YouTube Channel Profile Series: Christopher Paci

It's now time for our penultimate YouTube Channel Profile of 2021, where we're taking another look at a randomly selected YouTube channel whose contennts are at least 50% devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk artists/concerts. We were spotted a doozy of a channel this month, with literally hundreds of videos to comb through, but any major rock concertgoer locally from the past decade will find a wealth of content within, so here's what you should know!

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Christopher Paci (http://youtube.com/greetingsbychris)

Owner: Sault Ontario resident and regular local concert attendee Christopher Paci

Channel Timeline: Launched on September 14th, 2010; Videos uploaded from the following month through October 19th, 2021

Channel Summary: After some sporadic personal usage in it's first two years on YouTube with five non-musical uploads, Chris uploaded his first concert videos there in September 2012 following Buckcherry's headlining concert in Sault Michigan that month. From there, he hasn't looked back, uploading well over 750 concert videos over the past 9+ years! This includes events in both Sault Ontario and Sault Michigan, with Canadian shows starting to appear with February 2014's Tragically Hip concert. While videos here are primarily from rock concerts, Chris has also brought his camera to country and hip-hop shows, and while most are from major concerts with touring headliners, he has filmed at select smaller venues and festivals.
 
Why You Should Watch: Chris is a saint for filming all of these videos, and browsing his channel will give you a wealth of concert videos from the 2010s to check out, and often from good places in the crowd! Audio is often scratchy, and Chris doesn't have the accurate song titles for some videos, but given the sheer quantity of what he's uploaded, those are all comparatively minor. For very obvious reasons, Chris has only filmed at one concert since February 2020, but hopefully more notable concerts make their way to the Soo area in 2022, especially with border restrictions loosening!

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Sebastian Bach - I Remember You LIVE from Kewadin Casino Sault Ste. Marie 20/01/2013: Chris' most popular video is from the original Skid Row frontman's headlining concert at The Dreammakers Theater back in January 2013, and counting that month's Queensryche show at the same venue that Chris also filmed at, four of his five videos to cross 2,000 views are from that month! Some of the commenters are critical of Sebastian's voice on this classic Skid Row ballad, but he sounds serviceable to me, if worn around the edges a bit, and the like/dislike count is good! Chris also filmed Sebastian and his solo band playing "Kicking & Screaming", "18 & Life", and "Monkey Business" at this show, plus one video of local openers 415E (still that band's only publically viewable concert video from any source).

 

 

Theatre of Night - What Child Is This - Soo Theatre, December 16, 2017: While most of Chris' videos of local bands were in Sault Ontario for obvious reasons, he films E.U.P. bands on occasion, including via his annual trip to Sault Michigan from 2017-2019 to see local classical metal band Theatre of Night's yearly pre-pandemic Christmas themed concert, which was held at The Soo Theatre in 2017 before moving to Kewadin Casino. Featuring their 2017-only sextet lineup (including then co-vocalist Stacie McCarthy), Theatre of Night were filmed playing "Little Drummer Boy", "The Nutcracker Suite", "Silent Night", "Oh Come All Ye Faithful", "O Holy Night", "Carol of the Bells", and featured here, their set opener "What Child Is This?". Solid renditions of these holiday staples by Craig, Steve, Rachel, Scott, Erik, and Stacie, and it's always nice to see some heavier local bands getting in the Christmas spirit! Even the darker lighting helps the mood!

 

White Cowbell Oklahoma - Loplops, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario - Jan. 26, 2019: Picking just one video to showcase from Chris' ample Sault Ontario video cache is a daunting task, but I knew I wanted a touring headliner in a more intimate locale, and ideally one I hadn't embedded in a prior post. How does Toronto Southern hard rock band White Cowbell Oklahoma sound? A 9+ minute video of W.C.O. covering Frank Zappa's "Magic Fingers", their crowd pleasing hybrid sound attracted a strong crowd once again, and hopefully they return to our area again! Among his other 6 videos from that night, Chris also shot White Cowbell Oklahoma playing songs like "San Antone", "Cheerleader",  "Shot A Gamblin' Man", and "Put The South In Your Mouth".

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! We'll end 2021 in this series with another single randomly selected channel, namely YouTube user DeformedPie, whose channel is mostly comprised of uploads of Woods of Ypres studio tracks! Fittingly timed given that next month is the 10 year anniversary of David Gold's passing, but this channel was completely chosen at random, this is just a coincidence! Look for that on or around Boxing Day, and look for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

Norilsk Concert Video Showcase!!

Before heading back home after spending the Halloween weekend out of town (I hope to be at Rednecks tonight though!), let's close the month with a concert video showcase post from Friday night's Norilsk-headlined show at The Oddfellows Hall!  These all come from prolific local concert filmer Christopher Paci's YouTube channel, so kudos to him once again for getting more solid videos, it's great of him to do so! Chris filmed six videos on Friday, including two of the headlining Gatineau, Quebec doom metal quartet, with their videos being of their songs "Japetus" (well, most of it), and as embedded below, "Potsdam Glo", which are both featured on their debut EP and full length album.  The lighting is inconsistent, and harsh vocals can be very hard to make out, but Norilsk deliver a nice & brutal blend of doom metal that pairs nicely with AlgomA in particular! Check out Chris' videos of Norilsk from Friday night above & below!



Next up is a twelve minute long video of local co-headliners AlgomA playing what I believe is "Extinct Volcanoes" (if I'm wrong, this will be corrected), and their relentless doom/sludge attack is in full force with this performance, with both Boyd and Kevin unleashing their vocal ferocity with purpose! Check out this new AlgomA video below!



Also from Chris' channel is this video of local death/thrash metal trio Pillory playing a song whose name wasn't captured in this upload, but I can't confirm the title offhand. Uniquely featuring frontman Robert Sartini wearing headphones and bassist Jordan Leach in a mask (remember, this was a Halloween weekend show), Pillory continue to hone and intensify their death metal sound, even with Jordan singing some lead vocals that fit the mood, but the lighting and further camera angle don't help on the visual end. Check out Pillory from Friday night below!



Finally from Chris' videos are local death metal favourites The Bear Hunters, who were surprisingly the opening band in their first live concert appearance in five months! This video is of The Bear Hunters playing one of their newer songs for their upcoming second CD "The Dead Testament", but I can't verify it's exact title (all I know is what songs it's not.) Back as a quartet with Josh still living out of town, The Bear Hunters are in devastating form comparable to their more recent four-man shows, just with Justin's shorter haircut. Check it out below, and hopefully we hear more from The Bear Hunters soon!



That's all for today, but I'll hopefully see you guys TONIGHT at The Rednecks Saloon to cap off the season! Thanks everyone, and Happy Halloween!

Castle Concert Video Showcase, Plus An Album Teaser Clip!!

Today's post is mostly devoted to some new videos from a recent concert that prolific local concert filmer Chris Paci uploaded to his YouTube channel earlier this week, but we also have an overdue album teaser video to round things out! We'll start with Chris' footage, which comes from September 28th's Castle-headlined concert at 180 Projects, though no word on why it took two weeks to post the videos online. He also filmed videos at last week's Moon Tan show at The New A, but we'll save those to feature in an upcoming post. Chris posted six videos online, 4 of which coming from the headliners' set, with the Juno-nominated San Fransisco doom metal trio featured playing their songs "Temple of the Lost", "Blacklands", their set-closer "Total Betrayal", and as embedded below, two songs played in succession, namely "Down In The Cauldron Bog" & "Black Widow". For reference, 180 Projects did not appear to make use of their projection screens at this concert.

Solidly performed by this dark and powerful trio, albeit with muffled vocals and a somewhat barren-looking setup for the stage, but fans of Castle's occult-flavoured doom metal will be right at home! I wish I could have attended this show, but we had family visiting from out of town that night. Check our Chris' Castle videos above and below!



Chris' other videos from this show come from the local openers, with one each being uploaded from their sets. One is of local doom metal trio AlgomA playing most of their song "Electric Fence" from their vinyl split EP with Chronobot, albeit filmed from a corner angle rather than in front of the band like with the Castle clips. Fans headbanging can get in the way, but the vocals come through clearer on this Boyd-sung original, and AlgomA fans will definitely want to see the devastation below!



The other video from this concert comes from new local funk/improv hard rock band Gianni Gagoots, marking the first public footage of them performing, so what do we know now? First off, the band has added a second guitarist, namely Boatload Killers/Sailor's Tongue alum Liam Seymour, who has the comedic Italian stage name "Blanci Mangia-Cake". Nice pick-up, Liam's a solid musician with a diverse range of genres under his belt, and he previously had enlisted Gianni Gagoots drummer Frank McCormick for his solo set at Rotaryfest as well! Also, we can now 100% confirm that percussionist "Bergio The IceBurg" (a.k.a. "Enzo Scanganatts") is indeed an actual band member, though I can't confirm his actual identity as of this writing. If you like your hard rock with conga drums, prepare yourself! This video indicates that Gianni Gagoots are an instrumental band with no microphones in sight, which is locally unique, even without accounting for their sound.

This uniquely named quintet have fun in this clip, which showcases an improvised jam hard rock sound, with funk and punk influences radiating through the song (title unclear, if they do even their songs.) It'll be interesting to see what Gianni Gagoots do next, as they definitely stand out among current local hard rock bands, but check out their 7+ minute video below, and stay tuned for more on them, perhaps including if we can confirm Bergio's full identity!



Finally for today, here's an admittedly overdue teaser video for local post-punk quartet Gnaeus' debut CD "Meditations"! Posted to their Facebook page on August 9th to promote it's then-new release and online outlets through which you could buy it, it features some brief audio samples from the album and some neat effects to phase in the eye-less Pompey of Rome logo, but after 25 seconds, the video runs with just a blank screen for almost 5 minutes. Accident, or an intentional opportunity to meditate? Debate amongs yourselves, but apologies for the delay in featuring this on the site, check it out below, and do buy "Meditations" on iTunes and/or Amazon!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews next! Thanks everyone!