Time to resume our coverage of Lopstock III at LopLops Lounge on July 29th in today's post, as we are now in the second half of the marathon 8+ hour concert with just four bands to go, albeit including three of the four previously acknowledged hard rock/punk-leaning acts among them! Once again, SooToday's multi-camera live-stream will guide the way. We'll pick things back up at the 4:28:34 mark of the lengthy livestream embedded at post's end, with promoter/MC Brendan Garlick relating how he met his old Gnaeus bandmate Matt Fronzi, who is the bassist for act #7 at Lopstock, local punk/hard rock band Far From Fine! This is the first public video of the former Ravencore in concert to surface online, so if you missed them at Toystock last year or Rotaryfest this year, now you can see what the fuss about! Former Suicide Kings bandmates Mike Gaetano (vocals) and Mitch Sirie (guitar) join Matt in this new group.
Id Iota/Free Beer alum Blair St. John (recently seen performing with fellow Lopstock act Juliana Regan) filled in on drums once again in lieu of the departed Austin McCrae. Far From Fine's all-original set began with an unintroduced original song (possibly named "Sunshine"?) followed by "Poison" (née "Poison In My Mind"), "Relapse", "Broken", "Whiskey Dick" (I didn't name it!), their first song written with Matt (which wasn't introduced by name), an upbeat song that also wasn't named, a song named (I think) "Go Away", "This Way Again" , and one more unintroduced song. Don't go into this expecting a revival of The Suicide Kings with a new rhythm section, as Far From Fine lean more into punk and don't resurrect any of that band's originals (I don't think), but styles do vary here and they do dip into ballad, hard rock, and even drinking song territory across their set. Mike also played guitar on a couple of songs.
One thing that hasn't changed from The Suicide Kings' heyday is Mike's brief & minimal banter/song introductions despite his ease on stage, but assuming that their debut album is on track to still come out, then we'll know all of these song names in due course. Assuming that we'll have an album to review on the SMS next year, then I'll hold individual song reviews for now, but the guys have good chemistry and can weave around punk songs well while also dipping into other styles where need be, and I was reminded a bit of how The Inner City Surfers weren't just a full-bore punk act in that way. Strong lyrics as a rule too, so definitely check out Far From Fine above and below to see what you think! Not sure about that "kazoo" section though. In a mild surprise for the running order, local alt-hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich were the 8th of 10 bands despite their recent profile, meaning that Mitch Sirie played in consecutive Lopstock sets!
After Brendan plugged his new promotional agency Sault Noir and their second event (a burlesque show at LopLops next month), he gave way to Handsome Sandwich, whose set started with five originals from their debut album "Deconstructed", namely "Better Off", "Monkey", "Stick Up" (with more of an intro than it had on the CD), "All Or Nothing", and "Bitter". Next, they tacked four songs that are not on the album, but are pegged for their planned follow-up EP, including "Without You", "Party Fuel", "Change A Bit", and "No Idea". Before "Without You", drummer Johnny Belanger noted that "we actually started recording (a demo of it) this week", which is encouraging, and we'll have to see how the EP plans continue to shape up! Their set closed with two more cuts from "Deconstructed", namely "Conquest" and "No Entry". Note that they were the fourth straight Lopstock act to forego their one allowed cover.
Fun set with a lively energy and an encouraging increase in fans on the floor (if to the detriment of live-stream viewers), and the block of new songs will be a nice appetizer for that EP ahead! It would be nice to see singer Taylor Emlaw (who guested with Sawbé & Stoneburgh earlier that night) be a little more vocal between songs though. Note that Handsome Sandwich's pro-shot multi-camera video footage from their album release party at The Loft in May is still not online that I'm aware of, so for the next best thing, check out their 11 song Lopstock set below! Today's covered bands can be seen from 4:28:00-6:10:00.
We are officially just over the 3/4ths mark of Lopstock II with just two bands left, including a surprise choice to cap off the "bohemian conclave", so we should wrap up our coverage this weekend. There's a big normal news post slated for tomorrow, and then we have weekend concert previews, so good things will come to those who wait! That's all for today, but look for more on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
Before we begin today's post, I wanted to apologize for missing a show in this past weekend's concert previews, as local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck played for a second straight year at Algoma Tree Services' annual community meet & greet outside of their homebase in Goulais River on Saturday night. Like last year, they joined classic rock band Angry Joe & The Growlers for this Kiwanis Club children's charity event, which was publically open with family activities. Also like last year, Soundcheck did not publicize their involvement on their Facebook page, though Algoma Tree Services did. I profusely apologize once again, I'd have covered it had I known, but hopefully things went well despite the forecast!
Now, today's post otherwise looks at some recent videos and updates from
an array of local musicians, starting with new album releases, one being from a new addition to our band links, namely local rapper Tristan "Bold Noize" Goslow! While active locally since at least 2015, Tristan (who originally rapped as "White Noize") only crossed our radar on multi-genre events that he performed at, such as the old Sky's The Limit mental health fundraiser concerts, The Soo's Got Talent in 2018, and that year's Rotaryfest Stage 2. That changed once I started covering Lopstock III's SooToday live-stream from late last month, and whether you saw Bold Noize thusly or in person at LopLops, you'll have seen him reveal that he was working on a punk album that was released as planned to major streaming services on Thursday! It is titled "God Save Me", reflecting his faith, with his Christian rap status being more prominent in his early years.
The nine song album indeed features Tristan singing rather than rapping along with full band instrumental tracks, and while I have not seen public credit given to who played guitar and such on "God Save Me", note that he sang along with recordings at Lopstock, as he did for his four proper rap cuts that night. The music on offer definitely leans toward punk way more than nu metal, and I was reminded a bit of Machine Gun Kelly's rock output in terms of how Bold Noize approached the shift in genre. Honestly, the songs come through better as punk rock songs via the studio recordings than they did at Lopstock, owing to the pre-recorded instrumental tracks being heard & mixed as intended on streaming services. Bold Noize can carry a tune well on the punk songs, and you can hear for yourself how he handles a totally different genre on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube, while the album is definitely on sale digitally for $8.99 on iTunes.
I would suggest that Tristan get a live band going, even if just occasionally, to better reflect the "God Save Me" album/future punk dalliances live, but it's hard to say what his next plans are, as he doesn't update his Facebook page all that often. Beyond "God Save Me", Bold Noize is a skilled MC with a strong flow, as local rap fans over the past decade will be well aware, but how far will he go in the punk realm? It'll be interesting to find out, but I do plan to review this album on the SMS formally in January (we're booked solid through year's end), and check out "God Save Me" above & below!
Next up, here's one more new album release, as local "blue Chinese metal crash punk" quartet Sykotyk Rampage's have newly put out their 69th studio album, fittingly named "69"! The cover artwork obviously gives the title in Roman numerals as "LXIX". While this was released to their Bandcamp page on Saturday, the band gives a release date of September 6th there. hardly a new conceit for their albums since becoming a studio-only band in 2017. Production and personnel-wise, there's nothing shocking to report from their prior album from earlier this year ("Genius Mushrooms With Thoughts Of The Stoned Ape"), but "69" appears to be a normal album without an overarching concept. 19 songs are included, enough to force this to be a double album if printed on CDs, and there are definitely some suitably eclectic titles for longtime fans!
You can buy "69" via digital download for $15 on Bandcamp, and you can stream it for free there as well. A review of this album (if not another album if they surprise us with one beforehand) will likely hit the site in February 2024, given our continued backlog, but it's great to see the Beckers, Shane, and Tony back with more improvised & irreverent bluesy hard rock, hopefully befitting the "69" title for anyone inclined to put on their environ-mental suits! Buy or stream "69" above!
We'll close today with a new live video of local/Toronto pop rock cover veterans The Killer Hooks, courtesy of their set at White Pines Collegiate & Vocational School's 50th anniversary reunion at The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre last week! Odd that they wouldn't have it at the S.C.T.C.... maybe the seats were an issue for mingling Wolverines alumni? The Killer Hooks are the occasionally seen high profile cover band fronted by Gsis Murphy's Tony Marcello, and we have brought them up on the SMS on occasion when they were filmed doing a hard rock cover, though their sets are way more pop rock in tone and focus. I really should go through their own videos at some point to see what heavier tunes they've done since we last talked about them, but this video comes from Mike Blair at 705Live Sound Co., who handled sound at the White Pines reunion.
Uploaded to 705Live's Facebook page on Friday, the video features The Killer Hooks covering Kiss' "I Was Made For Loving You", and if you want to get a dance floor going via a Kiss song, that'd be the one to use! The 42 second clip is obviously abbreviated, but Mike had a nice view of the stage with effective stage lighting to highlight the band nicely, and they handle this song pretty well! I'd have based it more on Kiss' later live versions where Paul sung the verses at full voice, but beggars can't be choosers. Give this Killer Hooks video a watch below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more of our Lopstock III fallout tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
It's been too long already, let's continue our extended look at Lopstock III at LopLops Lounge on July 29th today via the middle two acts who played at the 8+ hour "bohemian conclave! Firstly, just some unfinished business from our coverage of Bold Noize's set in part 1 from last week, as we can now officially title the three new songs from his debut punk album "God Save Me" that he did not introduce by name. In order, they are named "Hopes Up", "New Man", and "The Taurus", and while I will talk more about this album/its punk quota on the site soon, Tristan would perform five of the nine cuts from "God Save Me" at Lopstock. Now that we have more details, give those songs a look/listen above! As for Lopstock III in progress, we pick things back up with the fifth of ten acts from two weeks ago, namely local rappers Mykey "Sawbé" Preston and Ethan Stoneburgh (who typically performs under just his last name).
The two MCs have performed together frequently since at least 2019, and have rapped in joint sets often in 2023, Lopstock among them. They're introduced by promoter Brendan Garlick at 2:44:37 of SooToday's multi-camera live-stream embedded below, during which time Brendan defended the local rap scene as being quite real (I guess there are people who don't think we really have one). Sawbé & Stoneburgh led off with their joint single "NFR Cyphers, Pt. 3", before curiously going in reverse to do "NFR Cyphers, Pt. 2" next (albeit sans Mic Swiff from the studio version). They next perform "We Ready", afterwards doing a brief song that I couldn't identify by name (possibly called "Stages"?), before Stoneburgh traded places with the aforementioned Bold Noize for one of his joint songs with Sawbé, "Sand Castles". Stoneburgh returns for another brief song that wasn't introduced (perhaps these are transitions by design?)
Next, the two MCs are joined by fellow local rapper Grief and (from off stage) Bold Noize again, uniting all four performers on "Rust", which Stoneburgh is the lead rapper on rather than a featured performer. A brand new song (possibly named "Hellbound"?) is performed by Sawbé & Stoneburgh next, before they do another song not introduced by name. Grief returns to the stage next to join in on "All Eyes", whose hook was sung in studio and at Lopstock by Handsome Sandwich frontwoman Taylor "Tea" Emlaw! Nice to see her involved, especially as this is Sawbé's most popular song on Spotify! Taylor trades places with Bold Noize for this set's closing song, with all four No Filter Records MCs joining in for Sawbe's "Burning In Hell". Hip hop isn't something that I am super knowledged about, but Sawbé, Stoneburgh, and crew are talented rappers with good flow and intensity when called on!
Sawbé made use of the LopLops space well, and while Stoneburgh's stage presence was a little stiff, you can see how the two pair well on these songs, with Grief also impressing for his features, and Bold Noize making up for the lack of rap in his set to boot. Rap fans will definitely want to give this set a look below or via the song names linked above! As Lopstock started with acts with shorter sets, the sixth set from young local alternative/indie rock quartet The Hollow Heads' set concluded the first half of the festivities. If you're unfamiliar, you may recognize them from Rotaryfest Stage 2 both this & last year (among other events), and frontwoman Gabrielle Dumas was involved in the Clusterfolk Music Festival last year as a solo artist. Also, Pointless' Bill Priddle & Dustin Goodall helped produce their debut single. Gabrielle is joined here by guitarist Ethan Roode, bassist Liam "Curls" Morassut, and drummer Joseph Rosso.
You may recall seeing this set via The Hollow Heads' own YouTube channel, with the band having re-posted their songs from SooToday's live-stream there as a complete set and via individual uploads, so keep those in mind for the convenience. In order, they played "Rat Race", "I Get It", "Breakup", "Invested", "Rearview", "Gypsy","Belly", and "Lucy", before closing with a brand new song named "I Need Time", which featured two guest musicians, namely singer Juliana Regan from two sets previously, as well as The BAG drummer Bradley (credited as Ben) Nixon on rhythm guitar. For the record, The Hollow Heads did not play their aforementioned debut single "Complicated", and like the preceding rap set, they had no covers either. The Hollow Heads' set was nicely varied for subgenres and styles, with "Rat Race" being surprisingly heavy compared to everything after it, and Gabrielle was very much at ease on stage!
She had a knack for storytelling and crowd banter, with vocal ability to match, and this young foursome definitely showed a lot of talent across their nine song set, so don't bypass them! We have now reached the (more or less) halfway point of Lopstock III, and the full hard rock/punk acts will start being touched on next, but to see what all went down between the 2:45:00 and 4:12:00 marks on July 29th, check out the full live-stream below or via individual songs linked above!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post on the site next! Thanks everyone!
After a weekend concert preview-induced delay, here is this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, continuing our monthly features on randomly selected local metal, hard rock, and/or punk bands from years gone by! This month's selection is a band that we only belatedly rolled into our coverage earlier this year, but will be familiar to mid-late 2010s fans who frequent the weekend cover band circuit, so here's what you should know!
Lineup: (Members not in their last full lineup are in italics)
Alex D'Ettore (Bone Yard), vocals/guitar Brad Stephen (Double Down, Bone Yard), bass Ric Datson (Double Down, That's Chester), drums Tyrone Souliere (5ive Below Zero), bass Josh Norling (The Wyld Stallyns, The Hustle Brothers), saxophone
Audio/Video: A covers-only band, most official videos of Mojo in concert come from their Facebook group, but be advised that they largely come from their numerous Thursday jam nights, and thusly feature guest musicians and don't necessarily reflect how the band sounded in their traditional gigs (which were very much reminiscent of members' contemporary work in Bone Yard, if with a reduced southern rock influence). A more representative batch of songs can be seen here, albeit from a show featuring Soundcheck's Glen Thomas filling in for Ric. Here's Mojo at their lone Rotaryfest Stage 1 set in 2016, where they covered The Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See"!
Info/Analysis: Debuting as jam night hosts at the former New American Pub in August 2014, Mojo are arguably best known locally for their lengthy run hosting jam nights on Thursdays there and more prominently at Reggie's West (now Jay's Piston Broke Pub). Alex D'Ettore and Ric Datson were originally joined in Mojo by bassist Tyrone Souliere, who left the band for medical reasons in February 2016 and sadly passed away just three months later. He was succeeded by Brad Stephen, uniting 3/4ths of Bone Yard's then-lineup in what effectively became their sister band for the next four years, with the two groups (and Alex and Bone Yard frontman Greg Simpson's acoustic side project The Bearded Lounge) often playing triple header weekends at Reggie's West. Alongside jam nights & normal concerts, Mojo also played festivals & charity events, including two Toystocks and multiple Rides For ARCH.
Mojo last played an acknowledged public concert in January 2020, and never resurfaced from that year's pandemic lockdowns despite Bone Yard returning to the stage with the same lineup until Brad & Ric's departures in January 2022, later reuniting in Double Down earlier this year. Between Double Down and Bone Yard (who feature Alex on vocals occasionally), Mojo fans are hardly out in the lurch for similar music in 2023, but Mojo's blues-leaning set did help them stand out, and their talented lineups (even with Josh on the sax) proved to be a reliable crowd favourite, be they at jam nights or normal sets. Follow members' current projects to see what they're up to nowadays, and R.I.P. Tyrone!
I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! This series will return on or around September 10th when we look at another randomly selected band, this time late 2010s local hard rock quartet Halfway Loaded! They may not have enough surviving material for a solo profile, as they never played a true public concert (jam nights aside), but if I have to add a second band (also from Sault Ontario given our rotation), we'll approach that bridge next month. Stay tuned then, and for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!
As promised, let's cap off this weekend's known hard rock concert previews today, with some live concert videos featuring some very familiar faces to round things out with, so here's what you should know!
Local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard will return to the public stage for concerts at Shooters Downstairs Lounge TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! After spending the past month playing at private gigs and via an oddly un-promoted Sudbury road trip (unless that was cancelled), these will be Bone Yard's first truly public gigs in the Soo since the Canada Day long weekend, and their first stops at Shooters since playing there in late June. Fans may recall that Bone Yard similarly had a public dry spell late last summer as they plied their trade at private bookings, so it's good to see Greg, Alex, and Warren back at it in a normal sense, and their hard rocking selection of covers should draw a good crowd! Yes, their infamous Bone Yard alcohol shots will be available. Tonight & tomorrow's shows are 9:00 PM affairs with 19+ age limits and no cover charges. See above for more details, and here's Bone Yard live at Shooters earlier this year!
Next up, here's some new videos from local classic/hard rock cover band Generations' Facebook group that we have yet to address on the site! As you may recall, the Jus' Chillin successors debuted at The Water Tower Pub two weeks ago alongside Flat Stanley guitarist Tony Kajnar as a temporary fill-in, and videos were posted from that one-nighter the following day, with drummer Tony Santoro posting two videos shot by an uncredited attendee from a sharp side-stage vantage point. These are covers of David Wilcox's "Riverboat Fantasy" (with bassist Pierre Anthony on lead vocals) and Alannah Myles' "Black Velvet" with frontwoman Valerie Powley singing, and both come through well on the audio front! Tony K. slots in well with the band, and Valerie's vocals are predictably strong on "Black Velvet", but the daytime glare from the windows of the pub is very sharp (the filmer should have waited until nightfall in order to negate that).
And yes, these are vertically shot, which is rarely ideal, but at least zoom is used to focus on everyone at different points. As covered on the site in our first weekend concert preview post for this week, Generations returned to the stage as part of yesterday's Downtown Street Party on Queen Street East, where they and Bookclub played on the so-called March Street Stage, but unlike the Darsombra show there in June, the bands played facing Queen Street rather than the OLG building (only natural given the event). For this gig, Generations welcomed back Smokehouse's Michael Yurich (who sat in with them over Rotaryfest weekend) as their guest guitarist, and Tony Santoro's wife Dawn filmed their cover of Linda Ronstadt's "Blue Bayou", which is embedded below. Sadly, this video is also vertical, not helped by slightly jittery camerawork, but Dawn picked a spot to film with everyone in view and stuck with it.
Musically, everyone sounds fine on this classic rock ballad, and it is nice to see that the weather held up too, if with a bit of wind. Give Generations' newest concert videos a watch above and below, and stay tuned for more news, updates, and media from them when it rolls in!
Let's close with a video that will be a partial preview of our continuing Lopstock III live-stream coverage (resuming this weekend), namely a video of Treble Charger singer/guitarist Bill Priddle's online page-less indie rock band Pointless! Now, this band isn't punk or hard rock-centric (Bill was largely against Treble Charger's shift to pop punk on their last two CDs), but they do in fact cover Treble Charger songs that he sung lead on in their live dates. He took Pointless on the road for rare Southern Ontario gigs in June, where they opened for Juno Award winning Toronto alt-rockers Rusty and Sudbury punk trio Lightmares (who you may recognize from all three Oh!No festivals in the late 2010s, plus a 2018 date at LopLops). Attendee TheViolentVegan filmed Pointless' set for YouTube, and their set included covers of two Treble Charger deep cuts, namely "Forever Knowing" (song #3) and "Trinity Bellwoods" (as their closer).
Bill is joined in Pointless nowadays by Pillory frontman Robert Sartini on guitar, Id Iota/Pixo Control alum Dustin Goodall on bass, and ex-Ashes To Dust drummer David Peredun (Robert also plays in Bill's cover band All The Tired Horses). Hearing some familiar Treble Charger songs is nice, especially compared to some of their more drone-leaning originals, but of course, we'll have a much closer (and multi-camera) look at Pointless from their Lopstock set next week. Kudos to TheViolentVegan for capturing Pointless' 35 minute set at The Corktown Irish Pub in Hamilton two months ago, and give it a watch for yourself below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next! Thanks everyone!
Let's dive into this weekend's concert previews on the site today, but as there are more shows than one post normally covers, we'll bump tomorrow & Saturday night's Bone Yard shows to tomorrow morning's post. Now, here's what you should know to start the weekend off, courtesy of a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!
New local classic metal cover trio The Nostalgic Band will return to Reggie's Place for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the show was only confirmed via the venue's Facebook page on Tuesday, with a Facebook event page from the band following. TOMORROW'S show comes just one week after the Caveman Morrison successors played a full weekend at the Queen Street nightclub, and it should prove to be a fun night of old school metal and hard rock covers! I don't know why they're not playing on Saturday too, but note that the band was originally supposed to debut at Tazzi's Cafe & Restauranttonight as a tie-in with the downtown street party (more on that in a second), only for bassist Randy "Dutch" Vanderploeg to confirm that "the city cancelled the bands that were going to play". I assume he meant bands scheduled for Tazzi's, if not businesses not officially promoted as hosting bands.
You can enjoy The Nostalgic Band's set at Reggie's TOMORROW at 9:00 PM with no cover and a 19+ age limit. See above for more details, and for a preview, here's a new video of the guys playing at Reggie's this past Friday! Posted to their Facebook group by drummer Chet Dziergas' wife Tally, it features the band covering Loverboy's "Working For The Weekend". Not a fan of the song myself, but Tym, Dutch, and Chet handle it well, and the quality is good! Alas, the video was largely uploaded sideways, as Tally rotated it to a preferable horizontal orientation 30 seconds in, but didn't correct the video in post to match. Still a good video if you turn your neck or lay on your side, so give it a watch below!
Next up, we'll move to shows that had advance notice before this week, starting with TONIGHT's second downtown street party from the Sault Ste. Marie Downtown Association, which takes place on a closed off stretch of Queen Street East between Spring and Dennis Streets! For this one, your official musical entertainment will come courtesy of newer local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations (fill-in guitarist unclear) and online page-less punk/alternative cover quintet Bookclub, who previously played at the unrelated Street Yourself Street Party from the Summer Moon Festival. Recent promotion for the event from the DTA's Facebook page suggests that they'll be based on "the March Street Stage", which is the slightly misnamed stage in the patio area beside June & Friends Hair Salon at 485 Queen Street East, which is near but not directly on March Street. This is where Darsombra headlined an outdoor show in June.
Family entertainment, games, food/drinks, and local vendors are all to be expected, while Matthew James will also be playing a sanctioned acoustic gig tomorrow outside of Peace Restaurant near GFL Memorial Gardens. Visit the Downtown Association's Facebook page for complete non-musical details on what to expect on Queen Street! Bookclub are the headliners tomorrow, with Generations kicking off the primary musical entertanment at 5:30 PM (Matthew James' Peace set is at 7:00 PM if that interests you). This is absolutely FREE & ALL AGES, and 9&10 News is calling for partly cloudy weather in the 14-19° range tonight. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Bookclub live and outdoors late last year!
Also, Nostalgic Band frontman Tym Morrison's next installment of his weekly summer series of unplugged acoustic gigs at The Mike Case Memorial Stage outside of The Trading Post goes down TOMORROW! This is his sixth straight Friday playing at the outdoor stage way down Great Northern Road, and the fourth straight where he's double booked with The Nostalgic Band later that same day, so if you want to see both, or would prefer Tym's north/central acoustic festivities a few hours prior, then keep this show in mind! This concert has a 7:00 PM start time, no age limit, and no cover, but be advised that 9&10 News is calling for weather in the 19° range with light rain, and Tym has called off outdoor shows for weather before. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's a new video from Tym's first show of this year's Mike Case Stage run early last month!
This was filmed by his Nostalgic Band... bandmate Randy Vanderploeg for his YouTube vlog Randy's Rides, which focuses on his motorcycle riding exploits in the area and the sights and events that he sees. Alongside a clip of a Nostalgic Band show inserted during his ride to The Trading Post (it makes sense in context), Randy greets Tym at the stage at the 2:45 mark, interviews him casually for a little bit about Tym's musical background, and has ice cream from The Big Moose Ice Cream Parlour, before showing a montage of Tym covering Imagine Dragons, Yes, and Cheap Trick songs. Sounds good and well edited for fans of Randy's vlog as well, so check things out below, and don't miss Tym here tomorrow evening!
Finally for today, let's head across the International Bridge, as Sault Michigan blues/hard rock quartet Project 906 will return to The Islander Bar in nearby Hessel for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Their first show at this venue since March (their last gig before their spring break & drummer change), this won't actually be a routine concert for 906, as it coincides with this year's Les Cheneaux Islands Antique Wooden Boat Show & Festival of Arts, so The Islander Bar had four nights of live entertainment starting yesterday, with different acts each night (Saturday's performer is musician Lou Thumser, for the record). With a decent crowd visiting for the boat show and related events, hopefully Project 906 have a strong turnout tomorrow for their hard rocking covers! This concert has a 21+ age limit, no cover charge, and 9:00 PM start time. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Project 906 live!That's all for now, but look for our Bone Yard previews and more on the site next! Thanks everyone!
Let us resume our coverage of what went down at Lopstock III at LopLops Lounge on July 29th in today's post, courtesy of SooToday's complete multi-camera live-stream of the 8+ hour "bohemian conclave" in action! For general information and details on that day's first two acts, click here. We pick things back up at the 1:15:00 mark for promoter/MC Brendan Garlick introducing the next act, and revealing that unsold copies of his old post punk band Gnaeus' only CD "Meditations" were given out to anyone who bought something from the merchandise table. Nice deal, and a tie-in to Lopstocks of old in that respect! Tying in with the next act (and first band of the evening), Brendan noted that Gnaeus were invited to play in ex-Caroline Divine frontman Anthony Marcello's basement in their first ever live performance back in the day, and Anthony was next up at Lopstock with his current pop rock band Jupiter Marvelous.
While Jupiter Marvelous are not as hard rock-focused as Caroline Divine were, their lineup does have more familiar faces, including Shane Storozuk (ex-Aldous/Vol.) on guitar, Jacob Quarrell (Mike Haggith's solo band/ex-Bad Chug) on bass, and a drummer named Ben who I can't 100% identify off hand. Their set featured this unintroduced original song, "It's Me", two songs from their upcoming album (linked here and here), "Tin Foil Hat", "Cherry Girl" (complete with audience participation), a cover of John Mayer's "I Don't Trust Myself", another unintroduced original, "It's You", and one more new song. Yes, this was a noticeably longer set than those that preceded it, proper bands had an hour or so to play/set up while the three solo performers were blocked for 30-40 minutes each. Nothing too heavy here from Jupiter Marvelous, but they had a nice easy-going rapport and melodies, and Jacob added some levity throughout!
Notably, Anthony's singing voice was very Mike Haggith-esque at points here, so fans of his may want to take an extra look. Good set for pop rock fans, so give it a look in the video embedded below or via the song names linked above! After SooToday covered up the teardown of Jupiter Marvelous' setup and the next act coming on with the Lopstock card from the beginning of the video (not sure why), Brendan introduces folk/indie musician Juliana Regan, who was joined by ex-Generations guitarist Brandon Ruch for her set (no Blair St. John here, but he would perform later that night). Juliana teased that she and Brandon are working on original studio material at the Algoma Conservatory of Music, though whether they are doing so jointly or separately wasn't 100% clear. Her set included this unintroduced original song, a cover of Foster The People's "Pumped Up Kicks" (with Brandon sharing lead vocals), "Peter Pan Blues",...
..."Lid Off A Daffodil", and an unintroduced-by-name song inspired by recent forest fires. This was the shortest set of Lopstock III, but Juliana has a strong and smooth voice, paired well with mature, often woeful lyrics, and while she and Brandon had only first played together a week before this set, they had a good chemistry! The two of them sitting down for the performance also helped things stand out from the acts arround them. This concludes the first 31% or so of our Lopstock III coverage (the joys of an 8+ hour livestream!), and so far so good for the livestream quality on SooToday's end, but we will address the two middle acts from this marathon concert in a post likely hitting the SMS over the weekend. Give all of Toystock III a watch below, with Jupiter Marvelous and Juliana Regan blocked from 1:15:00-2:39:00, and look for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!
