LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Id Iota & Tym Morrison), Oh!No Concert Festival Updates, And More!!

Here's another new news post to check out on this Tuesday afternoon, so what's on tap? Some shorter assorted stories from recent days, a video remembering and hyping up past and future installments of a concert festival, and LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the spring, but we'll start with one on SHORT NOTICE and a related apology!

Former Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison will return to Mark's Breakfast Plus for a special matinee concert TONIGHT, after previously playing there yesterday! Profuse apologies for the short notice (and for missing last night's concert), Tym only announced them via his personal Facebook page yesterday at supper time, with a Facebook event page that listed the shows as being on February 12th and 13th being taken down after the fact. These will "mark" Tym's first shows at the Market Mall restaurant since the end of February, and if you're up for some skilled (if late notice) acoustic hard rock classics, be at Marks TONIGHT! While we're in the business, Tym will also bring his acoustic solo act to The Tech on Saturday, April 7th for an afternoon set during the first annual Twin City Tattoo Convention, which will definitely be a unique showcase for his material! Tym will be playing before acoustic country duo The Bearded Lounge and blues veterans The Swamp Cats that day.

TONIGHT'S (and yesterday's) Mark's shows are 6:00 PM matinees with no announced cover charges or age limits, but mind the locale, while the Twin City Tattoo Convention may or may not have age limits and cover charges, so check the above links for full details therein. Time-wise, he's on at 12:30 PM, with The Stray Cats at 3:00 PM and The Bearded Lounge headlining at 6:00 PM. Whether you want some imminent supper-time music or want to rock out amongst local inked brethren, Tym's staying busy! Don't miss out, here's Tym live, and apologies again for missing last night's Mark's gig! We'd have plugged it here had it received advance notice!



Next up, here's a couple of new shows regarding local alternative hard/indie rock quartet Id Iota, who will make their long awaited return to the local stage for the first time since May at three upcoming shows this spring! To start, the guys will join drone rock trio Pointless for a joint concert at LopLops Lounge on Friday, March 30th, in what will be the Soo debut of Id Iota's still-unrevealed new bassist, as well as an early live appearance for Pointless with Id Iota's own Dustin Goodall on bass in place of the relocated Jordan Leach. Nice to see both bands back on stage, and this should be an interesting style contrast at LopLops at month's end! If you can't be at that show, both bands will also join forces at the same venue on Saturday, May 19th when they open for Sudbury garage rock trio The Almighty Rhombus, whose contemporary and lively sound is well suited to the venue, and they should attract an audience along with the locals in May as well!

For the former, a $5 cover charge, 19+ age limit, and 9:00 PM start time are in effect, and while online advertising for the latter has not commenced, I imagine all three will translate to that show except for maybe a higher cover. Id Iota have been busy in studio since last year working on their first full length album, and have teased that we may see it this year finally, but look for originals from it and some surprise covers at these two shows, and remember, Pointless are fronted by Bill Priddle of Treble Charger fame! Visit the March 30th gig's Facebook event page and above for more details, and stay tuned for more from Id Iota!

Next up, here's a retrospective video from/teaser for the Oh!No Music Festival in nearby Leeburn, Ontario, courtesy of co-promoter/AlgomA drummer Jamie Vincent's YouTube channel yesterday! The 2 minute clip features high quality footage from the Robbie's Church-held festival from Six, Two, Oh., as set to "The Sweat of a Hero" by Sudbury punk trio Lightmares (who were on last year's bill), though to my knowledge, the full footage from the cameras used here, let alone with original audio, isn't publically viewable yet. In this video, you'll see performance footage of every single band or solo act that played last year (even DJ Seith), and it's well edited, letting us see everything without giving much away! The video's end implies that the Oh!No Festival will return to Leeburn on Friday, September 8th, and while I don't think the logo at the end is anything more than a new Oh!No logo, there are more questions. Who's playing this year? Will it be at the church again? Will the ground rules change? Keep tabs for more details, and look back on last year below!



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

• In a post on their Facebook page yesterday, The Canadian Nightclub indicated that they were looking for bands to play at the venue and upstairs at The Upper Deck Lounge (adding "WE PAY! YOU PLAY!"), as well as a mention that they are "looking at hosting a battle of the bands in the near future" with "great prizes". It'd be great to see a new battle there, not to mention more bands playing regularly at this fan favourite venue, so see above to inquire on how to play at The Canadian in either setting!
• Local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades and sister punk trio Stegadeth will both be heading out to Meyersburg for this year's Spiderfest on Saturday, July 14th! Both bands will be playing on night 2 of the annual punk/extreme metal festival, where they'll open for such past local performers as The Ripcordz, Random Killing, and The Union Thugs. Jack Spades have spoken very highly of the Spiderfest experience in the past, and here's hoping both bands deliver a knockout blow again this summer!
• Former That's Chester drummer Ric Datson (now of Bone Yard & Mojo fame) is featured in the cover story of the new issue of The Soo Profile Magazine, featuring interview remarks from him and an outline of his musical, professional, and charitable endeavours. Very entertaining interview that paints a quality picture of Ric in varying facets, and it's well worth a read at the above links and/or at participating local merchants!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site as the week rolls along! 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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Powerslug & Riding Shotgun) And Weekend Concert Previews!!

We're late for this post, so let's get right to everything, as we have previews of this weekend's metal & hard rock concerts and LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for shows TONIGHT & next week, so here's what you need to know, and check out our Anvil concert review in the post below this one!

After a weekend off, Sault Michigan hard rock trio Powerslug are apparently playing at The Corner Pub Bar & Grill TONIGHT! I apologize for the short notice, guitarist Chris Gurnoe only publically announced this concert a few hours ago on his personal Facebook page, and they still don't have an online page to announce advance gigs. Though I don't know if tonight's concert is outdoors or indoors, Powerslug's brand of hard rock should attract a solid crowd tonight, so if you're up for some live hard rock across the river this weekend, keep tonight's show in mind! Admission should be 21+, there's no announced cover charge, and I'll assume they'll be on at around 10:00 PM tonight. Also, I don't believe they're playing tomorrow, but knowing how much word we hear about their gigs in advance, they could have something going on for all I know. Check the above links for more details! Powerslug have the talent and experience to rock very hard tonight, so go check them out if you can at The Corner Pub and get weird with Powerslug! For a preview, click here to see the only available video footage of Powerslug in action!

Also in new concerts is a show that I only heard full details about thanks to posters that were up at The Canadian Nightclub when I was there for the Anvil concert (I don't even know who's promoting it), but a solid lineup of bands is lined up from out of town! Toronto hard rock quartet Riding Shotgun are coming to Sault Ontario on August 3rd (one week from today) for a headlining concert at The Canadian on their Canadian Buckle Up Tour, and I'm liking what I'm hearing from them so far! Deep voiced & very heavy brand of hard rock, and they have a familiarity that I can't place off hand, but they're well worth checking out, so click here to hear some of their original material! Ottawa alternative hard rockers Project Mars will open for them next Friday, and they have an interesting sound that mized hard driving riffs with some more classic sounding vocals, and they should set the tone well at this concert! As far as I can tell, there's no local openers, a 10:00 PM start time wouldn't surprise me, you likely must be 19 to attend, and I'd expect a cover charge of around $5. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This sounds like a very good concert for hard rock fans, and hopefully a huge crowd turns out for it! If I hear anything extra on this show, you guys know I'll have it here!

Now to previews of this weekend's previously announced hard rock concerts, starting with the return of Turner Up TONIGHT at The Speak Easy! The local classic hard rock quintet will hit the stage for the first time in almost 2 months (though members have played with Havadder in the interim) for the first ever appearance by either Turner Up incarnation at Algoma University's campus bar & concert spot! Notably, this will also be the first heavier concert at The Speak Easy in about 4 months, so if you've missed shows there in 2012, don't miss this one, as who knows when a heavy concert will return? Turner Up's energy fueled brand of female fronted hard & classic rock covers will be sure to excite, and a stop by The Speak Easy would probably pay off well for local hard rock fans! Admission is free tonight, a 10:00 PM start time is likely, and though I'd expect a 19+ age limit, there could be a deal for underage Algoma students to get in (which isn't a new idea.) For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be a great show in it's own right, so consider it for your Friday concert plans, as Turner Up definitely don't turn 'er up as much as they used to! For a preview, here's the old Turner Up covering Guns N' Roses' "Mr. Brownstone" last year!



And finally for this weekend, local hard rock trio Caveman Morrison will return to The Nicolet Tavern TONIGHT AND TOMORROW NIGHT for their latest shows in their busy summer schedule! Though I still don't know who their current bassist is (online pages haven't been updated to mention that yet), they'll be sure to melt many faces at The Nic this weekend with their brand of classic tinged hard rock and metal covers, and Caveman Morrison have a wide array of songs in their repertoire that could be broken out tonight or tomorrow, so I'd keep these shows in mind for your weekend plans! Admission should be free tomorrow & tonight, you must be 19 to attend, and I'd assume both night's entertainment will kick off at around 10:00 PM. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Caveman Morrison always have plenty of great material for their fans, and hopefully this weekend's shows are no different, so if you're up for some hard hitting covers, you know where to be! For a preview, here's Caveman Morrison covering Ozzy Osbourne's "I Don't Know" at what's now Coch's Corner in 2010!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for an all-Rotaryfest video post tomorrow! Thanks everyone!