LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Nate's Chow), The End Of Piecing It Together Shows, And New Videos!!

A new week doesn't mean we're letting our foot off the gas in terms of getting recent un-talked about stories finally talked about, and today's half Michigan/half Canada post includes recent concert festival fallout, the impending closure of a local concert promotion agency, and leading off in the EUP, a new live cover video and some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for our Yooper readers. Here's what you should know!

Rebranded local hard rock trio Nate's Chow have announced three upcoming concerts for next month, as per this AI-generated poster from their Facebook page last month! After the former Unfortunate Sun and Fake Chow successors returned to the stage at The Islander Bar in Hessel on August 7th, they will be back there for their second show of this era on Saturday, September 5th, so keep this Labour Day weekend gig in mind if you want to see Jody, Brett, and Jason back in the Les Cheneaux Islands area! One week later, the guys will headline the annual Stalwart Agricultural Fair in nearby Goetzville, which the then-Unfortunate Sun played at in 2024 (country rock cover band One Can Short were last year's closing band). Nate's Chow will cap off the festivities on Saturday, September 12th, and this feels in many ways like the EUP answer to this weekend's Laird Fair, so click here for full details on the rural and farm-friendly entertainment then!

Nate's Chow will be playing in the on-site pavilion at 8081 East M-48 in Goetzville, admission is a flat $5 for weekend passes (no single day options), and this is absolutely all ages. Finally for the new shows, the renamed group will play their first Sault Ste. Marie date of this era when they rock The Merchants Bar on Saturday, September 26th, so keep that gig in mind as well if you wanna see how the Skip-less group sound and you'd prefer to do so in the Soo! The Merch show should be at 9:00 PM, the Islander Bar and Stalwart Fair gigs are at 8:00 PM, and the bar shows are both 21+. Visit the above links for more on Nate's Chow's early fall slate of concerts!

Next up, here's a video of Munising classic/hard rock cover quintet The Sky Pilots' headlining concert at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino on May 30th! The first public video that I've ever seen from one of their local gigs, this 40 seconds-long video features The Sky Pilots covering Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O Mine". While short, it's unique in that frontwoman Melissa Strand (formerly of local bands Swayze Train and Electric Motor Fish) filmed this while singing on stage, letting us see her vantage point of the crowd, the lounge, and her bandmates. Good cover from what we hear, and the video is definitely fun for what it is, so give it a watch!

Now let's head to Sault Ontario, starting with a story that is one of the oldest items in the backlog that I've put off for way too long, as local concert promotion agency Piecing It Together Shows is closing operations later this year. Owner Nicole Dyble revealed the news in a post on their Facebook page on July 12th, where Nicole (who is non-binary) revealed that they are moving to Toronto, and will be commuting between there and here for the rest of the year. As of July 12th, four further P.I.T.S. events were scheduled, including a house party concert headlined by Regina ambient noise group Allinesik the following week, but details on the other three events have yet to be announced. Piecing It Together Shows launched as Dryer Fire in 2018 in the wake of the closure of Nicole's former venue The Gore Street Cafe, and counting the laundromat and their run before changing the company name, Nicole put on over 300 community events, concerts or otherwise, over the past 11 years, while championing local charities and arts initiatives.

Nicole's concerts only occasionally tripped the SMS' genre lines, but they did a lot in the local arts community (music and visual alike) over the past decade, including via such large scale events as the Fishbowl Festival, the It's The Pits festival, and their various long-term residencies at pop-up venues. I still don't know if Nicole ever explained why they went with the peach pit motif for their branding after 2024 or not, but P.I.T.S. had a distinct identity that covered a lot of local ground. We'll let you know if those final three Piecing It Together Shows concerts involve hard rock or punk acts, but best of luck to Nicole in the move and their future plans!

Finally for today, let's look at some fallout from the second annual WestFest at Anna Marinelli Park on August 8th! SooToday's Darren Taylor was on hand for the West Village Revitilization Project's summer festival, covering it in this article with 16 photos of the day's events, the first four featuring opening alt-hard rock band Riverside Stasis.  Good and positive article that outlines some of the vendors and positive thoughts of the day! Mike Blair's 705Live Sound Co. was at the soundboard for WestFest II, and while he did not share a Facebook video from any performers on the company page, he did upload a video of closing local folk supergroup The Ontarians' set to his personal Facebook page that The Ontarians did share publically. WestFest's official recap video features brief clips of both The Ontarians and The Golden Scoundrels' sets, plus lots of looks at the attendees and vendors, but the audio is dubbed over with a Turnstile song.

Odd choice when only Riverside Stasis come anywhere remotely close in genre, and they weren't even in the video, but it's well edited (if vertical). Lastly, 104.3 The Fox posted a video from Ava Nori's set as an Instagram-exclusive video, confirming that she sang with acoustic accompaniment from Scoundrels guitarist Brandon Ruch, who commutes from Southern Ontario for their local gigs. The video shows them covering "Home" by the country singer Brent Morgan, with Ava & Brandon sharing vocals, and she has a distinctive voice that I hope gets more time on stage! Hopefully more WestFest media surfaces, but check everything out at the above links, and stay tuned for more news and notes this week! Thanks everyone!

2025: A Look Back In The Year Of Local Metal, Hard Rock, And Punk

Happy New Year! As usual for the SMS at year's end, I have cobbled together a lengthy "year-in-review" post, and after a quite busy and eventful 2025, here's a window into the big events, news stories, and so forth during that span! I'm sure I missed things (I always do), but hopefully this is a fun and informative look back at the year that was!

2025's biggest hard rock concert in Sault Ontario has to have been the Our Lady Peace/Collective Soul concert at GFL Memorial Gardens in March, and very well timed with The Fox now on the airwaves to get the word out for it! Across the past 12 months, other notable touring acts like B.A. Johnston, Bon Jovi Forever, Cory Marks, Damage Case, The Dayglo Abortions, Epic Rush (née Rust), Ikons Of Rock, Insurrection, Just Leppard, Kaonashi, Mean Bikini, Queen: It's A Kinda Magic, Selias, Virvum, and Who Made Who (among many others) made their presences known on local stages. This year saw the returns of Toystock, Rotaryfest, and (despite very bad weather) The Northern Vibe Festival, plus a healthy number of touring tribute bands at multiple venues, Mike Haggith's high profile Downtown Plaza show in September with his Big Finish Band, and a number of big Soo Blaster shows, with and without touring acts. There was a lot going on as usual!

Over in Sault Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula, they had no shortage of interesting concerts in a busier year than recently normal! At The Dreammakers Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, fans were able to see Tesla in February, Clutch in June, and both Night Ranger and Trixter headlining separate hair metal concerts in October, while touring bands like Driving Dawn, Fyrbird, Ghidora, Oz, Peril, Scarkazm, The Sky Pilots, Spun, Tribe989, and Violet Scum (among others) all made their way to smaller local venues in this calendar year. Despite the lengthy Sault Ontario drought for such events, two battles of the bands hit the E.U.P. in 2025, with the debuting Crush winning the Superior Whitefish Festival battle in Brimley in July, and the debuting Dynamic Duo defeating About:Blank and other regional acts at the third annual Lake Superior State University Battle. 

Multi-band E.U.P. concerts happened at a wider clip this year in general, including a bunch of mixed genre shows from Serious Business in Brimley and at Pizza Hut(!), while Heavy Lies The Crown played their annual St. Ignace show in August for frontman Brandon West's birthday, and nine acts gathered at Bird's Eye Outfitters in March for the Musicians Unite benefit in honour of Project 906 guitarist Joe Jenkins' wife Mary Jo's cancer battle. Not to mention all of the solo shows from local hard rock acts in 2025, and this was a really solid year for Sault Michigan and area that bodes well for 2026!

For general news items outside of concerts, there was arguably nothing bigger for local rock fans than the format change of Country 104.3 in January, transitioning into 104.3 The Fox, and giving us two rock radio stations on the FM dial, one on each side of the border! With local bands, the likes of Bone Yard 225, Crush, Exit 808, Heavy Lies The Crown, Spades GT, and Tarnished hit the road for gigs outside of our coverage area, while Sault Michigan's Sole Aggressors joined the rare list of E.U.P. bands to play gigs in Sault Ontario in the past two decades! 2025 saw the former Vibe Lounge and Primavera Hall relaunch respectively as Beck's Bar and The Full Throttle Saloon with new regular band lineups, though The Distraction closed indefinitely in July due to fire code violations discovered during the planned Ripcordz show that month. Sault Ontario wasn't able to get planned battles of the bands at Jay's Piston Broke Pub and the Downtown Plaza off the ground, and for the first time, Go Skateboarding Day was completely rained out.

The Northern Vibe Festival was severely compromised by a major rainstorm that rendered the Forest Stage unusable on the Saturday, and the planned Headstones concert (booked opposite Rotaryfest Saturday) was cancelled a few days prior. In a positive light, we did see new music videos from HeadF1rst and The Bear Hunters, the beginning of work on a Woods of Ypres biography, and new Convergence frontman Stephen Gagnon-Ruscio's runner-up run at The Soo's Got Talent, so this was certainly not an uneventful year! Hopefully we get more big news and notes in the next 12 months!

Unfortunately, the last third of the year saw three deaths among local hard rock musicians, starting with Stone Smyth founder and veteran local guitarist Troy Isaac, who lost his battle with cancer in September at the age of 63. In just the past week, we learned of the passing of two more familiar faces, including Rebel Priest/ex-Glass Statues guitarist Ben Kemp-Reynolds (a.k.a. Benny Blitz) at the age of 35 over the weekend, while former Brutally Fatal frontman and Far From Fine drummer Austin McCrea also passed away at the age of 30 after a three month battle with worsening medical concerns in hospital. We also mourned the deaths of former local journalist and concert videographer Mike Caruso, Queen Street Cruise founder Gary Trembinski, and Darsombra synth player/vocalist Ann Everton, just one week before the Baltimore psych-hard rock duo was supposed to play at The Downtown Plaza. May all of them R.I.P.!

Like last year, 2025 was abnormally strong for new local metal, hard rock, and punk albums. Seventeen by my count, and we still have seven of them to review next year! No one was busier this year than Matt Hicks' new solo industrial metal act The Realignment Project, who released three EPs ("Afterthought", "The Frustration Sessions", and "War Songs") throughout the year, while the ever prolific Mike Haggith released his fan club exclusive album "Frequent Flyer" and his new full-band live album "Under A Moonlit Sky". This year also saw the sophomore albums from the reunited Fuller ("II"), hard rock quintet HeadF1rst ("Road Trippin'"), and alt-rock favourites Handsome Sandwich ("Collage"), while we also got local/Barrie crossover thrashers Spades GT's second post-move album "United", the posthumous physical release of grunge trio No Arrow's album "Souls For Sale", Agnosticism's new folk punk EP "Atticcore Fornication", ...

 ...their frontman Mikhal Muto's band Hails' self-titled album, "the original crash band" Sykotyk Rampage's latest "WYRD Radio 3: The Midnight Horror Show", Pillory's long-awaited death metal album "Old Soul", and new ska punk trio A.S.D.P.'s debut album "Atom Bombs & Lemonade". Meanwhile, Sault Michigan's X's & Y's put out their second album "Ruination Coactive", and Theatre Of Night reunited with session vocalist Gaby Koss on this month's "Christmas Night 3". Hopefully 2026 is similarly bursting at the seams with new albums from local talent! 

A bumper crop of new bands made their debut across the Twin Saults this year, and some of those emerged quickly with their own material, including the aforementioned Realignment Project and A.S.D.P., while Sault Michigan newcomers Crush and About:Blank (both featuring Tarnished alumni) also debuted with their own songs right away. While they have existed as a studio band for years prior, Sault Ontario progressive metal band Convergence made their live concert debut in the spring, and other new bands to the live scene this year included hard rock quartet Maynard Hayes, BookcluB's acoustic side project Dos Amigos, classic/hard rock sister bands Separate Wayz & The Guilty Party, and just last week, new local punk quartet P.R.O.D.. We also saw the debuts of bands like Bards With Beards, Pearl Jam tribute Even Flow, One Shot, Spun Out, and The T.R.I.P. that could have big 2026s ahead, and hopefully that holds true on all fronts!

There weren't many severe lineup changes in local bands in 2025, but there were still a number to note. One of the bigger departures was guitarist Brandon Ruch from both Handsome Sandwich and BookcluB in advance of his move out of town, while we also saw Dan Beaupre replace Brad Stephen on bass in Double Down, Sean MacNab finally fill Spades GT's bassist vacancy, a returning Devon Lucier replace Blair St. John on bass in Pillory, Spencer MacGillivray replace Justin Pregent on vocals in the former Sault Side Squad, and Joe Miller replace Tony Kajnar as Generations' guitarist. In the E.U.P., the now-defunct Exit 808 welcomed back original guitarist Nathan Webber and (briefly) bassist Brad Pringle, while Jaxon Massaway returned to Heavy Lies The Crown after a year's hiatus as their new second guitarist, and Jamie Costner replaced Justin Lawless as The Nameless' drummer. I'm sure there's more big lineup turnover ahead in 2026!

In terms of major band breakups, Sault Michigan had the biggest finite and publically addressed losses, with hard rock bands Exit 808 and Dirty Musky both dissolving in 2025, while 2023 LSSU battle-winning punk trio The Sole Aggressors went on hiatus in August in advance of members leaving the area for college. Sault Ontario didn't have band breakups on that scale, but the likes of Treble Charger, Vanity First, Slumshine, and Mikey & His Uke have all been publically inactive for over a year as of last fall. At least the Vanity & Slumshine itches can be scratched with Hails! A number of notable bands have been publically inactive for the past 6+ months and will be kept an eye on in early 2026, including A Dire Setback, The Bear Hunters, Bullet Train, Crucify The Whore, Hollow Sky, The Northwest, and Rhythm & Brews. Hopefully these bands or their members therein turn up in new projects in the new year!

As always, let's end with comebacks, and there were a number of big ones from bands on the shelf for a year+ in 2025, with one of the most notable being the dual reunions of 1990s punk bands Fist Magnet and The Spigots for an ARCH benefit concert at Soo Blaster this past Saturday! Room 206 had to drop out of that event, but fans weren't entirely left out in the cold, as that band & The Inner City Surfers also reunited in April for 206 drummer Allan Watson's stag & doe at the same venue! In the interim, 2000s emo/post-hardcore notables Fuller reunited for a new album and a Rotaryfest Stage 2 headlining set, and local classic/hard rock cover band Quite Frankly reunited after 15 years themselves! We also saw a one-off Mike Haggith & The Din reunion in January in honour of Daniel Horton's late mother, while The Northwest emerged from a year+ hiatus to open for Our Lady Peace, and The Isolation Sessions also returned for a gig in March after a few years away. 

I hope you guys liked this look back at 2025 in the local metal, hard rock, and punk scenes, and we're picking things back up right away tomorrow with the first weekend concert previews of 2026, so stay tuned for those then! Thanks everyone, and please celebrate and party responsibly tonight! 

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Generations), Darsombra Concert Updates, And A New Pillory Song!!

I'd like to begin today's post by offering our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Darsombra synth player/vocalist Ann Everton, who passed away on Friday in a car crash in Essex County, New York. She and her husband/bandmate Brian Daniloski had been on the road towards Montreal for the beginning of their fall North American tour, which was slated to include a local concert this Friday at the Downtown Plaza, but their tour van collided with a police cruiser this past Friday. Brian and the police officer inside the cruiser were hospitalized with minor injuries, and you can read more about the incident at this link. A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to raise money for Brian and Ann's family to cover related expenses in the aftermath of this tragic accident, so consider donating to help out. Local fans will recall seeing Darsombra (all the way from Baltimore, Maryland) thrice here at three different venues in the past.

The psychedelic hard rock duo's multimedia stage show debuted here at The New American Pub in July 2017, before rocking LopLops Lounge in August 2019, and they last played here at the so-called March Street Stage in July 2023. All but the Six, Two, Oh.-hosted LopLops gig were promoted by Dryer Fire (now Piecing It Together Shows), and Darsombra were to have played at the Downtown Plaza on Friday alongside British Columbia punk band Mean Bikini, locals The Floor Between Us, and a Muel Goods-hosted independent sellers market. That show will still take place, and according to P.I.T.S. owner Nicole Dyble on their Facebook page, they'll be showing Darsombra videos on the screen above the Plaza's stage, Brian will still receive his artist fee despite being unable to perform, and Mean Bikini will donate $5 from all t-shirt sales on Friday to him. Kudos all around for the support being shown in Ann's memory, both locally and afar!

I was unable to see Darsombra's local dates, but their brand of "post-apocalyptic galaxy rock" made a mark on local fans, and it was impressive to see an American touring band come here this much! Darsombra's mix of hard rock, drone, psychedelic, and experimental sounds, plus a diverse visual experience that Ann had deep involvement in, made them a captivating watch. I've heard very good things about Ann as a person, and I feel so bad for Brian and the rest of their family at this difficult time. We'll have more on Friday's concert in this weekend's concert previews, but consider coming out to show your support and still see some live outdoor music. R.I.P. Ann!

Today's post otherwise features a new song from an upcoming album and a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, as local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will end their recent hiatus by headlining at Gateway Casino on Saturday, October 18th! This will be Generations' first concert in over two months, last seen at the now-closed(?) Reggie's Place in late July, and their first show at the downtown casino in four months, so fans will have been waiting a long time to see them in action! This wasn't a summer break like some other local cover rock bands had, as drummer Tony Santoro was recovering from carpal tunnel surgery, as per their (now-private) Facebook group. Of note, next Saturday's show will be Generations' first since they parted ways with guitarist Tony Kajnar after a two year run with the band, with Tony S. confirming that he left "due to personal reasons pursuing a new project".

 

Otherwise best known around here from Flat Stanley and The Peace Vibe, hopefully Tony K.'s new band is successful, but it will be easier to not have to specify which Tony when covering Generations! Smokehouse frontman Michael Yurich (who filled in with Generations before Tony K. came on board) will guest on guitar for next Saturday's one-nighter, which takes place at 8:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge. Visit the above links for more on Valerie, Pierre, and Tony's return to the stage!

Finally for today, here's the first advance single from local death/thrash metal trio Pillory's upcoming full length album "Old Soul!" Released on September 30th to Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music (all linked here) as well as their new YouTube Music channel, the song in question is "The Angst Of Existence", which has been a staple in Pillory's sets since their mid-2010s revival era. Of note, the Distrokid tags for the album credit 2015-2017 bassist Jordan Leach as a co-writer of the song alongside Robert and Bret. I have no idea if Jordan (who moved out of the country for work reasons in 2017) recorded bass tracks remotely for the album, or if this is just giving him credit for co-writing the song, but we'll let you know if the band confirms anything! I'll hold comment on "The Angst Of Existence" until we review "Old Soul" on the site next year, but give it a listen below!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this weekend's concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

Details On The Fox 104.3's Monday-Friday On-Air Schedule!!

After a few days of double checking the on-air schedule, here is our second post all about new Sault Ontario rock radio station The Fox 104.3 FM! In our post from this past Sunday, I looked at general information about CJQM's switch from country to rock, and gave some insights into their playlist rotation, but today's post looks at the on-air programming lineup during the work week (we'll look at the different weekend schedules in a post early next week). At press time, The Fox's website does not have a "Shows" tab like its sister stations to reflect the shows and DJs on air, but you don't need one, as the local station shares a nearly identical schedule as The Fox 101.9 in North Bay, Q92 in both Sudbury & Timmins, and (where all four stations get their base playlist and schedule) K-Rock 105.7 in Kingston. The only programming exceptions from those markets are a North Bay Battalion talk show and the "Friday 6pack" in Kingston.

The Fox has two different zoo crew programs during the week, including The Brock & Dalby Show from 5:30-9:00 AM and The Biggs & Barr Show from 6:00-8:00 PM, bookending overnight autoplay with no hosts or DJs. The former show is hosted by Brock Lewis & Drew Dalby out of K-Rock in Kingston, while Chris Biggs & Jason Barr (alongside Pastey Jamie) host the latter from CHEZ 106 in Ottawa. Both shows are formatted similarly, in that their host segments pop up between the station's music rotation, though only Brock & Dalby introduce songs. If you just want to hear the hosts and their on-air segments (like The Draft and The Quiz on Brock & Dalby, or OttaWHAT?! and Lights Out on Biggs & Barr), you can hear both programs sans music/commercials and with some additional exclusive content on major podcasting services, plus Rogers' Seekr application.

Which of the two zoo crew shows that you like more will be subjective (let alone if you factor in Scott Cook In The Morning on Rock 101 in the morning drive timeslot, which runs from 6:00-10:00 AM), and while I have laughed a little more at Brock & Dalby, both shows have certainly had their moments. I do like when radio hosts have someone to play off of and react to, so keep both shows in mind if you haven't tuned in yet, and if you like what you hear, catch up with their podcasts!

From 9:00 AM-6:00 PM weekdays, The Fox enters normal rock radio airplay with DJs in the booth, plus weather and news reports. Mid-week, you'll hear three DJs, including Heather Williams from 9:00-11:00 AM, Lew MacDonald from 11:00 AM-2:00 PM, and Dan Koo from 2:00-6:00 PM. Heather is out of CHEZ in Ottawa, and also hosts the Today In Rock interstitials, where she names off three major events in rock music history on this day in the past. Lew is out of K-Rock in Kingston, and his time in the booth encompasses the Classic Rock Lunch, featuring an hour of just pre-1990 rock songs from 12:00-1:00 PM (call it an appetizer for Classic Rock Sundays, which we'll outline early next week). The 2:00-6:00 DJ changes in every market in this five station loop, so Dan is the only locally-based on-air personality, and also the only on-air holdover from the hosts/DJs on Country 104.3.

If you're tuning in online to Country 600 in North Bay (which shared the same playlist and schedule as 104.3 until last week), Dan is still on air there too, so things will be familiar regardless. I suspect Dan will also be the primary conduit for local promotions and interviews for The Fox, but we will see how that bears out in the coming months. I'm not one to compare and rank DJs on a given station, but all three have handled their spot well on CJQM, so continue getting familiar with all three if you have the former Q104 on during the week! Lastly, if you were tuning in to The Fox from launch, you may have heard a different host/show at nighttime during its first three days on air, namely the syndicated Greg Beharrell Show, which has been heard on dozens of rock stations across North America and isn't exclusive to Rogers. It aired last Thursday & Friday from 6:00-10:00 PM and this past Saturday from 9:00 PM-2:00 AM, but was not on this week.

From what I can tell, episodes of Greg's show (which used to air on Q92 and in North Bay) were used as a stopgap until Biggs & Barr episodes were ready to run on CJQM, though that's just how I read it. As far as I know, Greg Beharrell is not related to Luxury/ex-Billy Bastards guitarist Greg Beharriel. In the event that he resurfaces on The Fox, Greg's show is similar to The Fox's zoo crew programs, in that host segments were dropped in between the music rotation, including light-hearted conversations with callers, and he came off kinda Ryan Reynoldsy, if that's fair. If you're curious, click here to see what other stations that Greg airs on! We'll leave things there for now, but the variety of on-air content, musical or otherwise, is very noted for local rock music fans, so hopefully this post helped outline the weekday schedule! Weekends on The Fox is very different, so look for our coverage of what airs on Saturdays & Sundays on the site next! Thanks everyone!

2024: A Look Back In The Year Of Local Metal, Hard Rock, And Punk

Happy New Year, everyone! After a slight delay for personal matters and just the sheer wattage of research and editing that this annual post takes, here is our 2024 year-in-review post, as we take one more expansive look at the year that was before we dive headfirst into 2025 at large! It was an eventful year for local metal, hard rock, and punk musicians, concerts, and related entities, so here's a good chunk of what went down last year!

As always, we'll start with concerts in Sault Ontario, and where there were no major hard rock shows at the Gardens in 2024, lots of familiar and high profile faces rolled through last year on tour, like B.A. Johnston, BALM Squad, Blood Opera, Cory Marks, Cross Dog, The Damn Truth, The Hazytones, K-Man & The 45s, Matthew Good, The Ripcordz, Selias, Teenage Head, Total Chaos, The Trews, Wax Mannequin, and many more! On the festival circuit, the Go North Music Festival, Rotaryfest, the Poutine Feast, Toystock, and The Northern Vibe Festival all came back with stacked lineups, while the inaugural It's The Pits Festival rocked Robbie Adamson's church in Leeburn in June. Also this year: Lime frontwoman Madii Schomogyi won the fifth annual The Soo's Got Talent, The Distraction ramped up their upstairs and downstairs bookings to local and touring bands alike, the Downtown Plaza began occasional use as a concert venue, the split between the Dragonfly Run and Jay's Piston Broke Pub leading to the similar ARCH Run that same weekend, ...

...the return of extreme metal to the former Roosevelt Hotel when Vaegon headlined at Jay's in July, the Band Together To Rock Cancer fundraiser for Mustang Heart guitarist Lorenzo Fabbri in September, the debut of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Club as an occasional venue last fall, and many more shows from local and touring artists alike with varying degrees of hype and attention. A lot more is sure to be on the docket in 2025!

Meanwhile, Sault Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula had an eventful year in 2024 for concerts! Three major hard rock concerts hit The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino last year (Saint Asonia & Black Stone Cherry on February 24th, Skid Row & Buckcherry on March 23rd, and ex-Ratt singer Stephen Pearcy on September 21st), while Ace Frehley, Great White, and Slaughter toplined the '80s Rock Invasion outdoor concert at the St. Ignace Kewadin on July 20th. A surprising number of multi-band shows happened in the EUP last year, including the second annual Lake Superior State University Battle of the Bands in October (won by Molly & The Other Guys), the H.L.T.C.-headlined 2nd Street Music Festival in St. Ignace in August, and two Serious Business-promoted shows at Pickles Bar & Grill in Brimley late last year featuring The Nameless, The Sole Aggressors, and touring headliners

Of course, many single-band concerts also happened across the river last year, with touring bands like Fyrbird, Oz, Peril, The Rock Show, Scarkazm, and Sunspot all making their way to our neck of the woods, while many local hard rock bands played solo shows of their own. from Dirty Musky to Unfortunate Sun.  2025 should be another strong year for Yooper bands and their fans alike, so follow along for updates!

There was certainly no shortage of general news items beyond concerts to take note of in the past year! Beyond the local stage, groups like Bone Yard 225, Exit 808, Hails, Handsome Sandwich, Heavy Lies The Crown, Spades GT, Tarnished, and Treble Charger all played shows outside of our coverage range, and Ha!ls' shows were notable in particular, as many of their road gigs were in Michigan (downstate, even!) The border crossover extended to a handful of punk acts from Michigan playing shows at The Distraction and Soo Blaster in 2024, something long welcomed at this scale, and there's more ahead next year, including from Sault Michigan talent! In 2024, we lost veteran local musicians Jeremey Salatuk and Dennis Becker, while we said goodbye to FirstLocalNews (nee Sault Online), Tazzi's Cafe, the planned Crucifest in Leeburn, and Sault Michigan's Crooked Music, but we also saw the complete Mikey & His Uke series of covers of Green Day's album "Dookie", ...

...the rebranding of Dryer Fire as Piecing It Together Shows, the Rendells' purchase of Case's Music, numerous local bands judging Shooters' Talent Quest karaoke competition, Bone Yard tacking "225" to their name, and numerous local musicians releasing new studio material not yet tied to full albums. I'm sure 2025 will be just as eventful as 2024 was, if not moreso!

While our immense two year+ backlog of new album releases to review on the SMS was finally cleared out in November, 2024 was still a very healthy year for new local metal, hard rock, and punk CDs, albums, and EPs! In terms of shows that had release parties, we saw relocated local solo project Sell This!' new album "Empires Everywhere", punk trio Vanity First's full length album "Identity Crisis", and HeadFirst's... first EP "Head Trauma" in early-mid 2024, while Vanity First guitarist Mikhal Muto also put out new albums by his solo projects Agnosticism and Choking On Appendages last year. Progressive metal duo Convergence started 2024 with their new EP "Dead & Dreaming" one year ago, while Late & Loud released their second soundtrack for their D&D podcast Late & Legends, and Sykotyk Rampage released their first "Waerlogas Sagas" concept album with an attached comic book to accompany its triple length runtime!

Meanwhile, Michigan's Eastern Upper Peninsula wasn't left out for new albums, with Heavy Lies The Crown quietly releasing their second full length album "Built For Us" in January, while veteran metal guitarist Jason Mills put out his solo project X's & Y's' debut EP "The Obsidian Dream" last fall. Good stuff by some very talented artists, and we should see more new albums & studio material ahead this year!

A relatively small but talented roster of new and debuting local metal, hard rock, and punk acts cropped up in 2024, and as a live concern, none were seen more than veteran classic/hard rock cover duo Dodge This, who played often in the second half of the year! Studio-wise, new bands like Bullet Train and Choking On Appendages immediately made a local splash with original music, while the previously Winnipeg-based Sell This! delivered their own politically charged cello punk shortly after making their live debut here in January. We also saw the live debuts in 2024 of online page-less metal quintet The Sault Side Squad, tech metal band (and Them successors) Bardo, and (as a live band) Jason Ladouceur's long-gestating project Without Compromise. Yoopers also welcomed Fake Chow successors Unfortunate Sun to Sault Michigan this year. Look for them and more new bands ahead in the coming 12 months!

The past year saw no shortage of lineup changes in local bands, with none seeing as much of a metric shift as the Sault Michigan band who began the year as Double Jack. After just one 2023 set, they were nigh unrecognizable by the spring, with a new name (Exit 808) and, aside from drummer Jackie Moon, a completely different lineup now led by two singers, and they've showed no signs of slowing down in the EUP and beyond! Frequent Exit 808 guest bassist Blaze Beairl also found himself part of big changes with St. Ignace's Heavy Lies The Crown, as they switched lead guitarists twice and Blaze joined on drums when Jaxon Massaway moved to rhythm guitar. Sault Michigan also saw big changes with Tarnished, as Josh Fair permanently left the drumkit to play guitar and the band parted ways with bassist Parker Talentino, while singer Henry Boucher left rising young punk band The Sole Aggressors. Sault Ontario had its own fair share of turnover!

Among others, Brandon Ruch replaced Mitch Sirie & Dave Bahun in Handsome Sandwich & Bookclub respectively, Beej Syrette replaced Adam King in Double Down, Matthew Voros joined & James Roy Daley left Spades GT, Matt Fronzi & Elly McWatters joined Mike Haggith's newly named Big Finish Band, Frank Deresti & David Peredun became Treble Charger's new rhythm secton, Carmen Muto joined Hails (and maybe Vanity First?) on second guitar, Redundant parted ways with bassist Andrew MacDonald, and Phil Greco joined the new look Fort Creek lineup on drums. Look for more lineup shifts from local bands in the coming 12 months!

2024 also saw a handful of notable local bands and solo projects end their active runs or fall inactive, with none doing so more prominently than classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck, who spent much of December on a farewell tour leading up to their final gig at the YNCU Curling Centre on New Year's Eve. The SMS also moved acts like Far From Fine, Tattoos & Scars, and solo artists Bold Noize & Mike Cliffe to our inactive links in the past 12 months. More familiar groups have been publically inactive since early-mid 2024 and could be moved to our defunct links this year, notably including Sylo (with frontman Eli Russell attending college out of town) and The Wyld Stallyns (with frontman Rob Speers focusing on solo gigs for much of the year), not to mention The Bear Hunters, Galactic Alignment, Hollow Sky, Mike McCleary, Molten Imp, The Northwest, and Sell This! as well. Hopefully we see some of these talented artists return to activity in due course!

As always, we'll end things with comebacks and reunions, and in terms of sheer time since we last saw the band in question, none ended a hiatus as long as local hard rock quartet Half Past, who played their first show in 12 years in February, and have followed that up with multiple notable concerts since! A few other acts ended 4+ year breaks in 2024, including Treble Charger at their Algoma University fundraiser concert in March, Pillory with some high profile metal concerts in the Soo and Leeburn this summer, and former Haggith frontman Curtis McKenzie's return as an acoustic solo musician for the first time since before the pandemic. Last year also saw the returns of A Dire Setback, Crucify The Whore, The Karstens, Redundant, and Sylo after a year or more away from the stage, while Heavy North Entertainment returned to local concert promotion after seven years away with the Selias concert in September. Here's to more big returns and reunions in the Twin Saults 2025!

With 2024 now well and truly in the books, we now look ahead to 2025 starting with this weekend's hard rock concert previews and our first "Where Are The New Albums?" post of the year, so look for those next and for much more as we begin another exciting year at the SMS! Thanks everyone, and again, Happy New Year!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (It's The Pits) And Mikey & His Uke's New Cover!!

As teased at the end of yesterday's post, we are looking at the other new summer concert festival announced for the same venue via an extended LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, and a new high profile cover video rounds things out. Here's what you should know for this punk-leaning post!

Make it two summer concert festivals hitting Robbie Adamson's church in nearby Leeburn in the coming months, as local concert promoters Piecing It Together Shows (née Dryer Fire) will host their own festival named It's The Pits on Saturday, June 22nd! Playing into the whole peach pit motif as seen in their post-renaming materials (has Nicole explained the inspiration behind that?), It's The Pits will beat the metal-centric Crucifest to the stage by over a month, but the two festivals do share a common band. Of course, the former Dryer Fire are hardly metal/punk-centric promoters, but many events have featured some heavier crossover, this festival included, so who all is playing next month? Apologies if I err on any band identities, P.I.T.S. did not share social media links for the bands, they just listed them on the official poster. As best as I can gather, five of the bands are from out of town, so who's making the way to Leeburn?

The touring acts are Toronto ambient/house duo LAL, Toronto/Minnesota "deep Earth folk" band Twintwa, Ottawa indie rock singer/guitarist Catriona Sturton, Toronto skate punk trio The Mendozaz, and Grand Rapids, Michigan folk duo Rabbit Fur. A lot of talent for genre fans can be found with these artists, and for you punk fans, The Mendozaz will get things amped up with a strong and melodic brand of modern punk, and with distinctive vocals!  Local performers include skate punk/thrash trio Hails (the only band also playing at Crucifest in July), DJ Seith (who played at The Bear Hunters' private Leeburn event last July along with Ha!ls), local/Gatineau, Quebec surf/indie rock solo project Tampa (led by Mulch & The Mire alum Christopher West), indie rock singer/guitarist Shae Tull, former Shit Liver bassist Mike Kyle's acoustic folk solo project Sibling, and the cryptic anti-folk/Americana act Tye Lawless Co.

Note that Sibling and Tye opened for Catriona Sturton at Case's Music in October for Dryer Fire, so if you liked that concert, here's your encore! Sam Emerson from local quilting/product repair company Muel Goods is slated to host It's The Pits, while local artist/photographer Chandra Barnett of Lady Of The Glue will be selling her art here. Partially brought to you by the Ontario Arts Council, tickets for this all ages festival are on sale this month for $40, but the advance fee jumps to $45 on June 1st, and tickets at the gate will cost $50. Like at Oh!No before it and Crucifest after it, camping is encouraged, so keep that in mind if you want to stay the night and head home on Sunday the 23rd! You can buy your tickets in advance at this link. While the festival is slated to begin at 2:00 PM, bands are expected to start playing at around 4:00 PM. More details on It's The Pits are forthcoming.

It's The Pits has to be the biggest event that Dryer Fire/P.I.T.S. have ever put on, and hopefully it's a huge hit for Nicole and crew so they can do this again next year, or at least something of a comparable scale! It's not a punk haven, but genre fans will be satiated by The Mendozaz and Hails, and while not everyone will be into the remote camping appeal, it's very much in this year. The two Leeburn festivals at 5756 Highway 638, Go North on St. Joseph Island, and Northern Vibe in Ophir are all scheduled for the summer, so keep all four in mind if you wanna go off the grid and enjoy some high energy local and touring music! Visit the official Facebook event page and the above links for more on It's The Pits!

We'll close tonight's post with the ninth installment of local punk supergroup project Mikey & His Uke's 30th anniversary series of covers of Green Day's breakthrough album "Dookie"! Just over two weeks removed from their rendition of "She", song #9 from "Dookie" was posted to the project's YouTube channel this morning, and keeping with the album's running order, this cover is of the Green Day deep cut "Sassafras Roots". Bookclub/ex-Lion Ride frontman Mikey Hawdon is back on guitar and (initially) ukelele here alongside former Goldfinger drummer Darren Pfieffer (wearing a baseball jersey here for a change), while Buck-O-Nine bassist Andy Plafoot is back here for his fifth "Dookie" cover in this series, after missing the last two. Vocals are provided here by Jeff "Kepi Ghoulie" Alexander of the Sacramento horror punk veterans The Groovie Ghoulies, who is seen painting something while singing the song.

Kepi does reveal what he painted at the end, but I won't spoil it here. Perfectly sound cover with strong melodies, and well edited from the remote filming locations, though aside from Kepi's painting in a very blue room, there's no quirks in settings or on-camera activities to note. Green Day diehards will like the cover though! Tenth in this series will be the classic "When I Come Around", which is the final yet-covered single from "Dookie" before they hit a home stretch of deep cuts. Given past timeframes, it should turn up at any point between Monday and June 4th (the current average would be May 19th). Check out Mikey & crew covering "Sassafras Roots" below, and look for more soon!

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

2023: A Look Back In The Year Of Local Metal, Hard Rock, And Punk

Happy New Year! I apologize for this only hitting the site now, but our year-in-review posts always take a long time to go back through the year that was, so I can catalogue the big events in the local metal, hard rock, and punk scene from pillar to post, and while I'm usually good to get it up on December 31st, time got away from me this year. Everything is done now though, and I hope I got to the biggest and most notable stories, events, and shows of last year, so here's our look back at 2023 on the SMS!

With the pandemic fading even more into the past, we had an even stronger lineup of touring metal, hard rock, and punk bands in Sault Ontario and area this year, including the likes of AMY/DC, B.A. Johnston, Bed Of Roses, Big Wreck, Cory Marks, Darsombra, The Dayglo Abortions, Destroyer, Josey Scott's Saliva, K-Man & The 45s, The Merves, Queen: It's A Kinda Magic, Random Killing, The Ripcordz, and Sponge all gracing a local stage in 2023! Local concert goers could check out multiple bands at events like Rotaryfest, Toystock, The Northern Vibe Festival, and Lopstock, while newer and unfamiliar venues like The Art Hub At Spring, Broers Jansen, The Distraction, The Loft, and The Queen of Hearts Club gave artists some welcomed options to book gigs at last year. Also last year: Storm Rausch won The Soo's Got Talent, four of Mikey Hawdon's past/present bands gathered at Soo Blaster in November in honour of his wedding, ...

...LopLops Lounge welcomed the 12 20 Musicians of Christmas last week, The Sault Community Theatre Centre hosted the Soo Soundcheck & Northern Echoes concerts in June, Mike Haggith joined forces with Brian Tremblay for the Face To Face storytellers' concert in May, and The Apocalypse Afterparty gave another metal shot in the arm to the Madchild and Robbie G rap concerts at Soo Blaster. Look for even more big concerts in Sault Ontario and area in the year ahead!

Sault Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula had a quieter but still eventful year that was arguably peaked early when Pop Evil returned to The Dreammakers Theater at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino in March alongside special guests The Word Alive & Avoid. That was the only heavier Dreammakers Theater show last year, but fans could also see touring acts like The Almas, Cell Rush, Fyrbird, Ledhead, Overdrive Orchestra, Peril, Redburn, The Rock Show, Scarkazm, and Scotty Austin on regional stages. One of the big events of 2023 was the first ever battle of the bands at Lake Superior State University (won by new punk quartet The Sole Aggressors), the first event of its kind in either of the Twin Saults since the pandemic began! Fans could also check out the true public local debut of Heavy Lies The Crown at The 2nd Street Music Festival in St. Ignace in August, as well as many one-band gigs across the year!

In terms of general news events, fans got to see official music videos released from bands like Handsome Sandwich, Heavy Lies The Crown, Spades GT, Jonesy Land, and The Uncanny Valley, while the first three of those bands, Bone Yard, The Northwest, and Tarnished all hit the road for tour dates outside of the Soo area. Now in his new hometown of Barrie, Mike Haggith launched his own indie label MorningStar Records, with local artists signing on to the artist-friendly imprint as the year progressed, 2023 saw the passing of ex-415E drummer Tony Hubbard and Destroilet frontman Mike Hull, the cancellation of the Just Leppard/Saturday Night Special concert, the postponement of Skid Row & Buckcherry's Sault Michigan date, Mike Haggith's freak knee dislocation on stage at Rotaryfest, and the withdrawals of Tantric and a reunited Frightlight from concerts this year, but we also saw the opening of the downtown plaza, ...

...the huge multi-band private concert at Robbie's Church in Leeburn, Soundcheck guitarist Terry Eaton's Great Northern Opry induction, the return of The Rockstar Bar as an occasional live venue, and the debut of Sault Noir into the local concert promotion game. I'm sure 2024 will be just as, if not more eventful, for musicians in the Twin Saults!

As evidenced by our lack of archival album reviews in 2023, last year saw no shortage of album releases by local metal, hard rock, and punk bands! The year was bookended by two new albums from "the original crash band" Sykotyk Rampage, namely "Genius Mushrooms With Thoughts Of The Stoned Ape" & "69", while early year albums also included the C.T.W./Molten Imp split "Pyrolytic Punishment", Mike McCleary's instrumental EP "Fallout From Midnight Tides", and No Funeral's self-titled EP. Handsome Sandwich's long-hyped debut "Deconstructed" went on sale in May, soon followed by Convergence's debut EP "One", Jonesy Land's singer/songwriter-influenced debut "Zoom-Out", and Jack Spades GT's latest "Sewer City Radio". The summer also gave us rapper Bold Noize's debut punk album "God Save Me", new punk trio Ha!ls' debut EP "Rock and Rolls", and of course, Mike Haggith's long awaited studio album "All The Best In All You Do", including its limited "Rose Edition".

With a new EP from Convergence already on sale, and a teased EP from Handsome Sandwich already in the works, 2024 promises to be another good year for new studio material from heavier local musicians, so be sure to support these and other original local musicians' new & existing music by buying or streaming it where possible!

2023 was a good year for new and debuting hard rock and punk acts, and Sault Michigan was particularly busy in this regard late last year, with punk quartet The Sole Aggressors, hard rock quartet Double Jack, and Dafter-based singer/guitarist Molly Escherich stealing the podium spots at Lake Superior State University's battle of the bands over their far more established competition! Sault Ontario was hardly lacking either, with Generations, Double Down, Silent 9, HeadFirst, and (briefly) The Nostalgic Band all debuting on the weekend nightclub cover circuit in 2023 with many more shows between most of them to come. Also in 2023: Vanity First side project Ha!ls and Nebraska Arms successors Honest Work launched for local punk fans, Hollow Sky and Mitch Sirie's Sir Hell solo project brought some new extreme metal to the table, and Sneaky Pete successors Kickstart debuted at Toystock. Look for more updates from these and other new acts in the new year!

Another year saw lineup changes, additions, and departures in many local bands with none hit harder than Sault Michigan's Tarnished, with Nathan Webber and Isaac Royer breaking off in August to form Double Jack, with Tarnished adding Parker Talentino and carrying on as a trio ever since. Elsewhere in the E.U.P.: Jason VanLuven replaced Odin Osogwin on drums with Project 906, Marquita Bernard succeeded Rachel Mender as Theatre of Night's singer, Chris Leask returned to Rhythm & Brews in lieu of Brent Blackwood, and guitarist Christian Thanasiu left Heavy Lies The Crown. In Sault Ontario (well, Barrie), Spades GT confirmed the additions of James Roy Daley and (sometimes) Jay Sarrazin to their expanded lineup as they continued taking over the GTA. Also on the Canadian side: Jim Michaud replaced Paul Belair as Soundcheck's bassist, Tony Kajnar took over for Brandon Ruch on guitar in Generations, ...

...Mikhal Muto restored a second bassist to The Apocalypse Afterparty, Richard Fullerton returned to That's Chester for their Rotaryfest reunion in lieu of Greg Simpson, and the also-reunited Fuller swapped Nathan Sauve out for David Peredun behind the drumkit. These and a few other bands saw the revolving door for their lineups in 2023!

As far as defunct and inactive bands go in 2023, none made a larger exit from the local scene than Sault Ontario classic/hard rock cover quartet Obsession, who ended their 18 year run in February due to guitarist Gabe Tessaro's retirement from full-time bands, with the other members splintering off into Soundcheck and Silent 9. Most other bands to be moved to our inactive links this year (or are on the verge of it) did not announce a formal dissolution, but notable names to quietly fade out of activity this year include punk projects These Magnificent Tentacles and Forever Will Be, death metal quintet Exploring Detritus, rising young hard rock band Sylo (née Raincourt), and Foo Fighters tribute band The Soo Fighters, among others. Bands like No Funeral, The Bearded Lounge, The Uncanny Valley, and PROV3RB5 are also on our radar for being publically inactive for 6+ months. Here's hoping that these musicians stay active in some form or fashion!

As always for our year-end posts, we'll look at comebacks and reunions to wrap things up, and no event had a bigger public splash than The Inner City Surfers' reunion at Soo Blaster in November, and 2000s punk fans had even more to enjoy a month later when Fuller reunited at LopLops over the holidays (with The Gambit playing their first show in a year as openers!). That's Chester also returned for a one-off reunion set at Rotaryfest in July, while The Bear Hunters returned after a couple years' hiatus this summer, and punk trio Redundant ended a similarly long break at this year's Toystock. The former Jack Spades (GT), Theatre of Night, and The Karstens played their first Sault Ste. Marie concerts post-pandemic last year, while Galactic Alignment returned after a near decade long hiatus, Kraken Mara were reborn as Convergence, and they even brought former State of Misery singer Steve Rhodes back to a local radar as a session vocalist on select material!

2023 was an improvement for concerts and activity over every year preceding it in the 2020s, and here's hoping that the upward momentum continues in 2024 and beyond! I apologize again for the delay in this post making it online, but hopefully it refreshes some good memories of last year, and we'll resume normal operations on the site next! Thanks everyon!