Rock For Dimes Concert Preview, Inclufing The Battle Of The Bands' Cancellation!!

With a surprisingly busy weekend for concerts on the horizon (unusually so for November), we've broken this weekend's concert previews into three posts: One for Sault Ontario, one for Sault Michigan and potential late notice confirmations, and this first post all about a notable charity concert taking place at a somewhat unfamiliar venue tomorrow night! However, one of two planned shows for the same cause was cancelled yesterday, so read on below for that and all of the details regarding this show!

A special charity concert will take place TOMORROW as part of the second annual Rock For Dimes charity event in Sault Ste. Marie! Moving from The Grand Gardens in March of last year to The Delta Waterfront Hotel (formerly the Holiday Inn) at at 208 St Mary's River Drive, this is the local branch of the national Rock For Dimes concert events to raise money for the March of Dimes' charitable work in improving the health of (expecting) mothers and their children, which is a very worthwhile cause! Now, the event was supposed to feature two linked concerts tomorrow, including a headlining lineup of adult bands and a youth battle of the bands at 5:00 PM, but the battle was confirmed to be cancelled via promoter Dennis Ullman on the Facebook event page. The news follows scheduled performers The Pixo Control's exit due to frontman Michael Mikus having a health scare (source here) and a slow public search to find a full lineup of four competing youth bands, as there was only two ever confirmed publically.

This would have been the first local battle of the bands since last year's Viva La Battle, and likely the only Sault Ontario battle of 2014, but at least the later adult bands are still on! Michael will be just fine after what happened, so look for The Pixo Control at Sault Band-O-Rama next week! As a result, the only remaining youth band will open tomorrow's show, which now starts at 7:30 PM, while there will also be presentations, draws, and auctions bookending and in between the bands during both halves of the day. With the changes, there will be 7 bands (up from just two last year) lined up to play tomorrow night, with the existing non-battle acts including local punk trio Redundant (who played at last year's Rock For Dimes), returning local classic/hard rock cover quintet The Thrill Junkies (who last took the stage 10 months ago), newer alternative/jazz rock quartet Mannapool, local country/rock cover trio Mourning Wood, local grunge quartet Haggith, and local funk/alternative rock favourites The Elements, and that's a solid lineup on it's own, even if each band has only half hour long sets!

With the cancellation of the battle of the bands, the opening set at 7:30 PM (originally planned to be the first place encore set) goes to The Damon King Band, so I guess they're the de facto battle winners? I don't know a whole lot on them, but they're definitely a high school aged band, and they may be one and the same as the band Damon and Anthony Boudreau were looking for band members for on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group in September. We'll find out more tomorrow! Note that you could also see this as a preview of next Friday's Sault Band-O-Rama at The Primavera Hall, as all of these bands (save for Mannapool and The Damon King Band) are either playing or have members promoting that event, so keep that angle in mind! Public timeslots have mostly not been posted for the adult concert, but each band was slotted at having 25 minutes (thanks to Redundant drummer Rick White for the info), and a jam session is slated for 11:30 PM to close the show.

Admission tomorrow will be $15 for adults and $5 and a non-perishable food donation for "youth" attendees, while tickets bought for the cancelled battle of the bands will indeed be honoured at the door. If you don't want to buy at the door, you can order tickets online as well at this link, and this show is definitely ALL AGES. For more details, visit the above links and the Facebook event page! Though it is disappointing that we lost the battle of the bands, this is still an intriguing event, and greatly expanded from last year! It'll also be neat to have a concert with hard rock and punk bands at the former Holiday Inn again, which some of you may remember as the host of Bon Soo's old battles of the bands. I definitely plan to come out for Rock For Dimes, as it's got a lot of entertaining bands for a great cause, and for a preview, here's Redundant live at last year's Rock For Dimes!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more Sault Ontario weekend concert previews later today! Thanks everyone!

Recent Heavy North Entertainment Concert Videos!!

Today's post is devoted to recent Heavy North Entertainment and Blood Shed Productions concerts, specifically videos from them, as some were uploaded to Facebook in the last week or so via the shows' respective Facebook event pages, making them publically available! Yes, I know there's more from these shows and the same filmers, but if they're only shared via personal pages, we wouldn't share them here just for sake of privacy. This special post kicks off with videos from the Devil's Night concert at The Oddfellows Hall late last month, as promoter Tyler St. Amour posted six videos from the show onto the show's Facebook event page over the last week plus! Three of them are of the opening rap sets, including footage of Miracle Man & Mikey Thomas' spitting rhymes, but I'll give special mention to the video of Phat Boii (a.k.a. former Tomgrindy singer Jean-Paul Archambault), as I was running late to the show and missed his set entirely, so how did he do on Devil's Night?

More energetic and angry sounding than his studio work often does, he definitely made the most of the stage, though at times, it did look like J.P. was blurring words together. Nice to see Chase Wigmore jump in on guest bass too, so give Phat Boii's video and the other rappers a look above! As for the videos of heavier bands, Tyler has only uploaded three to the event page, including this 18 minute+ video of the end of Sudbury metal quintet Archelon's set, including their cover of Pantera's "Mouth For War" and their last two originals. Solid audio quality of their entertaining set, but the lighting is dark, and the camera angles vary from close to the action to mounted on a back table and panning down to just people's feet for a stretch. Nice to see some more video footage though, so give it a look below! Remember, embedded Facebook videos still work despite only showing a black screen now for whatever reason, so just double click on it!



Also among Tyler's videos from this show is this almost 10 minute clip of Crucify The Whore's set,  which will definitely please Blood Shed loyalists and goregrind fans! Featuring songs like "Orthostatic Hypotension" and the ultra-short "Batch Cones", the video has similar quality to the Archelon footage, but it has better lighting and a worse view of the (one-man) band, as Tyler Gibson is obscured by the crowd for most of the duration. C.T.W. fans shoiuld enjoy though, so give this video a look below!



Lastly for Tyler's Devil's Night videos is this clip of James Watterworth and his newly-restored Strange Coyotes bandmates playing one of his existing solo songs, though regrettably, I forget the title off hand. Nice, energetic, and heavy though, and the camera angle improves late when Tyler joins the floor, albeit with some pit action to disrupt the angle, but it ends well! Strong clip, and it's great to have James, Chase, and Mike back together, so check out their video below!



We'll close this all-H.N.E. post with a video from the abbreviated "Bloody Basement Jam" held on Weldon Avenue this past Friday, as posted on that show's Facebook event page on Saturday! Filmed, uploaded, and shared by attendee Katie Stevenson, this appears to be of C.T.W. frontman/Rotopsy bassist Tyler Gibson jamming along with backing music, but the lighting isn't great. Not bad for what it is, so give it a look below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more soon! Thanks everyone!

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Starlit Sins & Glunk!

And now, here's this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles, but be sure to check out a stacked new news post from this afternoon below! This monthly feature series takes a look at one or two defunct or inactive local metal, hard rock, or punk bands (all randomly selected), in order to profile their run, media, and successes before dissolving, and point out what members have been up to since. As the first band today had minimal surviving info, we added a second band (conveniently, active at the same time period) to fill things out, and who's also kicking off our first in our restored 2-1-3-1-2-1 rotation between bands from each side of the border. Now, give this month's Defunct Profiles a look below, and let me know if something's missing!
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Starlit Sins

Genre: Pop Punk/Alternative

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members:

Simon Shearsby (K.I.C.K.), vocals
Wes Greco (2 Minute Warning), guitar
Andrew "Pooch" Pucci (2 Minute Warning), guitar
Dustin Supak (2 Minute Warning), bass
Justin Marandola (Cherry Crush, 2 Minute Warning), drums 

Audio/Video: No public media or setlist examples from Starlit Sins are known to exist online, nor of their predecessors 2 Minute Warning, whose lineup was the same aside from the lead singer. Guitarist Andrew Pucci's solo material and singer Simon Shearsby's work with K.I.C.K. may harbour some similarities with Startit Sins' sound, but those later projects take more of an acoustic vein than their earlier band work would have.

Info/Analysis: Formed circa 2005, Starlit Sins were the direct successors to the similar earlier pop punk band 2 Minute Warning, with all members carrying over save for singer Ben Tulloch, who was replaced in the new band by Simon Shearsby. Together, they would play a handful of local gigs through 2006, including an outdoor show that August at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion, though updates on them are minimal to nonexistent after that, and the band is presumed to have dissolved in 2007. With no videos or songs to go off of, it's hard to comment on Starlit Sins, but given members' successful later band work, it's hard to imagine them being bad, so hopefully we hear some material from them down the road!
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Glunk!

Genre: Alternative/Hard Rock

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

 
Members:  

Angelo Tremonte, vocals/guitar
Andrew MacDonald (Fitswitch), bass
Andrew Keachie, drums

Info/Analysis: Briefly active from just 2005-2006, Glunk! released a debut EP very shortly into their run and soon began playing live concerts, including a notable show with The Regal Beagle at Madison's Pub (now The Harp) in January 2006. Surviving information on the band is very limited, and Glunk! likely broke up by 2007, though Andrew MacDonald has been seen since with bands like The Scary Uncles and Nikkfitt. Four songs (all from their EP?) can be streamed at their MySpace page, which show a grungy garage rock sound for the most part, albeit with some faster punk touches, and while the production quality is mixed, the guys had a good sound that may have been ahead of it's time to an extent given the recent alt/hard rock boom! The Andrews had a good rhythm, and Angelo showed solid guitar riffing throughout, so give their songs a listen above, and here's Glunk!'s longest original "Knowheart" via a new YouTube upload!


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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! So, what band(s) are next for our last installment of this series in 2014? Through random selection, we've chosen defunct Sault Ontario hard rock band Half Past to close out the year with, and in case you're curious, we will kick off 2015 in this series with a Sault Michigan band, as they'll be next in the rotation for January! For the sake of clarity, their profile will not include any references to the recent legal issues of one member in particular, which is irrelevant to the band's local run and successes, and good or bad, we don't cover musicians' personal lives on here. Look out for this profile on or around December 10th, and stay tuned for more news and previews this week! Thanks everyone!

The Bear Hunters' Single Release, Mike Cliffe Videos, And Much More!!

In our first of two posts today (this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles are next), we're mostly clearing out back news stories and updating our band links, so we have new videos, lots of assorted updates, and news concerning a recent single release, so here's what you need to know!

Local death metal quintet The Bear Hunters released their single "Collapse The Sun" on CD format on Thursday, and you can now buy copies of it for just $2 (and tickets to their "Eternal Hibernation" release concert at The Canadian Nightclub on November 29th) at The Rad Zone and through band members! The single features the final studio copy of the title song plus a live version and a 2011 instrumental demo of it, and there are currently just 50 copies of the single pressed, though pending demand, 50 more can be made (but the band are capping the limited run at 100.) This is the full final artwork, as posted on their Facebook page on Thursday, so make use of it if you need it on iTunes or a similar player! A planned lyric video is still in the works, while you can of course hear the full album at month's end upon it's release. I have yet to pick up the "Collapse The Sun" single, but it's great to finally see it out, and it's a positive sign for the pending full CD launch! Stay tuned for updates, and get your copy of "Collapse The Sun" A.S.A.P. for $2!

Next up, Audiofumes podcast host/creator and local solo guitarist Mike Cliffe has posted some new videos onto his YouTube channel in past couple of months, including this test collaborative online jam clip in August (solid listen), and most recently, this play-along video of him covering Robin Trowe's "Little Bit of Sympathy"! Though the camera angle's a little tight, Mike handles this classic rock number with ease, and at times, you do forget that he's playing along with the original recording! Mike doesn't post solo videos as much as he used to, but give his newest video a look below, see more above, and check out his entertaining Audiofumes podcasts as well!



Finally for today, here's nine assorted shorter stories from the last little while, including a number of bands being moved to our inactive band links! As usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

• We've moved Sault Michigan hard rock band All The Dirty Words In One to our inactive band links, as they've passed our one year inactivity threshhold, last updating their Facebook page in October 2013. This band was a work in progress, but had some promise via acoustic cover postings, and hopefully we hear more from Josh, Cody, and Dan in the future!
• While we await their first live concert since December, local country/punk favourites The Billy Bastards confirmed in a comment reply to new jam session photos on their Facebook page in September that they are working on new music. Is a fourth CD in the works, or are The Billys just preparing for their return to the stage? Stay tuned for more from their camp!
• In another inactive band note, we've moved prolific Sault Michigan guitarist Mike Libertoski's tech-metal solo project Galactic Alignment to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity. Mike last uploaded their page in October 2013, though he's stayed active since in the cover rock band No Decision. Mike's an extremely talented guitarist, and hopefully we hear more from his solo original output in the coming months!
• We've removed local death metal solo project Gorrifier from our band links due to the deletion of their Reverbnation (and only online) page for unannounced reasons. Led by Pillory/Crimson Crusade guitarist Robert Sartini, Gorrifier joins other recent page deletions for his and Shadowthrone bandmate Sabrina Strange's 2014 band projects, but hopefully everything's alright, and that we hear from both again soon!
• Local alternative/grunge quartet Haggith have been confirmed as the new openers for The Bear Hunters' CD release show at The Canadian Nightclub, replacing Destroilet in the 10:00 PM timeslot. Not a perfect match genre-wise, but Haggith's talent speaks for itself, and they'll have songs to play from their own upcoming CDs, so come early to see them! Remember, this is ALL AGES!
• We've moved local hard rock quintet Sailor's Tongue to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity. The band last played live at last July's Rotaryfest Second Stage, and have not made a public posting in the year+ since, though it should be noted that members Kyle & Dean McKey currently live out of town. It's possible the band is just quietly songwriting, so we'll restore them to the active links if we hear that they're alive, but if not, best of luck to Kyle, Blake, Liam, Jeff, and Dean in the future!
• We've also moved ex-Late & Loud frontman Jonathan Tiberi's Soviet Space Program solo project to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity, last updating their Facebook page in October when he teased new recording sessions. Jon has stayed musically active since moving out of town, so hopefully we hear more music from him in some form in the near future!
• The full Toystock schedule has been announced via the annual Christmas Cheer fundraising concert's new Facebook event page, and it's near identical to the given order on SooToday's press release, just with The Stumpy Coldwater Trio bumped from the co-headlining slot to opening the day at 12:00 PM. See above for the full schedule for at The Canadian on November 30th, including the confirmation of afternoon performer Lorrie Bolduc's band's full name, Lorrie Lynn & The Sinners!
• The Rednecks Saloon's live band karaoke series Urawk (which featured 3/4ths of Beaumont Avenue and Havadder' T.J. Case as the house band) will end it's 4+ month run this Thursday, as per it's Facebook event page. A reason for the series' end wasn't announced other than to say "all good things must come to an end", so if you want to take the stage to sing with a real band one more time, come out to the former Nicolet on Thursday!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (The Strange Coyotes, Griphook, And Banned), And More!!

For a second straight day, we have a short notice second post on the site, as like yesterday, there's a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for tonight that is linked to a public show from yesterday and is getting a fair amount of Facebook advertising! Also read on for full public LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for next weekend and some more assorted notes, so here's what you need to know, and check out lots of VM Radio updates (and the new Tuned episode) in the post below this one! (Updated at 9:24 PM)

Remember how Blood Shed Productions & Heavy North Entertainment hosted a publically advertised house party concert last night on Weldon Avenue? Well, that show was reportedly cut short due to a Foggy's-esque noise complaint and police visit, which cancelled plans for a Strange Coyotes headlining set and forced Rotopsy to only play one song. With that in mind, promoters are giving a short notice second try at this show TONIGHT at a different location, though still centrally located! Once scheduled to be held at an Oakbine Avenue location, the show was moved back to it's original 110 Pentagon Boulevard location for unannounced reasons on very short notice. Hopefully things go smoother for everyone tonight, despite the location jumbling! All performers except Telephone & Address and Mikey Thomas are back for tonight, which will definitely see The Strange Coyotes headlining in their first announced show since confirming their reunion, with Rotopsy, Crucify The Whore, Brutaly Fatal, and a "surprise special guest appearance" also teased.

The Facebook event page has current details for this show, which is ALL AGES, will start at 8:00 PM tonight, and will have no announced cover. Don't miss out if you love the Blood Shed, and hopefully they don't have similar issues tonight! For a preview, here's The Strange Coyotes live in January!

Next up, Kinross, Michigan hard/classic rock trio Banned have announced a surprise show for this Thursday, as they'll make their first ever advertised appearance at The Raber Bay Bar 'N Restaurant in nearby Goetzville! Our source is Banned's Facebook page yesterday, which added the show to their existing fall calendar. We've never plugged a show in Goetzville before, so in case you didn't know, Goetzville is a small Chippewa County community that's roughly an hour southeast of the Soo and 24 minutes east of Cedarville, and was among the areas of the E.U.P. added when we expanded our coverage range on the site two years ago. Given the Thursday setting, I'm unsure on if there's a special occasion to cause the booking, but it adds to a busy weekend for them, as Banned will be at The Runway Bar in Hessel (a half hour west of Goetzville) over the next two nights. A 9:00 PM start time is in effect on Thursday, you must be 21 to attend, and there's no announced cover charge. See above for more info, and stay tuned for updates on their Raber Bay Bar show!

Also in new show announcements, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Griphook will apparently return to the stage this Friday at The Rednecks Saloon! Though the band has yet to confirm this show online, the marquee board outside of the former Nicolet Tavern has advertised it for at least the last few days, and that has proven to be a reliable source for accurate show dates in the past. If this booking is still on, this will be Griphook's first concert set of the fall, and their first outside of Rotaryfest since playing at Rednecks in April, so if you've been missing Joel, Brian, Dan, and Tony in recent months, you'll want to mark this Friday's show down for a night of entertaining and often heavy covers! No word on why they're not playing on Saturday though, but the marquee at the saloon didn't list that day's entertainment. There's no announced cover charge on Friday, you must be 19 to attend, and there's a likely 10:00 PM start time in effect. For more details, visit the above links, and if we hear any changes, we'll let you know!

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

• A new instrumental song by the aforementioned Crucify The Whore was uploaded to their new Bandcamp page earlier this week, which fans will want to check out, but due to a name that some readers may find offensive, we won't post it here. Give it a listen if you want, and note that their other demos can also be streamed there!
• I've removed The Guitar Studio from our "Other Sault Michigan Links" section due to the expiry of their website and only substantial online page. Featuring prolific local guitarist Joey Beairl among it's staff, The Guitar Studio was notable for providing both music lessons and a summer rock camp that spawned real youth rock bands such as Tantrym Tyme, but online updates have been slow in recent years. If a new link turns up, we'll re-add them to our listings!
• Our congratulations go out to Sailor's Tongue frontman Kyle McKey, who will be inducted into the Great Northern Opry of the Northern Ontario Country Music Association tonight during their annual awards ceremony! Kyle joins fellow hard rock alum Ric Datson (That's Chester) among the dozens of regional country notables in the opry. If you've followed all of Kyle's music work in the area, you'll know this is very deserving, so congratulations once again, and click here for more info!

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

VM Radio Launch & Availability Information, Plus The New Tuned Episode!!

Today's post is very much focused on recent postings and launches from one major local company, but all of it is of note for local rock fans, including the contents of the newest episode of Tuned and the formal launch of a new online radio network, so here's what you need to know!

SooToday parent company Village Media officially launched all 5 feeds of their new internet radio network VM Radio on Thursday! After a successful pilot launch earlier this week, the full website and player are up along with each station's full current rotation, with the launch and related notes outlined in this SooToday news release. Joining the existing website player, there are now Apple iOS and Android/Google Play applications to stream the stations with, while all 5 are now among the internet radio stations listed on iTunes' own internet radio service and through the Apple TV digital media player. There are also widgets on both SooToday and Local2's home pages that list what's playing on all 5 feeds at the time of page visit (from my experience, they don't refresh unless you refresh the whole page), but it's great for extra convenience to listen! VM Radio also announced that they're now the exclusive music provider for the Mill Market and the Soo's Downtown Association, among future establishments to be announced.

VM Radio has also indicated that they want to expand into additional Northern Ontario markets with "increased specialty programming & content", though they didn't elaborate on that or potential on-air shows and genre blocks. They are definitely still looking for local CDs and music to add to the rotation on their five stations (VM Rocks for rock subgenres, VM Bounce for pop & rap, VM Indie for indie/alternative, VM Roots for roots/blues, and VM Y'All for country), so if you're interested in helping the cause, message the stations at radio@villagemedia.ca A.S.A.P.! In terms of my experience listening to the stations, I do like the full final look to the player and website, with all I'd change being maybe putting album covers up, or listing what's next to play on each station. Just since I started this post, I've heard a wide array on VM Rocks including Woods of Ypres, The Drive By Truckers, Green Day, The Police, and Led Zeppelin, and like in the pilot launch, you have a lot of Canadian content to take in, with few ads!

The online player works fine for me with no hang-ups that it started, but if you're hoping for a review of the mobile applications, I can't help you yet. The Android application isn't compatible with my tablet, and every time I tried to open VM Radio with my iPod Touch, it crashed (but to be fair, it's 5 years old now, so my iPod might be too old in general.) The above SooToday press release did note that "more listening options" will follow, so if the stations turn up on TuneIn Radio or something similar, then I can comment on the mobile experience! So far, I do give VM Radio (and VM Rocks in particular) a solid thumbs up, and it's nice to have the extra diversity in the local radio market! I will note that there was some online comment concerning both Energy Rock Radio and Mike Cliffe's Audiofumes preceding VM Radio in this area for Sault Ontario online radio, and while I like both a lot, E.R.R. moved to British Columbia in 2011, and Audiofumes is a podcast rather than a 24/7 radio station.

Be sure to listen to VM Radio's five online stations at the above links or through your Apple and Android devices, like VM Radio on Facebook, and when we have updates concerning the stations, their programming, or future availability, we'll let you know!

We'll close today's post with one more Village Media note, as the newest episode of Local2's music video profile web-series Tuned With Donna Hopper went online on Tuesday, and at last, this is the episode featuring last month's Rad Zone 30th anniversary concert featuring The Ripcordz at The Rockstar Bar! I wonder what took so long to get this episode online? The 18 minute+ episode features Donna's introductory segments hosted in The Rad Zone (naturally), while the concert footage begins with 4 minutes of video from The Ripcordz' set (including Jack Spades' J.D. Pearce joining in on "X"), before transitioning to interview clips with Ripcordz frontman Paul Gott and Rad Zone owner Paul "Monk" Muncaster. When interviewing Paul Gott, he talks about his views on being a "rockstar", how he got into punk music, what should change in the industry to help rising punk bands, and where to find new Ripcordz CDs, while the interview with Monk includes his surprising music past, and the impact of vinyl records and his connections with the music & this format.

Later elaborating on how The Rad Zone has grown in the past 30 years, his planned retirement in 10 years, the continued impact he gets from people who discover new music at the store, and his advice for vinyl collectors, Monk's interview is very nice, and you can tell how much he loves the music and what's he able to do and provide for our area (and Paul Gott's interview is also an informative listen!) After a brief concert calendar segment, the episode concludes with some more nicely shot video footage from last month's Gob concert at the same venue, and bloopers during the credits, though there's no footage of the opening bands at either show. Still, this is a great and extensive episode of Tuned with lots of quality concert & interview footage, so give it a look at this link! Remember, Local2's video host doesn't allow external embedding. That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes over the coming week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (The Whiskey Shits, Havadder, And Northwest), And More!!

I wasn't expecting to have a second post today, but due to some SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for THIS WEEKEND (and some other notable concerts coming later this month), here's one more post for the day! Along with the new shows, there's also updates on the next big Blood Shed Productions project, so read on below for what you need to know, and check out all the details on next week's Rock For Dimes concerts and more in the post below this one!

Local classic/hard rock cover quintet Havadder will return to The Rednecks Saloon for solo concerts there TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the band just announced the shows via a Facebook event page yesterday, though the shows were advertised on the marquee board outside of the former Nicolet Tavern before then. Fresh off of their Studio 10 debut on Halloween, these will be Havadder's first Rednecks Saloon dates of the fall, and they should be rip roaring to go with another solid weekend of their varied and often heavy covers! Note that drummer T.J. Case is scheduled to play with his other band Mourning Wood at The New American Pub tomorrow night (source here), but like on Halloween night, former drummer Scott McLurg (also of Turner Up fame) will be filling in for him this weekend, as per his personal Facebook page. Solid choice once again, and we wish him good luck this weekend!

Like usual for Havadder's recent Rednecks gigs, there are no announced cover charges this weekend, you must be 19 to attend, and there is a 10:00 PM start time in effect TONIGHT & TOMORROW. For more details, visit the above links, don't miss Havadder's shows this weekend if you don't have other plans, and here they are at this venue earlier this year!



Next up, the long teased concert headlined by Montreal street punk quartet The Whiskey Shits has finally been officially confirmed via it's Facebook event page, and it goes down one week from tomorrow (Saturday, November 15th) at The Algonquin Pub! I'm surprised it took this long for a full public release, but at least we have full details now! Featuring Ripcordz bassist Matty Fortyfive, The Whiskey Shits have a hard hitting, gritty, and raw punk sound that should go over well in what I think is their local debut, so keep it in mind for next weekend! Local support will come via the live public concert debut of new local punk/grunge duo The Red & Black (featuring Telephone & Address' Chris Shoust and Damjan "Spider Fingerz" Binda) and local alternative/blues rock veterans Sykotyk Rampage (fresh off of their Halloween Party set at the same venue), and both should add their own varied punk sounds to this show, so don't miss them either next Saturday night!

The last announced punk concert of 2014 by promoter J.D. Pearce, this 19+ show has a $5 cover charge and should start at around 10:00 PM next Saturday. For more details, visit the above links! Sounds like a great time for punk fans, and it'll be interesting to see how The Red & Black do in their live debut also, so keep The Whiskey Shits' show in mind for next weekend, and stay tuned for potential updates!

Finally for new concert announcements, local indie/punk quintet Northwest and local hard/alternative rock cover quartet Late Shift will join forces for a special benefit concert on Saturday, November 22nd at Coch's Corner! The show is to help raise funds for Tiffany Maj, a local woman (and friend of the bands) who was recently diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, so it's awesome to see the guys coming together to help Tiffany out during this time of need! This will be Northwest's first show since opening for Gob last month (and second with new drummer Marc Santos), while this will be the sporadically seen Late Shift's first gig of the fall, and hopefully we'll hear more from them to come as well! Note that as the show is being hosted at Coch's Corner, it's reasonable to assume it will be an acoustic show due to Coch's softer music focus since moving to the former Foggy Notions location in 2012, but this isn't explicitly stated there. It's still nice to see a punk show there again!

Promoted by Northwest guitarist Greg Callaghan, a $5 donation is suggested to attend this show (though you can donate more or whatever you can), while an 8:00 PM start time is advertised, and given the location, I'd assume it's 19+ until otherwise stated. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! I don't know Tiffany, but cancer sucks, and I hope she fights this as hard as possible, and hopefully this show offers lots of financial and emotional support for her in this battle! Stay tuned for more updates on this event if they roll in!

Finally for today, here's the latest from local goregrind/rap label Blood Shed Productions, including ambitious plans for an 11 band compilation demo disc! Though no stranger to two-act split CDs, this "Rock And/Or Roll 11-Way Split" will compile studio tracks from 11 local and out of town bands alike, including Blood Shed grind acts Crucify The Whore, Rotopsy, Malignant Neoplasm, This Is Your Band On Drugs, fellow local metal bands Bad Back and The Apocalypse Afterparty, out of continent grind bands Peppermint Green (England) and Sin Vaselina (Argentina), North Bay hardcore punk bands The Human Guinea Pigs & The Muff Huffers, and a new local band currently named Scalpel Fight. Information on them is minimal as of yet, but the label confirmed that they're a new project from AlgomA guitarist Boyd Rendell (a.k.a. Darby Wigwaus), so we'll have to see what they're like! Ambitious plans are afoot for sure here, but I'm curious to see where this goes, so stay tuned for more on this 11-way split demo!

That's definitely all for today, but stay tuned for some big updates this weekend! Thanks everyone!