Let's get back to news and updates on this Monday afternoon, so what's in store for this post? A local drummer's musician search, and leading off, LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for THIS WEEKEND and in March, so here's what you need to know!
Local classic hard rock cover quartet Havadder will return to The Rednecks Saloon for solo headlining concerts THIS FRIDAY & SATURDAY NIGHT! Announced yesterday via the official Facebook event page (nice to see some more advance notice!), these will be Jason, Jamie, Travis, and Scott's first shows at the former Nicolet Tavern since their early December weekend there, so if you haven't been at The Rockstar Bar in the past month for their entertaining and often heavy cover attack, you know where to be this weekend! As they like to say, "if you haven't, you should, because if you don't, you didn't!" You can by coming to The Rednecks Saloon Friday or Saturday at 10:00 PM, both shows have no announced cover charge, and both have age limits of 19 or older. For more details, visit the above links, and stay tuned for our preview of these shows later this week!
Also this weekend (and with some advance notice), we'll see local alternative/hard rock cover veterans Lucky 13 rocking The Rockstar Bar THIS SATURDAY! Our source is a post by The Rockstar Bar's Martin Fiser on the venue's Facebook group earlier today. A one night only event due to Friday's Project 421-headlined concert, this will be this popular cover quartet's first show at The Algonquin Hotel's upstairs bar in 2015, and will come fresh off of their Rednecks Saloon gigs this past weekend. Ed, Jeremey, Jeff, and Roger have more than proven their talents and chemistry since debuting in 2012, so expect a great night of diverse covers and lots of aggressive material on Saturday night! There is also a 19+ age limit and 10:00 PM start time, and while The Rockstar Bar has had more no cover weekends lately, bring $5 or so just in case. For more details, visit the above links, and stay tuned for more in the next few days!
Finally for new concert announcements, here's something for you Metallica fans out there, as Toronto-based Metallica tribute band Sandman will make their long awaited return to Sault Ontario on Friday, March 20th at The Rockstar Bar! Referred to on their pages as "Canada's Tribute To Metallica", this talented group was last seen in the Soo in June 2008 at The Canadian Nightclub, a show that has a personal sentimental attachment as it was the first 19+ concert that I ever attended. I have no idea why it's taken Sandman almost 7 years to return to Sault Ste. Marie, but it's great to see them back! It's also worth noting that frontman Rick Van Dyk and bassist Paul Fonseca were members of Helix in the late 2000s, and played locally at least once with them, so there's another notable connection! This 19+ concert will likely have a 10:00 PM start time, and it's not clear yet whether there will be a door charge or advance ticket sales. For more details, visit The Rockstar Bar's Facebook group linked above, and keep posted for more details!
Finally for today, we have a local musician search that aspiring black metal musicians out there might want to look into. In the past week, I've been contacted by Sevriz (real name not published on request), a young local black metal drummer that would like to jam with other musicians, presumably towards forming a full local black metal band. To facilitate the search, he's even posted a classified ad on Kijiji and a YouTube video to promote it. His criteria is very definite, so to sum it up, he's looking for serious dedicated black metal musicians with time for a band, and that are willing to contribute where needed, but read the Kijiji ad for all of Sevriz's preferred criteria. The preferred age range would be 16-20, roughly. The YouTube video (uploaded to his channel on January 9th) sums up the search, as set to music by the black metal project Xasthur.
Not counting blackened death metal, we haven't seen much from full black metal projects in the Soo in recent memory, and though Woods of Ypres come to mind first, their post-2008 work was mostly doom metal. If Sevriz can get a full black metal band going, that'd be a nice change of pace, and I know fans that would welcome it, so check out his wanted ad at the above links and his YouTube video below, and message him at blackenedlegions@gmail.com if you're serious about trying out!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes this week! Thanks everyone!
Well guys, this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile has a change of band. I'd originally planned to look at Kitchener hard rock project Malicious Side Effect due to the members' past work with local guitarist Keith Conway, but on further research, I found out that was in a different older band named Camaro, so it wouldn't fit the series to look at M.S.E.. Instead, I've bumped my planned band for next month (our second tribute band in this series) to today to look at, and like our past selections, this band features at least one Saultite in their past and/or present lineups, even though they're not regionally based. Read on below for this month's profile! (Updated on November 27th, 2014)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Damage Inc. (Lethbridge, Alberta)
Lineup: (Saultites in RED; ex-members in italics. The lineup information is incomplete regarding the identity of Damage Inc's first drummer[s]. E-mail me if you can fill in any blanks!)
Mark Di Giorgio (vocals/guitar)
Oleg "Ole Gus" Usykov (guitar) Paul Melanson (bass)
James Nagy (drums)
Local Info: Damage Inc. is the newest project from Sault Ontario native and talented multi-instrumentalist Paul
Melanson, who's been a steady sight in his current home of Lethbridge, Alberta since the mid-late 2000s. You may recognize him from his most recent original band Caste of Shadows, but he's also attracted notice for his guitar & bass work in bands like Daemon Rage, Igniter, and Gravity Crash, along with work as a singer and guitarist in older local bands like Malediction, Gutwrench, and Under The
Gun. Paul's busy with his current bands, but he's keeping things heavy, so if you're out west, give his bands a look!
Band Bio:Launched in May 2012, Metallica tribute band Damage Inc. are a self-described "hard-hitting tribute to heavy metal's most successful act." They played their first live gigs in Lethbridge in October 2012, and have since played numerous solo and joint concerts in the Lethbridge & Calgary areas, including events in British Columbia, shows with other tribute bands, and even coinciding with the Calgary Stampede. Their lineup has been stable since their live debut, save for Mick Friday's injury-related exit in May of 2013, when Paul Melanson replaced him. Still frequently seen across Alberta, Damage Inc. show no signs of slowing down! When it comes to tribute bands, they do have the musical side of things well to match up with Metallica, but Mark Di Giorgio's vocals aren't a perfect fit (they almost sound more fitting of a full on NWOBHM band.) Metallica fans who can't see the real thing should enjoy Damage Inc. though, as they have a solid and very heavy take on the original songs!
For videos, frontman Mark Di Giorgio has two different YouTube channels of their live concerts (here and here) to sample Damage Inc.'s live show, where you can see the band's live skill, including Paul's bass talents! I chose this video of Damage Inc. covering "Master of Puppets" to feature here, as it's pretty solid overall (despite some minor lyrical flubs), so give it a look below!
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I hope you guys liked this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile! Next month's profile will be our last before we update past installments in November, and it will look at inactive Illinois metal band Life In Shadow, whose frontman was current Bury Your Demons bassist (and Sault Michigan native) Scott Mills! This will be out first profile in this series since January to look at a band with a Yooper alum, so watch out for it on or around October 26th, and stay tuned later today for weekend concert previews! Thanks everyone!
There's so much concert action going on this weekend that I have no choice but to break this weekend's concert previews into three posts: One for Sault Ontario, one for Sault Michigan, and starting things off, one for Hempfest! That is the complete focus of this first post of the day, so without any further adieu, here's all that you need to know about this year's Hempfest entertainment!
Yes, the 13th annual marijuana culture festival is back on Poplardale Road in Ophir, Ontario this year under new management after it's initial cancellation in 2009 and a one year move to Moonbeam last year! Kudos again to organizer Robert Neron for bringing it back home where it belongs! I won't go too in depth as to the non-musical entertainment, but I will mention some key things and changes. This year's Hempfest is different from the last local installments in a few respects, including FREE admission for federal exemptees for medicinal marijuana with proper ID, some carnival/midway-ish entertainment, no charge for festival vendors, and 24/7 entertainment over the weekend! When the bands aren't playing, DJs will rock the second stage from midnight to 10:00 AM on Friday until Sunday (including former Renegades guitarist Jason "Wyza" Wysynski" Friday morning), so click here for the second stage schedule! Of course, if you're reading this, you're probably not at Hempfest yet, though remember that's it's a week long event this year! It started with just camping and good times on Monday, so you're free to head to Ophir right now to get started early! (Just be wary of the R.I.D.E. program.) For all current details on the non-main stage entertainment at this year's Hempfest, visit the Facebook event page and the official Facebook group!
Of course, being that this is The Sault Metal Scene, you know what we'll focus on, and leading to that, another nice development this year is the presence of a full schedule for the bands, which never happened (or at least never found it's way to me) under the festival's old ownership. All of the lineup information below (unless otherwise sourced) comes from the official Hempfest schedule posted here. I will remind you guys that this is obviously a 19+ event, and tickets are $15 a day to attend (so in other words, $30 for two days, $45 for three, or $60 for the remainder of the festival.) Advance tickets are NO LONGER on sale, you will have to pay at the gate at this point. If you're bringing your dog, it will have a $10 fee, with muzzles recommended if they have a tendency to bite. Now, to the lineups, but first, just a reminder that local horror punk quintet Frightlight, London hard rock trio Violet Fuse (featuring Saultite Thom Edwards), Vancouver metal band 4Ward, and Arizona solo artist Scott Huckabay are NOT on this year's lineup, having dropped out following the schedule adjustment from it's original timeframe later this month. As well, Saint Catharines rappers Theatre Crisp dropped out of the Friday schedule, but we'll approach their replacement in a bit. With that out of the way, who is playing this year?
TODAY'S lineup for Hempfest only contains one hard rock band, that being the returning Half Past, in their first local concert appearance in six months! It will also be the band's debut concert with new frontman Jordan Rains, who replaced Luke LeBlanc earlier this year. This should be very interesting to see how the new lineup does, and keep in mind that the band have been hyping on their pages that they'll have merchandise for sale! For the rest of the lineup today, Burlington reggae rockers The Killin' Time Band will headline at 10:30 PM & 12:15 AM for two sets, with local sideshow performer D.J. Williamson of The Dark Karnival Entertainment sandwiched in between. In descending order from there, local punk trio Redundant will take the stage at 9:00 PM tonight, preceded by Hamilton ska-punk band Lo-Fi at 7:30 PM, Half Past at 6:00 PM, and local folk trio The Blackberrys at 4:30 PM. The stage kicks off at 4:00 PM with opening ceremonies, the 4:20 siren, and the first rounds of the spitting & gram sprint contests in this year's Willy High Games. Remember, ticket information and lineup sources are above!
Sounds like a solid lineup of local and out of town entertainment, though if you crave metal, the best is yet to come! As for Half Past, fingers crossed that their first show with Jordan is a success! For a preview, here's an older Half Past lineup playing their song "War Inside My Head" last year!
Now to the Friday lineup, and there is both more bands and metal tomorrow! Three metal bands are on the schedule, including headliners Misery: The Metallica Xperience, a prominent Canadian tribute band who have notably played in Sault Ontario in the past! They have a great version of the Metallica sound, so definitely stay up to see them tomorrow night at 11:30 PM! For tribute band fans, also note that AC/DC tribute band Who Made Who will rock the Hempfest stage at 9:00 PM tomorrow night (and will also have a vendor's table this year!) No strangers to the Soo either, this very talented quintet will deliver a great set of AC/DC classics tomorrow night as well! And finally for metal, local standouts Garden of Bedlam return to Hempfest for a set full of their high energy originals at 4:30 PM as a replacement for Theater Crisp! Awesome to see them back at Hempfest, they'll tear it up once again, as they did in 2008 & 2009! For the rest of the lineup, D.J. Williamson returns for more sideshow feats between Misery & Who Made Who's sets at 10:45 PM, and before the main acts, Lo-Fi are back at 6:45 PM tomorrow, and are preceded by Garden of Bedlam at 4:30 PM, the second rounds of tonight's Willy High Games at 4:00 PM (plus the junkyard bong contest & the 4:20 siren), West Virginia rappers Northern Lights at 3:00 PM, and Blind River folk artists T.J. Kirby at 12:00 PM & Josh Odair at 1:30 PM respectively.
Note that the band Radar (not sure of who they are exactly) were also scheduled for 6:00 PM tomorrow, but also dropped out, thought they're still on for Saturday. As such, Garden of Bedlam will run later & Lo-Fi will start a bit earlier to help fill the gap. Again, check the above links for more lineup details & ticket information for the Friday schedule. Another solid lineup, mostly different from tonight's schedule too, so don't miss the bands on Friday! For a preview, here's Misery playing the Metallica classic "Creeping Death" in New Brunswick in 2005. If you're a fan of Metallica, AC/DC, and Garden of Bedlam, don't miss Hempfest tomorrow!
Now to the Saturday lineup, which mostly features bands seen on the previous nights, but it does have the most metal on this year's schedule! This time, the highest slotted metal band is Garden of Bedlam, who will play at 9:00 PM on Saturday night. The Saturday entertainment opens with a three-for-all of hard rock and metal, with Misery back at 3:00 PM, Who Made Who on at 1:30 PM, and Half Past opening on Saturday at 12:00 PM. As for the rest of the Saturday lineup, The Killin' Time Band again has two sets at the end of the night, at 11:15 PM and 1:00 AM, with D.J. Williamson again sandwiched in between at 12:15 AM. At 8:30 PM before Garden of Bedlam's set, there is apparently a Halloween costume contest, so bring yours to enter! Before that, the lineup features Lo-Fi at 7:30 PM, Radar (the only band not on an earlier night) at 7:00 PM, Northern Lights at 6:30 PM, and Redundant at 5:00 PM, with the finals of the previous night's Willy High Games (and the bucket race) at 4:00 PM, plus the 4:20 siren, with the opening three heavier bands before that. Of course, check the above links for more details.
For my money, this is the best night of the festival for heaviness and maximum bang for your buck, but that's subjective. No matter what, this is a quality lineup and don't miss it on Saturday night! For a preview, here's Garden of Bedlam at the 2008 Hempfest playing their original song "The Truth Shall Set You Free"!
As for the Sunday lineup, there is no metal to speak of, but an abbreviated set featuring Joshua Odair, T.J. Kirby, and The Blackberrys is scheduled from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM before the closing ceremony and one more 4:20 siren happen to end this year's Hempfest. So how's about all of that for this year's Hempfest schedule? Tons of great bands and what should be some awesome times celebrating marijuana culture and local music! If you smoke marijuana and/or believe in it's legalization, this is a great way to show your support and have some fun, and it's a great festival for music lovers as well, especially given the cheap daily price and the closeness to Sault Ontario! If I go, it will be Saturday, but a lot has to line up for me personally to make it down there. All of you guys should head down to Ophir at some point between TODAY and Sunday to enjoy Hempfest, just be wary of the R.I.D.E. program, as I assume they'll be out and about on the route to Ophir. For all current details, rules, schedules, and recommendations for this year's Hempfest, check the above links! Best of luck to Robert and the rest of the Hempfest organizers and staffers this year, and to all of the bands and fans, for what should be a great festival!
That's all for now, but stay tuned later today for another weekend concert preview post, this time detailing Sault Ontario-area concerts from Thursday-Saturday not involving Hempfest, including TONIGHT'S Roosevelt Hotel metal night, the Smeltzer reunion show tomorrow, and Full Circle's weekend set. Stay tuned!
So did you remember to check the SMS out at 10:00 PM last night for the all-concerts auto-post? I hope so, cause there was a lot there to get through, and even still, that's not all! Before I review Ultraviolence & The Big Four, we have another LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, so here's what you need to know!
Just four months after they last came through here, Who Made Who, The Ultimate Tribute To AC/DC will be back in Sault Ontario in exactly ONE WEEK! Sorry for the short notice, I was only alerted to this show today. AC/DC fans sure have had a lot to cheer about locally in 2010, after seeing Who Made who at Nite-Life Dance Club in February and then seeing ANOTHER AC/DC tribute band, Hells Bells, at The Canadian Nightclub just last month! And just like at their May 2009 concert here, Who Made Who will be back at The Canadian themselves! What can you say, Sault Ste. Marie loves AC/DC and AC/DC tributes love coming here! The Ontario-based tribute band will bring their own authentic AC/DC sound and look once again next week that will be sure to impress, just as they did in their last shows here! The show will be on June 30th at 10:00 PM, there is a $5 cover charge, and you must be 19 to get in. You can never get too much AC/DC, so what excuse do you have to NOT go? Confirm your attendance at the Facebook event page, and check out more from Who Made Who by clicking here!
Now, onto reviews of what happened last night! Well, as you guys were probably aware, me and a few dozen other local metalheads found ourselves at Galaxy Cinema in Theater 1 for The Big Four: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax, live from Bulgaria! Well, it didn't turn out to be completely live, though that was probably to quicken things. Before the bands started, we didn't have to sit through trailers and ads, luckily, we actually got to see Lars Ulrich, Scott Ian, Dave Mustaine, and Kerry King talk about music and their influences and stuff, it has a nice casual interview feel! Anthrax opened to a huge raucous crowd, and I can see why, but I didn't expect them to be so into Anthrax and know all the songs! The band were fantastic and looked to be enjoying every minute of the show, especially singer Joey Belladonna, who went all out with his energy, including running around like a maniac with his Indian headdress during the song "Indians"! The highlight of their set was when they stopped mid-song to cover "Heaven and Hell" in tribute to Ronnie James Dio, that was just awesome! My biggest complaint about Anthrax was the vocals, probably cause I'm a huge fan of John Bush, and I never thought Joey's singing fit a thrash band, though I will say his voice has held out the best of the current Big Four frontmen!
Megadeth were next, and they sadly had to play about half their set during rain. I would have blamed Lars for trying to sabotage Dave and them, but that sounded cruel. Musically, they were on top of their game, with just an onslaught of thrash metal with no chit chat needed between songs! Again, like with Anthrax, my big complaint lied with vocals, it sounded like Dave Mustaine was straining his voice a lot of the time to hit higher and angrier notes. It's also awesome seeing David Ellefson back, and Chris Broderick's guitar work is just awesome, Dave did good to get him! Following them were Slayer, and I have to say, they still sound as good as ever! I was actually going into this thinking Tom Araya's singing would be the worst, cause last I heard, his singing was shot. Not last night, he sounded pretty close to their recent albums! Musically, I can't complain one bit, Kerry King's guitar mastery was obvious, Dave Lombardo laid waste to his drums (for my money, he's the best "Big Four" drummer), and the whole band played with an obvious intensity combined with joy to be playing!
Before Metallica played, we got a surprise tribute segment to Ronnie James Dio, who was supposed to play this festival with Heaven and Hell as well before he died. Lars, Scott, Dave, and Kerry reminisced about Ronnie and their memories meeting him and playing with him, which was really cool! Everyone at the theater responded to that nicely! When Metallica hit the stage, they had an awesome stage setup with a huge video screen and pyro and all kinds of bells and whistles, and luckily, their music lived up to the presentation! They played many of their greatest hits, and they sounded very tight, though I do have complaints. The fire in James Hetfield's voice isn't there as much, and it sounded like he tried too hard at various parts. Also, the downtuning was really evident on a number of songs. Still, they were awesome, and thankfully didn't play anything from their mid-90s albums or "St. Anger"! There was a moment where we could see what was on James' guitar pick, which I won't spoil, but everyone loved that! And then, to kick off the encore, Metallica were joined on stage by Megadeth, Anthrax, and Dave from Slayer (where were the rest of them?) to play Diamond Head's "Am I Evil?", and that was a surreally awesome moment! Never would I have thought I'd see James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine share the stage again, I think Hell froze over!
Overall, that was a fun way to see the four kings of thrash, and I definitely think Galaxy should show more metal concerts there, cause if something else huge is there, it'll be worth seeing too, I think! There were some general camera issues, a glitch during Slayer, and it ran long, but no worries! Hopefully The Big Four tour together in North America in the future! Can you imagine if they all played HERE? One can dream!
However, because "The Big Four" ran long (it ended around quarter to 11), I actually missed the first half of Ultraviolence's first set at Coch's Corner, but that wasn't going to stop me from going! I've missed seeing them too often already as it was! I made it there mid-song and settled into the closest booth possible and got ready for some filthy dirty drunk n' roll! Now you know how I've said that Ultraviolence have an AC/DC-ish sound? Well, guess what the first full song they played when I got there was? "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)"! And I have got to say, frontman Turi Mercuri has a great Brian Johnson-esque voice, I can see him fronting an AC/DC cover band if he wanted to go that route! But good thing they don't, cause they have some great originals and covers of other bands to go around! Their set had a number of covers from many different bands, ranging from Twisted Sister and Motley Crue to Led Zeppelin and Motorhead (bassist Jordan Beer'd handled vocals there) to even some Elvis Presley! Plus, they threw in their originals like "Hey Li'l Mama", "Queen Heartbreaker", and "Devil's Little Girl", that are full of raw hard drinking energy that the crowd ate up!
Turi Mercuri's a great frontman, and not just vocally, he was all over the place, jumping on tables, singing to and with the fans there (I got to sing along with the chorus of "Rock N' Roll"), and engaging in some funny on-stage banter! Actually, he and the rest of the band are all very nice guys, they're class acts and I got to chat with them during their first break, which was really awesome! I even got my CD autographed, thanks guys! Andrew Postlethwaite was great all night on guitar, though it seemed like he was hidden a lot of the time, maybe it was just my angle of the stage. Jordan Beer'd ruled on bass, he's gonna go far himself, and Phil Elliot kept the beat nicely on drums, he had some great licks! The crowd, thought not humongous, were great considering this was a Tuesday night concert, and everyone there was getting into it and having a good time, singing along and talking with the band, it was a great environment!
I'm dead honest when I say this: I haven't had this much fun at an out-of-town-headlined bar concert since Ministry of Zen were here last, and even then, there might be some dispute! Ultraviolence are entertaining, they have a great sound, they're nice guys, and they'll get you moving and grooving! The horns and beers were flying, and rightfully so! At points, it didn't even feel like some Tuesday concert! If you weren't there last night, you missed out big time! But keep in mind that Ultraviolence end their summer tour here on July 31st, so go to that concert, you'll thank me later! As you can tell, I took lots of photos, though excuse the quality, the lighting in Coch's Corner wasn't great for photo taking, so the setting made them grainier than I'd like. Click here to check them out, and yes, I got a video too! Here's what I got, Ultraviolence playing their original song "Devil's Little Girl"!
I'll leave this post there for today, but here's what to look out for on the SMS! Tomorrow's post is solely dedicated to previewing this weekend's local metal concerts, including the big Tesla show at Kewadin Casino on Saturday! Friday will have a news post with lots of updates that I need to get through, and also, keep an eye out for my newest profiles of out-of-town bands with local members (this month: The Disciples of Rock & Violet Fuse) between Saturday and Wednesday! And remember, the SMS' 3rd anniversary is ONE WEEK FROM SUNDAY! Stay tuned for more news and updates as they come in!
I just knew I had to get a second post in today, I don't generally like doing that, but considering that tomorrow's post will likely solely deal with weekend concert previews, I thought I should at least space out this post from my last one. But just in case you didn't read the post from earlier, check it out below this one, it has news on Turner Up's show THIS WEEKEND, new videos from Stillbroke, Silver Dream, and Nixxon Dixxon, and pics from one of Rush's shows here in the 1970s! So, let's get into some more news!
And what better way to start with more news that's sure to produce a reaction from certain skeptics. We have more confirmation that Kiss are still planning to come to Sault Ste. Marie! SooToday's David Helwig posted an article exploring the topic, which includes reassurances from Essar Centre events manager Trevor Zachary that discussions are "absolutely" going on to bring Kiss here, and a date in September is being held for them just in case! David points out in the article that there is that long break between the September 5th and 9th shows in St. Paul, Minnesota and Toronto that could hold a Sault Ste. Marie show. Craig Huckerby from SooNews has also jumped on this story for an article there about the Kiss situation, which says stuff we've mostly already heard, but it does contradict the SooToday article by saying that the arena is holding TWO potential dates for the Kiss show. Either way, this show is far from being cancelled and proving skeptics right, so we'll have to wait and see!
Closing today's Kiss show updates, SooToday has a poll up on the front page with this question: Has your opinion of the band KISS changed over the past year?" Three choices are given to vote on: "No, my opinion hasn't changed", " Yes, it has changed for the better", and "Yes, it has changed for the worse". Click the above link to vote if you want to, and how do the current results look? 59.84% of the 1,016 votes cast picked "Yes, it has changed for the worse", with in second with 36.32% and "Yes, it has changed for the better" in third with 3.84%. This is about what I expected, though I figure that once Kiss does in fact play here, general opinions on them will climb back up!
Next up, we have updates from your favourite internet radio station (and our only Sault Ontario-based rock radio station), Energy Rock Radio! Ryan McQueen and the guys over at ERR have been keeping busy with the station in recent weeks, here's some of the recent updates! I didn't cover this on here (wasn't locally based), but they ran a contest where the winner got tickets to go see Drowning Pool, Seether, Hellyeah, and Five Finger Death Punch live in Detroit! The winner, Sault Ontario's own Dustin Grimard, also won backstage passes and got to meet Drowning Pool, which must have been awesome! Ryan McQueen also was there, and there's lots of photos from the show and backstage experience at ERR's website, including getting a video message with Drowning Pool drummer Mike Luce! Also, Ryan's definitely been loading up on Sense of Truth at the station, adding songs from their forthcoming E.P. to the playlist rotation! Nice snag there, I have to say! So make sure to listen to Energy Rock Radio for your potential first glimpse at their new album! Also, remember to read Energy Rock Radio's current playlist to see what all they currently have to play on the station! Lots of great songs there, and don't be concerned with the non-metal stuff, that's only for special occasions!
...but that's not all Energy Rock Radio related today! Starting next Friday, the station is holding live karaoke nights from 8:00-10:00 PM, click here for details! Any metalheads out there wanna show off their singing voice? Or how about your best metal face, cause that contest is ongoing until September! And, Energy Rock Radio now has a YouTube channel! It features a contest promo video for the Drowning Pool contest, a live clip of Ryan McQueen at The Fillmore Theater in Detroit for the show, an initial greetings video, and a live Sense of Truth video from their show with Lion Ride on Saturday! I've embedded the Sense of Truth video below, it's actually of the same song I filmed, "Land of Greed"! He got closer to the action than I did, not bad work! Of course, click here to listen in live to Energy Rock Radio and enjoy, it's a great station that needs more listeners! And, of course, huge thanks to Ryan for recording a promo commercial for The Sault Metal Scene, which you can check out by clicking here! That's awfully nice of him!
Next, another new video from a local band, and this time, it comes courtesy of local hardcore band Detroit! This comes from a show at The Bovine Sex Club in Toronto on January 19th of Detroit playing what I think (I stress "I think") is an unreleased original called "Crowned By Giants"! This comes from the Youtube channel of a user named dnahahaha, who has uploaded 16 other live Detroit clips from shows at The Bovine Sex Club since January of last year, click here and search for "Detroit" to check them all out! The video and sound quality is really good, though I don't know if having a stationary camera is best, it doesn't capture angles that'd be worth seeing, and you can barely see Mikey Hawdon behind the drumkit. Good video even still, hopefully we'll see more from Detroit sooner or later, I miss seeing Brenton on stage!
And finally, here's a little query for you thrash metal lovers. We've seen Megadeth here, right? (March 2007 with Heaven and Hell.) Well, how would you like to see Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer, AND Anthrax LIVE in Sault Ste. Marie?! Well, our chance is coming....sorta. As first alerted to us in a SooToday article entitled "Hey metal heads! You really wanna click here", it has been announced that on June 22nd, Galaxy Cinemas at The Station Mall will be showing The Big Four: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax live as it happens via satellite from night one of The Sonisphere Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria, along with over 65 other Cineplex theaters across Canada! This will be the very first time EVER that the Big Four thrash bands will share the same stage on the same night, and knowing that this is a historic occasion, I bet there's a bunch of you intrigued by this! If you want to attend, tickets are $18 and go on sale online and at the box office at Galaxy downtown on FRIDAY. The concert streams live at the theater on Tuesday, June 22nd, so make sure you get your tickets early, who knows what kind of turnout this will get! Click here for online purchasing details, and make sure you consider a ticket, cause this could be a once in a lifetime event! I might just stop by Galaxy and pick one up on Friday!
That's all for tonight, tomorrow's post will have previews of this weekend's metal concerts, and maybe some extra news stories for good measure, we'll have to see! Stay tuned for much more, and remember, I'll see you guys at The Oddfellows Hall AND Foggy Notions on Friday!
Finally for new concert announcements, here's something for you Metallica fans out there, as Toronto-based Metallica tribute band Sandman will make their long awaited return to Sault Ontario on Friday, March 20th at The Rockstar Bar! Referred to on their pages as "Canada's Tribute To Metallica", this talented group was last seen in the Soo in June 2008 at The Canadian Nightclub, a show that has a personal sentimental attachment as it was the first 19+ concert that I ever attended. I have no idea why it's taken Sandman almost 7 years to return to Sault Ste. Marie, but it's great to see them back! It's also worth noting that frontman Rick Van Dyk and bassist Paul Fonseca were members of Helix in the late 2000s, and played locally at least once with them, so there's another notable connection! This 19+ concert will likely have a 10:00 PM start time, and it's not clear yet whether there will be a door charge or advance ticket sales. For more details, visit The Rockstar Bar's Facebook group linked above, and keep posted for more details!
