LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Scarkazm, Soundcheck, And Tym Morrison) & Weekend Concert Previews!!

Here is our first traditional news post of 2020, and it's devoted to the first batch of weekend concert previews in this new year! This does include LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, some on SHORT NOTICE, plus a few removals from our concert calendar. Things aren't as flashy as they could get over the holidays, but there's a lot of talent to see, so here's what you should know!

Local acoustic hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will kick off yet another year in his long-term arrangement with Gliss Restaurant with more solo concert sets TOMORROW & SATURDAY, but that's not all, as he will also be back at The Roadhouse Bar & Grill on Trunk Road for traditional nighttime gigs TOMORROW NIGHT and also on Friday, January 31st! Apologies for the short notice on TOMORROW'S show, remember that we take his bookings a month at a time due to his prolific long-term scheduling. Of course, Tym's skilled & prolific roster of covers will surely entertain fans and Gliss patrons this weekend, as they did on New Year's Eve, but if you'd rather see him after supper in a less formal setting, TOMORROW'S Road House concert (his first there in almost a month) should do the trick, as well as at month's end!

As usual, the Gliss shows are 6:00 PM matinees with no age limits or cover charges announced, but remember that this is a formal sit-down restaurant, not a nightclub. Meanwhile, the Roadhouse gigs TOMORROW and on the 31st are both 10:00 PM affairs with no cover and 19+ age limits. Visit the official Facebook event pages linked here & here for more info, and here's Tym live!



Next up, local classic hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will get 2020 started with concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT at Reggie's West! Again, apologies for the short notice, these dates were only announced via their Facebook event page yesterday, and time will tell if they post a 2020 concert calendar on social media like they did last year. This will be Soundcheck's first concert weekend at the Reggievelt in three weeks, and will be their second and third gigs in a five day span, following their Water Tower Pub show on New Year's Eve. With Cameron settling in by now in their lineup, Soundcheck should be even more polished and ready to go TOMORROW & SATURDAY, so don't miss their hard rocking covers there! As usual, expect 9:30 PM start times, no cover charges, and 19+ age limits. See above for more details, and here's Soundcheck live!



Also, I was planning to cover Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished's continuation of their "every Thursday" run of acoustic matinee concerts at Biggby Coffee next, but their official website's calendar does not list anything past December 19th there, in spite of listing 2020 concert dates, and neither band nor venue even plugged shows on the 19th or 26th on their Facebook pages. I could be wildly off base, but I am tentatively removing the Biggby dates in January from our concert calendar until/unless someone publically confirms that they are still on. However, the aforementioned website calendar does list five new 2020 dates that are definitely occurring, and they include four acoustic returns to The Signatures Lounge at the Sault's Kewadin Casino branch on January 16th & 29th, and then on June 18th & 24th! Those include two Thursday nighters and two Wednesday nighters, so plan accordingly. No word on whether Alex will be playing solo or with Josh/Nathan, but their unplugged mettle was well tested last year!

These are all 6:00 PM matinees with likely 21+ age limits and no cover charges. If you want to see Tarnished plugged in with drums, then head to their other new date, as they will return to Moloney's Alley on Thursday, January 30th as that venue's musical entertainment during the International 500 snowmobile race's annual pub crawl! Alex and his old group Banned used to enjoy playing I-500 weekend events, so expect another fun set as you frequent area nightclubs at month's end! Click here for more on the pub crawl itself, but attending just Moloney's Alley should mean a a 9:00 PM start time, no cover, and a 21+ age limit. Visit the above links for more details!

Finally, let's preview Traverse City metal trio Scarkazm's return to The Rapids Lounge at the aforementioned Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino, where they will play their first shows of the new year anywhere TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT, but that's not all for them in 2020! We knew about this weekend's and next month's St. Ignace shows already, but as part of Kewadin Casino's new concert listings on the Soo and St. Ignace branch's entertainment pages through July, we can confirm two extra concert weekends from the Peril side project for the spring, as they'll be back at The Rapids Lounge on March 13th & 14th, before playing at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino on April 10th & 11th. One weekend a month for the first third of the year isn't a raw deal, so look for Adam, Dave, and Jeff at both regional Kewadin lounges through April! And yes, we will touch on the other new hard rock Kewadin lounge gigs soon.

For what it's worth, Scarkazm have not posted their traditional promotional image on social media for this weekend's gigs at press time, but the Facebook event pages (linked here and here) confirm that the shows are on, so don't bypass their hard rocking metal covers this weekend. Those, March's, and April's dates all have 9:00 PM start times, 21+ age limits, and no cover charges. See above for more details, and here's Scarkazm live!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post on the site next, in all likelihood! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tarnished) & Related Weekend Concert Previews!!

After a one week lull following Rotaryfest, we have an unusually busy concert weekend at the SMS  to kick off August, so here's what we have in store. Due to a number of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (some on SHORT NOTICE) from the same local band, we'll focus only on them to start, while we'll look at Tym Morrison, The Wyld Stallyns, and Pop Evil later today, before looking at Saturday's Inner City Surfers, Highway 63, and Black Crown Initiate concerts tomorrow. Hopefully that covers everything, barring more late notice announcements. Now, here's what you should know to start this weekend!

New Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished will continue their "every Thursday" run of acoustic matinee concerts TODAY at Biggby Coffee, but that's not all for Alex and Josh (and Tommy?) this month! Joining their increasingly busy concert schedule, the Banned successors will also play outside of Phat Boutique at 559 Ashmun Street for a second straight week as part of the ongoing Ashmun Alive festival series TONIGHT, while they'll also be playing another acoustic set TOMORROW AFTERNOON as part of this year's Sidewalk Sales! Apologies for the short notice on the latter two gigs, they were only publically confirmed via Facebook event pages linked here and here earlier this week.  All three of these two man unplugged gigs are FREE and ALL AGES matinees, so whether you're up for some 10:30 AM indoor jams for tips and coffee today, or you want to head downtown TONIGHT at 6:00 PM or TOMORROW at 12:00 PM, you have ample opportunities to hear Alex & Josh break out some fan favourite covers this weekend!

Note that I don't know where exactly Tarnished will be playing during Sidewalk Sales, but Phat Boutique again would make sense. That all said, Tarnished will also have one non-Biggby/Ashmun show this month in the region, as they will (more or less) take Banned's place at this year's Sugar Island Music Festival on Saturday, August 10th! Advertised without the "acoustic" tag in it's Facebook event page's title (and thusly implying that they'll have electric instruments and drums here), this will be frontman Alex Traynor's ninth straight year at this annual festival, and first not fronting Banned, though Tarnished get a high co-headlining slot at 8:45 PM on Saturday. Other bands this year, again of the festival regular, country/folk, and online page-less variety, will include headliners 3 Zip, 3½ Men, Aberdeen, 2 Cents, All Arms, Joel Choate, The Gentleman George Band, Walkers Rye, Moose River and February Sky, and an Al Gross-hosted open mic block opening at 11:00 AM.

With the exception of Friday openers Steph & Dave and Sunday headliners Jim & Joe Schutz, every band on those days is also playing on Saturday, unlisted "friends" aside, and Tarnished are only advertised for Saturday. As usual, admission for this ALL AGES outdoor festival on Sugar Island is via a $10 souvenir button purchase (kids 12 and under are FREE), which gets you admission for all three days of the festival, with no single day passes available. Buttons are on sale at Ed's Bayview Store, The Hilltop Bar & Grill, or the Westshore Convenience Store in Sugar Island, and at Crooked Music in Sault Ste. Marie, and presumably at the gate, and for more details (including on all of the non-musical festivities), visit the official website! Also for Tarnished's busy concert slate, they just played out of our coverage area today in Curtis, they'll take a road trip to Alex's current(?) Mount Pleasant home base for a show on August 15th, and will also travel to Gould City and Toledo, Ohio for gigs next month, so keep those in mind if you live afar!

Lastly, Alex Traynor's previously advertised solo concert at The Signatures Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on September 5th, and Banned's previously announced Kinross Speedpark gig on September 6th have both turned into Tarnished concerts, as per their new Facebook event pages linked here & here, so both are now credited in our Sault Michigan concert listings as such. This seems to confirm that Tarnished have superceded Alex's own solo project in live priority, though hopefully he doesn't completely put his original music on the shelf. I think that covers all of Tarnished's new concert updates, and it's great to see Alex & Josh (and Tommy) staying busy! No word on how long this will last, especially if Alex has any impending Mount Pleasant commitments, but enjoy Tarnished while you can at all of these gigs, including TODAY & TOMORROW! See above for more details on all of these new concerts, and here's Tarnished live!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more weekend concert previews this afternoon! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Alex Traynor) & Most Of This Weekend's Hard Rock Concert Previews!!

It's now time to dive into another batch of metal and hard rock concert previews in the Sault Ste. Marie area! Due to the amount, I am holding our preview of Saturday night's Ozbourne concert for tomorrow's post, so don't worry, it is coming! Now, let's tackle the other heavier shows this weekend , starting with some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, one on short notice!

Banned fronman Alex Traynor will play a solo concert TONIGHT at The Signatures Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, as part of a slate of shows there that's new to our concert listings! Apologies for the short notice, we only learned of TONIGHT's show after adding Alex's solo project to our full coverage on Friday. If you're familiar with the Kinross singer/guitarist, you'll know that he plays solo acoustic gigs both locally and in his current Mount Pleasant homebase separate from his Banned gigs, and this includes a number of appearance at The Signatures Lounge, a more intimate venue separate from The Rapids Lounge at the Soo's Kewadin branch, which hosts solo performers on Thursday nights and karaoke on Friday. As such, Alex will be at The Signatures Lounge TONIGHT as well as on May 2nd, September 5th, and November 21st for four quarterly shows there. All were confirmed via the schedule on his official website earlier this year.

Note that Kewadin Casino's newly redesigned website does not list Signatures Lounge concert dates at present, nor does it elaborate on Alex's advertised St. Ignace Kewadin gigs scheduled between September 18th & November 21st, which I can't see running nightly for that whole 2 month stretch. Stay tuned for confirmation where needed! As best as I can tell, TONIGHT's Signatures Lounge show and the three others are 21+ gigs with no cover charge, but concerts there all have a special early start time of 6:00 PM. Alex's skilled musicianship should go over well in this setting, so see above for more details, and here's his "Crazy World" music video!



Next up, let's head to Sault Ontario, where local acoustic hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison has another busy weekend ahead, including solo matinee concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY at Gliss Restaurant, sandwiching his return to Room 21 for a traditional nighttime concert TOMORROW NIGHT! There's not much new you can say regarding his long-term arrangement at Gliss, but his unplugged hard and classic rock covers should find another solid audience on Spring Street tomorrow and Saturday evening! As for Room 21, this is Tym's first show there in over a month, and his last nighttime show of March 2019. This should provide fans at this upstairs nightclub with lots of solid entertainment tomorrow, so don't miss out there either! The Gliss shows are 6:00 PM events with no stated age limit, while the Room 21 show is 19+ and a 10:00 PM, and none have a cover charge. Visit the event pages linked here & here for more details, and here's Tym live!

 
Also this weekend, let's head to The Water Tower Pub, where local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck are scheduled to play for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Last seen two weeks ago at The Reggievelt, this will be Soundcheck's first Water Tower Pub show in over a month, and it continues with the venue's usual scheduling pattern of having different bands nightly, hence why they're not playing there on Saturday. Terry, Travis, Paul, and Glen's chemistry-laden brand of fan favourite covers should provide a solid soundtrack for fans and Water Tower Pub regulars alike, so don't miss out on all of tomorrow's action on Great Northern Road! A 9:30 PM start time is in effect, you must be 19 or older to attend, and there's no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Soundcheck live!



Finally for today's concert previews, we'll go to The Rockstar Bar, where a double header of local tribute band action goes down THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! A sequel to a show that these two bands played here in December, the headliners will be new local Tool tribute band Parabol in their third live concert set and first under the Parabol name. This faithful and talented group should have another great set of Tool classics in store for fans on Saturday, so if you missed them last year, don't miss John, Steve, Al, and Anthony this time out! Local funk/hard rock quartet The Elements will play support as a Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute band for the night, taking on the temporary name Scar Tissue for the occasion. The guys have a good handle on Chili Peppers hits, and they should kick the night off right this weekend! Note that guitarist Jesse Cook is no stranger to local Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute bands, having drummed for Sikamikanico in 2007 & 2008.

A presentation of (Choose) Maxx Entertainment, this concert has a 19+ age limit, $5 cover charge, and a 9:00 PM start time. Should be a fun night of hard rock and metal covers from these skilled veteran groups, so visit the above links for more details, and here's Parabol live!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our Ozbourne preview and more tomorrow! Thanks everyone!