LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Spun), Soundcheck Concert Preview, And More News & Notes

Here's our final news post of the year, so what will you find here? Big updates from a local punk band, some assorted recent news and notes, and a preview of the final hard rock show in the Soo this year, but first, here's LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for next month!

Marquette hard rock cover quartet Spun will make their way to Sault Michigan for the first times in 2018 when they hit The Satisfied Frog again on Friday, January 26th & Saturday, January 27th! After a busy first year for the Nudge. successors both here and out west, Spun will be making their first Soo stops since rocking the same venue two weeks ago. This talented outfit have already became fast favourites for Frog patrons in the past year, and hopefully next month's shows are the first of many there for Spun in the new year! As usual for their local gigs, these concerts will take place at 9:00 PM both nights, you must be at least 21 years old to attend, and there are no announced cover charges. Spun' hard rock covers should be a great way to warm up next month, so keep these in mind for in four weeks' time, and visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Next up, here's (surprisingly) our only hard rock concert preview for New Year's Eve, making this our last preview of 2017, as Sault Ontario classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will cap the year by headlining at The Esquire Club for their New Year's Party TONIGHT! This will be the Mourning Wood successors' first show at this west end venue in about a month and a half, and will also be the second time that they've played a New Year's Eve bash, doing the same at The Rednecks Saloon last year under their original moniker Nameus. (FYI, Obsession played The Esquire Club last year.) Given that this is a New Year's bash, expect frills like extra food and drink items and party favours and the like, as bars often go all out to ring in a new year, so mind that when you notice that the admission fee is $20. However, Soundcheck noted on their Facebook event page that admission includes your ride back home, and while I don't know specifics of that promotion, it's nice for those that need it after a night of partying!

As you might expect, this is a 19+ concert and a 9:30 PM start time is advertised. This should be a fun concert to end the year with, especially as it's your best bet for a hard rock show tonight in the area, so check the above links for more details, and hopefully some public videos of theirs turn up!

Also today, here's the latest from local punk rockers Redundant, who have been very quiet since their set-turned-solo performance at Rock 4 Autism in May, so what's new to report from their camp? First, they're expanding to a quartet, as they announced the addition of guitarist Yannick Casavant to their lineup via their Facebook page on Christmas Eve. I'm not overly familiar with Yannick musically, but I believe that he has band experience going way back, and hopefully he fits in nicely with Justin and the White brothers going forward! His local debut with Redundant is to be confirmed, but the guys made a huge announcement on Facebook the next day, as they've apparently been added to the lineup for the Vans Warped Tour's final stop in Toronto on July 17th! If The Rising Tide can play the long running punk festival tour, why not Redundant? I haven't seen a formal lineup announcement yet, but this will be a huge opportunity for the guys, and hopefully we hear much more from Redundant in 2018!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist, benefactor, or company name:

• I have unfortunately deleted Eclipse frontman Curtis McKenzie's solo project from our active band links due to it's Facebook page being taken down at some point in the past few months, and I don't believe there is an alternate page elsewhere. This seems to imply that Curt has shuttered his 2017 solo activity, which is very disappointing, as his shows at The Vape Escape and elsewhere seemed to be going well! Hopefully we see him back out there (with or without Eclipse) in the near future!
• A benefit concert has been announced to help local resident Joni Radford's battle with breast cancer, which will take place on Saturday, January 13th at The Canadian Nightclub. While a performer lineup hasn't been announced at press time, Jack Spades frontman J.D. Pearce commented on the Facebook event page that they have a "couple (of) rad bands so far." Stay tuned for updates on this benefit when bands are publically confirmed for it, and our best wishes are with Joni at this difficult time!
• In an addendum to the drumkit dive incident during Stegadeth's set at the Guy Thiffault Memorial Concert on Wednesday, Live705's Facebook page has shared the multi-camera video of what happened, as filmed by Id Iota's Christian Lemay, presumably for future Shaw TV content. I won't embed the video here out of respect to the nature of what happened and to not single out anyone publically any more than social media already has, but Live705 have indicated that Case's Music and the person responsible have stepped up to help reimburse or replace broken gear. Hopefully things will move forward and upward into 2018!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for our retrospective post on everything that went down in the local metal, hard rock, and punk scenes in 2017 later today! Thanks everyone!

The Rad Zone 30th Anniversary Bash/Ripcordz Concert Review!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Canadian readers! After a delay partly due to some holiday weekend commitments, it's now time for our review of Saturday night's Rad Zone 30th anniversary bash, which actually took place upstairs at The Rockstar Bar rather than the advertised Algonquin Pub downstairs. If the reason for the switch was announced, I didn't hear it, but given The Rad Zone's long run as a record store (and more), the accoutrements of upstairs fit the setting better! Owner Paul "Monk" Muncaster and current Rad Zone staff were on hand to take in the festivities, which featured a number of prize giveaways, including Vans shirts, hats, wallets, shoes, and more, along with cupcakes (some branded with band and Vans logos) and a chocolate 30th birthday cake (complete with the show poster as icing) to help celebrate! Though my luck didn't follow to the draws, I did get one of the free Rad Zone records that were free to claim at show's end, and it's on the wall in my room now!

As well, congratulations to Habitat Shuffle frontman Christian Lemay on winning the door prize (a brand new Vans skateboard) at show's end! A Rad Zone banner hung above the stage as well for the show's duration, and given the season, The Rockstar Bar was decked out in Halloween decorations, which suited the late-addition opening act Shane Erickson (a.k.a. DJ Seith), who injected some seasonal music and cuts into his usual turntable mixes! This is the second time that I've seen a full DJ Seith set, and while I'm admittedly not the right person to critique such a performance, he still has a natural ease and flow when playing his mixes, and I liked hearing some familiar songs like "The Wizard" and "Intergalactic"! If I was him though, I'd have completely crafted a new all-out Halloween set with wall-to-wall seasonal music, especially having recognized some elements from his Oddfellows Hall set this summer, but it's great to have someone who loves vinyl records honouring a great store that specializes in them!

The first of three bands on Saturday night were local hardcore punk notables Destroilet, who made a surprise announcement pre-show indicating that this would be their last set with this lineup. We won't mention the change here just to spread things out to our next news post, especially given what's to come, but if you weren't at the show, I'll guarantee that it's completely positive and intriguing all at once! As for their set, the guys split time between 7 songs from their newest CD and assorted covers and newer originals like "Bamberg Witch Prison" and a brand new yet-untitled track, and if you've seen past Destroilet shows, the guys were at their usual intense level! If anything, it was surprising to see singer Mike Hull leave his shirt on for the duration, but he and the guys were on form, with John Conway & Christian Foisy's hard hitting guitar shining especially! Mike's vocals were a little quiet again, but this was a solid set, and stay tuned for more on Destroilet's lineup announcement!

Last of the openers was local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades, who kept up their recent momentum with an energetic set of their own! Along with every original song from their EP (save "X", as the original band was playing next), the guys played newer originals like "Motorwolf", "Fear Corps", and "Crossroads" for assembled fans, plus Misfits and SNFU covers, and if you've seen Jack Spades recently, you'll know they were on form! The guys had no major hiccups during their set, which featured strong melodic vocals from J.D. Pearce, excellent lead guitar from Jesse Cook, and steady and solid drumming from Johnny Belanger, all of which seemed to get a nice crowd reaction! So soon after Hardcore Homecoming, there wasn't much of a jump or change in quality, but that just screams to how consistent their live sets are, and don't miss them with Destroilet and The Rebel Spell at The Moose Lodge on the 23rd!

After an impromptu speech on The Rad Zone's impact and influence by former Lion Ride bassist Brenton Ellis, it was time for the headline act, as Montreal hardcore punk legends The Ripcordz rocked a local audience for the third time in 18 months with another intense and attitude-fueled set of their classic originals! Touring in support of their new CD "Made In Montreal", Paul Gott and company played some classic and recent hits like "Anarchy", "You Are Not Alone", "Ghosts of Griffintown", and "X" (with J.D. from Jack Spades on guest vocals), and fans ate up every minute! Even Monk jumped into the pit, which was a fun surprise! Paul, Matty, and Francois were in great spirits throughout their set, with Paul's serious intensity fitting their hardcore punk sound and presence, but it would have been nice to have seen more fans up front for their set, especially given the high attendance. Great set, and hopefully The Ripcordz roll back through here in 2015!

Closing with some kind words of thanks from Monk (who believed he had another 10 years in him at The Rad Zone, at least), this show was definitely a good time, and congratulations again to him on all he's done for local music and skateboarding in the past 3 decades! SooToday and Local2 were on hand for an article and Tuned episode, and we'll let you know when both make it online (and yes, we'll address Destroilet's announcement this week too!) As for out uploads, we posted plenty of photos and videos of all four acts at our Facebook page and at this link, plus a "Tag Yourself!" crowd shot, so visit the above links to see everything. And now, here's our videos of DJ Seith mixing "This Is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Destroilet playing their newer original "iBomb", Jack Spades playing their recent song "Frederick", and The Ripcordz playing "Two-Four"!









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

Local Punk Video Showcase (Part 3)

After forgetting to get another one of these up last week (my sincere apologies for that), here's our third local punk video showcase post, as we continue to get up to speed regarding archived punk concert and band videos on YouTube! Remember, we're only featuring videos from channels with less than 50% SMS-relevant content, to save larger channels for our formal YouTube Channel Profiles. Now, here's some more interesting punk videos from local shows and talent!

We'll start with one of a few assorted local punk videos from the channel of YouTube user Jamie Penno, whose uploads largely aren't of local shows, but he still has some interesting content from the mid-2000s! This video is of the defunct local indie/punk quartet Bondar playing their song "6 Hours" at their debut concert at The Speak Easy at Algoma University in August 2006 (as advertised in this SooToday article at the time), and though the visual quality is not good at all, you do get some good music! Amusingly described as featuring three men (future Lion Ride bandmates Marco Pedalino, Mark Rand, and Marc Muto) and a Guy (Thiffault, ex-Nebraska Arms), Bondar didn't last too long locally, but if this video is any indication, they had an upbeat and lively sound that would be reminiscent of Guy's later band work especially! The audio is muffled though, and the video itself is extremely blurry and dark, so you don't see much. It'd be interesting to hear more from Bondar (especially given that their MySpace page has long since been deleted), but give this video a look!

Next, here's a music video from local/Toronto indie punk favourites Treble Charger, that being for "Hundred Million", the first single for their last CD to date, 2002's "Detox"! Memorably featuring in-video cameos by Avril Lavigne and members of Sum 41 and the Swollen Members, this song/video topped MuchMusic's Countdown that October and won two MuchMusic Video Awards the next year. It's definitely more indicative of the punk sound that the band had in the last years of their original run, and I admit that I prefer Treble Charger's punk songs (partially because they're what I heard moreso when I was getting more into aggressive songs), so I really dug "Hundred Million" at the time! The video's energy and attitude lives up to that, but I will give an advisory warning though, as Gob frontman/current Sum 41 guitarist Tom Thacker does moon the camera near the end of the video. Multiple channels have copies of this video, but here's the largest of them, and look for more Treble Charger videos in this series to come!



Moving back to prolific local punk musician Mikey Hawdon's extensive YouTube channel, let's take a first look at one of his earliest local bands, that being the late-1990s punk trio Tha Bombed Squad! (Yes, "The" is spelled like that on each video.) In January 2008, Mikey posted no less than 16 videos of this band in action from assorted concerts between the summers of 1997 & 1998, all among his first uploads there. Featuring Mikey on drums alongside future Lion Ride/Detroit bandmate Brenton Ellis on vocals & bass, and guitatist Pat Suriano, you guys may also remember Tha Bombed Squad from their appearance on the 1998 compilation CD "Local Steel". The videos include five from a March 1998 show at the old Union Hall (now The Grand Gardens), four from a July 1997 show at The Ramada Inn (now Comfort Suites), three each from a June 1998 show at the original Bay Street Foggy Notions and at an undated jam session, and a cover of The Descendents' "Coolidge" at the Roberta Bondar Pavilion in August 1997.

Including covers of everyone from NOFX to Unwritten Law (along with assorted originals like "Two Four"), the video quality on these is obviously not great (coming from a late 1990s camcorder), but the filmer(s?) got good angles of the band in action, and the concerts seem to have great crowds for their upbeat skate punk sound! Not as refined as members' later bands, but this was over 15 years ago, things have only improved with age. Search Mikey's channel linked above (or scroll right to the bottom of the videos tab) to see Tha Bombed Squad in their heyday, and here's the guys covering The Descendants (followed by their original "Wasted") at Foggy's in 1998!



Finally for this punk video showcase is this short live clip of local/Toronto Celtic punk quartet Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide live in Scranton, Pennsylvania in July 2012 during a stop on that year's Vans Warped Tour! Awesome to see the guys making fans in the U.S., including YouTube user 4kidneys, who shot this 58 second video of the guys playing the end of their song "Molly Malloy", and despite the length, it's a solid video of this entertaining Celtic-flavoured original! It's just a shame it's not longer. Give it a look below, and remember not to miss The Rising Tide's return in December!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews in the coming days! Thanks everyone!