After surviving the St. Patrick's Day concert weekend with no hard rock or punk stone left unturned (with one exception addressed below), we're back with a new news post on this Sunday morning, including new live concert videos and a preview of a rare Monday night concert. However, let's lead off with a big LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this spring!
Almost one year removed from their pandemic-delayed local debut, Australian tribute band Queen: It's A Kinda Magic will return to the Sault Community Theatre Centre on Sunday, May 21st during their 2023 Canadian tour! This one seems to have flown under the radar for where I research concerts, as I only learned about it yesterday via physical advertising at Station Mall, but it's great to see Queen: It's A Kinda Magic coming back to the Soo, especially given how well tickets sold for last year's concert despite being postponed twice across two years! Fans of Queen will be in good hands in May via this band's faithful approach to their 1980s stage show and clear talents in replicating Freddie, Brian, John, and Roger's music, so don't miss this one if you're a fan! Tickets for this show run for $72 (adults), $43 (kids 12 and under), and $67 apiece in a group of 6+ adults, though all three pricepoints are $10 higher than last year.
Plenty of tickets are still available from the third row & back in the center section, and in all rows in the left/right sections, and you can buy yours at this link or at the Station Mall's box office, though do act quick as It's A Kinda Magic sold very well last year. If you're a fan of Queen and you do indeed want it all, you should get your money's worth at the former Kiwanis Theatre, so visit the above links for more on all of the action in two months!
Next up, here's our preview of a special Monday night concert TOMORROW, as local party metal duo The Apocalypse Afterparty will headline the Fishbowl Festival's closing party at 674 Queen Street East wine bar/restaurant Broers Jansen! The first concert we've ever covered at the former Wine Barrel, they'll play host to the final event in the post-pandemic return of the full-scale Fishbowl Festival (ending when it does because of when Pisces ends in the astrological calendar), with Paul and Amanda bringing their eclectic rap rock stylings back for a relatively rare live set. Hopefully their lively brand of originals & covers cap off the Fishbowl Festival right! Support will come via folk rock mainstay Brian Tremblay (no sign of The Sinister Hearts) and online page-less dark synth pop solo artist OwenMK. This 19+ concert has a 6:30 PM start time with Brian playing at 7:30 & The Apocalypse Afterparty headlining at 8:30 PM.
Tickets run for $10 (on a limited basis, likely due to the size of Broers Jansen), so if you don't want to take a chance on paying at the door, click here to order yours in advance. Broers Jansen will also be offering snacks & drinks for purchase if you are so inclined. This should be a fun way to cap off the Fishbowl Festival, especially after the long pandemic road to get here, so kudos to Nicole and everyone else involved with its return, and least for a Monday nighter, it'll end early if you have work or school on Tuesday morning! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's The Apocalypse Afterparty live!
We'll close with some videos from this past weekend (none from Pop Evil yet, surprisingly), but we'll lead off there with an apology for a missed concert in this past weekend's concert previews, as local classic/hard rock musician
Tym Morrison actually played last night at Tazzi's Cafe & Restaurant as well as Friday night. This was never announced by the venue's Facebook page, but Tym revealed on his personal Facebook page that they asked him back for a second straight night, so clearly the Friday gig went well! Alas, if you didn't see his personal posting (or possible physical advertising at Tazzi's), this will have flown under the radar, but apologies again, I'd have covered it had I known! As for that video, Tazzi's filmed Tym at his publically advertised show on St. Patrick's Day for Facebook, where you can see him playing 85 seconds worth of a familiar instrumental (alas, I'm not good with naming songs like this).
Usually, videos from Tym's shows that surface publically involve vocals, so this is an interesting change of pace, and it lets you get more of a look at his guitar skill and the extra production and effects that he puts into his live show so it's not just an vocal/acoustic guitar performance. Yes, the video is vertical, but as it's of one guy, it's not so bad, and you get to see how Tazzi's looks as a venue as such. Check it out below, and apologies again for missing his show there last night!
Finally, the other new video is also from a venue's Facebook page of a concert this weekend, specifically of local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard at Jay's Piston Broke Pub last night, and remember how I said that I'm not good at identifying many instrumentals? Yeah, this is another case of that! It's good to see the band back at full strength after their three week break, and the 20 second clip sounds nice while it lasts, but the vertical camera angle does it no favours, especially from the filmer's vantage point with the dreaded post on the old Rosie/Reggie's West stage getting in Greg's way. Still neat to see more footage, so check it out below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for much more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
Third post in two days, as there are LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS to take note of on this busy St. Patrick's Day weekend, two on SHORT NOTICE! Rounding things out are some shorter items, so here's what you should know!
Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will reportedly return to The Esquire Club for concerts TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! I profusely apologize for the short notice, the band has not promoted these shows on their Facebook page (sadly not that unexpected), with the venue's Facebook page only first announcing them last night. That said, these dates were originally advertised to be featuring bassist Jim Michaud's old band Obsession by them and the venue alike, so the possibility that Soundcheck took on Obsession's announced 2023 bookings (schedules permitting) is noted, and if so, keep an eye on March 31st & April 1st at Shooters next. TONIGHT & TOMORROW'S concerts are definitely St. Patrick's Day themed, with The Esquire Club revealing that there will be free pool TONIGHT, drink and wings specials, green-dyed beer, and porketta TOMORROW before Soundcheck's nighttime concert.
Also, the Gael Force pipe & drum band will bring some Irish music flair to both porketta and, in a downscaled form, as rare openers for Soundcheck TONIGHT, so keep that in mind for your seasonal entertainment despite the late notice! Expect a 9:00 PM start time TONIGHT (9:30 PM TOMORROW), no cover charges, and 19+ age limits. Visit the above links for more details on Soundcheck's newest entertaining classic & hard rock cover-filled weekend, and here they are live at The Esquire Club!
Next up, a big hardcore punk show was announced last night, as Victoria, British Columbia hardcore punk legends The Dayglo Abortions and Toronto hardcore punk veterans Random Killing will return to Sault Ste. Marie on Friday, May 19th at Soo Blaster! While a mid-2010s return was once teased, this show will mark the first Dayglo Abortions show here since they headlined at the former Roosevelt Hotel back in September of 2013, so if you've missed the Cretin and crew's intense, well travelled brand of old school punk rock, this will be more than well waited by genre fans! As for Random Killing (fronted by Saultite Andrew Kiteley), we've seen them twice since then via gigs at The Rockstar Bar, most recently in July 2019, so while they're fresher in fans' minds, it's still been too long to see Mr. Magoo in a mohawk dotted around a concert venue, and their explosive hardcore punk originals should be well received in two months as well in this hardcore homecoming!
Vancouver garage/noise trio Motorama will also come along for this tour in their local debut, and while Motorama take more of a genre hybrid approach, they have more than enough punk attitude and aggression to fit in on this tour, so don't bypass them on May 19th! Local alt-punk trio A Dire Setback will open this one in a rare pandemic-era live set within city limits, and this should be a good chance to see what Chris, Matt, and Nick have been up to in studio if you missed their festival and benefit gigs in the last two years! With 2010s Dayglo/Random Killing promoter J.D. Pearce moved out of town, promotional duties have fallen to A Dire Setback's own company Live705 in their first announced booking since the pandemic began, and hopefully this is just the first of many more shows to come from them, so make this one a success to encourage more bookings!
No word on the potential Tangents concert that Live705 floated earlier this year though. This stop on The Dayglo Abortions' Upside Down Tour is a 19+ event with an 8:00 PM start time, and admission will be $20 in advance at this link or $30 at the door (for reference, the 2019 Random Killing show was $15 in advance or $20 at the door, so add in The Dayglos and the value is more than justified). Many a local punk fan has been waiting for a touring concert like this, so do not miss out on all of the action at Soo Blaster in two months, and visit the above links for more details!
Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:
Local alt-hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich's second advance single for their debut album "Deconstructed" was released to "all streaming services" (if by "all", you mean Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, and Tidal) on Wednesday, so head to any of the four to hear "Better Off" in all of its studio splendor! A planned music video for the song has been delayed due to "complications", as per a comment reply on their post on their Facebook page about the single release. I'll hold comment on the song pending our album review this summer, but give "Better Off" a listen, and stay tuned for the video release!
New-ish local noise punk duo No Funeral's self-titled debut album got a surprise review by Jeff Sorley of the indie/punk music website That's Good Enough For Me last week, which is as much about telling us who they aren't (as in, not other bands named No Funeral) as it is about the album contents. No rating, he just says "it's pretty good", but hey, I'm sure Jamie & Connor will take that! Give it a read above!
Local indie/punk quintet The Northwest will play their first ever Southern Ontario gig on Tuesday, April 4th when they headline at The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto! This concert is part of the venue's Nu-Music Night series, where rising bands take the stage on a Tuesday night for a free show, with The Northwest being joined here by Napanee ska punk band Master Nate & The Reprobates, Windsor rock quartet Two Years Apart, and Niagara Falls indie rock band Real Kevin. Keep this in mind if you're near the GTA, click here for details, and best of luck on the road!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes in the coming days! Thanks everyone!
As promised, here's the second half of this weekend's hard rock concert previews, a busier weekend than normal for this time of year given that St. Patrick's Day falls on a Friday! Again, if you are at all concerned about the incoming winter storm watch as it pertains to tonight's concerts (covered on the SMS or otherwise), inquire with the venues or bands in question. Now, let's look at three shows each on both sides of the border, starting with a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!
Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Tarnished will return to The Merchants Bar for their St. Patrick's Day bash TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the band only announced this show at 8:00 PM tonight via the short video embedded below from their Facebook page, where guitarist Nathan Webber hyped up the booking. Remember, The Merch's Facebook page does not typically promote scheduled bands, which remains true for this week, only hyping up drink specials, t-shirts, and tie-ins with "Merch Madness" (get it, like "March Madness"?). TOMORROW'S concert will be Tarnished's first since playing at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino branch earlier this month, and their first at the 108 West Spruce Street nightclub since another late notice gig there in December. If you want something a little heavier for your St. Patrick's Day revelry, a trip to The Merch TOMORROW NIGHT should do the trick, so don't miss out, despite the late notice!
This has a 9:00 PM start time, 21+ age limit, and no cover charge, and if you can't schedule this one into your plans given the competition over the holiday or from the late notice, remember that Tarnished are among the openers at the Scotty Austin show at The Savoy next week. Get more details on TOMORROW'S show at The Merch above & below!
Next up, let's leapfrog north to Sault Ontario for a one-nighter that did get advance notice, as local classic/hard rock solo musician Tym Morrison will make his debut at Tazzi's Cafe & Restaurant TOMORROW NIGHT! The latest unfamiliar/more intimate venue for Tym to try out in a seemingly neverending list for his acoustic solo act, Tazzi's is located just up the road from Reggie's Place at 478 Queen Street East, and while by no means new to the downtown core, they have been getting into booking (primarily) unplugged musicians on Friday nights in the past year. Tym's old school blend of classic and hard rock covers adapt well to new/unfamiliar locales, and hopefully he finds a solid audience tomorrow at Tazzi's! St. Patrick's Day-wise, the holiday is promoted in the branding, but they did not hint at any promotions or frills therein. Tomorrow's show has an 8:00 PM start time, no cover, and a 19+ age limit.
By rule, this will be the mellowest pound-for-pound hard rock show of St. Patrick's Day in the Twin Saults, but depending on your taste and mood, it may be just what the doctor ordered, so don't bypass Tym's Tazzi's debut tomorrow, and regardless, he should be back at Reggie's nearby in due course. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Tym live in concert late last year!
We'll head back to Michigan next for the earlier starting hard rock band playing both TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT, as Traverse City metal trio Scarkazm will return to The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino this weekend! While oddly not getting a promotional push on the band's end in recent days, these shows have had lots of advance notice and are still advertised for this weekend, including via Facebook event pages linked here & here. Scarkazm were last seen at The Rapids Lounge in early December, and fans of Adam, Dave, and Jeff's hard hitting originals and covers should be raring for more from this veteran trio this weekend! Of course, they have tough competition from Pop Evil elsewhere in the casino tomorrow, but does the St. Patrick's Day allure make up for that? I'd expect some sort of holiday frills, as the casino itself is promoting them, but I haven't heard anything Rapids Lounge-specific.
As usual for Scarkazm's E.U.P. trips (their February triple header aside), tomorrow & Saturday's concerts have 9:00 PM start times, 21+ age limits, and no cover charges. Fans of old school metal would be right at home with Scarkazm tomorrow night, so if you can't/don't want to get to Pop Evil, you have an alternative option on the premises, possibly with green beer to boot! Visit the above links for more details, and here's Scarkazm live!
Finally for known hard rock concerts this weekend is the return of Sault Ontario southern hard rock trio Bone Yard to Jay's Piston Broke Pub for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! After three weeks of cancelled gigs due in part to health reasons and the guys recording in studio, these will be Bone Yard's first shows in almost a month, but they picked a great weekend to come back given St. Patrick's Day! For at least tomorrow's show, expect green beer (of course), unspecified freebies, and the return of Bone Yard's own alcoholic shot and official band t-shirts, though note that some of the advertising is ambiguous as to whether Saturday's show will be similarly seasonal or not. It's great to see the guys (presumably) back to full strength, and hopefully the luck of the Irish is smiling on Bone Yard's southern fried hard and classic rock covers this weekend!
As far as I know, these shows remain 19+ affairs with no cover charge, and you can expect 9:30 PM start times. Visit the above links for much more on Bone Yard's St. Patrick's Day weekend return, and here they are live!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!
Irish eyes are definitely smiling upon the calendar this year, as with St. Patrick's Day falling on a Friday this year, it means the concert calendar is quite stacked, so be sure to check out your favourite nightclubs' and venues' online pages & schedules to see if bands are playing, let alone if they will have St. Patrick's Day themes. However, the weather gods are not smiling upon the Sault Ste. Marie area, with a winter storm watch currently in effect from late tonight through Saturday morning, with up to 3-8 inches of snow expected, so if you are at all concerned that a band or St. Patrick's Day party will be impaired by the impending storm, keep tabs on their online accounts for further details, as things can easily change.
Due to the amount of scheduled hard rock/punk concerts this weekend, I'll save the Bone Yard, Scarkazm, and Tym Morrison shows for tomorrow morning's post, and maybe anything that falls into our lap beforehand. Now, let's start with three Friday-only shows, including the big one this weekend, as Muskegon, Michigan hard rock mainstays Pop Evil will make their long awaited return to the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino TOMORROW NIGHT when they headline at The Dreammakers Theatre! This will be Pop Evil's seventh local concert, sixth at the Soo Kewadin, first since their outdoor gig with Buckcherry back in August 2019, and their first here with touring bassist Joey Walser in place of Matt DiRito. Of course, Pop Evil have loads of familiar rock radio hits, including "Breathe Again", "Eye Of The Storm", and "Survivor" since their last local date alone, so fans should be in good hands tomorrow!
Support bands include Phoenix metalcore band The Word Alive and Seattle metalcore quintet Avoid, and while both are more aggressive than Pop Evil by rule, their fast rising takes on the subgenre shouldn't be avoided tomorrow night! A presentation of Allstar Promotions, this 8:00 PM & all ages concert is actually a big deal on a wider scale for Pop Evil's sake, as it is both the full kickoff show for this tour, as well as the day that their new album "Skeletons" is released, so get your copy while it is hot off the presses! Tickets run for $29.50 USD (up from $25 at their last Dreammakers Theatre show in 2018), and limited seats in the left and right sections are still available, albeit in the back three rows only. If you want any seat that you can get, or want standing room only admission, click here, call 1-800-KEWADIN, or visit the in-person box office. For the record, this concert has no overt St. Patrick's Day ties in the promotion.
Pop Evil have been very good to Sault Ste. Marie in the past decade+, and with their upbeat, high energy brand of modern hard rock still going high on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts, they should be in fine form with a huge crowd to match tomorrow night! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Pop Evil live here!
Next up, local blues/hard rock quartet Project 906 will return to The Islander Bar in nearby Hessel TOMORROW NIGHT! Their first trip to The Islander Bar (almost an hour south of the Soo) since Halloween weekend, tomorrow's festivities will definitely be St. Patrick's Day-themed, including a traditional corned beef/boiled cabbage dinner if you are so inclined beforehand, plus multiple Irish-themed drink specials. Project 906 themselves will bring the rock as usual, and they should deliver entertaining hard rock covers and select originals for Mackinac County fans tomorrow!This is a one-nighter due to or resulting in Gary Hatch's show there on Saturday, and be advised that The Islander Bar will actually close for nearly a month starting on Sunday (the venue didn't say why, but renovations seem likely)
Tomorrow's concert has a 8:00 PM start time, no cover charge, and a 21+ age limit. Between this show and Scarkazm in the Soo (more tomorrow), hard rock fans in the eastern U.P. will have some solid options for St. Patrick's Day, so don't miss out, and for a preview of Project 906's Hessel gig tomorrow, here they are live a few months back!
Lastly for this preview post, we'll head north to Sault Ontario, where debuting local skate punk trio Hails and folk punk/extreme metal solo musician Chase Wigmore will join forces for a special concert/art exhibition TOMORROW at The Art Hub at Spring! Named the "Full Circle Rock & Roll Spectacular", this event is being held at the former Big Brothers Association property at 504 Queen Street East, and it is being held as part of the Fishbowl Festival and, within that, Hails frontman Brenton Ellis' own art exhibition named Full Circle, which celebrates "connectivity & continuity". Remember, if you've seen any of Brent's recent concerts or him at events where sale of his artwork occurred, you'll know his painting talents and this should be a good showcase for his visual art endeavours! Hails feature Brent alongside Vanity First's Mikhal Muto & Keeghan McAllister (yes, Vanity First is still active) and shouldn't be far off musically.
As for Chase, this will be a rare pandemic-era live concert set from him, but will this lean more to his recent metal studio work or his past unplugged folk punk live sets? Come out tomorrow to find out! This all ages event has a 7:30 PM start time, and admission is $10 or "pay what you can", and if you are so inclined, tickets are available at this link. If there are St. Patrick's Day themes tomorrow, then they go unsaid in Facebook promotion. Should be a fun evening for punk fans and art aficionados alike, so visit the above links for more details, and here's one of Chase's recent acoustic videos!
That's all for now, but we'll wrap up the St. Patrick's Day weekend hard rock concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!
News has somewhat been slowing down as of late, but here's a full news post to check out on this Tuesday evening, including a new performance video and some assorted recent stories. Leading off are details on physical copies of a local punk veteran's recent album exploits that may or not be belated for the SMS, so here's what you should know!
This may fly under the radar unless you know frontman Brenton Ellis personally, but he is (still?) selling his acoustic punk solo project Slumshine's 2021 EP "Slumlord" on cassette tapes, as well as tape copies of his inactive punk/alternative duo These Magnificent Tentacles' EP "Surfacing..."! Brent definitely released Slumshine's vowelless debut "SLMSHN" on tapes in 2019, but he hasn't posted on that project's Facebook page since 2021 despite playing live at Fringe North last year, and never promoted an active sale of "Slumlord" on tapes there. However, I saw that Brent (a.k.a. B.G. Ellis) would be selling art at the Fishbowl Festival's flea market at The Klub at the Pall Mall on Queen Street East on Sunday, and in his teaser picture, there were cassette tapes! Not having any of Slumshine's tapes yet, I went down there and bought "Slumlord" and "Surfacing", which he charges $10 apiece for.
Brent is an accomplished painter & visual artist, so he hand-designed the art on his tapes, rather than use the Bandcamp cover art in a cropped or stretched form factor. On "Slumlord", Brent creatively gave the tape reversible artwork and liner notes, and while side A has "Slumlord" as seen on Bandcamp, side B (with reversible referencing artwork) has five bonus tracks named "Reversible Straightjacket", "Doubt For Life", "Prelapse", "Into The Inferno", and "Breeze Of The Sun". This is the sort of thing that I'm surprised Brent doesn't advertise, as it could boost sales of the tapes if people knew that Bandcamp only had 6/11ths of the story! Be advised that the "side A/B" labels fell off of my copy very easily, so have a glue stick handy. As for the These Magnificent Tentacles tape, it is less ornate for packaging and details, and has no bonus songs, but it uses thicker liner notes & promotes their Tidal Records affiliation.
What I didn't buy there was what appeared to be the original "SLMSHN" album on tape, distinguished by abstract painted liner artwork (as showcased in the Bandcamp copy's cover art), but at the time, I just took them for alternate art of "Slumlord" rather than a separate older album. If I described this accurately, then silly me, and hopefully Brent is selling his art again soon so I can grab that tape also and see how different/similar it is to the digital copy! Definitely keep an eye on when/where Brent will be selling art (or playing live) next to see if you can buy his recent albums on tape, and while copies of "Surfacing..." seemed limited, the Slumshine albums were well stocked. See above for more details!
Next up, let's take a brief detour to Sault Michigan for a new video from local classical metal band Theatre of Night's YouTube channel last week! A newly filmed live rendition of the Christmas carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", this is their first true performance video uploaded here featuring new bassist Luke Bernard, and he and the rest of the band are sure dressed for the occasion here! No videos from their abbreviated (and non-local) Christmas tour last year surfaced online, but this may help make up for that, if a few months late to really be seasonal. Filmed at their own space named "The Cave" (related in name only to Sykotyk Rampage's jam room), it looks like Theatre of Night pulled out all of the stops to give this video the presentation of their live concerts, complete with full staging and light/smoke effects, and it comes across very well in this video. I wonder if they filmed any more songs like this at the time?
We are 7-8 months out from this performance being timely, but the performance itself is solid and accurate to last year's studio revision, and fans of Theatre of Night's metal versions of Christmas classics should be right at home with this rendition below!
Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:
In a rare public acknowledgement of their status, Gates of Winter guitarist Bryan Belleau revealed in a comment reply on the Woods of Ypres Fanclub Facebook group on Saturday that the Sault Ontario progressive death metal band "didn't officially disband", but life caught up to them and took them "in different directions", though the guys still talk daily. Bryan noted that "Gates 2" (their unfinished album "Perihelion") "may exist at some point" in the future. Gates of Winter have been inactive since the spring of 2018 after working on the new album since 2010, and they haven't played live since 2008. Fingers crossed that we haven't heard the absolute last from them!
Local indie punk quintet The Northwest's song "Shoreline" was featured on the February 25th episode of the CBC Radio One series In The Key Of C, where host Craig Norris spotlights rising Ontario musicians each Saturday at 5:00 PM. According to the show's Facebook page, The Northwest were the last of 12 bands played on that episode. If you missed the live airing on 89.5 FM (which is easy, as the band only announced that they'd be on that morning), the episode will likely come to the CBC Listen mobile application in time, though at the moment, the newest playable episode is from January 7th. Hopefully The Northwest got lots of new fans here!
I have moved St. Ignace, Michigan metal guitarist Ted Olson's solo project to our inactive Sault Michigan band links. The Heavy Lies The Crown axeslayer has not issued a public update to his solo Facebook page since posting a picture of his headless guitars in November 2021, though of course, he has been more than busy since with H.L.T.C. in studio and in concert. Follow the band for more on what Ted's been up to in the past year+, but hopefully he resumes solo work down the road!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for St. Patrick's Day weekend concert previews and more on the site in the days ahead! Thanks everyone!
Before we get into today's post, just a heads up that local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard & their sister band The Bearded Lounge have cancelled their Shooters Downstairs Lounge shows last night and tonight due to an illness affecting 2/3rds of the band, as per Bone Yard's Facebook page. It was already known that they'd have had special guest sitting in this weekend, possibly related to The Bearded Lounge subbing in for Bone Yard at The Water Tower Pub last week, but I don't know specifics. Shooters are instead hosting music video dance parties this weekend, and Bone Yard plan to return for their first shows in a month next weekend at Jay's Piston Broke Pub. I hope everyone gets well soon!
Today's post is otherwise focused on recent videos from some familiar faces on both sides of the border, plus the latest from a prominent local solo musician, and let's lead off with this month's Mikey & His Uke cover video, which was posted to the project's YouTube channel last week! In a partial diversion from Mikey Hawdon's usual punk cover choices, he tackled Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" this time out, with Mikey on guitar (and ukekele at first) as usual. For this cover, the remotely filmed all-star band includes Bowling For Soup frontman Jaret Reddick, Steel Panther guitarist Russ "Satchel" Parrish, Buckcherry bassist Kelly Lemieux, his former Goldfinger bandmate Darren Pfieffer on drums, and Arkells keyboardist Anthony Carone. This cover comes through nicely and everyone handles their instruments with zest, and Jaret's singing is a good match! It'd have been amusing if he had did Motley Crue though (when did they become classic rock?)
Visually, the difference in musician placement and camera angles adds variety to the proceedings too, especially Kelly's unique perspective, and while it's a shame that Satchel's video was shot vertically, at least they mirrored it rather than letterboxing it. Yes, Mikey is playing guitar in front of the arcade games at Soo Blaster, which is a nice touch! Solid stuff as usual, so check out the newest Mikey & His Uke cover video below!
Next up, here's the latest from local/Barrie alternative hard rock singer/guitarist Mike Haggith, and while major updates on the public resumption of his original music post-move are still forthcoming, he's hardly been idle! In a post on his Facebook page on Tuesday, Mike announced the formation of his own indie label MorningStar Records (named after his song "MorningStar", and an imprint he has used for Thompson-era solo releases), which he calls "a record label, minus the label". The idea is that musicians record their music where they want for as long as they need, and then become an "affiliated artist", not a signee to the label, so Mike wouldn't own your music. He'd host the material on the planned website, sell it, list the artist there with a biography and updates and whatnot, with physical albums made to order (presumably via Kunaki, which Mike used for recent solo albums). This way, costs are kept down and the artist retains as much control and independence as possible.
Mike claims to have had a vision of working with a label like this for over a decade, especially given the difficulties he met releasing solo albums in the past, not to mention existing label restrictions and commitments that musicians often run in to under contract. This is definitely an ambitious idea, but hopefully it takes off, as Mike knows what its like in the system and I know him well enough to know that he means 100% well to help other rising independent artists! The label may not be Sault Ste. Marie-based, but Mike is definitely getting the word out about MorningStar Records on local music-related Facebook groups/pages and has attracted positive local notice, with industrial metal solo project Molten Imp already revealing on their Facebook page that they plan to release a "double EP" through MorningStar "this fall". Stay tuned for updates on that front!
Outside of the label plans, Mike announced that his monthly Facebook live-streams will return on Tuesday, March 28th where he will interview Ryan Jensen of the Denver, Colorado alt-rock solo project Surrender The Tides. while Mike teased that he will be interviewed by Brian Tremblay on local internet radio station The Borderline's show Rock & Roll Heaven, airdate yet to be announced. Sounds like things are picking up for Mike in 2023, if not in the new album-centric ways many fans expected, so visit the above links for more on what Mike has going on at the moment!
We'll close today with a new video of local southern hard rock quintet Fort Creek's concert at Jay's Piston Broke Pub on Friday, March 3rd! We already touched on their "Give Me One Reason" cover shot by frontman Justin Grayson himself, but this one was filmed by attendee Katina King and uploaded to the band's Facebook page on Monday. It features the band covering Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" (two days before guitarist Gary Rossington's death, for the record), and while the 87 second clip is obviously not complete, the landscape orientation and really solid audio quality help a ton to overcome the deep purple stage lighting! Check it out for yourself below, and look for more from Fort Creek soon!
That's all for tonight, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone!
It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, as we shine a light on another local metal, hard rock, or punk act from the past, as randomly selected from our inactive band links! This month's choice is a more recent solo act who had a lot of promise despite never being a live act, so here's what you should know on them!
Hometown:Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario/General Viejo, Costa Rica
Genre: Alternative Rock/Grunge
Lineup:
Kristien Woodcock, vocals/guitar
Audio/Video: Kush Wood released four studio singles to major streaming services like Spotify in 2020 & 2021, namely "Intent & Design", "Love Replace This", "Down The River", and "The Passage Way", while a separate original song named "Weathering Change" was posted to their Bandcamp page in 2016. Most of Kush Wood's media was otherwise posted to their YouTube channel, which mostly features solo acoustic covers by Kristien, though you can hear versions of unreleased originals like "The Shade" and "The Open Highway" here. A solid amount of covers that lean to 1990s alternative rock acts are also present, though his cover of The Stone Temple Pilots' "Plush" is a Soundcloud exclusive from their singer search. Here is Kristien's playing "Love Replace This" in one of his last YouTube uploads from 2020!
Info/Analysis: Launching the Kush Wood Facebook page in December 2015 while working in Costa Rica, Kristien originally put out solo cover recordings, but he did post two original songs to Bandcamp before the project went inactive after July 2017. After an almost 3 year hiatus, a now-long haired Kristien resurrected Kush Wood in March 2020 with a Patreon page and plans to release new originals on major streaming services. New songs and performance videos followed for the next year, but Kristien has only posted thrice since the spring of 2021, all to share posts not about Kush Wood. It's a shame that Kush Wood fell inactive again, as Kristien had a good thing going with well produced throwback originals that felt like a modern take on the grunge era, and in a town that had bands like No Arrow and Haggith, he'd have gotten a good reception had Kush Wood played live gigs!
Kristien also has a versatile range for melodic tones and grittier effects, and his songs adapt well to acoustic and electric styles if songs like "The Passage Way" are any indication, so hopefully we haven't heard the absolute last from Kush Wood! Give their originals and covers a watch/listen for yourself to see what you think!
I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! This series will return on or around April 10th with our second Sault Michigan profile of 2023, as our latest random selection is early-mid 2010s hard rock cover trio Power Slug! Look for that next month, and for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!
