely "Alegria" & "Lion Among Wolves", with Nita acknowledging playing on that very stage during her second ever show with Alice Cooper between songs. Really strong videos here capturing Nita's technical guitar wizardry very nicely, and her band's up to the task, so give these clips a watch above & below as well!
Finally for today, Chris did film two videos of opening blues rock musician Jared James Nichols' set, including of his original "Bad Roots", but given that he's not a hard rock/metal musician, I wasn't projecting embedding a video of his here... until I noticed that he covered Alice In Chains' "Man In The Box" on Friday! The audio quality of the camera is noticeably rougher here compared to the later bands, but Jared gets a strong beefy sound in both songs, and he's clearly a very talented guitarist who can back it up vocally! Maybe with a little too much vocal emphasis at the end of some verses, but A.I.C. fans will dig it, and you can see more above & below!
That's all for today, but more Black Label Society concert videos will be hitting the site soon, and for now, stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
Let's keep the news rolling on this Thursday morning, and for the record, weekend hard rock/metal concert previews are coming either tonight or early tomorrow. For now, we have this week's classic video, a local concert's venue search, and a lot of updates related to posted media by a prominent local guitarist, so here's what you need to know!
Swayze Train & Galactic Alignment guitarist Mike Libertoski has created a new YouTube channel, and unlike his inactive solo project's YouTube channel, this one is so far solely devoted to solo covers of metal tracks! Three videos have been uploaded there, all posted last month, and they include Mike's covers of Animals As Leaders' "The Price Of Everything & The Value Of Nothing", a short cover of Beneath The Massacre's "Lithium Overdose", and (as embedded below) his cover of The Faceless' "Legions Of The Serpent"! Mike's talent is on full display, and he seems to have a firm grasp on these songs, but I'd have turned down the original song from the recordings, as it can drown out Mike's playing at times, especially on the Animals As Leaders cover. Still, these show Mike's excellent guitar skills well, and you can check out all of Mike's newest videos at the above links, or check out his Faceless cover below!
Also in Mike Libertoski news, I recently came across some new media from his Galactic Alignment tech-metal solo project, but not from official band pages. Mike's old Slackjawed Rats bandmate Jared Lucas (who now lives in Big Rapids, Michigan while attending Ferris State University) has his own SoundCloud page, where he's revealed that he's an aspiring producer & sound engineer. His page has a number of tracks that he's produced, but there are a couple of tracks that Jared uploaded with local metal ties, the most recent of which being a recently remixed version of Galactic Alignment's original "Radiated Infinite Oblivion"! Jared supplies some bass on this track & produced it, and it sounds very brutal, with some nice progressive and technical elements! The other local metal-related video there is a song called "Deluxe 3" from December 2010 that Mike & Jared recorded with Mike's Swayze Train bandmate Scott Savoie (pictured.) Here, Scott played most instruments, with Mike handling lead guitar & drum programming, and Jared on (really good) death metal singing. I don't know how far that band arrangement ever got, but they have good chemistry & are extremely heavy, so check out that and the new Galactic Alignment song at the above links, and stay tuned for more from Mike's projects!
We'll close today with topics related to Sault Ontario classic metal quartet Late & Loud, who will of course rock Coch's Corner THIS SATURDAY! As you may remember, it was confirmed last month that Late & Loud would be opening for Victoria, British Columbia sleaze metal quintet The Lust Boys in Sault Ontario on March 30th, and though posters for their "Tour Before Dishonour 2012" say they're playing at The Canadian Nightclub, that doesn't appear to be final at present. No venue is absolutely confirmed yet for this show, and while I did send guitarist Brendan Christie some venue contacts, any press will help, so I'm spreading the word once again to help secure a Lust Boys date here on March 30th! Remember, The Lust Boys have a great old school mix of punk and hair metal, and former Saultite Ben Kemp-Reynolds (a.k.a. Benny Blitz) is their guitarist, and an ex-bandmate of Late & Loud's Benn Garside & Josh Hatherly from The Glass Statues, so along with their quality sleaze sounds, they have local ties too! It'll be awesome to see them here, but if you can help secure a venue or booking for this show (at The Canadian or elsewhere), give Brendan a shout at this location, and fingers crossed this show goes down! For now, I've removed it from our concert listings due to the venue uncertainty, but if anything new is announced, I'll have it here!
And finally, here's this week's classic video! For the second time in three weeks, we're tying in the current upload with Late & Loud, but only this time is it thanks to a concert (go see them on Saturday night!) As you may remember last January, one of our first classic video postings was of Late & Loud guitarist Jonathan Tiberi's short-lived local metal band Losing Ground (featuring State of Misery alumni Kevin D'Orazio & Nick Kainula) from 2009, and while that video was a cover of Pentagram's "Forever My Queen", they had one more video worth uploading from Facebook! This time, however, it was an instrumental original named "The Wizard's Pipe", and it honestly sounds better than the Pentagram cover! It's got nice speed and pacing, and it has a good classic sound going for it, though I'm curious to hear vocals with it, and the excess video effects can be detracting. Similarly to the first video of Losing Ground, this is from a late 2009 jam session sans guitarist Kevin Koprash, and Jonathan posted this onto his personal Facebook page on December 17th, 2009 at http://facebook.com/photo.php?v=1309568737634. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! All credit for this video goes to the ex-members of Losing Ground, I'm just sharing this video with a wider audience like it deserves!
I know this wasn't the most accomplished band from Jon, Kevin, or Nick's musical resumes, but "The Wizard's Pipe" has a lot of promise, and it'd be interesting to see it expanded on, so give it a listen for some catchy instrumental classic metal below, and stay tuned for more from Late & Loud and related projects as it comes in!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews either tonight or tomorrow morning! Thanks everyone!
