LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Diemonds), Recent Concert Videos, And More!!

We're back to some news and notes on this Tuesday, including some assorted recent updates, two more new videos from a big summer concert, and first, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next weekend, so here's what you should know!

Toronto hard rock quintet Diemonds will return to Sault Ontario next Friday (August 21st) for a headlining show at The Rednecks Saloon! Last seen here in November 2013 at The Algonquin Pub, this female-fronted power outfit always bring a great time to the stage, as seen in 2013 and way back in 2009, and with their new CD "Never Wanna Die" in tow for their Infest The West tour, fans won't want to miss Diemonds' intense live show in 10 days time! Local support will come courtesy of local death metal favourites The Bear Hunters and at least one more band to be announced, so message promoters if you want in! For reference, 2013's Diemonds show featured the now-inactive T-Rex Manning & Punch as openers. Promoted by Destroilet singer Brenton Ellis (under his recent online handle Buck Norris), next week's 19+ concert will have a $5 cover charge, and there's a 9:00 PM start time listed. For more details on this concert, visit the official Facebook event page!

It's great to see Diemonds come back to the Soo after an almost two year wait, and hopefully there's a great turnout next weekend! It's also worth noting that Brent is picking up steam lately as a promoter, primarily at The Rednecks Saloon, which is encouraging, and hopefully he keeps at it if things go well! Stay tuned for updates on this show as they come in!

Next up, here's the last of the recent concert videos from YouTube user Melissa Morrison's channel, as uploaded last week along with her LopLops footage, so what should you know? Though not labelled as such, these appear to come from the Archaics-headlined concert at The New American Pub on June 1st, with photos from that show matching performers' clothing and the stage setup. Melissa posted two videos from the concert, both of local bands making their New A debuts that night, including this one of local alternative/grunge trio The Pixo Control covering the 1960s rock classic "Twist & Shout" in their usual slowed down, then sped up style. Though shot on the vertical angle like most concert videos on the channel, Melissa had a nice clear view of the guys in action, and the audio's very good to boot, but note that the very beginning is cut off. Give this new Pixo Control video a look below!



Melissa's other video from the Archaics show was of local post-punk/garage rock quartet Gnaeus playing a song that I admittedly can't title, but it is familiar from concerts, and has a nice fast paced ending that shows their punk side nicely! Strong work as usual from the VM Radio Battle winners, so give it a look below, and stay tuned for more from Gnaeus!



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

• Turner Up/Wishbone alum Brent Royer is looking for a bassist for his new local band project, who apparently play "80s and 90s rock". No other details were offered, but I assume Brent's either the singer or drummer, given his past local band roles. If you're interested in trying out on bass for Brent's new band, message him at this link or via his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from Sunday!
• Gnaeus bassist Matt Fronzi has entered the local post-punk quartet in the music website Indi's Original Song Challenge, where the winning band could win $50,000, so be sure to throw them a vote to help the cause! The submitted song appears to be "Lovers", as an existing YouTube video of it is embedded within.
• Mourning Wood/Asylum Country drummer T.J. Case is apparently looking to drum in a new band, as per his own Musicians Wanted Facebook group post on Sunday. He noted that he has 13 years of experience, and can do session, live, and tour work, but no word on if this means anything negative for his current local bands. T.J.'s a great drummer who can play almost anything, so if you want to try him out, message him above or at this link!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and previews soon! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Half A Man & Turner Up), Hammerspace News, And Our New Weekly Classic Video!!

Well guys, it's time for some news, and this is a big post, including the latest from a Sault Michigan metal band, our newest weekly classic video, and our top stories, FOUR LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!! Here's what you need to know! (EDIT: 7:10 PM)

Brimley, Michigan hard rockers Half A Man have announced a concert for February 3rd at The Bird! This will be their first live appearance (to my knowledge) since their Halloween house party, and it will also be their first concert with Mikey Bishop filling in for Doug Reed on drums. Mikey's more than qualified to fill in, and you know that he has good chemistry already with Half A Man frontman Erik Rintamaki from their older metal bands, so this should work out well! Local metal band Hammerspace are scheduled to open, and it's been a while since we've heard much from them around here! I'll elaborate more in a second, but they are the announced openers. It will be a 10:00 PM concert, with no announced cover charge and a 21+ age limit. For more details, visit Half A Man's official Facebook page! Nice to see both bands back in action, especially with Mikey filling in and the somewhat sparse amount of shows we've heard about from both bands, so head to The Bird tomorrow night if you're across the river! Stay tuned for updates!

Before we leap into the other new concerts, I wanted to discuss Hammerspace a bit, as we haven't heard much from them recently. I'll take some blame, as the band had been posting updates on a now deactivated Facebook page through the fall, as recently as November 26th. The page can still be checked out using Google's cache of it, and through there, I can verify that Hammerspace welcomed back bassist Tim Padoba in late September. A month later, they announced that Kirk Labadie was their new singer, replacing guitarist John Bergeron, who was the band's singer as well prior to then. I can't recall Kirk from other local bands, but the band have a number of new songs posted on their MySpace page that may feature his singing, but I can't verify that for sure. The songs sound good, especially "Corkscrew", and the singing is an improvement from earlier material. Note that the songs take a while to load for some reason, so be patient if they don't seem to work. However, Erik from Half A Man confirmed to me that Kirk is apparently out of Hammerspace already, which is unexpected, but hey, there must be a good reason! Aside from a so called "bust" of a show at The Merchants Bar in September with Scofflaw, I can't say much else, but Hammerspace are apparently back next month with Half A Man at The Bird! My guess would be that John will be singing again, but if I hear anything else, I'll let you know!

Back to new concerts, as a classic hard rock band returns to the stage after a two week break! That band is Turner Up, who will hit the stage for the first time in 2011 THIS WEEKEND at The Rockstar Bar! This is a short notice weekend of shows, but the event page was only just created yesterday, and I'm sure loyal fans won't mind the wait! Their planned New Years Eve show was called off, and two announced concerts at Docks last weekend were quietly dropped, so if you've missed them this year, now's your chance! They'll be at The Rockstar Bar on Friday AND Saturday, both shows have 19+ age limits, and there is no announced cover charge. For full details, click here! Nice to see Turner Up back out there, and I'd like to add that I'll be out to see them this weekend! My camera charger's FINALLY back from Detroit, and I promised myself that I'd be out to a concert as soon as I could when it got back, and Turner Up will fit nicely! I should be at the Saturday show at The Rockstar Bar, and I hope to see you guys there! Stay tuned for more in our weekend concert previews tomorrow!

(EDIT, 5:07 PM: The previously announced info concerning the next metal night at The Roosevelt Hotel was a bit premature. My original sources for the first confirmed band have removed the links confirming their involvement, so their either jumped the gun or dropped out. We should know details on the lineup tomorrow, so stay tuned! Sorry for the premature announcement, my info was sourceable when I was originally compiling news for this post.)

And finally, here is our second weekly classic video! As was the case last week, I have a video from a non-YouTube site to share and upload for you guys to check out, and like last week's As It Stands video, this one ties in with an upcoming concert! In this case, it's a video of Turner Up from last summer during their short stint with Brent Royer on lead vocals! A former singer for the defunct local band Settle For Silver, Brent was only in the band for about six months last year, in between the Todd Killam and Krista Marshall eras. This is the only live video I've seen of Turner Up with Brent behind the mic, and it's of the band covering Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Wanna Be" at The Rockstar Bar! Good quality, and it shows their talents well, even if it's not the heaviest tune. They have heavier stuff though, you have my word! This video was originally uploaded by Turner Up bassist Jeff Gray onto his Facebook page, and was filmed during a concert last summer by an attendee. The original video can be accessed at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=418431376644. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED, I mean no harm with this upload! People should see this video, it deserves the attention! So check out our newest classic video below, and I should have a new video with Krista Marshall on vocals this weekend!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more tomorrow, including weekend concert previews and maybe more! Thanks everyone!