Woodhawk Concert Preview, Exit 808 Updates, And A New Cover Video!!

Let's dive into some more recent news and notes on this Tuesday evening, including a new cover video, updates from a prominent E.U.P. band, and leading off, a mid-week concert preview, so here's what you should know!

We'll start with a special Wednesday night concert preview, as Calgary stoner hard rock quartet Woodhawk will finally play Sault Ste. Marie for the first time TOMORROW NIGHT at Soo Blaster! This concert is over five years in the making for Woodhawk, as they were supposed to headline at LopLops Lounge back in April 2020, one of many local concerts scuttled due to the first pandemic lockdown. It's very rare to see a smaller touring band (let alone not a tribute band) reschedule a cancelled Soo show from 2020, so come out tomorrow to party now that things have calmed down! Alongside the retro-influenced stoner and hard rock originals in store from Woodhawk, fans tomorrow can also see local hard rock quintet HeadF1rst and online page-less metal supergroup The Sault Side Squad, which should add up to a diverse but still uniformly heavy night of rock if you can swing coming out on a work/school night!

Tomorrow's festivities run for $15 at the door (no advance tickets), which is up $5 from Woodhawk's planned 2020 show here, but this time, there's no age limit, and bands start at 7:00 PM. Whether you've been waiting for Woodhawk for five years or are new to their sludgy original attack, consider coming to Soo Blaster tomorrow night if you can! Visit the above links for more details, and here's Woodhawk live!

Next up, let's zip over to Sault Michigan for the latest from local hard rock band Exit 808, and we have a new lineup confirmation, as they have welcomed former Tarnished guitarist Nathan Webber back to the fold. While he had first returned on a guest basis in June, he hasn't missed a local gig since, and the band confirmed on their Facebook page on August 26th (Nathan's birthday) that he was 100% back, noting that they were "grateful for round 2 with you". Nathan had been a founding member of the former Double Jack upon their 2023 launch, but quietly left the band in the spring of last year, with Will Robbins replacing him until the fall. After playing with guest guitarists (one being bassist Blaze Beairl) through the spring, it is great to see Nathan back with Exit 808, finally giving them a full six-piece lineup again! Now let's continue playing catch-up on Exit 808's live videos from their summer concert schedule, so where did we last leave off?

Over the last weekend of June, Exit 808 hit the road 4½ hours west to Ewen to perform at the outdoor festival Rally For The Valley, where attendee Angie Hood filmed two videos from their set for her personal Facebook page that the band shared to theirs on June 30th. One is a "Reel" of Exit 808 covering Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' "I Hate Myself For Loving You" with Amy Beach on lead vocals, but embedded below is a proper embeddable video (albeit still vertical) that sees them covering Eminem & Rihanna's "The Monster" with Dillion Semasky and Amy respectively sharing vocal duty. Note that this video begins with Amy introducing the band to attendees in Ewen, even referencing Nathan as their "new guitar player", though one fan's scream does block out some of what Amy says. I wish these weren't vertical, but everyone sounds good here with nice energy and weather, so check everything out above & below, and stay tuned for more from Exit 808 on the SMS soon!

Finally for today, let's head back to Sault Ontario for a new cover from a band that we've talked about but never fully featured here before, namely local country/bluegrass quartet The Golden Scoundrels! SMS readers will be familiar with this band for featuring ex-Shit Liver frontman Josh Penno and former Handsome Sandwich bandmates Brandon Ruch & Johnny Belanger (plus fiddle player Todd Webb) in very atypical waters from what we are used to. While they obviously fall outside of our genre range, fans were surprised three weeks ago to hear The Scoundrels cover Motorhead's "Iron Fist" for their YouTube channel! Filmed with multiple cameras by Josh's own Spacebag Productions with Hails frontman Brenton Ellis providing partial camera-work, this cover is certainly a bluegrass take on Motorhead, and while recognizable structurally, there will be an adjustment given the genre switch.

I'm not big into bluegrass, I will admit, but this is a fun and rollicking change of pace (look at Josh rocking the stand-up bass), and the inclusion of some performance outtakes at the end is neat! More local bands should do that, imagine what is left on the cutting room floor that could have humourous value! Well shot and performed, give it a listen below, and if you like what you hear, check out more from The Golden Scoundrels above!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Trixter & Woodhawk) Plus A New Sole Aggressors Concert Video!!

Here's a new news post on this rainy Wednesday evening, featuring two big LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the fall and a lengthy new concert video, so here's what you should know!

Calgary stoner hard rock quartet Woodhawk will make their long-delayed local concert debut on Wednesday, September 10th at Soo Blaster! If the name sounds familiar, it may be because this isn't the first time that Woodhawk have attempted a local booking. The former Oh!No Collective planned to host them at LopLops Lounge in April 2020, only for that show and its associated tour to be cancelled due to the first pandemic lockdown. Like then, Woodhawk are touring in support of their latest album (in this case, "Love Finds A Way"), and their classic rock-influenced brand of stoner originals with strong guitar riffs should find a welcome audience next month, even with the mid-week scheduling! After Oh!No planned for a genre hybrid lineup in 2020 (the tabbed local openers then were A Dire Setback and DJ Seith), this concert will stick closer in genre spirit, including hard rock quintet HeadF1rst in their first show since the Northern Vibe Festival.

As well, online page-less metal quintet The Sault Side Squad will play their first show of the fall as the opening band, and given their stacked lineup, you won't want to miss them! This concert begins at 7:00 PM two weeks from now with a $15 cover (up from $10 in 2020) and no announced age limit. It's still rare to see touring bands reschedule local dates cancelled back in 2020, so keep that angle in mind, let alone Woodhawk's distinct doomy hard rock attack, in two weeks' time at Soo Blaster!

Next up, if you're a fan of The Hair Scare on Saturday nights on Rock 101, how does a live version sound? I don't know if the radio show will be linked in any official capacity, but if you love hair and glam metal, you'll want to stop by The Dreammakers Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on Saturday, October 25th! Your headliners in two months are New Jersey hair metal veterans Trixter in their local debut, though bassist P.J. Farley backed up Mr. Big's Eric Martin's acoustic show here in February 2020. Fans will know Trixter from hits like "Give It to Me Good" and "One In A Million". Co-headliners here are Illinois glam metal quartet Enuff Z'Nuff in a local stop seventeen years in the making, as they were supposed to open for Skid Row in Sault Ontario at the cancelled Runway Park outdoor concert in June 2008. If only L.A. Guns had also rescheduled up here before they broke up!

Enuff Z'Nuff will be best known for classics like "New Thing" & "Fly High Michelle". Also coming to the Soo in October are two Hollywood-based glam bands, including Pretty Boy Floyd (who hit the scene with songs like "Rock and Roll (Is Gonna Set The Night On Fire)" and "I Wanna Be With You"), and the more modern hair revival band Permacrush. There's a lot of talent, glam rock, and vintage sleaze to take in from this package of bands, so don't miss out in late October! This concert will be the first in over a year from local promoters Allstar Promotions, who last brought Ratt's Stephen Pearcy to The Dreammakers Theater this past September. Tickets (including fees) run for $33 in the center section and $28 everywhere else, and there's loads of good available seats available at this link, at the in-person box office, or at 1-800-KEWADIN. This show starts at 7:00 PM and it has no advertised age limit. 

It's hard to believe that, in all of the successful hair metal shows to take place at Kewadin, none of these bands have played at Kewadin before, so if you're up for a night of old school late 1980s-early 1990s hard rock, you know where to be in two months! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details on what should be a fun night of hair metal action!

We'll close today with a topic that straddles both of the twin Saults, as the now-defunct Sault Michigan punk trio The Sole Aggressors posted a video of their set at The Distraction in Sault Ontario in January onto their YouTube channel at the time! Apologies again for the delay in their full-set videos from the past year being so late to get covered here. This was at an all-locals show headlined by Hails, and marked The Sole Aggressors' debut in Sault Ontario, one of a handful of Canadian dates of theirs this year. That was and still is very encouraging to see. In order, their all original set saw them play "Tale Of An American Hero", "Kill A Celebrity", "False Hope", "Kill Thy Neighbour", "Heil Artificiality", "Time To Commercialize!", "Reject", "Melted Plastic", "Teenage Guide", "State Of The World", "Fool", "Hypocrite", "Fast Punk For Fast Food", "Down By The Bay", and "Ventilation".

The set ended with two new songs that weren't played in prior concert videos, namely "Burning Down" and "Humans Aren't Ordinary Monkeys". The lighting in the basement on this night was very blue, so be advised of that going in, but Calvin, Brett, and Isaac are on form here with a nicely varied sound with solid lyrics and punk attitude to spare, so give this full set video a watch below, and there's two more to come!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

Even More COVID-19 Coronavirus Concert Cancellations & Updates

Another day, another batch of COVID-19 updates, and the big one today (re: local concerts) is that Ontario Premier Doug Ford has declared a state of emergency in the province, and has declared that all restaurants, bars, and nightclubs must close through at least the end of March, save for drive-thru, take-out, and delivery services. Click here for more details on this front. This announcement will officially shut down all planned concerts in our calendar or otherwise this month, but given prior cancellations and postponements, we don't have much left to remove today. Due to the mass closures, the Tym Morrison concert at The Roadhouse Bar & Grill on March 27th is now cancelled, as is A Dire Setback's LopLops concert on March 28th, which was extra notable because it was planned to be the launch party for their self-titled debut CD. Regarding the album, A Dire Setback have since confirmed on their Facebook page that it will still be released on CDBaby on March 28th, with the release party being postponed to a later date.

No word as of yet on if the album will show up in physical storefronts on time, but given how fluid and volatile the coronavirus pandemic is, maybe they don't want to guarantee anything just yet. At least not all is lost in their camp, and our review of "A Dire Setback" at month's end is still on track! The evidence against it was mounting, but tomorrow's Slumshine concert at Home Bakehouse Bed & Breakfast was finally cancelled earlier today, as per it's Facebook event page. With Ontario and Michigan now closing any formal concert venues through at least March 31st, this puts the kibosh on local concerts of any genre (and likewise, our weekend concert previews) for at least two weeks, which will be very odd for many routines locally, but anything we can do to flatten the curve! As bands are all off stage right now, I won't announce any posts from bands plugging their own breaks "until further notice" here unless they have extra updates to report, as I fear I will sound like a broken record.

Looking onward to April, we can also confirm that Calgary stoner hard rock quartet Woodhawk have postponed their Violent Nature Canadian Tour, including their planned LopLops date on April 21st, as confirmed on the band's Facebook page and since corroborated by local promoters The Oh!No Collective. Very disappointing, but it's the safest thing for right now. That said, the April 10th weekend still has three out-of-town hard rock bands (Scarkazm, Sandman, and Just Heart) with scheduled concerts that have not visibly been cancelled or postponed. It's anyone's guess how different the pandemic will be in Ontario and Michigan come April 1st, but we will let you know whether these shows (and those beyond) take place or not. The big dominoes ahead are the First Jason concert on April 26th (attached to the Steel City Nostalgia Fair) and the Buckcherry concert in May, and while both are currently still scheduled, organizers of both events have confirmed on Facebook that they are absolutely monitoring the situation.

I was hoping today's post would have room for some non-coronavirus topics, but alas, this is understandably a major news story affecting everyone in the province, state, and elsewhere. Tomorrow, we will change the subject, if briefly, with last month's poll results and a new poll on the site, and there is more news coming that is not in any way dependent on COVID-19 (even a brand new local band!) We will close today on a lighter note, if still relevant to the major topic, as we look back on the postponed Black Label Society concert at The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino from this past Friday. That show being called off may sting extra for local berserkers, as B.L.S. had already made it to the Soo on Friday and were already setting up for the concert before they got the word that they had to cancel. However, before they left, presenting sponsor Rock 101 filmed a short video for their Facebook page making light of the situation.

After catching a glimpse of the tour t-shirt, frontman Zakk Wylde and bassist John DeServio are seen on stage at the nearly empty Dreammakers Theater discussing the rest of their tour being "knocked out", before John guarantees to viewers that "we'll be back", and decrees that he'd also "like to knock something out too", and it may or may not be Zakk. Amusing clip for fans that helps alleviate some of the disappointment, especially when they came so close to the local finish line, so give it a look below, and we will have some non-COVID-19 material to discuss tomorrow, I promise! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Woodhawk & The Sick Sons), The Return Of Black Cloud, And More!!

I have quite a backlog of stories to tackle right now, so let's keep things rolling on the SMS with a post half devoted to new songs and updates from a prominent independent label's camp, but first, here's a pair of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the spring at the same venue that you punk fans will want to take notice of!

New local punk supergroup The Sick Sons will make their 2020 debut and first ever headlining concert appearance on Friday, March 20th when they rock LopLops Lounge! Returning to the site of their December concerts opening for established local punk acts,  this will be their fifth live concert total and will be a quality tune-up gig before they help open A Dire Setback's CD release show at LopLops the following weekend. With a stacked lineup of name punk artists from the past 20 years, genre fans won't want to miss The Sick Sons next month! The opener will be masked local folk punk solo project Slumshine in his/their second concert of 2020, and this should be a good platform for Brent to get his material back out there after a few months off! Stay tuned for more on Slumshine in the near future. A 9:00 PM start time is in effect for this 19+ concert, which has a $5 cover charge. This should be a fine concert for punk fans to check out next month with many familiar faces, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details as they roll in!

Next up, Calgary stoner hard rock quartet Woodhawk will make their local concert debut on Tuesday, April 21st when they headline at LopLops themselves! An unusually heavy headliner for this venue, Woodhawk are touring in support of their new album "Violent Nature", and this should be a fine platform for their melodic yet riff-heavy brand of original rock, and they straddle a couple genre lines, so many different fans should take to their sound! Local support will include alt-punk trio A Dire Setback in their first announced show following their CD release party at LopLops next month, so will they have hard copies for sale three weeks later? In any event, momentum will be on their side! Adding to the hodgepodge of genres here, DJ Seith is advertised to kick things off with another set of his turntable mixes, so what vinyl will he be unveiling for the occasion? Be there to find out, if you can swing a Tuesday nighter in two months! This event is brought to you by the Oh!No Collective in their first announced concert booking of 2020.

A 19+ concert as usual for LopLops, doors open at 8:00 PM on April 21st, and admission is either $10 at the door or the "pay what you can" model. Nice mix of sounds in store for this concert, and Woodhawk definitely sound promising alone, so keep this weeknight concert in mind, and visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Also, here's something we briefly alluded to in this month's poll write-up last week, but haven't included in a formal post yet, as local experimental/death metal solo project Black Cloud are back! After quietly closing all of their social media accounts and deleting their "Abstract Sounds" demo from Bandcamp late last year, project leader Peytan Andreola reversed course by launching a new Facebook page on January 31st, with a new YouTube channel to match. Posts on Facebook have been minimal since, but Peytan revealed on Saturday that he's "close to finishing lyrics" for some sort of release called "Ambient Silence", while he is apparently planning to revisit songs from "Abstract Sounds", which could explain why it was taken off of Bandcamp. In any event, "Abstract Sounds" in it's original form can be streamed on the new YouTube channel. The other video there is actually a podcast interview with Peytan where he talks about Black Cloud's existing and future projects. This is a 27 minute interview, so be warned before listening.

You do get some interesting insights from this still relatively new project, but how much of this will see the light of day as described in the interview? Time will tell! Embedded below is Black Cloud's first new song post-return, as uploaded to their new label Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel last week, and it's entitled "Spill The Blood (And For All I Care Let The Blood Spill In The Air)". More of a noise rock song with no growled vocals and almost too much percussion, there is definitely musical and production growth, and signing with Blood Shed makes perfect sense! Give Black Cloud's new song a listen below, and they're back in our active band links!



Finally, let's close with another new video posting on the aforementioned Blood Shed Productions YouTube channel, which has been posting new sampler material from assorted acts with releases in the works in 2020 as of late, including established rapper Miracle Man and an electronic project named Nothing Good. However, metalheads will be most interested in the new song from the label's flagship solo project Crucify the Whore, entitled "Whorticulture". Planned to be on a full length release called "P.C. Sells... But I Ain't Buying It", it gives 73 seconds of punishing grindcore, minimalistic as it may be, so fans will want to give it a listen below, and stay tuned for more!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile on the site next! Thanks everyone!