LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tarnished) & The First Of This Weekend's Concert Previews!!

Before we kick off our first round of weekend concert previews, just a reminder/heads up that the annual Poutine Feast is back at the Downtown Plaza this weekend, but as far as I can gather, organizers have still not released a schedule for the musical entertainment aside from gradually announcing individual artists. We'll let you know when/if anything comes out in regard to heavier/punk acts there this weekend! Now, let's dive into the first chunk of this weekend's advertised concerts, specifically bands playing live tomorrow in some public degree. Here's what you should know, starting with a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!

Sault Michigan classic/hard rock quartet Tarnished will return to the Driftwood Sports Bar in St. Ignace for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced on the venue's Facebook page earlier today. Tarnished made their successful debut at the 590 North State Street nightclub in April, and it's good to see them spreading their wings beyond the Kewadin Casino there for St. Ignace gigs, so hopefully TOMORROW'S concert is a hit for them despite the late notice! This is a one-nighter due to or resulting in DJs Bob & Troy spinning tunes at the Driftwood on Saturday night after that day's planned car show there. Alex, Josh, Chris, and Ron take the stage TOMORROW at 9:30 PM with a 21+ age limit and no announced cover charge. Visit the above links fro more on Tarnished's short notice St. Ignace show TOMORROW NIGHT, and here they are live!

Next up, we'll head to Sault Ontario, where local classic/hard rock cover quintet Headrush will kick off their busy weekend when they headline TOMORROW'S Socch-Fest memorial concert at Soo Blaster! Yes, this event is being publically advertised via its Facebook event page, and organizers have even said that it's "open to everyone" there, but Socch-Fest is to honour the memory of local chef, bartender, and film lighting worker Mark Gigliotti-Socchia, who passed away in January at just 51 years of age. Aims are for this to be a big party to celebrate Mark's life, and he was well known and liked locally, so hopefully there's a strong crowd at Soo Blaster for Socch-Fest tomorow, let alone for Headrush's debut at this venue! Socch-Fest has an 8:00 PM start time and no stated cover charge or age limit. Visit the above links for more details, here's Headrush live, and look for our preview of their show with Hotel California in tomorrow's preview post!

Also taking place TOMORROW is the return of local classic/hard rock cover quarter Double Down for one night only at The Water Tower Pub! Unlike last year, the guys are planning to take a summer break to work on new songs, with tomorrow's show being their last until the fall begins, hence why they're not playing at Rotaryfest next month. The Syrettes, Dan, and Ric were last seen at Jay's three weeks ago (at least for public events), and after guesting with them on at least one song that weekend, former Quite Frankly frontwoman Jack Alisat (a.k.a. Jacklyn Hyde) will be back for a turn with Double Down tomorrow, as per their recent Facebook advertising. No idea how much she'll be present for the night's sets, but it'll be neat to have credited guest involvement again! Remember, The Water Tower Pub hosts different bands nightly, with classic rock quartet RPM doing the honours there on Saturday night.

Double Down take the stage tomorrow at 8:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge. With their implied summer break beginning afterwards, come down to this popular central nightclub tomorrow to see Double Down while you can! Visit the above links for more details, and here they are live!

Finally for weekend concert preview post #1, we'll head downtown to Reggie's Place, where local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 will set up shop for two more sermons TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Fresh off of their rainy (if partially tent-covered) gigs at the Queen Street Cruise, these will be their first proper bar gigs since rocking Reggie's at the end of May, so if you've missed "the dirty three" in regular indoor confines, you know where to find them this weekend! Just as a mild apology from our Queen Street Cruise coverage, the Friday night gig was again outdoors near Montana's during the cruise proper, which I forgot to reflect when previewing the Cruise gigs (the Saturday matinee was at the Roberta Bondar Pavilion as planned). Tomorrow and Saturday's southern fried cover action (with a few covers) is at 9:30 PM with 19+ age limits and no cover. See above for more details, and for a preview,  here's your local 225 live!

That's all for now, but we'll next preview Peril, Tym Morrison, and Curtis McKenzie's concerts this weekend in the Soo area, plus Headrush opening for Hotel California, with The Upheaval and (maybe?) Poutine Feast to follow! Thanks everyone

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Headrush & Tym Morrison), Plus Fuller Updates!!

I hope everyone is having a good Family and/or President's Day! For this cold Monday morning, we have LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for Sault Ontario in the coming months, as well as big news from a reunited band's upcoming plans, so here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison has announced a run of bimonthly matinee concerts at Misty's Fifties via his most recent Facebook event page for shows there! He just added dates to it, including a reported return to the Second Line West bar/restaurant this past Saturday. I profusely apologize for missing that date, but when he just added it to an existing event page, there won't have been the same alert that the show was happening at all. Hopefully there was a strong turnout for his unplugged hard and classic rock covers on Saturday! That show aside, Tym has six matinee gigs ahead at Misty's, all on Saturdays, including shows on March 8th & 22nd, April 5th & 26th, and May 10th & 31st, none of which fall on Canadian holiday weekends. Not a rigid schedule pattern here (shows are 2-3 weeks apart), but it is good to see Tym playing more frequently in the coming months!

All six of Tym's upcoming Misty's shows (as well as this past Saturday's, apologies again) are 4:00 PM matinees with likely 19+ age limits and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, and hopefully we hear more from Tym's covers here and elsewhere as 2025 continues!

Next up, here's a special memorial concert taking place at Soo Blaster on Friday, June 27th, as local classic/hard rock cover quintet Headrush will topline Socch-Fest! This is a celebration of life event for Mark Gigliotti-Socchia, who died last month at just 51 years of age. While not a musician, you may recognize Mark as a chef, film industry lighting worker, and bartender, and you can read his obituary at this link. I normally have reservations about plugging events this personal in nature, but the Facebook event page is public, and organizers are hoping to make this "the party of the summer and a night to remember" that will hopefully be a reunion for many of the "1990s Soo crowd". As such, this will likely be Headrush's Soo Blaster debut. Socch-Fest has an 8:00 PM start time, I assume it will be 19+, and organizers have not announced a cover charge or ticket price. Visit the Facebook event page for more details, and R.I.P. Mark!

Finally, let's talk about inactive(?) local emo/punk band Fuller, who famously reunited for a headlining concert at LopLops Lounge in December 2023. There were teasers at the time that they wanted to record their Mark-era originals in studio, but little was said publically, not helped by Fuller only existing on social media in 2023-beyond via their Instagram page (I don't use Instagram for band links on the SMS due to its limitations for band profiles, even though a handful of current local bands only have Instagram). That said, Instagram does have three new-to-us videos that Fuller fans will want to check out! The newest one from last week has bassist Mark Rand revealing that they have indeed completely recorded an album that has also been mixed and is currently being mastered. The album will be released "as soon as possible", and Mark was gauging whether fans would be interested in physical copies being produced.

Regardless, the Fuller album will be available on digital platforms "really soon", and Mark hinted that there may be a release party concert to go alongside it. This all lines up with what frontman Jamie Vincent revealed in his Afterparty live-stream last month, which is encouraging for Fuller and midwest emo fans! A year+ prior, Fuller's Instagram page also uploaded this video of drummer David Peredun tracking drums for one of the album's planned eight songs, and while we only hear drums, it does sound promising, which isn't a surprise given David's skill level! Embedded below is the other new-ish video that I hadn't mentioned on the SMS, and it features Fuller playing an instrumental section with very strong energy at the LopLops reunion gig a year+ ago. This is not from Jimmy Polnick's live-stream (which was framed vertically and not shot this close), so kudos to whoever filmed this high-quality clip!

It's not that long and has no vocals, and it's a horitzontal landscape video forcibly shrunk down and pillarboxed into vertical dimensions (why do it like that?) but it's a tantalizing glimpse of what Fuller brought to the table after a two decade absence, so give it a watch below, and stay tuned for more!

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