More Weekend Concert Previews In Sault Ontario & The E.U.P.!!

Somehow, this weekend has proven to be bizarrely busy for hard rock and punk concerts! Yes, it's the summer, we see more shows at this time of year, but there's no Rotaryfest or provincial/state holidays this weekend to create more shows to happen, and I still have to dedicate FOUR posts to previewing concerts this weekend! Yes, Selias fans, I am well aware of that show, I hope to cover it and other things I'm behind on on Saturday and beyond. This preview post looks at bands playing shows tomorrow in some fashion, with a stacked lineup of Saturday-only gigs to be looked at tomorrow. Now, let's resume our weekend previews!

We'll start at Soo Blaster TOMORROW NIGHT for a big punk concert featuring two American folk punk bands coming north of the border, including headlining Lansing, Michigan folk punk band Rent Strike! This intense and very lyrical group should please folk punk subgenre fans with their freewheeling brand of original music, and it will be neat to see John and crew rock out on this big stage! Bangor, Maine "thinking man's punk" trio Milk St. will also make their way north tomorrow with their appealing blend of emo and grunge that should keep fans in strong spirits with their own well-written genre blending original music, so don't bypass them either! Your local openers are local punk trio (quartet?) Vanity First in their... first Soo Blaster gig since opening for Master Nate & The Reprobates last month. Guitarist Mikhal Muto is a known folk punk artist & fan, so they'll fit in tomorrow like a glove!

This ALL AGES concert takes place tomorrow at 8:00 PM, and tickets run $15 in advance at this link or in person at Soo Blaster (the "early bird" verbiage is clearly how they refer to advance tickets in general, not a lapsed exclusivity period), with admission jumping to $20 at the door. With lots of high energy folk punk to enjoy, let alone from two American bands on this side of the border (less of a rarity than it once was but still uncommon), hopefully there's a great turnout for this concert tomorrow night, so visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's Rent Strike live!

Next up, local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison's weekly summer arrangements at The Mike Case Memorial Stage outside of The Trading Post TOMORROW NIGHT and at Misty's Fifties on SATURDAY will both march on this weekend! One week after dropping out of his planned Thursday nighter at The Dive due to illness (I never heard if he similarly didn't play at the other two venues), fingers crossed that Tym is feeling better for his two acoustic shows this week, once again setting up shop on the outdoor stage beside The Big Moose Ice Cream Parlor tomorrow before heading down Second Line West for an indoor matinee on Saturday. If you like Tym's well produced brand of hard rock covers and his extensive setlist therein, you won't want to miss this weekend's concerts, though he will be back through next month! As usual, tomorrow's show is at 7:00 PM with no age limit.

Saturday's Misty's matinee is at 4:00 PM and 19+, and neither has a cover charge. Be advised that 9&10 News is currently calling for a 30-40% chance of rain tomorrow evening with temperatures hovering at around 17°, which is cool for this time of year even if the precipitation holds off. Tym has called off outdoor shows for rain and/or temperatures before, so if you are at all concerned that his Mike Case Stage show might not take place, keep tabs on his social media for updates. Visit the official Facebook event pages linked here and here for more details, and here's Tym live!

Now let's head to Sault Michigan for two familiar bands playing at both regional Kewadin Casino lounges this weekend, starting with Manistique hard rock duo Fyrbird, who will return to the E.U.P. TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT at The Rapids Lounge at the Soo Kewadin branch! These are Jamie & Rikk's only dates within an hour's drive of Sault Ste. Marie this summer, with their next truly local stops coming in St. Ignace in October, so if you want to see Fyrbird's hard hitting blend of minimalist two man covers, head down to The Rapids Lounge for all of this weekend's action! Yes, Fyrbird will be in Gould City later this month, but that town is beyond our coverage range, though it's absolutely of note if western Mackinac County is not hard to get to. Tomorrow & Saturday's shows are 21+ affairs with no cover charges and 9:00 PM start times. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Fyrbird live!

Finally for weekend concert preview post #2, we'll head south to St. Ignace, where Sault Ste. Marie hard rock band Exit 808 will make their debuts at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Last seen on the road for another outdoor gig in Republic in the Western U.P. this past weekend, these will be Exit 808's first local dates since their Rapids Lounge debuts three weeks ago. These will also mark their first ever local appearances with their full current lineup, as singer Amy Beach & new guitarist Will Robbins were absent that weekend, while debuting bassist Myke Young split duties there with outgoing fill-in Blaze Beairl. No word on if there will be any direct changes to their set as such, but Amy teased on their Facebook page on July 30th that they were considering adding "a couple (of) country songs" to their set, albeit after "heavying them up", and were taking fans' suggestions. 

Yes, Blaze appears to have lined up a big new gig as drummer of a different local band, but we'll have more on that as our weekend concert previews continue. Like with Fyrbird, this weekend's St. Ignace Kewadin shows are at 9:00 PM with no cover charges and 21+ age limits. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's a new live video of theirs! Well, there's also a newly edited live video of their studio cover of Black Sabbath's "N.I.B." via Marquette-based Kish Productions, which is well done, but I do prefer seeing full/raw live footage., The new live video is courtesy of Angie Hood, who filmed Exit 808 covering Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life" outside of The Pine Grove Bar in Republic last week, as shared by the band to their Facebook page from her personal account! Obviously, Amy Lee Beach is on lead vocals here, with Dillion Semasky singing the Paul McCoy parts.

The vertical camera angle is unfortunate, but it looks like everyone is performing well on this 2000s rock radio classic, and Amy's voice is given a strong display here, with Dillion's parts working well for contrast! Audio's a little thin, but it's a good teaser of the new new look Exit 808, so give it a watch below, and don't miss them in St. Ignace!

That's all for now, but look for weekend concert preview post #3 next, which will likely focus on Saturday's concerts from Heavy Lies The Crown, Project 906, and Bone Yard 225 (likely only the three because I have more to touch on from one of these bands), with The Ripcordz, Handsome Sandwich, Generations, and Curtis McKenzie capping off this deceivingly busy weekend concert preview slate by Saturday morning. Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (The Ripcordz, Rent Strike, Neither Could Dylan, And Agnosticism!!)

For today's post, we're focusing 100% on LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for this summer, all either taking place at the same venue or with a common local musician as opener. If you crave some live punk music in different locales, you'll get some good ideas from these events, so here's what you should know in chronological order!

The first of this new batch of shows will see local folk punk/emo solo project Agnosticism return to The Distraction on Saturday, June 8th for their second show in a two week span, but this time, they are not headlining. On this night, they'll be opening for local alt-rock band The Haze, a name new to the SMS, but readers will recognize them under their old name Skinbox! If you didn't see their late 2023 dates, this band features (featured?) singer/guitarists Steve Edwards (ex-Pixo Control) & Brad Irwin (ex-Gnaeus) plus Sault Side Squad bassist Jordan Wardlaw. At least under the Skinbox name, they played 1990s-2000s alt-rock and Arctic Monkeys covers. Now, Steve was posting on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group last week looking for a drummer, presumably to replace Jordan's old Stoned To Deaf bandmate Jamie Labreche in this band, so who knows if that search could affect the show in three weeks or not. Stay tuned for updates!

Unless the name change also equals a sound change, I don't believe The Haze will lean to heavier/punk styles, but Agnosticism's acoustic folk punk sound will fill that quota for attendees! This all ages concert has a 9:00 PM start time and a "$5 or pay-what-you-can" entry model. Should be an entertainingly diverse sound between the two acts, so keep this show in mind, and see above for more details!

Next up, we'll jump ahead to Thursday, July 27th, when The Distraction welcomes Vaughan, Ontario "punkabilly" solo project Neither Could Dylan for their first local concert appearance! Led by singer/guitarist Jaimee Jakobczak, this project takes inspiration from punk, power pop, and indie rock in their diverse and well written original material, including from their new album "Foxchase", and Jaimee (and her band?) should deliver an entertaining set for multiple genre fans in two months! Opening here is Sylo frontman Eli Russell, who launched an indie rock solo project in between Raincourt/Sylo's hiatus last year and has played at The Distraction as a solo act in the past. Eli's solo stuff obviously isn't as hard rock-centric as Sylo's, but he's a talented performer, so don't be late! Neither Could Dylan's show has a 7:00 PM start time, no age limit, and a "$10 or pay-what-you-can" entry format. See above for more details!

Today's only new concert not taking place at 72 East Street will instead find its way further downtown to Soo Blaster on Friday, August 9th, when two American folk punk bands cross the border! The headliners are Lansing folk punk band Rent Strike, whose rollicking and lore-heavy brand of original folk punk effectively cross genre lines with a solid intensity, and it will be neat to see them on a local stage, let alone one as big as Soo Blaster! Bangor, Maine "POS indie rock" band Milk St. will also hit the Soo on this date, and with a more emo-influenced and melodic brand of folk punk compared to Rent Strike, they'll have their own appeal for assembled fans, so definitely check both of them out! Local punk trio Vanity First (featuring Agnosticism's Mikhal Muto, a known folk punk performer & fan already) will be the local openers, and that's an ideal choice given who the touring bands are, so don't be late!

Another all ages concert, this show begins at 8:00 PM, and as it's not at The Distraction, there are flat admission fees ($15 via advance tickets or $20 at the door). You can buy tickets from Vanity First members and/or via an online link to be posted, so stay tuned to their social media accounts for details on that front. If you love folk punk, it'd be hard to pass this concert up, so visit the above links for more on all that's going down at Soo Blaster!

Finally for today, and just one day removed from Rent Strike, we'll head back to The Distraction on Saturday, August 10th, when Montreal hardcore punk legends The Ripcordz return to the Soo! This will be Paul Gott & company's ninth local concert in the past eleven years, but compared to their upstairs show at The Loft last fall, they're heading downstairs on August 10th, as they're not playing in the former barbershop proper. The building has a basement (accessible through a back door) that owners are opening to events on a limited/seasonal basis, dubbed The Stellar Door, and that's where The Ripcordz will set up shop for this concert. No word on what The Stellar Door is like as a venue, but it must be more amenable to hardcore punk for space and location! Local support will come by way of skate punk trio Hails (a.k.a. Vanity First with a different frontman) and the aforementioned Skinbox The Haze.

Owing to the still-not-huge capacity, only 30 advance tickets are being sold for this concert (contact Ha!ls guitarist Mikhal Muto if you want one), though the door charge is an identical $20 (yes, "pay-what-you-can" remains available). This show begins at 7:00 PM, and unlike at The Loft in September, this is absolutely an all ages event. This should be a must-attend concert for hardcore punk fans, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and stay tuned for much more news and notes on the SMS next week! Thanks everyone!