Today, I wanted to start with news on the other David Gold tribute show coming up in April, and though it is in Toronto, it's definitely worth some extra coverage given his untimely passing in December. An event page for what is being called "A Memorial Concert For David Gold" has been posted online, and the event will take place at The Annex Wreckroom in Toronto on Thursday, April 5th. David played at this venue with both Woods of Ypres & Gates of Winter in 2008 & 2009, so it's a fitting spot for the Toronto memorial! This event will serve as both a memorial concert and the CD release show for "Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light", which will be played over the speakers for attendees (and presumably be on sale too, but that's not confirmed.) The lineup isn't final yet, but the show will be headlined by Chicago doom metal mainstays Novembers Doom, and also joining them will be Kittie, Hallows Die, and Gypsy Chief Goliath (all of whom will be at the Ypres Metal Fest in Sault Ontario two days later.) The other bands currently confirmed for the Toronto memorial are all Ontario black metal outfits, including Toronto's Eclipse Eternal, North Bay's Empyrean Plague, Pagan Ritual from Oshawa, and Panzerfaust from Mississauga. More artists are to be announced, and a "surprise performance" may happen as well.
This may be 7 hours away, but it's shaping up to be an awesome tribute to David Gold's memory, so here's some extra details! Admission is strictly by donation, and all proceeds will go towards both David's final expenses and (this is news to me) a David Gold Music Scholarship that's being started in his memory for music students at Sault College! Now that's a nice and fitting gesture by his family! For more details and information on how you can attend or contribute, visit the official Facebook event page! This all sounds good to me, and though I doubt I can hit this event (given the distance and my night classes on Thursdays), I hope a huge local contingent can make it to this show & the local memorial that Saturday and pay a fitting tribute to David! I'm a bit surprised that no bands have been announced for the Toronto gig featuring ex-Woods of Ypres members (be they recent lineups or older), but maybe some will factor into the implied surprise performance in Toronto. I've also heard that some bands at both of the memorial concerts plan to cover Woods of Ypres material in their setlists, which would be awesome, but we'll have to see what's in store come April! Stay tuned for much more on the David Gold & Woods of Ypres fronts soon, and keep an eye out for the initial release of "Woods V" TOMORROW!Next up, Trail's End guitarist Chris Hubbard posted another Van Halen cover onto his YouTube channel on Friday, and like his last video, this is of a section of a new Van Halen song from their new album "A Different Kind of Truth". This time, he covered the intro of "China Town", and covers it pretty well, though I'd like to see him tackle a full song from the new CD soon as well. His talents are impressive, and he definitely loves Van Halen, so give his cover of the intro of "China Town" a look below!
Now, I wanted to address a couple band deletions from our local band listings on the SMS. As I've alluded to on the site in May, Facebook has slowly been changing all groups on the site to the new group format, which is designed for smaller circles of people, rather than the old format that was basically a Facebook pages predecessor. As such, while wall posts, photos, and biographies are retained, all group members that weren't administrators are removed (but can rejoin) and the groups basically all look the same, barring continued use. Our old inactive Facebook group has already been changed over, for example, but not all have. As such, a couple of local hard rock bands whose primary online pages were Facebook groups now lack enough information to really warrant a link on the SMS (no offense to the members.) One is The White Knights (featuring Frightlight & Fingerbone alumni) and the other is the Stillbroke-predecessor quartet The Jesters. The former is a closed group that had minimal info to begin with, and the latter has been reduced to just a photo and one sentence of information, so not a lot is lost by removing them from our links, but the member's newer bands have had much more success! I just thought you guys should know what happened, and if your band's Facebook group still hasn't been converted, make sure you save info and media there just in case!
And finally for today, here's some updates to our Defunct Local Band Profiles to make their more accurate and current. Due to photo links changing thanks to the Facebook group change-overs, I've restored one to the AtrophiA profile and replaced another on the M7K profile (the latter now has a newer photo of guitarist Mike Vincent from an old Bear Hunters gig.) I also edited The White Knights' profile to allude to missing info, now that their Facebook group has been crippled even further from the Facebook group changes. The rest of the new edits aren't Facebook group related, I promise! On the Renderware profile, I added a reference to ex-bassist Wayne Watkins' current work in the partly-local indie rock act The Small Town Rivals, while the Out Of The Mouth Of Babes profile now has a reference to former singer Josh McNally's current work in the blues rock band The Moves. I also edited the State of Misery profile to note frontman Steve Rhodes' current band's name change from View To A Kill to The Valentine's Day Massacre. Finally, I added references to the Bring The Fallen profile to note bassist Nolan Rainville's current work in the stoner rock trio Giwakwa. Hopefully things are up to date with this series again, so check the above links for the updated profiles, and stay tuned for our Paraside defunct profile next month!That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news as the week rolls along, including updates on the "Woods V" release tomorrow and much more! Thanks everyone!
