LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Sugar Island Music Festival) & New Videos!!

With the exception of tomorrow's poll, this will be our last post on the SMS before we dive head first into the busiest concert weekend of the year (holidays excepted), so what's in store for today? A couple of new videos from each side of the border, but we will start with LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS concerning a returning concert festival, so here's what you should know!

Kinross, Michigan classic/hard rock trio Banned will return to nearby Sugar Island for the 18th annual Sugar Island Music Festival on Friday, August 10th and Saturday, August 11th! Though Banned haven't acknowledged the dates on their Facebook page at press time, the festival website confirms their involvement. Since debuting, Banned have never missed the Sugar Island Fest, with this year being their eighth straight year playing at least one day. As it turns out, they're headlining both of the above nights at 9:30 PM, so make sure to stay late for their hard rocking covers! Like in recent years, the lineup for this year is largely comprised of online page-less festival regulars, none visibly being hard rock, and many playing multiple nights. Friday will feature The Schutz Boys, Hillsdale jam band All Arms, 2 Cents, Davey MacLeod, and artists to be announced, with all playing on Saturday as well, and The Schutz Boys will headline the Banned-free lineup that Sunday.

Saturday will feature those same exact artists alongside 2½ Men, Joel Choate, Gentleman George Snider and friends, Chicago folk duo February Sky (with special guests Moose River), and an open mic block, while Sunday's lineup is largely comprised of prior performers except for the two collaborative sets from Lise White and friends, and Rollie Mayer, John Price and friends. For full timeslots, click here! Once again, the Sugar Island Festival will unite regional music with camping, food and craft vendors, kids activities, and even a beanbag toss tournament, for what should be another entertaining weekend, so make sure to head up to Sugar Island next month for all of the excitement! As usual, admission for this year is via purchase of a $10 souvenir button that will get you in all 3 days (there's no reduced 1-2 day rate), but accompanied kids under 12 remain FREE. Camping rates are $15 for the weekend, and see above for vendor rates.

General admission buttons are available at Ed's Bayview Store, The Hilltop Bar & Grill, or the Westshore Convenience Store in Sugar Island, and presumably Crooked Music in Sault Ste. Marie as well, but the site still credits it as Grooves Music. Music begins at 5:00 PM on Friday and 11:00 AM on Saturday and Sunday, so don't be late for the varied musical entertainment on Sugar Island next month, with Banned ending nights #1 & 2 with a bang! See the above links for current details on The Sugar Island Festival XVIII!

Next up, here's a new video of from Sault Ste. Marie hard/blues rock quartet Project 906, as filmed at their Strongs Tavern concert on Saturday! Shared on their Facebook page the next day via attendee Ellen Grigsby's personal Facebook page, the near-2 minute video is of Project 906 covering AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long", and it sounds good and lively! The crowd clearly enjoys it, though I will admit, the pool table's placement isn't fantastic considering where the band is. Give 906's new video a look below, and don't miss them at the Rudyard Musicians' Festival next month!

Finally for today, we'll close in Sault Ontario for a video that I'm surprised we forgot to acknowledge when this concert was originally announced, as defunct local hard rock trio The Din posted this video onto their Facebook page two weeks ago as a teaser for their reunion concert at LopLops Lounge on Saturday! The humorous video features drummer Brandan Glew calling frontman Mike Haggith to ask if he'd be interested in coming home a reunion show on July 21st (Mike was "conveniently off" that week already), later calling guitarist Tammy Hill to see if she'd be available. The whole thing has a suitably humorous tone (even with Top Gun and Airplane! references), and it's a fun way to build excitement for the "Dinunion"! Give it a look below, and stay tuned for our full preview amist our weekend concert previews later this week!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our busiest concert preview weekend coverage of the year in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Rudyard Musicians Festival), New Video Finds, And Rotaryfest Updates!!

After a busy weekend of personal commitments, we are back on this Sunday morning with a new news post, largely covering the Sault Michigan area via some new/old videos and a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month! To round things out, we do have some lineup updates for a major Sault Ontario festival to round things out, so here's what you should know!

The third annual Rudyard Musicians Festival will go down at Rudyard Township Park (18725 South Mackinac Trail) on Saturday, August 18th! This late-summer concert event is back for a third go-around, with all proceeds going to Rudyard Area Schools' music and band programs once again, which remains a great cause! E.U.P. music lovers can take in a pig roast dinner, concessions, and camping before and after the festival, among other fun stuff, so visit the official Facebook page for full non-musical details! Promoters are again sticking to returning bands, with only 3 acts not back from 2017 (The Karstens, The Neighborhood Dogs, and Denny Verrett), and only two acts are debuting, so if you liked past years, expect a familiar day of entertainment! This year's only verifiable "hard rock" band is Project 906, and while it's great to see them back for year #3, note that they're on much earlier this time, namely at 3:00 PM. Local classic rockers and festival organizers Steelhead will headline this year's installment at 11:00 PM.

Classic rock favourites The Whole Shabang are back at 10:00 PM, while 2016 performers Second Offense will return to this event at 9:00 PM. Most remaining bands are (once again) country or bluegrass-centric unless otherwise known & stated, including Robert & Bob Malaski at 8:00 PM, The North Country Band at 7:00 PM, and The Wednesday Night Headliners (featuring Brian Harrison) at 6:00 PM. This year's debuting acts are new local country/western trio Rusted Spurs at 5:00 PM and St. Ignace country/folk artist Patrick Springsteen (of The Springsteen Brothers) at 4:00 PM, while the pre-Project 906 acts are Kevin Blakeney at 2:00 PM, pop singer Hayley Malaska at 1:00 PM, Jimmy Williams at 12:00 PM, and Traverse City's New Jazz Trio leading off at 11:00 AM. Musicians Fest III is once again an ALL AGES event with $5 admission at the door, save for kids 10 and under, who remain FREE. It's great to see another stacked lineup of regional musicians back for an excellent & relevant cause next month!

After two successful installments (even with the "NO METAL" disclaimer for last year's band search), this has proven to be a reliable and positive event to help the area school band programs, and hopefully this year's meets the same goals while entertaining large crowds at the same time! Visit the above links for current details on this year's Rudyard Musicians Festival!

Next up, here's a surprise video discovery of a local singer/guitarist covering some heavier music at two Sault Michigan concerts seven years ago! The performer here is Jude Reed, who I am not familiar with from our E.U.P. coverage, but he was the opening act for defunct local metal band Hammerspace for at least two of their early-2011 concerts, and shared a video from each onto his YouTube channel at the time. The latter video comes from their St. Patrick's Day concert at Zim's, where Jude covered The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" & The Foo Fighters' "Best of You", as part of a longer set that Jude lampshaded as being "shameful" aside from these songs. I more dislike the audio quality of the camera, as Jude seems to have a good grasp on these covers! The longer first video is embedded below, from the February 20th concert at The Merchant's Bar, and it features Jude covering Nirvana's "About A Girl", The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", Elvis Costello's "So Like Candy", ...

...Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night", Nirvana's "Pennyroyal Tea", David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World", and The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun", so click each link to go to that song. Clearly a fan of Nirvana's MTV Unplugged album, Jude was honest about making mistakes during this concert (especially the solo during "So Like Candy"), but he is a good guitarist with a melodic yet gritty singing voice! Again, the camera's audio is the Achilles heel of these videos, not to mention the usually dark lighting, but if you can get past that, there's good qualities here, and hopefully Jude's kept at his music! Give his videos a look above & below!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items, all being lineup clarifications for hard rock bands playing at Rotaryfest's main stage on SATURDAY NIGHT! As usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name, and all are cited from the Sault Ontario summer festival's official program:

• If the program is to be believed, Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide have not enlisted Gianni Gagoots guitarist Liam Seymour as a fifth band member, as was the case in prior online advertising. No word on if a guest spot is planned, but don't miss the four piece Tide at 7:00 PM on Stage 1, and/or Liam with The Barn Board Trio on Stage 2!
• Prolific local metal/punk drummer Johnny Belanger will play guest drums with the reunited Suicide Kings for their one-off set on Stage 1 at 5:00 PM, in place of Ben Boudreau. A reason for Ben's absence hasn't been publically stated, but hopefully nothing bad happened internally, and that we see him on stage again down the line! Johnny filled in with the former Beaumont Avenue late in their run, and has played with band members in The Bear Hunters and Heavy Head, so he should be a fine fit on Saturday!
• North Bay guitarist and sound engineer Dan Belanger will play guitar for That's Chester's one-off festival-closing set at Stage 1 at 10:30 PM on Saturday. Dan worked with That's Chester on their Tommy musical production in 2015, and after guitarist Eugene Orlando's sudden death a few weeks later, Dan filled in at their farewell/tribute set at Rotaryfest 2016, a role he'll reprise this weekend. Very solid and familiar choice, and hopefully the guys deliver another home run!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Project 906), This Weekend's Concert Previews, And More!!

Here's our last weekend concert preview post before Rotaryfest next week, and while things are surely quieter than they will be, there's a fair amount of hard rock events this weekend, including a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT and a farewell to a concert venue as we currently know it. There's also a new video to cap things off, but here's what you should know for this weekend's concert previews!

Sault Michigan hard/blues rock quartet Project 906 will return to The Strongs Tavern in nearby Eckerman for one night only THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via it's official Facebook event page yesterday. After taking last week off, 906 are back for another concert at one of their favourite venues on SATURDAY, having last played the Strongs Tavern at last month's Brenda Holmes benefit. This show has no direct theme, though for what it's worth, Project 906 were plugging the softball tournament taking place through the Strongs Tavern in event advertising, and the team search therein, so if there's a reference to softball or an appearance by teams, that's why. SATURDAY NIGHT's concert has a 21+ age limit, a 9:00 PM start time, and no announced cover charge. Don't miss Project 906's hard rocking covers this weekend out west, here they are live, and stay tuned for more on a big festival they're playing again in August!



Next up, we'll move back to previews of concerts that had advance notice, starting with another busy weekend from Sault Ontario hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison, as he has five concerts going down this weekend, including his final Gliss Steak & Seafood concerts at it's current location TONIGHT, TOMORROW, and SATURDAY, plus traditional nighttime gigs at The Road House Bar & Grill TOMORROW and at Room 21 on (Sangria) SATURDAY! With Gliss leaving The Quality Inn later this month and relocating, this weekend's triple-header will be Tym's final bookings at 180 Bay Street as we know it, so come on down to Gliss to help send off Tym and the venue before the big move! For what it's worth, a new restaurant is opening at The Quality Inn in it's place, and a job fair was held yesterday towards hiring new staff, as noted in this SooToday article. Note that one commenter believes that Gliss is moving into the old Cesira's building on Spring Street, though nothing has been confirmed publically, so take that with a grain of salt.

That all said, The Road House and Room 21 aren't going anywhere, so if you're in the east end or downtown, you have some nighttime options to take in Tym's unplugged classic hits tomorrow and Saturday! Tym's Gliss shows are 6:00 PM matinees with no announced age limits, while the Road House and Room 21 shows are 10:00 PM engagements with 19+ age limits, and none of these five shows have an announced cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event pages linked here, here, and here for more details, stay tuned for more on Gliss' future, and for a preview, here's Tym live!



Lastly for known hard rock concerts this weekend, we'll head to LopLops Lounge TOMORROW NIGHT, where local funk/improv/hard rock band Gianni Gagoots are scheduled to play their first concert of the year as openers for Niagara Falls experimental prog rock quartet The Road Waves! Before I get too deep into this, just a warning that Gianni Gagoots' Facebook page was quietly taken down again for unannounced reasons in recent weeks, which typically isn't a good sign for a band's active status, but event advertising is still promoting this concert with them opening, so I am cautiously still including it in this weekend's previews in case the page's deletion was accidental. Either way, with no other online pages, I had to delete from our active band links, though they'll return if their Facebook page resurfaces. This is (was?) scheduled to be the Gagoots' first show since originally disbanding last fall, and is a relocated sequel to their Like Ten Promotions-held New A show in June 2017.

While not a hard rock band, The Road Waves' creative soundscape will be a nice fit at LopLops tomorrow, and they should deliver another fan favourite set, even if Gianni Gagoots disbanded again! This 19+ show has a 10:00 PM start time, and contrary to initial advertising, there will in fact be a $6 cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview (assuming that they're playing), here's Gianni Gagoots live!



We'll close today with a new video from local grindcore solo project Crucify The Whore's Facebook page from May 26th, with project leader Tyler Gibson asking which of his fans would be attending his "future appearances". As it turns out, C.T.W. did play some level of a live concert set at The New American Pub on June 3rd which completely flew under the radar, to the point that I can't find any reference to it outside of the band's and Tyler's personal Facebook pages. Apologies for missing that, hopefully the show went well! The 67 second clip features a facemask-clad Tyler playing an instrumental, and it sounds good for what it is, so check it out below!



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

Sykotyk Rampage's New Album, Plus Three Inactive Band Notes!!

Today's news post revolves around four bands shifting places in our active and inactive band links (one's moving up, three are unfortunately moving down.) However, the band moving up has some big news attached to their return to activity, so here's what you should know!

Remember how local "blue Chinese metal crash punk" quartet Sykotyk Rampage quietly posted a new album cover on their Facebook page last month with no context? Well, it turns out that the dormant crash band did indeed release a new album on their Reverbnation page on April 27th! Apologies for the delay in this making the SMS, I need to pay more attention to that site. Entitled "Live At The Paris Hilton", this contains 22 songs (some more familiar than others) in a faux-live setting, a'la their old "Live Upper Rubber Boot Saskatchewan" album, but the inclusion of covers of bands like The Beatles, Motorhead, and Black Sabbath is a change from their past pace! This is Sykotyk Rampage's first album-format release since "Sanctuarium" in late 2016, but more surprisingly, this is their first paid album that you can actually buy a full sale copy of since 2011, which means that we could very well review "Live At The Paris Hilton" on the SMS this year! You can buy it at the above links for $9.99, or stream individual songs for free.

I don't know to what extent Sykotyk Rampage are active in 2018 (their Facebook postings remain sporadic, they haven't played live since the 2016 Zombie Walk, and guitarist Shane Kokis has since moved out of town), plus it's hard to determine how "new" these recordings are. However, it's great to see the Beckers, Shane, and Tony back with new material, and hopefully there's more on the horizon in some form or another! Give their new album (and much, much, much more) a listen at the above links, and Sykotyk Rampage are back in our active band links!

Next up, we have three local bands to move to our inactive band links today, starting with local indie/hard rock band Vol., who announced that they had disbanded on their Facebook page on June 12th. Frontman Steve Edwards cited "lineup changes and other obstacles" for their demise, though he did thank fans for their support online, and he noted that he's "currently working with other projects" and is "looking forward to other musical opportunities in the future." Spiritual successors to the mid-2015 Pixo Control lineup, Vol. (pronounced "volume") debuted last summer and quickly made a name for themselves opening for bands like Zaum, Dirtfight, and Johnny 2 Fingers & The Deformities through the fall, as well as playing a set at the first Oh!No festival, but teased "rad things" in 2018 never occurred following the departures of half of their lineup, with Steve and keyboardist Mikaela Murtonen seen more recently in the acoustic rock duo Mik & Steve.

I unfortunately did not get a chance to see Vol. live, but their old school indie-influenced sound seemed to help them carve their own identity well, while also harbouring lots of aggression and heavy themes at the same time, and Steve acclimated well as a frontman in this role! Vol. seemed primed for big things locally last year, but best of luck to Steve, Shane, Mikaela, and Matthew in the future, and hopefully we see everyone musically again soon!

Also being moved out of our active band links today is local death metal/punk duo Them, who have not issued a public update or played live since opening for Uncle Ray at The New American Pub one year ago yesterday. Debuting in late 2014 as the de facto successors to Social Suicide, Them were primarily seen at house party concerts in the ensuing years, often ones affiliated with Blood Shed Productions, though they did play select public concert venues, notably opening for both of Bookakee's concerts at The Oddfellows Hall. Their lineup fluctuated between a duo and a quartet, but frontman Tyler St. Amour and drummer Anthony Boudreau were constants throughout their run. Despite the almost-too-common band name, Them were a fine fit in the Blood Shed house party era with their aggressive sound, and Tyler never sounded better as a metal frontman during their peak! Sadly, plans to release a debut EP never visibly reached their intended conclusion.

It would have been nice to see Them as a more frequent presence on metal concerts of the era, and their sound was definitely fuller and better realized when they had more than two members, but Them delivered some entertaining originals for extreme metal fans, Hopefully we hear more from Tyler, Anthony, and other former members down the road!

Finally for today's post, I am reluctantly moving local indie/hard rock quartet Bizotic to our inactive band links as well. While we are not at our 1 year threshold for public inactivity, keytarist B.J. Swire confirmed in an e-mail conversation last week that the band is "pretty much done", and he has since joined a new band that is planning to debut later this summer, and if that band's genre fits our primary coverage, we'll let you know! In any event, Bizotic proper have not posted on their Facebook page at all in 2018, and have not played a live concert since opening for Dany Laj & The Looks at LopLops in November, which can't be a good sign regardless. This union of No Arrow, Bring the Fallen, and Sounds From The Green Room alumni became a fan favourite sight following their December 2016 debut via sets opening for the likes of K-Man & The 45s, Garbageface, and The OM Sound, while also kicking off The Din's "Suburban Sendoff", and playing in Wawa, among other events.

Any band with a trumpet and a keytar in their repertoire will immediately turn heads, and Bizotic did just that, and their varied and creative originals were always an entertaining element at local concerts, with some jam rock touches and a harder edge where needed! Hopefully this isn't it for Bizotic and their unique stage show, but best of luck to Brad, B.J., Louise, Travis, and Kevin in the future, all would be assets in any band that they're in! That's all for today, but stay tuned for this weekend's concert previews on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

Defunct Local Band Profile: Sue Inside

Here's this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, but with a late change of band! Last month, we had randomly chosen Sykotyk Rampage for our next band in this spotlight series on inactive local metal, hard rock, and punk bands, as they were seemingly still on hiatus. As it turns out, they have in fact released their first "album" in over a year, and are back in our active band links (more on that this week), so I have opted to change this month's featured defunct/inactive band. Like with similar past situations, I picked the closest alphabetical band that we hadn't previously profiled in this series, who should be familiar from our early years, so here's what you should know!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sue Inside

Genre: Death Metal/Hard Rock/Folk

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie/Oil Springs, Ontario

Members:

Shane Lipsit-Fraser (Paricide), vocals/guitar
Adam Veen (Dog Patch, Paricide, The Mudd Buttons), bass/guitar/vocals
Jeff Vogel, drums

Audio/Video: Though Sue Inside never released a formal studio album in either of their hometowns, a fair amount of original material survives from their run, including 8 original song demos on their CBC Music page. Shane and Adam's respective YouTube channels (linked here & here) feature a number of Oil Springs-era videos from the early 2010s, though Shane's are primarily of an informal acoustic variety sans Jeff, and some of Adam's are cover performances, while I can't find any live videos of Sue Inside from their late 2000s local tenure. Here's the 2012 music video for their song "Caligula (Extra Cheese)" from the band's YouTube channel!



Info/Analysis: Formed by then-Sault College students Shane Fraser and Jeff Vogel in early 2007, non-alumni will best know Sue Inside locally from their sets as an extreme metal duo at the Skid Row and YMCA Battles of the Bands in April 2008 & March 2009, though they didn't place in either event. The band moved along with Shane and Jeff to Southern Ontario in mid-2009, where they enlisted Shane's former Paricide bandmate Adam Veen to round out their lineup. Sporadic activity would follow over the next three years, largely via solo and jam session videos, though the guys did play the occasional Sarnia-area concert during this time. The group quietly dissolved following the "Caligula" video release in 2012, though Adam remains musically active in Oil Springs. As a local band, Sue Inside honestly came onto the local scene about 6 years too soon, as they'd have fit right in with the mid-2010s rise of two man metal projects in this city with their brutal minimalist sound!

While raw and unpolished in the Soo, Shane and Jeff harboured good chemistry in their battle sets. Sue Inside's Oil Springs tenure saw a nice expansion of their horizons to softer acoustic material like "Hogtail Juice" and "Saved on T.V.s", while also retaining a fuller metal edge on select tracks, with Adam a key factor at this time. The guys are now spread out across the province, but hopefully Sue Inside resurfaces in some form down the road, they were definitely ahead of their time locally!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! Next month in this series, we'll be looking at two bands for the second time this year, as the first randomly chosen band doesn't have enough material to warrant a solo profile, so a Sault Michigan act in a similar state was chosen to round things out and close this 10 band 2-1-3-1-2-1 cycle. As such, our next profiled bands will be ex-Fitswitch bassist Andrew MacDonald's LikeKissingBricks solo project and early 2000s metal project Hammerspace, so look for these on or around August 10th, and stay tuned for news and concert previews on The Sault Metal Scene soon! Thanks everyone!

Rivers Of Nihil/Alterbeast/Inferi Concert Review!!

After some personal commitments and lengthy delays in getting my videos to upload, here's our review of Friday night's Rivers of Nihil-headlined concert at The Rockstar Bar! Yes, this concert took place upstairs rather than the more extreme-friendly Algonquin Pub, but the locale worked out just fine for the impressive crowd on hand. I wouldn't say it was a sell-out, but metalheads made sure to cover the floor for the out of town bands, and they responded in kind all night long, which was extremely encouraging! Also, kudos to the bands for managing to preclude any lengthy delays!

Opening on Friday night were local death metal trio Pillory in their first concert appearance in almost a year, so what should you know regarding their return? First, the guys have enlisted frontman Robert Sartini's Id Iota/Peach Thieves bandmate Blair St. John as their new bassist, replacing the relocated Jordan Leach. While more familiar as a drummer in less aggressive bands, Blair fit in fine with Pillory, and he has the bass chops to hang in this setting! Aside from the lineup change, Pillory largely picked up where they left off last summer, playing recent originals like "Angst of Existence", "Exhausted Incarnation", and (I believe) "Curse of Eternal Sin". Robert's Death-inspired vocals were ferocious as usual, and Bret Shuttleworth's drumming is as fast and technical as ever, but it would be nice to see Robert play some more guitar solos, and his between-song banter and demeanor is still too quiet and reserved, especially given Pillory's genre. Overall though, Pillory are back in fine form, and here's hoping for more soon!

The trifecta of American tech-death metal began next with Nashville melodic death metal quartet Inferi, who set the bar high with their brutal onslaught! With songs from across their discography, and a nice selection from their new album "Revenant", Inferi had the crowd's attention from wire to wire, and attracted some of the best mosh pits I'd seen to this point at The Rockstar Bar (so far!) Vocalist Sam Schneider was capitvating and always keeping fans engaged amidst the devastation, and Malcolm Pugh's skilled guitar work was also a constant highlight! There was enough melody to go around, which helped keep things interesting , but I will say that their set did feel shorter than it really was, in part because they tended to play longer (and resultingly fewer) songs. Great set overall from Inferi, and you could argue that they stole the show on Friday!

Third up on Friday night was Sacramento technical death metal Alterbeast, who were the band I was most familiar with going into the night, having discovered them on Pandora Radio a few years back. Touring in support of their new sophomore album "Feast" with songs like "Apex Night Eclipse" and "Flesh Bound Text" on the docket, their ferocious originals weren't as melodically sound as Inferi's, but made up for it in sheer viciousness and chaos. The crowd was surprisingly muted and scattered to start their set, but they made up for it in spades by the mid-point! Michael Alvarez's aggressive vocals and unique stage presence helped keep things moving, while new drummer Nathan Bigelow's drumming was a blasting highlight, and Andrew Lamb's guitar riffs were excellent throughout as well. Awesome to see Alterbeast live, and hopefully they keep up the solid work!

And finally, your headliners were Reading, Pennsylvania death metal quintet Rivers of Nihil, who rightfully got the biggest crowd and reactions of the night with their progressive, diverse, but ferocious brand of music on Friday night! My memory could be hazy, but I can't recall a circle pit of this size ever at The Rockstar Bar, let alone any wall of death attempts! Playing songs from across their three studio albums (including their new CD "Where Owls Know My Name") like "Death Is Real", "Old Nothing", and the crowd-involved "Sand Baptism", Rivers of Nihil brought the concert to a frenzy of a finish with highly technical and proficient performances, and singer Jake Dieffenbach made sure of that with his aggressive timbre, while Adam Biggs' showed off strong bass skill repeatedly, and the twin guitar attack was face-meltingly appropriate! You couldn't ask for a heavier finish, and here's hoping Rivers of Nihil and company come back down the road!

Overall, this was a great concert, and it's highly encouraging to see such a brutal extreme metal lineup of this high quality in the Soo, especially so soon after our 11th anniversary! Huge kudos to Live705 for booking this concert and for helping ensure a great turnout and fan response, and will this lead to more out of town extreme metal from them? You can check out our photos from Friday night at this link or via our Facebook page, and as for our videos, here's Pillory playing "The Passing", Inferi playing "Forged in the Phlegethon", Alterbeast playing "Throne of Maggots", and Rivers of Nihil playing "Monarchy"!









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

Soundcheck Concert Preview, New Videos From Two Mikes, And More Recent Updates!!

Before we begin today's post, just a heads up that tonight & tomorrow night's announced Banned concerts at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino are not taking place. The Kinross, Michigan classic/hard rock band announced the news on their Facebook page yesterday, citing that the "casino messed up on bookings", and given that Kewadin's entertainment page was indeed advertising Banned, that reason sounds legit. Hopefully all's well at the venue, and don't miss Banned there late next month! Now, today's post features some assorted recent updates, a couple of new videos, and to start, here's one more concert preview!

Sault Ontario classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will continue their recent run of monthly Water Tower Pub concerts when they play there for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Just two weeks removed from their last Saturday nighter there, this popular veteran group have clearly been gaining a following at the Great Northern Road nightclub, and hopefully tomorrow's concert is another hit for fans and the band alike! Remember that this is a one-nighter, The Water Tower Pub traditionally books a different performer each night where they have live music, rather than having anyone double up. As usual for the Mourning Wood successors' shows at this locale, tomorrow's concert has a 19+ age limit, no announced cover charge, and 9:30 PM start time. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and hopefully some video footage surfaces at some point!

Next up, here's some new videos from a pair of local solo hard rock artists named Mike, starting with Mike Haggith, who shared his new acoustic live album "From The Nickel Stage" on his YouTube channel on the day of it's release last month! Apologies for not covering it at the time, he didn't promote the YouTube posting at the level of the sale copy. Featuring 6 new originals and a Din carry-over, this YouTube version is a nice free way to sample this live concert from Thompson, Manitoba's Nickel Days festival last month, so give it a listen below, and stay tuned for more updates!



Also today, here's a humorous parody video from fellow local solo artist Mike McCleary's YouTube channel, where he dubs his own original song "Get Out" (from his newest album "What've You Done To Me") over the latter half of the 2010 viral video Double Dream Hands, where music teacher John Jacobson performs the title dance to his own composition "Planet Rock". It is amusing to see the silly dance from the original performed to Mike's alternative hard rock composition, so give it a look below, and "Get Out" proper begins 45 seconds into the video!



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

• The revolving door of identities and themes at the former Docks Riverfront Grill continues, as the current HD Sports Grill will close later this month and re-open on August 27th as the long teased Montana's BBQ & Bar location. 75-100 jobs will be available at the chain restaurant's Soo branch, and while it's unclear if the 89 Bay Street location will continue to host the occasional concert, Montana's will reportedly retain the HD Sports Grill's golf simulator. This will be the fifth identity that this building has had since 2014, but hopefully Montana's can survive where their other post-Docks themes didn't, and click here for more on the changes! 
• Local rapper Planet Rock has quietly been added to the lineup for this year's Oh!No concert festival in Leeburn on September 8th, as per this updated poster on the Facebook event page on last week. I honestly can't find an online page for Planet Rock, but he (they?) performed at Soo York City's 10th anniversary event last year, and hopefully this is a solid addition to the now 19-acts-strong Oh!No festival this fall! FYI, the Planet Rock name has nothing visibly to do with the pre-dubbing song from Mike McCleary's parody video above.
• Music networking service PureVolume (which over 100 local music acts have current profiles dating back to 2004) announced earlier this year that the site would be closing "in it's current form", and musicians had until June 30th to archive music from their pages. In preparation for this news, I archived everything I could from local artists there, but as of today, PureVolume is still up, with only some dead photo links to show for the teased "sunsetting". I don't know when/if the site proper is closing or being redesigned, but head there while you still can, just in case severe changes are imminent!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!