Local Hard Rock Video Showcase!!

Before we begin this all-video post, here's a late lineup update for TONIGHT'S Project 421 concert at The Canadian Nightclub, courtesy of it's Facebook event page, as local rapper and Live705 newcomer Mike Reed-Lecuyer (a.k.a. Reeder) has replaced blues/hard rock trio Electric Church on the lineup. A reason for Electric Church's withdrawal wasn't publically announced, but hopefully nothing bad happened! You may recognize Reeder from last summer's Grave Party concert at The New A, and hopefully he adds solid rhymes to the proceedings tonight! Now, let's begin this all-video post, including recent major concert footage and in-studio clips!

We'll start today with a belated concert video from the Lita Ford outdoor concert at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino last month, courtesy of YouTube user spiritinthesky blue's channel on Thursday! With her Great White videos already uploaded, she finally posted this clip of Lita Ford playing her original song "Gotta Let Go" to open her headlining set, and while the audio's not bad, this was filmed from backstage (remember this user's backstage and meet & greet clips?) Lita is visible in the center, but the dark lighting from behind the stage isn't optimal. Unique view all the same, so give this new Lita Ford video a look below, and hopefully more videos are out there!



Next up, here's a new video from last Sunday's Tea Party concert at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion, shared by the Ontario Government's Facebook page onto the ONTour concert series stop's Facebook event page on Thursday! A summative recap video, this features shots of the Soo and the road trip here for the concert for the first minute or so, before transitioning to the concert proper, including footage of The Tea Party, U.S.S., Andrew Hyatt, and McLean's sets, the crowd, and even some slow motion shots. All audio is disappointingly replaced by a techno/pop instrumental, but the filmers got some great angles of the bands and fans throughout the day's lineup, so give this one a look below as well!



Also today, here's some new videos from local alternative/hard rock trio The Din's Facebook page on Wednesday, specifically relating to demo recording now being underway for their second studio album! As far as I can tell, these are not the final recordings, and are strictly demos in advance of formal recording sessions later this year, but it's great to see that things have commenced towards CD #2! One video features frontman Mike Haggith tracking a song on bass while guitarist Tammy Hill mans the computer, while the other videos are of Mike recording vocal tracks, and between these two, there is 35 minutes of footage to check out from the sessions! The video below features Mike tracking their songs "35's The Limit" (fittingly enough) and "High Park", while part 2 features a slower and possibly newer song that I don't recognize, as well as "Up In The Air" and "Suburban Dream". Both feature assorted banter from Mike & Tammy between songs as well, helping fill out the time in the videos.

As both a sneak preview into five Din originals from their upccoming CD (albeit pre-session demos) and as an informal look at the band's recording sessions and often funny interactions therein, these are all worth checking out for fans of The Din! That said, prepare yourself for the length, and the sideways camera angles are unfortunate, but give in to The Din's new studio videos above and below!



Finally, here's a new cover performance from Theatre of Night keyboardist Craig Harrison, courtesy of the Sault Michigan classical metal project's YouTube channel on Tuesday! A cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", and as filmed in one take with a cell phone camera, the view from Craig's right side isn't optimal, but the black and white filter adds to the mood, and he puts the requisite passion into this cover! Give Craig's cover a look/listen below! (Disclaimer: this video was posted prior to Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington's tragic passing on Thursday, and we had slotted it for a weekend post prior to hearing the news, but the coincidental timing can't be ignored.)



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Rotaryfest Stage 2) & Lita Ford/Great White Concert Videos!!

Today's news post at the SMS is devoted to two topics: Videos from a recent major concert, and a huge LOCAL CONCERT ALERT relating to a portion of Sault Ontario's annual summer festival, so here's what you should know on this Tuesday morning!

The lineup for the twelfth annual Stage 2 at Rotaryfest has been announced via it's official Facebook event page, so what should you know about this year's all-original second stage action? For a third straight year, Stage 2 will be held at the "redirected" stage beside the Art Gallery at Clergue Park as a one day event on Saturday, July 15th, but the lineup has been expanded from 7 bands to 8, so who can you look for in three weeks' time? Mostly a new lineup, with only three returning bands from last year, and none from lineups prior to then, including indie rock artist Jesse Merineau headlining at 8:00 PM! It's good to see the 2016 Speak Easy Battle winner back on stage after the cancellation of his Canadian Nightclub show this weekend, so look for him with a full band in his Rotaryfest debut on the 15th! Last year's headliners K.I.C.K. will play the same 7:00 PM timeslot this year with their own indie rock originals, while hard/alternative rock trio The Din are the highest slotted heavier band at 6:00 PM in their own Rotaryfest return.

Indie/punk quintet Northwest will debut on Stage 2 at 5:00 PM (fresh off of theirs and K.I.C.K.'s LopLops show the previous night), while fellow local punk standouts A Dire Setback will do the same at Clergue Park during the 4:00 PM set. Alt-hard rock quartet Id Iota will rock the 3:00 PM set at the Second Stage for the second straight year, while former Pixo Control frontman Mike Mikus and company will play their penultimate local concert before Mike's big move at 2:00 PM, with him saying farewell later that night at LopLops with Id Iota opening, so keep Stage 2 in mind if you're underage and want to see him before he heads east! Opening at 1:00 PM on July 15th are All Us Others, a new all-female singer/songwriter duo signed to Tidal Records, though I don't know their specific genres or much else beyond their Instagram page. See what they have in store next month at Stage 2!

As usual, Stage 2 is FREE & ALL AGES, and is once again curated by Chelsie Parayko, and be sure to visit the above links for full details on this year's lineup. While maintaining the youthful alternative path of the "redirected" era, this year's Second Stage lineup is also largely different from 2016 and completely different from any prior year, so there's lots of variety, talent, and relatively new blood to take in on July 15th! Stay tuned for more updates, as well as the covers-only Stage 1 lineup reveal, when they roll in!

We'll close today with the only public videos that I've located from Saturday night's Lita Ford/Jack Russell's Great White outdoor concert at the Kewadin Shores Casino in St. Ignace, Michigan! These come from YouTube user Annette Chandler (co-organizer of the local hydrocephalus charity walk Troy's Trail), who you may recognize as a filmer of February's Pop Evil concert in Sault Michigan. On Saturday, she filmed one video of each band, including this video of Lita Ford playing her biggest solo hit "Kiss Me Deadly", so what can we glean from it? Performance-wise, she still sounds good, and the band has the chops for the material, so there's no problems there! In terms of the setting along Horseshoe Bay, I really can't judge, as the videos were both taken during nightfall, and I can only really see the stage and lighting with any clarity, but hopefully the outdoor stage was set up well for fans and bands alike! Give Lita's video a look below!



Finally, here's Annette's video of Los Angeles hard rock veterans Jack Russell's Great White covering Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten, Twice Shy", which was their biggest chart hit and most recognizable song. The video's better lit than on Lita Ford's, which helps visibility beyond the stage a tiny bit, but I wish the videos would have zoomed in a little bit to counter attendee heads. Still, this version of Great White sound solid, even if only 20% of the lineup from their 2009 Kewadin gig was back this month, and the crowd get prime opportunities to sing along! Give their video a look below, and kudos to Annette for filming these, hopefully someone has more!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates soon, plus this month's CD review! Thanks everyone!

This Weekend's Hard Rock Concert Previews, Including Lita Ford & Great White!!

Another weekend of concert previews is here, so what do we have to hype up with only a week to go before Canada Day? Shockingly, no short notice events (yet?), but there's a fair amount of intriguing concerts going down over the coming days, including a huge outdoor event in the E.U.P., so here's what you should know in rough chronological order!

We'll start at The New American Pub TOMORROW NIGHT, where local instrumental jam/hard rock quintet Gianni Gagoots will return to the stage as openers for Niagara Falls experimental prog rock quartet The Road Waves! Last seen opening for The Hazytones at this venue two months ago, this will be the Gagoots' first concert appearance since announcing that they were self-promoting concerts of theirs under the Like Ten Productions banner. This creative union of Redefined, Sailor's Tongue, and Rising Tide alumni should have another creative set of instrumental funk and jam rock in store, so don't miss out tomorrow at The New A! As for The Road Waves, they don't quite cross the hard rock line, but their own improvised, ever-changing, and creative original jams should attract a solid audience tomorrow in the second stop of their summer tour, so keep them in mind as well! Doors open at 9:00 PM tomorrow for this 19+ concert, which has a $5 cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Gianni Gagoots live earlier this year!

Next up, the ever-prolific Tym Morrison will continue his ongoing weekly concert arrangement at Gliss Steak & Seafood with two more acoustic solo matinee gigs TOMORROW & SATURDAY! With a likely return to thrice-weekly gigs there coming in the near future, Tym's unplugged hard rock covers don't appear to be solely a two night affair for too much longer, so if you can make it down to The Quality Inn's house restaurant tomorrow or on Saturday evening, expect more solid renditions from this prolific veteran artist! As usual for Tym's long-term run at Gliss, expect 6:00 PM start times, no announced cover charges, and no age limits, but remember that this is a sit-down restaurant, not a typical nightclub venue. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Tym live!

Also, here's this weekend's arguable main event, as former Runaways guitarist Lita Ford and Los Angeles hard rock legends Jack Russell's Great White will play a special outdoor concert at the Kewadin Shores Casino in St. Ignace, Michigan THIS SATURDAY NIGHT to kick off the venue's summer concert series! The other events in the series are August's Josh Turner concert and demolition derby. A rare major Kewadin headlining concert to not take place at the Dreammaker's Theater in the Soo, fans should take to the regional debut of Lita Ford, whose solo hits like "Kiss Me Deadly", "Hungry", and "Close My Eyes Forever" should rock the stage on the shores of Horseshoe Bay on Saturday night, so don't miss out on her set!  Lita was promoted to headliner last week after April Wine were forced to drop out due to frontman Myles Goodwyn falling ill, so the Jack Russell-led version of Great White will step in to replace them on Saturday, with classics like "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" and "The House of Broken Love" in the repertoire.

Though this isn't the version of Great White that played Sault Michigan in 2009 (they've had an L.A. Guns-like split in two since), frontman Jack Russell is back from that event, and the original voice of Great White and his new band should deliver for fans on Saturday night! This FREE & ALL AGES concert has $18 general admission tickets and $28 for front row seating from the fourth row and back, so click here, call 1-800-KEWADIN, or visit the in-person box offices to get hooked up. This should be a solid concert for 1980s metal and Hair Scare fans, especially given the unique outdoor setting, so see above for more details, and here's Lita Ford live earlier this year!



Finally for today's concert previews, THIS SATURDAY NIGHT will also play host the Sault Ontario debut of all-female Barrie hardcore punk quartet Beaver Slap when they rock The Rockstar Bar! The show was quietly moved upstairs from The Algonquin Pub on Sunday for unannounced reasons, as per promoters Six, Two, Oh. on the Facebook event page, so ignore the venue listed on the poster. This concert should provide a quality showcase for Beaver Slap's aggressive brand of old school hardcore punk with some noise and crust rock touches for good measure, so don't miss out on the ladies as they take the stage on Saturday night! Only two bands are opening this one, including Six, Two, Oh.'s resident doom/sludge metal trio AlgomA in their second ever Rockstar Bar appearance and first concert anywhere since their European tour in the spring, while local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades will play their second show with their new lineup and their first Rockstar Bar set in well over nine months as well, last seen there opening for SNFU.

Solid choices to open, including a rare appearance by Jack Spades at an event not promoted by frontman J.D. Pearce, so don't be late for the local openers! Notably the first ever Rockstar Bar concert promoted by Six, Two, Oh., this event has a $7 cover charge, a 19+ age limit, and a 9:00 PM start time. This should be a great time for fans of hard edged punk with a hint of sludge, so visit the above links for full details on all of Saturday night's action, and here's Beaver Slap live a few years back!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates over the weekend! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (April Wine & Beaver Slap), The Gutter Demons Concert Preview, And More!!

Alright, this will indeed be our final news post of April 2017! I was preparing to hold out until Monday, but we have two big LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS and a preview for a show on Monday as it is, so I thought I'd get these on the site now, plus some solo material from a prominent area frontman. Now, here's what you need to know!

Halifax hard rock legends April Wine and former Runaways guitarist Lita Ford will rock Kewadin Casino on Saturday, June 24th, but not the Sault Michigan branch, instead playing an outdoor event on the back lawn of The Kewadin Shores Casino in St. Ignace! I have never heard of a hard rock show of this scale at the St. Ignace Kewadin, let alone outdoors (Kiss' 2007 show was in the Soo), but Kewadin's Facebook page notes that this is the kick-off to their summer concert series, so keep that in mind whether it's solely at this new outdoor stage or scattered throughout their casinos. Very intriguing regardless! This will be April Wine's first local concert stop since headlining at The Dreammaker's Theater four years ago, and with hits like "You Could Have Been A Lady" & "You Won't Dance With Me" dating back to the 1970s, you know they'll have a lot to draw from for their (at least) third regional concert! They also played in Sault Ontario in 1985.

As for Lita Ford, she became a very prominent sight in the late 1980s with solo hits like "Close My Eyes Forever" & "Kiss Me Deadly", and it'll be really cool to see her in our area in June, so keep her set in mind as well! I know my uncle will be very interested. Presumably all ages and at 7:00 PM, this concert's tickets will go on sale on Friday online, at the in-person Kewadin box office, and at 1-800-KEWADIN, though prices have not been announced as of press time. Check the above links for more details on this intriguing April Wine & Lita Ford show, and stay tuned for updates as they roll in!

Next up, another new concert is official for the very same day in Saul Ontario, as all-female Barrie hardcore punk quartet Beaver Slap will make their local concert debut on Saturday, June 24th at The Algonquin Pub! These girls definitely have the hardcore punk style down, with their noisy crust-influenced originals sure to make a mark on local fans in June, and they should gain a lot of new fans when they rock the 'Gonq, so definitely check them out in advance! Local openers will include the Algonquin Pub debut of local doom trio AlgomA, returning to the stage following their recent European tour, while local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades will play a rare show from an outside promoter when they hit the stage for the second time with their new lineup. Solid choices, so don't be late for the local opening sets! Promoted by Six, Two, Oh. in their own Algonquin Pub debut, this 19+ show has a $7 cover charge and a 9:00 PM start time. Visit the Facebook event page for details, and stay tuned for updates!

Also today, let's get our preview of a special concert THIS MONDAY NIGHT rolling on the SMS, as Montreal psychobilly/punk trio The Gutter Demons will rock The New American Pub in two days' time! Note that the show was relocated last week from The Algonquin Pub for unannounced reasons, as per promoter J.D. Pearce on the Facebook event page, so keep the move to The New A in mind! Local fans have been waiting too long for a psychobilly headlining act on a local stage, and The Gutter Demons' punk-influenced and road-tested blend of styles should satiate genre fans when they rock the Soo on Monday! Local opening acts will include the second live concert appearance from new local punk/alternative trio Handsome Sandwich, as well as the 2017 debut of funk/hard rock favourites The Elements, with both bands notably featuring Jesse Cook & James White in their lineups. Both bands should provide a quality soundtrack to kick off the night, so don't miss out!

Notably the first promoted concert by J.D. Pearce of the year (and his first in six months), this show has a $10 cover charge, 19+ age limit, and a 9:00 PM start time. This should be a fun concert for fans of punk, funk, and psychobilly music, and there's a little bit of everything to enjoy with these three groups on Monday night, so visit the above links for more details, and here's The Gutter Demons live!

Finally, here's a new solo cover of Puddle of Mudd's "Drift & Die" from Banned frontman Alex Traynor! While we haven't heard from the Kinross, Michigan classic/hard rock cover trio in a couple of weeks, Alex is staying busy in the interim with solo material of his own, even launching his own solo Facebook page to promote his own material, and in case you're worried, he confirmed there that he is still in Banned. Honestly, given how Alex has been the sole focus of Banned's Facebook imagery since 2014, you could say that these are de facto Banned recordings, but this recent solo material is branded separately under Alex's name. Said uploads include an original song named "Crazy World" on his Soundcloud page, and two shares of solo cover videos from his personal Facebook page, including "Drift & Die" and a rendition of Santana's "Smooth", both as filmed by Eric Cairns at Third Cinema Productions. So, how do Alex's new solo recordings sound overall?

Not bad, he has a solid grasp of the covers, with "Drift & Die" a good vocal match, and "Smooth" allows him to showcase his guitar skill! As for "Crazy World", it's an upbeat hard rocker, and it'll be interesting to see how far his solo work goes! In terms of adding Alex's solo project to our band links, I am waiting for more material to see if it's hard rock based, as I know some prior solo work of his diverged from our covered genres. Check out "Drift & Die" below, and stay tuned for more from Alex & Banned!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Apocalypse Afterparty CD review next! Thanks everyone!