Spades GT Updates From August 2025!!

Today's post takes us back to the world of local/Barrie crossover thrash quintet Spades GT, so what have they been up to since we last left off with them at the end of July? Well, the guys were getting ready for their set at the fifth annual Rye Fest, a yearly outdoor concert festival in Brantford (2 hours south of Barrie, 7 hours southeast of the Soo), as held by Rye Field Studios, where Spades shot performance and interview footage both in 2023 and last month. Spades GT were the ninth of fourteen bands at this all day event on August 9th, which was headlined by Peterborough "beatdown/core" quartet Seagrave, who were one of the scheduled touring bands for last year's cancelled Crucifest in Leeburn. Bizarrely, the guys did not post their usual vertical recap video to Facebook from Rye Fest, but I don't know whether that was an intentional decision, if their footage is just really delayed, or if they completely forgot.

If you want to see new Brantford footage, head to Rye Field Studios' YouTube channel, as they have been featured in a bunch of new videos this year! Some are "Shots" videos that clip out individual songs from their 2023 set at Rye Field that you can watch in full at this link, but how about the brand new stuff from this summer? For this quick three song set, the guys were filmed playing two songs from their new album "United" (specifically the title track and "Demons"), before closing with "Hands", which opened their 2023 Rye Field performance. Lineup changes aside (James out, Matt and Sean in), this is otherwise formatted similarly to the 2023 video, including introductions by hosts/studio owners Ben Zander & Shane Briand, and high quality multi-cam footage of the guys in action. Thankfully, the lighting is much better and far less green than last time, though it does go black & white at parts.

For the record, "Demons" from this set also got clipped out for a separate "Shots" video earlier this month. If you like excellent quality performance videos of local bands (let alone horizontal ones), you should take to Spades GT's Rye Field encore with ease, so check out the intense and heavy performances for yourselves below, and hopefully Rye Fest videos surface!

The other new Spades content from Rye Field's YouTube channel is a brand new interview that was released at the end of July, so what should you know there? Conducted on July 5th prior to the "United" release party in Toronto, the interview does not feature drummer Tyler Reiner, who left early to make it to The Bovine to deal with soundcheck and prep for the concert proper. This interview was episode 20 of Ben & Shane's interview series The PodCouch, and it features J.D., Daniel, Matthew, and Sean talking about "United" and its underlying messages, the band's evolution since they last played at Rye Field, the genres and sounds on display on the album (Matt primarily wrote and sings on "Filthy Lie"), and hype for the release party and their then-upcoming shows. When addressing their return to Spiderfest in Meyersburg, Daniel noted that "we were in a band called Jack Spades" prior, a distinction that I haven't seen made in modern interviews.

The back half of the interview is mostly loose and casual banter, but I'd love to see more of Matt's arcade game collection! Solid interview that keeps fans updated on what Spades have been up to this summer, so give it a watch for yourselves below!

Let's close with some non-Rye Field content from Spades GT, starting with a new review from August 21st of "United" from Gustavo Scuderi of the Canadian metal website The Headbanging Moose. There, Gustavo gave the album a 3.5/5 rating, saying that it combines "hard-hitting riffs, driving rhythms, and compelling vocals to create a sound that’s both familiar and refreshingly contemporary", while praising the title track", "Filthy Lie", and "Wrecked" the most of the eight cuts. Note that this review credits Sean MacNab on bass even though he didn't join the group until a few weeks after the recording sessions wrapped (Daniel was seen tracking bass in one of the teaser videos from the sessions). Either way, it's a complimentary and detailed review that you can check out at this link! Two days later, the guys shared posters for their upcoming fall tour slate in Southern Ontario (sorry, no Sault Ste. Marie return yet).

The first of those shows saw Spades GT play their first Barrie show in "a while" (which equalled almost three months) at C.W. Coop's on September 6th, where they opened for Daniel's other band The Fast Life on a bill that featured their good friends in G.F.U. once again. That show did indeed feature a recap video, so we'll have more from that and other fall content from the former Jack Spades in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that and more on the SMS soon! Thanks everyone!

Spades GT's Late 2023 Video Content From Rye Field Studios!!

With no currently announced Friday night hard rock concerts in the area for the St. Patrick's Day weekend, and two Sunday nighters taking place on said holiday, I'm postponing this weekend's concert previews to tomorrow so that we're slightly closer to what has been announced. Stay tuned!

Instead, let's continue playing catch-up on local/Barrie crossover thrash band Spades GT's recent activity, and we're winding back to late 2023 for some performance and interview footage that they shot! These come from Rye Field Studios, a recording studio out of Brantford that also posts long-form content to their YouTube channel featuring bands that come in to their headquarters, particularly interviews and performance footage. The former Jack Spades aren't even the only band with local ties to be featured in Rye Field Studios content, as St. Thomas metalcore band Prosector (fronted by ex-State of Misery singer Steve Rhodes) got similarly covered in January, so give those a look if you've missed Steve locally! The first of Rye Field's videos featuring Spades GT was uploaded in September, before they ever made the 2 hour drive south to Brantford, and it has concert footage of them in Toronto in June!

The video (one of two compilation videos from Beer Bash 6, the other seen here) features the first five bands that played at Beer Bash 6, with Spades GT's segment beginning about 7 minutes in with introductions by Rye Field's Ben Zander & Shane Briand, who also host much of their YouTube content. Spades GT were introduced as "the first band" despite being the third seen in the 23 minute video, and they were filmed playing their newest album's title track "Sewer City Radio". Strong performance at a nice venue with great video quality (horizontal and multi-camera, at that), but the drum-cam of Tyler is pointed too far out from him. Check out Spades GT and much more from Beer Bash 6 above and below!

On December 8th, a 17+ minute in-studio performance video of Spades GT at Rye Field was posted to YouTube, but before that, two teaser videos were shared to preview the Spades content in the preceding couple of days. One video is a preview of the actual performance so I won't redundantly embed it here, but if they were going to crop it to vertical dimensions (presumably as a "Shorts" video), why not do that before the on-screen text is added? Embedded below is the other preview clip, which features J.D., Daniel, and Tyler (no sign of James) signing a Rye Field Studios banner on the wall there, that other musicians have apparently signed over time. Oddly, the song "Sewer City Radio" is playing in the background, albeit over speakers there and not added in post. Nice gesture to help Ben and Shane commemorate their in-studio sessions, if shot vertically too, so check it out below!

As for the proper in-studio performance (part of Rye Field's "Live In The Whiskey Pit" series), it leads off with Ben & Shane introducing Spades GT, then pertinent logos (the kids saying the studio's name caught me off guard), before we get to the band proper. As noted with on-screen text, Spades GT play "Hands", "Succubus", "Red", "Final Girl", and "Sewer City Radio" here, and at least three different cameras capture the band in action here, two facing the band at slightly different angles, as well as a drum cam that is better positioned than at Beer Bash 6. Very well performed, shot, and edited, so fans of Spades (Jack and/or GT) will be right at home, but the green lighting was overdone to me. Check it out below!

Finally, a 36 minute interview with Spades GT was posted to YouTube by Rye Field Studios on December 12th, so what are they asked about while sitting on "The PodCouch"? Ben and Shane start by asking the guys about how Beer Bash 6 went, followed by the origins of Spades GT. The Soo days and Tyler's old band Caym's shows up here are addressed, but much of it is about how the band came together in Barrie, including insights by James as to how far along songwriting for the "Sewer City Radio" album was when he joined. After briefly discussing the album and practicing, they ask about Anvil (whose drummer Robb Reiner is Tyler's dad) and Spades GT's experiences opening for Anvil last fall, including some notes on working with and hanging out with Anvil frontman Steve "Lips" Kudlow. Their then-upcoming concert plans, including their cancelled winter tour run with The Dayglo Abortions, come up next.

Ben & Shane (who has a great voice) ask about Spades GT's early favourite bands before getting into Tyler's drumming style, the advantages and disadvantages of the internet, their plans to work on new material in 2024, and even James' story about meeting Robert Plant(!), among other topics. This is a fun and laid back interview with great presentation from multiple cameras, and it's nice to hear James so much throughout (he's definitely the quietest member in social media promotions). However, it can be hard to hear some of the conversations with everyone talking over each other at points, especially when things go off the rails a bit. Check the whole interview with Rye Field Studios out for yourselves below!

Lastly, kudos to Ben & Shane at Rye Field Studios for all of their work in promoting metal and punk bands in Southern Ontario, both from their YouTube videos and their actual recording studio work, so give much more from them a look above as well! That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!