LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Dodge This) & Weekend Concert Previews!!

It's a new month, and a new slate of weekend concert previews ois here to welcome hard rock fans! Due to the amount of shows, I'll hold our preview of HeadF1rst's album release party at Soo Blaster on Saturday for tomorrow's post. Here's what you should know on this first day of May, starting with a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!

Local acoustic classic/hard rock cover duo Dodge This will play their first ever gig at Beck's Bar on Goulais Avenue THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced on the venue's Facebook page on Tuesday, and the band has not posted on their Facebook page in any fashion since March. This is weekend #2 for the former Vibe Lounge since Becky set up shop at the Polish Canadian Hall's sister locale, and hopefully Jason & Jamie (and Jeff?) deliver a solid night of rocking covers for west end fans on SATURDAY! Remember, Beck's hosts 3:00 PM matinee performers on Saturdays as well, with Lime frontwoman & reigning Soo's Got Talent champion Madii Schomogyi playing a solo set there on SATURDAY, but this is a separately scheduled four hour concert on the same day, and she isn't "opening" for Dodge This. Neither has a cover charge if you want to hang around though!

Like at Shooters, Beck's Bar does not host live bands on Fridays, rather DJs. SATURDAY NIGHT'S concert has a 9:00 PM start time, and it is 19+. Visit the above links for more on Dodge This' Beck's debut, and here they are live!

Next up, let's head to The Water Tower Pub, where local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down will set up shop for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Last seen at Jay's Piston Broke Pub just under a month ago, this will be their fourth public gig with new bassist Dan Beaupre in the fold, and first with him outside of Jay's. If you haven't seen the new lineup yet, tomorrow is as good a day as any, and the hard rocking covers should be flowing freely for all to enjoy! As usual for The Water Tower Pub, this is a one-nighter, as they almost never host the same band on consecutive nights. The band playing there on Saturday night is Separate Wayz, the new live rock cover band from Soundcheck alumni Terry Eaton, Jim Michaud, and Steven Flint, alongside singer Nicole Thibodeau. I have yet to hear media of them in concert or get setlist samples to know if they would fit our coverage range like Soundcheck did, but we'll keep you posted!

Tomorrow's Double Down concert is a 19+ affair at the Great Northern Road nightclub with no announced cover charge, and it has an early-ish 8:00 PM start time once again. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Double Down live!

Also this weekend, local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 will return to Reggie's Place for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! These will be the first shows from "The Dirty 3" on home soil since rocking Reggie's three weeks ago, but the guys just made their bi-annual Sudbury road trip this past weekend at The Coulson Entertainment Center, getting another solid reception from fans 4 hours east. It's always good to see Greg, Alex, and Warren in more familiar local confines, and hopefully tomorrow and Saturday night's concerts deliver more southern fried original and cover rock action for downtown fans! These shows are 9:30 PM events with 19+ age limits and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's a brand new video of Bone Yard live! This was filmed by attendee Marcy Catherine for her personal Facebook page during the April 25th show in Sudbury.

This (sadly) vertical video was publically shared by Steve McArthur onto The Coulson's Facebook group later that day, and features the band playing a song that I can't immediately identify, and Google's audio match tool didn't help. Marcy shot this from a side stage vantage point, and given that, the vertical framing isn't as bad as it can be because the guys were framed better for it. Solid performance, if with somewhat muffled audio, though as this was a live-stream, it will leave Facebook around May 26th unless Marcy re-posts it as a permanent regular video, as per Facebook's rule change regarding live-streamed videos. Give it a look below while you can!

Finally, let's head to Sault Michigan for the latest multi-band event from local promoters Serious Business, as Muskegon "weirdo punk" trio Violet Scum will headline at Pickles Bar & Grill in Brimley on SATURDAY NIGHT! Violet Scum's brand of alternative-inflected punk should deliver for fans of grunge and 1990s alt-rock, and it will be neat to see this unique and talented group in our area this weekend, so don't miss them! Grand Rapids experimental/synth project Dick Texas will play their third local/Serious Business date as the co-headliners on Saturday, while the local support includes newer punk trio About:Blank (we'll have more from them soon), and in a rare cross-border appearance by a Sault Ontario musician in the E.U.P., local outsider folk musician Shae Tull. Is this the start of more Canadian acts engaging in Serious Business? Time will tell, but hopefully Shae kicks things off nicely on Saturday night!

Saturday's concert is an 18+ event with doors opening at 8:00 PM, presumably in Pickles' basement again, and there is a $10 cover charge. Always good to see Brighton and crew hosting a rare (but not as rare) multi-band show like this in the E.U.P., and hopefully there's a strong turnout on Saturday for this mix of touring and local talent! Visit the above links for more details, and here's Violet Scum live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for our HeadF1rst preview and more on the site next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Violet Scum), The Room 206/Inner City Surfers Concert Preview, And More!!

The news keeps on rolling, so let's get to a few assorted topics today along with the last (but not least) of this weekend's hard rock/punk concert previews, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for readers in Sault Michigan and the E.U.P. next month!

Muskegon "weirdo punk" trio Violet Scum and new local punk trio About:Blank will join forces for a multi-band concert at Pickles Bar & Grill in nearby Brimley on Saturday, May 3rd! Announced yesterday via About:Blank frontman Parker Talentino's solo Facebook page, this is the latest event from local promoters Serious Business, whose last concert in February (also at Pickles) was About:Blank's live debut, albeit on an all-local bill. Good to see Parker, Nathan, and Kade back at it, and if you missed them at last month's Shamrock Show, why not drive out to Brimley next month? Violet Scum's mixed-genre lineup delivers a nice grunge-laden sound that will appeal to punk and alt-rock fans, and it will be neat to see them play up here for the first time next month! Grand Rapids experimental/synth project Dick Texas (who have played at two prior Serious Business shows, including at Pickles in November) are your headliners on May 3rd.

The show will be opened (in a mild surprise) by Sault Ontario outsider folk musician Shae Tull, marking a very rare instance of an a non-Touch Of Class artist from this side of the border playing in the E.U.P.. Who knows what the tariffs and trade war may mean for the idea of Shae playing a show across the river, but hopefully things go well, and that this is the start of more cross-border bookings from Serious Business! This 18+ show (presumably in the basement of Pickles once again) has a $10 cover charge, and doors open at 8:00 PM. Nice diverse mix of styles here, and it's good to see more original multi-band shows in Chippewa County, so see above for more details!

Next up, let's wrap up this weekend's concert previews with the arguable main event for Sault Ontario punk fans, as 1990s punk band Room 206 and 2000s punk standouts The Inner City Surfers will join forces for a reunion concert at Soo Blaster TONIGHT!  As you may recall, The Surfers last reunited in November 2023 as a fundraiser stag & doe for drummer Mikey Hawdon's then-upcoming wedding, and similarly, tonight's event will be another stag & doe, this time for the impending nuptials of Room 206/Bookclub drummer Allan Watson and his fiancee Audrey. Congratulations to the happy couple, and a public concert featuring some big band reunions is one hell of a way to celebrate! Inner City Surfers reunions are always big deals for local punk fans, but Room 206 haven't played a (known) public concert since the 2021 vinyl re-release of "2 Innies & An Outie", let alone for over a decade prior, so don't miss this one!

No word on the exact lineup for Room 206 beyond Allan, but he was joined by Mike Yorke and Surfers bassist Brad "Example" Lacell" on the album, and Brad's fellow Surfers bandmate Dave Bahun was also once in Room 206. Local alternative/punk cover sextet Bookclub (featuring Allan, Mikey, and Surfers frontman Dustin Jones) will open the proceedings, as they did in 2023, so there will be lots of familiar faces rocking out, especially given the size of Soo Blaster! Tickets run for $25 in advance through the performers, with the price jumping to $30 at the door. This is an ALL AGES concert, and Bookclub leads off at 9:00 PM sharp. This should be a huge night for local punk fans, let alone friends and family of Allan & Audrey, and given the decades since we last saw Room 206 and Brad not living in town anymore, who knows when we'll see them or The Surfers on stage again! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's The Surfers live!

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

 

• There's a new on-air DJ/host on Classic Rock Sundays on 104.3 The Fox (and Rogers Radio's other rock stations carrying that format), as Adele Newton is now on air from 2:00-5:00 PM, as introduced here. This cuts into the prior 12:00-4:00 and 4:00-8:00 PM timeslots held by "Big" Kris Bawden and Lew MacDonald, but I need to listen to Classic Rock Sundays more fully to capture that day's current DJ rotation. Unlike other DJs and hosts on The Fox, Adele doesn't come from another market's rock station, rather Kitchener adult contemporary station CHYM 96.7. Tune in on Sunday to hear how Adele is doing on the former Q104!
• New local industrial metal solo act The Realignment Project revealed on their Facebook page on April 3rd that they are already mixing their second EP, and even shared the track listing for it via a photo of the songs written on a sheet of paper. The EP will be called "The Frustration Sessions" (no relation), and project leader Matt Hicks had earlier noted that he "never stopped writing while I was finishing "Afterthought", which is their debut EP from February. You can sample some of the at-home recording sessions in this Facebook "Reel" featuring heavy riffs and a keyboard line. Hopefully we hear more from T.R.P. soon, and it's good to see Matt keeping busy!
• In their newest video on their Facebook page (sadly also a "Reel"), local classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9 are seen covering Nickelback's "Rockstar" at The Esquire Club last month, and they were joined on stage for said cover by Fort Creek frontman Justin Grayson! I'm not a Nickelback fan, the blue lighting can overpower the view, and Justin's vocals are somewhat buried behind Jess' vocals, but this is well performed while the "Reel" lasts, so check it out above! Remember, "Reels" can't be embedded on external websites like this, nor played in background tabs, and are in permanently vertical dimensions.

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!