LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Sault Riverview Music Festival) And Lots Of Sault Michigan News & Notes!!

Today's news post is entirely dedicated to Sault Michigan, partly thanks to new stuff I bought and learned on a trip I made there this morning! Though mainly to set up some stuff for classes, I bought a book I'm touching on in this post, and stopped by Grooves Music where I bought a CD by a Lansing metal band named Genocya (featuring Saultite Matt Cunningham) who you'll hear more about on the site this fall, and I got some concert information there for a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT in this post as well! Along with news on a local concert from the 1990s that you can buy, and some more assorted notes, read on below for today's all-Sault Michigan post!

A new local music festival is going down next weekend, and it's The Sault Riverview Music Festival! Presented by The Sault Events Inc., this family festival will see all of it's proceeds going towards the Chippewa County Hospice, and there will be plenty of non-musical activities going down on September 7th and 8th, including beer & concessions tents, family activities and games, a 50/50 draw, and a fish fry, so click here or look at the poster on your right for more details! As for the bands, while a full schedule hasn't been posted, the Friday schedule does feature three local hard rock bands, those being Sault Michigan hard rockers Monkey's Uncle, Kinross classic hard rock cover quintet Banned, and young local hard rock quartet Tantrym Tyme (formerly known as Abstract!) They'll join local indie rock quartet The London Gentlemen (featuring Nixxon Dixxon alumni) on the Friday lineup, while the bands on Saturday the 8th don't lean in a heavy direction. The Saturday bands include The London Gentlemen again, plus members Mike Russo & Steve Sivret's acoustic band Fallen Heroes, along with local southern rock band Bittermoon (featuring Monkey's Uncle alum Jim Belleau), a band named Omega Rock that I can find nothing on (can anyone help?) and The Grooves All Stars, who I believe are a band comprised of employees at local music store/festival sponsors Grooves Music. More bands are possible to be announced, so stay tuned in case I hear anything!

This festival will take place outdoors at the grounds of City Hall at 225 East Portage Avenue, it's definitely all ages, and admission is FREE! Bands will be on from 5:00-10:00 PM next Friday and from noon-10:00 PM next Saturday, and check the above links for more details! This sounds like a fun family festival with lots of talented area bands, and hopefully it's a big success so it can return next year! Also, it's nice to get advance notice of a Monkey's Uncle show that isn't at Kewadin Casino, for what that's worth. Stay tuned for updates on the Sault Riverview Music Festival as they roll in!

Next up, I'm glad to finally note that I now have the book "Yooper Bars" that was released last year! I picked it up for $20 at the Lake Superior State University book store, and if you're unaware of it, it's a travel guide and collection of profiles of most of the bars and taverns in the Upper Peninsula. Written by local authors Randy & Kevin Kluck after an 8 month journey through the U.P.'s bars last year, and published by the Whiskey River Publishing Company in the Soo, it does feature a heavy dose of bars in Sault Michigan & the Eastern Upper Peninsula, including some references to metal bands & live concerts that go down at them! This includes 28 bars & taverns within our current coverage range, 10 more in Chippewa, Mackinac, and Luce County that we'll likely touch on in future SMS expansions, and dozens more in the central and western U.P.. Just on my first readings of it, I notice that it's not entirely comprehensive (the bars at Dondee Lanes & and at any of the Kewadin Casinos aren't covered, for example), and parts are now a bit outdated (i.e. Bullwinkle's Bar & Grill in Moran is now Todd's Tavern), but this looks like it will be a quality resource for barhoppers & revellers in the U.P.! That said, I'll leave full assessments until my formal review, but definitely get more info at this location, and pick it up wherever you can!

Thirdly today, does anyone out there wanna pick up a live video from the old Tumble Inn in Eckerman, Michigan? There's a glam metal band that is actually selling a full concert video from their show there in the 1990s, so here's what you need to know! Some of you guys may be familiar with the Phoenix, Arizona glam metal band Tuff, who may be best known for their ballad "I Hate Kissing You Goodbye" and their Kid Rock parody "American Hair Band", but back in their late 1980s/early 1990s heyday, they came through the area once with cameras in tow! Tuff played at The Tumble Inn on September 8th, 1994, and while online details of said show are minimal, you can purchase the full video of that concert by clicking here or here! The concert (and other past show videos) are $22 plus tax and shipping, which will tip the total cost to $30 and higher depending on where you're having it sent. I don't know whether the show will be on DVD or VHS, but this is an interesting offer, especially knowing how hard it can be to find 1990s concert videos from the Sault area, and I might have to take Tuff up on this offer and buy the Tumble Inn show for SMS uses! If you guys are interested, visit the above links, and check out Tuff online for some fun glam metal originals!

Finally for today, here's four assorted shorter stories across the river from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

• Local concert promoters Allstar Promotions have posted a photo album from the Buckcherry/Fuel concert at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on August 13th onto their Facebook page featuring shots of the headlining bands and the pre-concert autograph & meet and greet sessions! I wish they'd advertise the meet & greets more online, but everyone looks like they had fun, and for photos of The London Gentlemen's opening set, click here!
• One of the opening bands for the Evans Blue-headlined concert at the Soo Kewadin Casino on September 29th will be State Your Cause, an Ohio based hard rock quintet who have been opening for them on Evans Blue's current tour run. Local promoters haven't confirmed their addition online, but concert posters in town confirm their involvement. They have a solid radio hard rock sound and should fit in well for this special charity concert, so check them out at the above links! The other band isn't known yet, but my money's on a local band. I'll keep you guys posted!
  
• Defunct local hard rock quintet Swayze Train have quietly deleted their Facebook page. A reason for the page's removal isn't known, but the breakup in April is likely tied in with it. That said, as their Reverbnation page is still online (bare as it may be) and as we have online information on them still in good supply, I just replaced their link on our inactive Sault Michigan band listings. Stay tuned for hopeful updates on the members' next moves!
• I wanted to apologize for another missed concert, as young local hard rockers Tantrym Tyme apparently performed at this year's Sidewalk Sales event in downtown Sault Michigan last month, as per postings on their Facebook page. Bands generally play outdoors for free during this sales event at local stores, such as the recently inactive Free Refill, but these slipped me by, and I sincerely apologize for that! Keep an eye out for future proper concerts from them as I hear of them!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for our last posts of the summer (this weekend's concert previews and our Oddfellow CD review) tomorrow & Friday! Thanks everyone!

A Likely Inactive Local Band, New Videos, And Sebastian Bach In Sault Ontario?!

With weekend concert previews out of the way, we've got a new news post for you guys on this Saturday morning (beats the lack of good cartoons anymore), so here's what's on tap! Today, we have a new video from a newer Sault Ontario trio, some old 1990s videos from a band who played in the Sault Michigan area on tour way back when, and a note on a likely inactive local metal band, but first, here's some really intriguing news that connects metal with the recent growth of movie productions in Sault Ste. Marie!

Former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach was in Sault Ontario yesterday... but not for a concert. As it turns out, he has a role of some type in the movie "Swearnet" that's being filmed here, which you guys will probably better recognize as the new movie from Trailer Park Boys stars Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay, and Mike Smith (a.k.a. Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles!) Trailer Park Boys fans will be sure to understand the connection with Sebastian Bach, as he guest starred on the show's final season, where we saw his affinity for model train sets (the central one of which inspired the name of defunct Sault Michigan hard rockers Swayze Train), so if this connection seems random, watch season 7. My source for this info is Sebastian's Facebook page, where the photo on your left came from. I have no idea how big of a role Sebastian has in "Swearnet", or if he's even still in town, but from what I understand, the movie either is based on or will help launch an internet-based television channel full of uncensored vignettes & sketches, so Sebastian may only feature in one part of the film. It'd be awesome to see him book a concert here (I enjoy his solo stuff way more than new Skid Row material), but this is cool in & of itself, so check the above links for more, and I can't wait to see the completed film!

Next up, I've regrettably decided to move Sault Ontario metal quartet Borderline Divine to our inactive band links. Normally, I wouldn't act so fast after a band declares a hiatus (as they did on July 3rd via their Facebook page), but an immediate future for the former Stillbroke is looking unlikely following frontman & founding member Jesse Frigault's move to Alberta earlier this month, where he's already found a new job. He is in many ways Borderline Divine's driving force, so that (plus guitarist Mitch Sirie's ongoing primary work in The Bear Hunters) leads me to think that if we ever see them back, it won't be for a long while. Maybe the hiatus declaration was more to leave a bit of hope rather than abruptly shut the door? If they're for sure functionally inactive now, it ends a successful (albeit scattered) 4 year run that saw the band's many incarnations reach a number of heights, including opening for bands like Helix, West of Hell, and Columbia, their 2008 Case's Music Battle of the Bands victory, and of course, releasing Stillbroke's 2009 EP "Never Enough". Though their success arguably peaked in 2009, fans will be sure to have some solid memories from their shows before and after that year, and their brief mid-2012 activity as Borderline Divine left a lot of heavier promise that honestly topped Stillbroke to me in many ways!

I know the guys have put in tons of work from their inception to their last show in June to make it locally, and in some ways, they did, if not as long as was hoped. Hopefully this isn't the last we'll ever hear from Borderline Divine, but for now, best of luck to Jesse, Mitch, Justin, and Sam (and the array of former members) in the future, and when I hear about the members' next moves in the local scene, I'll be sure to have them here!

Thirdly today, I was alerted to some old school concert videos from a show at the old Tumble Inn in nearby Eckerman, Michigan yesterday, and these definitely belong on the SMS! Life's Eclipse frontman Jason Mills sent me the links to these videos as part of some assistance for a reader in finding videos from one of his old Northern Michigan bands at their local stops in the 1990s, and while this isn't either band in question, they're definitely heavy & could use an SMS spotlight! They were a 1990s Michigan metal band named Collision, and while I don't think they're from the Soo originally, they did play at The Tumble Inn at least once in the mid-1990s. The videos from said show include covers of Alice In Chains' "It Ain't Like That" & "Would?" and (as embedded below) Dio's "Don't Talk To Strangers", so check them out if you wanna! Uploaded in late 2008 by YouTube user budachiba (who may be bassist Jeremy DeLawrence), Collision had a solid groove and a versatility that allowed them to handle grunge and more traditional metal really well, and I'd like to find out more about them! Decent video quality too given the age and format this concert was filmed on. Check the above links for more, thanks to Jason for sending me the links, and if I find any more old school Tumble Inn footage, I'll have it here, but for now, here's Collision's local Dio cover!



Finally for today, here's some more news from Sault Ontario grunge band Haggith! Bad news first, as the band has announced that Wishbone bassist Steven Flint is not joining their lineup as was previously announced. A reason for the backtrack wasn't announced, just that it came after "some discussion" and there appear to be no bad feelings with Steven, who the band complimented the talent of on their Facebook page on Wednesday. As a result, frontman Curtis McKenzie is trading his guitar for a bass and Haggith are remaining a trio going forward. Hopefully this is the best move for the guys, and Curtis does have bass skill, but we'll have to see how they sound in their next gigs! On a more positive note, YouTube user paperclipprojectX uploaded a new video on Monday of 2/3rds of the band (minus drummer Mike Haggith) playing an unplugged version of their original song "I Am", and it sounds pretty good! The lighting is effective (if still dark) and Curt & Daniel add some nice grit to this acoustic rendering, so check it out below, and stay tuned for more Haggith news in the coming weeks!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes shortly, including this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile TOMORROW! Thanks everyone!