LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Unfortunate Sun) And Most Of This Weekend's Hard Rock Concert Previews!!

After a quiet past weekend, we have a busier slate of shows on this President's/Family Day long weekend, aided by Valentine's Day being on Saturday this year! Due to the amount of hard rock-leaning shows this weekend, we'll address this weekend's previously announced Bone Yard 225 and Generations concerts in tomorrow's post. Now, here's what you should know, starting with a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT! 

Local hard rock quartet Unfortunate Sun will return to Snow's Bar & Grill in Cedarville TOMORROW NIGHT as part of this weekend's Les Cheneaux Islands Snowsfest entertainment! Apologies for the short notice, the band only announced this show via their Facebook page yesterday, and the official festival advertising doesn't go into details about the scheduled live musicians in Cedarville and Hessel. Bon Soo doesn't have the entire regional spotlight for winter festivals in this part of the world this weekend, and hopefully Unfortunate Sun have a strong turnout at Snow's TOMORROW! This will be Unfortunate Sun's first gig at Snow's in over a year, and just their third gig with Brett Blackwood, which their latest AI poster says is their "exciting, new, high energy bass player that sounds OK". It's worth noting that TOMORROW's concert has an earlier start time of 7:00 PM, but there is a Snowsfest-tied reason for that.

Also starting at 7:00 PM at Snow's Bar is their annual stein hoisting contest, where contestants try to hold a full stein of beer with an outstretched arm for the longest time. Fun for revelers, so keep that in mind TOMORROW! Obviously, this is a 21+ event and it has no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, here's Unfortunate Sun live, and stay tuned in a bit for our preview of who is playing there on Saturday!

Next up, let's make the half hour drive southwest to St. Ignace, where Traverse City classic metal trio Peril will take the stage TONIGHT, TOMORROW, and SATURDAY NIGHT at The Northern Pines Lounge at their Kewadin Casino! This rare triple header weekend is to coincide with the annual Labatt Blue UP Pond Hockey Championships at nearby Chain Lake, with the St. Ignace Kewadin hosting some official events. There will be lots of extra folks in Mackinac County for this busy long weekend thanks to Snowsfest and the pond hockey tournaments, and a Jeff Hudson-featured band is no stranger to playing in St. Ignace at this time, as Scarkazm got the pond hockey weekend honours last year. Hopefully Jeff, Howard, and Brooks deliver with their hard hitting rock covers as usual starting tonight! All three nights are 21+ with no announced cover charges and 9:00 PM start times. Visit the above links for more details on Peril's busy long weekend at the St. Ignace Kewadin, and here they are live last year!

Also this weekend, let's take a brief detour to Sault Ontario for a concert affiliated with another timely local festival, as local classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9 will return to The Machine Shop TOMORROW NIGHT to serve as musical entertainment at the Bon Soo Winter Carnival for a second straight year! Clearly, last year's Silent 9 show went well for Bon Soo to bring Jess, Ryan, Paul, and Steve back to help kick off the festival for another year, and hopefully things go smoothly at Mill Square! Perhaps Jess will dance on stage with Mr. Bon Soo again? This will also be Silent 9's first public concert of 2026, after focusing on private events as of late. Of course, visit the Bon Soo website to see what else is going on tomorrow at Mill Square to see what else is going on for vendors and family entertainment beyond the concert, as there's a lot to see and do! This is an all ages concert taking place at 8:30 PM.

Admission to tomorrow's concert is free with the purchase of a Bon Soo button ($12) or jacket tag ($8), which are on sale both at Mill Square and at various local merchants. Having one or the other will get you into pretty much every other official festival event, so it's a good investment! See above for more details on this concert and Bon Soo 2026, and for a preview, here's Silent 9 live at the festival last year!

Finally for this preview post, we'll come full circle back in Cedarville, Michigan, where Sault Ste. Marie blues/hard rock quintet Project 906 will rock Snow's Bar & Grill on SATURDAY NIGHT! This Valentines Day event will be 906's second show of the year and will serve as the nightcap for the penultimate day of this year's Les Cheneaux Islands Snowsfest festivities in Cedarville. Of course, drummer Jason VanLuven is also a member of Unfortunate Sun, so while Snow's is splitting the weekend for local cover hard rock bands, a familiar face will be behind the kit regardless! No word on potential Valentine's Day tie-ins given the scheduling. Billy, Joe, Dustin, Jason, and Brian take the stage at 7:00 PM on Saturday (in this case, the show is a lead-out to Saturday's annual fun run), and this is also a 19+ event with no cover charge. See above for more details, click here for the full non-musical itinerary for Snowsfest this weekend, and for a preview, here's Project 906 live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for our Bone Yard and Generations previews (and more) next! Thanks everyone!

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Garden Of Bedlam

Here is our second Defunct Local Band Profile of 2026, as we again spotlight a defunct or inactive band of Twin Sault's past, and as ever, this group was randomly selected from our links. Our first Sault Ontario profile of the year gives us one of the biggest homegrown metal bands of the past 20 years, so here's what you should know on them!

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Garden Of Bedlam

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Genre: Metal/Hard Rock

Lineup: (While it is fairly well known now that the late Chris Thompson drummed with Garden Of Bedlam briefly in 2007, the band's public launch came after he left)

Erik "Buzz" Boissineau (Barfly, Changing Lanes), vocals
Josh Belleau, guitar
Evan Belleau, bass
Derek Turner (Even Flow, Papa Fogals Chair), drums

Audio/Video: Garden Of Bedlam released a self-titled EP in 2009 followed by their full-length album "Everything Will Die" in 2011, both on CD. Despite the band's high profile, neither release is circulating on most major streaming services as of 2026, so the best place to hear their studio catalogue online is their Reverbnation page, though be advised that the 2009 EP is batched as one 15 minute file there. Numerous videos from the band & fans can be seen on YouTube, including via three different official YouTube channels and Josh's personal channel, and we shot videos of them often in their run for YouTube as well. Here's the music video for their 2009 song "The Truth Will Set You Free"!

Info/Analysis: The biggest active and regularly gigging local metal band of the early 2010s, Garden of Bedlam (named as an opposite of "Garden of Eden") debuted in early 2008 and quickly became a prominent sight on local stages over the next six years. Along with multiple headlining concerts, Garden of Bedlam opened for high profile touring bands like Kittie, Airbourne, Anvil, Fuck The Facts, Novembers Doom, and most prominently, Kiss, winning the honours to open their 2010 Essar Center concert at December 2009's Kiss Battle of the Bands. Two-time headliners of Rotaryfest Stage 2 in the early 2010s, Garden of Bedlam were also seen at multiple Hempfests & on the road in Sudbury and Quebec, and were very visible at charitable events and in local media interviews in their heyday. Band activity slowed to a crawl after 2013, only surfacing for a 2014 stag & doe and to headline Go Skateboarding Day in June 2015.

 

Despite promising to "see you soon" after their Go Skate Day set, no public updates on new band activity followed, and they amicably disbanded by 2016. Always a lively and very proficient band for modern hard rock fans with a heavier edge, Garden of Bedlam were a welcome sight on local stages via fan favourite original songs like "Shallow" and "New Rain", with Buzz's soaring melodic vocals gelling very well with the Belleau cousins and Derek throughout their run! Also, kudos to the guys for helping turn local fans on to Volbeat just before their mainstream breakthrough in this continent! Hopefully we will see the guys reunite at some point in the future, or at least get their albums on streaming platforms!

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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! Next month in this series, we're not straying far in the alphabet or in scope, as our next randomly selected band will be inactive local progressive/death metal band Gates of Winter! Look for that on or around March 10th, and for weekend concert previews on the SMS next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Ozzy REbourne & Soundcheck), A Band Reunion, And More News & Notes!!

I hope everyone had a good Super Bowl Sunday! Here's a new news post to kick off the week, and it includes LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, confirmation of a band reunion, and some more recent updates, so let's get things rolling!

Just over a week after their surprise reunion gigs at Jay's Piston Broke Pub, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck have announced their return as a full time band, and they'll be back at the same venue on Friday, February 20th and Saturday, February 21st! In their first Facebook page post in over a year, they confirmed that founding singer/guitarist Terry Eaton and late-era bassist Jim Michaud are continuing in 2026, and will be joined again by Half Past drummer Johnny Amendola, who took over for Glen Thomas behind the kit last week, and of course, is also new to Terry & Jim's other current cover band Separate Wayz. The big reveal here is that singer/guitarist Cameron Oliver is finally making his long-delayed move to Nashville to further his solo career, so he isn't joining Soundcheck's full return (no word on if last week's shows were intended as a send-off for him.)

Replacing Cameron is original Soundcheck singer/guitarist Travis Sharpe, who was part of the former Nameus upon their debut in 2016 until he left the band in 2019, with Cameron replacing him at the time. Travis actually guested with Soundcheck in some capacity last week, which would be neat for late 2010s fans of theirs, let alone those familiar with Terry & Travis' long-standing work in bands like Carbon Black! It is good to see Soundcheck proper back after a year away, and with Terry, Jim, and Johnny also playing in Separate Wayz with singer Nicole Thibodeau, you're bound to see both bands a good amount in 2026! If you're wondering what became of The Guilty Party (the band featuring Terry, Jim, and ex-singer/drummer Brent Royer that formed last fall), it appears that Soundcheck's full reunion has replaced The Guilty Party, as that band's Facebook page has quietly been deleted.

Johnny had replaced Brent in both that band and Separate Wayz when Brent stepped down last month, but he never played a gig with either before Soundcheck reunited with him behind the kit. The Guilty Party only played a handful of gigs last fall, and you'll see Terry get his lead vocal turns with both Soundcheck and Separate Wayz, but I will miss the videos that were on The Guilty Party's page! Like last week at Jay's, expect Soundcheck's shows on the 20th and 21st to be 9:30 PM affairs with no cover charges and 19+ age limits. Visit the above links for more details on Soundcheck's official return! 

Next up, here's a mild surprise, as Detroit-based Ozzy Osbourne tribute band Crazy Babies (a.k.a. Ozzy REbourne) will make their local concert debut on Saturday, May 9th when they rock The Full Throttle Saloon! The first booking from a touring band at the former Primavera Hall, this was announced yesterday on the venue's Facebook page, but I have not seen confirmation of this booking on Crazy Babies' end. While we have seen an Ozzy-era Black Sabbath tribute band here before, one paying homage primarily to Ozzy's solo career will be really neat, and Ozzy REbourne definitely deliver the goods for fans of the pioneering British metal legend, so keep this spring-time show in mind! Local classic/hard rock cover quintet Headrush (no strangers to The Full Throttle Saloon) will open the proceedings in three months. Their 1980s-leaning batch of covers should ease fans into the metal!

This will be a 19+ event, and we await confirmation of a start time and ticket/admission fees, but call/contact the venue if you have any early questions. This should be a fun one, and I hope it does well to encourage more touring acts at this new-ish Steelton venue, so visit the official Facebook event page 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 band name:

 

• Sault Michigan hard rock/punk trio About:Blank have parted ways with guitarist Nathan Webber, as per their Facebook page on January 31st. A reason for his departure was not announced, but things are amicable, and they wish him well in his future endeavours. Nathan had previously missed About:Blank's set at the LSSU Battle of the Bands in October, but it's not clear how related that is to his permanent exit. Parker & Kade are looking for a new guitarist (and maybe a bassist, assuming that Parker could focus on guitar full time thusly), so message them above for details, and stay tuned for updates from both About:Blank when they roll in!
• In their first Facebook post in two years (they never even mentioned Toystock 2024 or dropping out of last year's Toystock there), Sault Ontario punk trio Redundant teased on New Years Eve that "we will definitely see you in 2026", with this cover photo hinting that "something big is coming", featuring artwork of some kind partially obscured behind torn paper. No word on what Justin, Rick, and their new bassist are specifically teasing, but we'll let you know when Redundant truly resurfaces this year!
• Waterloo hard rock quartet Sierra Pilot will be the openers for Pop Evil when they headline at The Machine Shop on April 12th, as per Pop Evil's own advertising! If the name is familiar, it's likely because former Spades GT guitarist Jay Sarrazin is an alum of theirs, but he left that band by early 2025. It will still be neat to see Sierra Pilot in town, and they have a solid and energetic sound that will help set the tone well before Pop Evil make their Sault Ontario debut! For unclear reasons, this tour's other opening band (Tampa hard rock group Kamenar) are not playing the Soo date, though note that this is the only scheduled gig in Canada.

 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone! 

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Dos Amigos), A New Local Band, And More Recent Updates!!

Before we begin this post, I have to apologize for another missed concert in our weekend concert previews, this time local alt-punk cover band BookcluB at The Kiln at Searchmont Resort on Saturday, January 31st. The band only announced last week's show (their first of 2026) on their Facebook page that Tuesday, which completely slipped me by until getting links for a related show that we didn't miss later in this post. I apologize again, I hope to catch their next show for the SMS, but hopefully this one was a blast all around! Now, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, new videos and related updates, and leading off, a new band with some notable faces!

We have a new band to add to our active Sault Ontario links, and they are Even Flow, the Pearl Jam tribute band that debuted at Beck's Bar on Halloween last year! There was easily the chance that this was a one-off band given the occasion, but their new Facebook page confirms that they're an ongoing project. In their only posting so far, they curiously note that they are "hailing from Northern Ontario", possibly to leave the door open for a wider range of shows beyond Sault Ste. Marie. They promise "a high-voltage, nostalgic experience that proves (that) the spirit of grunge is alive, well, and shivering up north". At the time of their debut, I knew from Facebook shares that the band included new local guitarist Cameron Brock and former Garden of Bedlam drummer Derek Turner, but who else is involved? Derek's old Papa Fogals Chair bandmate Mike Bird is on bass, while Odd Man Out/ex-Sense of Truth guitarist Steve Myers is also in the fold.

Jokey nicknames aside, the band only gave their singer/guitarist's name as "Rob", but the most logical name here would be Barbarians/ex-Elements frontman Rob Speers, who was a bandmate of Mike & Derek's in the 2013-2014 hard rock band The Side FX, and also briefly worked with Derek in The Wyld Stallyns a decade later. Certainly a talented batch of musicians who will be familiar to many readers (maybe excepting Cameron), and it will be interesting to see what Even Flow have in store for Pearl Jam and alternative fans this year! Visit the above links for more on them!

Next up, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this month, as local acoustic punk duo Dos Amigos will return to The Whisky Barrel for one night only on Friday, February 20th! The band scarcely updates their own social media, so kudos to the Gore Street nightclub for announcing the show on their Facebook page on Wednesday, allowing us to hear and get the word out about it. Fans last saw the Inner City Surfers side project live last month at Northern Superior Brewing Co. (assuming you saw the minimal online advertising for it), and hopefully their unplugged punk covers go over well downtown in just under two weeks! It's worth noting that Mikey and Dustin remotely joined their old Surfers bandmate Brad Example for his YouTube series The Afterparty tonight at 9:00 PM, which I do plan on covering & recapping here on the SMS in a dedicated post, so stay tuned for that next week!

As for Dos Amigos at The Whisky Barrel, that show is at 8:00 PM as usual there, this is a 19+ event, and there is no announced cover charge. See above for more details, and stay tuned for our recap of the Afterparty episode!

Also today, here's some of the latest from local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225, who will return to Beck's Bar next week for their first ever "stoplight party" on Valentine's Day, but they're staying busy otherwise! On Thursday, "the dirty three" shared this vertical video to their Facebook page featuring a sneak peek of a new original song in progress (heavily implied to be named "Shit Show"), and you even hear vocals in the short 15 second snippet! Alex is seen on guitar with Warren at the computer, while Greg notes that it's "pretty bad when we actually have to rehearse our own song". The caption also hinted that a new cover song is also in the works, and while they didn't 100% tie everything to their album-in-progress, note that they did confirm that their "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" cover will be on the final product and not just live gigs. Hopefully we hear more soon, but if you want to hear a full original song on video, we have you covered!

I'm surprised that I didn't get to this last month, but Beck's owner Becky Sawyer filmed your local 225 during their electric gig there on Saturday, January 3rd, and in the (thankfully) horizontal video, you can see the guys playing their original song "The F Word" (alternately, if not formerly, known as "Fuck!"). No major angle or zoom changes here, but Becky had a good central angle of the guys rocking out on this energetic and fast paced rocker, and expect more of the same there next week! Remember, wear clothing based on traffic light colours to signify your relationship status (i.e. green = single). Get more from Bone Yard above & below!

Finally, here's a brief new video posted on The Machine Shop's Facebook page yesterday featuring Nova Scotia alt-hard rock quartet The Trews promoting their local date there on February 25th! In the 13 second clip, frontman Colin MacDonald says that "we are making our long awaited return to The Machine Shop", even though they have never played a local date there. Regardless, it is always good to see major touring bands give local shoutouts like this in advance of their shows here, even if the videos are brief, so give it a watch below, and buy tickets for the concert later this month at this link!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone! 

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Unfortunate Sun, Tym Morrison, And The Nameless!!)

While this is a quiet concert weekend as hard rock acts go (especially in Sault Ontario), this certainly isn't quiet for readers in and travelling to Sault Michigan, as it's I-500 weekend! Yes, the annual International 500 snowmobile race goes down on Saturday, so with more tourists in town and related race events taking place over the next few days, concerts are a given, specifically via some SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, so here's what you should know!

Local hard rock cover quartet The Nameless will rock The Merchants Bar TONIGHT to coincide with the annual I-500 Pub Crawl! Apologies for the short notice, the band only announced this show on their Facebook page on Monday, and as usual, The Merch does not acknowledge bands who play there on social media (we'll address the Friday/Saturday band there in a bit). As for The Nameless' rhetorical question "Who cares if it's a school night?"... students and their parents might (let alone people who work Friday morning), but the I-500 pub crawl only comes once a year! This will be The Nameless' first public gig of 2026 and their first Merch show in almost two months, and hopefully they draw a solid crowd of locals and tourists alike with their talented mix of hard rocking classics TOMORROW! As for the pub crawl proper, click here to get more details on how to take part.

Seventeen bars and nightclubs in the Soo are en route for the pub crawl, but aside from Bay City country rock trio Whiskey Six at The Rapids Lounge this weekend and Louie Longoria at Moloney's Alley on Saturday night, I haven't seen firm public advertising for any concerts elsewhere in city limits. The Nameless are up at The Merch TONIGHT at 9:00 PM with a 21+ age limit and no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, we have some new videos of the band to share here! These were shared from drummer Jamie Costner's personal Facebook page from their New Year's Eve headlining gig at The Back Bay Grill & Games in Brimley, and feature her, Josh, and the Mikes covering Nena's "99 Red Balloons" (perhaps the Goldfinger version?), The Red Hot Chili Peppers' "By The Way", Wolfmother's "Joker & The Thief", ...

...Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy" (with guitarist Mike East on vocals), a 3 second clip from the end of the same song (I think), and as embedded below, Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle". "It's So Easy" and the 3 second clip are both vertical (the former focuses on dancing fans anyway), "The Middle" is in square Instagram dimensions, and the rest are horizontal landscape videos. None are full songs, but The Nameless sound good across the board (Josh's vocals add a welcomed heavier edge), and it is great to see a lively crowd sending 2025 out in style, so give these videos a watch above and below!

Next up, fellow local hard rock cover quartet Unfortunate Sun will debut their new lineup TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT at the aforementioned Merchants Bar! Again, apologies for the short notice, the band first announced these shows on their Facebook page on January 12th when they promoted their Rudyard show later that week, but as I explained on Tuesday, announcements of that show completely slipped me by so I didn't learn of TOMORROW & SATURDAY's shows until this week. Last seen at The Merch on Halloween night (and in the Soo two months ago), these I-500 weekend gigs will be Unfortunate Sun's first since their old Fake Chow bandmate Brett Blackwood replaced Tony Rogers on bass. He's a strong musician with loads of experience in local cover rock bands, so welcome Brett to the fold in style on what should be a packed weekend for I-500 fans!

TOMORROW & SATURDAY'S shows are 9:00 PM affairs (running until 1:00 AM + 1 more song, allegedly), they are both 21+, and neither has an announced cover charge. As for the "Buy The Band A Round Contest", I'll let you decide if that's a legit contest or just their attempt to get some complimentary drinks. Visit the above links for more details on TOMORROW & SATURDAY'S concerts, and here's Unfortunate Sun live!

We'll close this preview post back in Sault Ontario, as while hard rock-leaning bands appear to be taking this weekend off, there is a familiar face staying busy, as not only is prolific local classic/hard rock solo artist Tym Morrison back at Misty's Fifties for another matinee on SATURDAY, he will play increasingly rare nighttime weekend gigs at a bar TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT at Reggie's Place! Apologies again for the short notice on the Reggie's dates, Tym only announced them via Facebook event pages linked on his Facebook group on Monday (he did the "one event page per night" thing even though he usually batches them all in one). Going off of his old event pages, these will be Tym's first bookings at Reggie's since August 2024, and thusly his first since Reggie himself resumed active management of the Queen Street East staple (though the bar's Facebook page has not confirmed that Tym is playing).

Hopefully things go well as Tym takes the stage at this familiar locale at a more familiar time for many, though his good relationship with Misty's in the west end continues, hence the doubling up on SATURDAY! The Reggie's shows are both at 9:30 PM while he will rock Misty's Fifties from 4:00-8:00 PM on SATURDAY before heading downtown. All three shows are 19+ with no announced cover charge. See above for more on Tym's busy February-opening weekend, and here he is live!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS ahead! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Headrush & A.S.D.P.), Unfortunate Sun Updates, And More!!

Before we begin today's news post, I wanted to profusely apologize for a missed concert last month, as Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Unfortunate Sun returned to Huck's Pub & Grill in Rudyard on January 17th. This was a 4:00 PM matinee concert for unannounced reasons (Unfortunate Sun's prior gig there in November was a normal nighttime booking), and while the band only promoted this Saturday nighter once on their Facebook page on the previous Monday, Huck's Facebook page had promoted it multiple times in the early weeks of last month. How this slipped me by, I don't know, but I hope the show was a hit for all involved despite the early start time, and we won't miss Unfortunate Sun's next shows (stay tuned on Thursday for our next weekend concert previews!) There was something newsworthy beyond last month's show being their first of 2026, as it was their final gig with ex-Shift bassist Tony Rogers, who "has decided to move on".

The band did not outline why Tony left otherwise, but things are definitely amicable, and they thanked him for "making playing music fun again and saving our band". Replacing Tony is his former Clownsack colleague Brett Blackwood, who was most recently seen in the 2023-2025 hard rock cover band Dirty Musky, and was among the past bassists in Unfortunate Sun's predecessor group Fake Chow. Brett's a talented artist and it will be good to see him back with familiar company, and we'll preview his debut gigs with Unfortunate Sun on the SMS in a couple of days!

Today's post otherwise has some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS and new videos from Sault Ontario, and we'll start with the "Not A Leap Year Party" on Saturday, February 28th! Now, this is a house party event on Bruce Steet that is not being held at a proper public venue, but this show is publically advertised, it will be 19+, and it has entry via a suggested donation of $10. The host location will even have balloons outside so you know where to go, so this isn't intended to be private or invite-only! More specifics can be seen via the poster, but they're calling the location "Mellow D's Basement" (yes, this is related to the former pop-up venue Mellow D's Underground). Six acts are scheduled at month's end, including three bands (new local ska punk trio A.S.D.P., party metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty, and online page-less space rock duo The Spaceship Opening. Three solo acts will round out the night's festivities.

They are Sylo frontman Eli Russell, folk singer/guitarist Gimiiwan Ikwe, and former Vanity First frontman Andrew Beggs (a.k.a. Andrew Keith).  This show is being put on by A.S.D.P. frontman/Apocalypse Afterparty bassist Mikhal Muto's new agency Underground Events SSM, and doors will open at 5:00 PM. Intriguing event on multiple fronts, so visit the above links for more on this rare 100% public house party concert later this month!

Next up, here's one more new show announcement ahead, as local classic/hard rock cover quintet Headrush will return to The Full Throttle Saloon for one night only on Saturday, March 28th! Announced with lots of advance notice on Sunday, this follows the band's successful return to the former Primavera Hall two weeks ago, and you know things are going well for Headrush there when they're getting a publicized booking over a month away like this! Time will tell if we see the guys somewhere else before then, but if you've liked the 1980s-leaning range of well performed rock covers from this veteran group, you know when to see them in Steelton next! This will be a 9:00 PM concert with a 19+ age limit and no announced cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and while we're on the subject, we have a new video to share from their last Full Throttle Saloon gig last month!

Normally, I'd wait to share this until we had an imminent show of theirs to preview, but the focus is more on attendees rocking out than the band proper until the last third. Shared to Headrush's Facebook group by attendee Stacey Cleave, the 96 seconds-long and (sadly) vertical video was shot during their cover of Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time", with some female fans happily singing along. Not a bad rendition from what we hear, and Stacey got some good angles of the interior of the saloon with a strong and fun crowd enjoying the music, so give it a watch below!

Finally for today, this leads from our review last week of defunct local grunge/alt-rock trio No Arrow's long-awaited album "Souls For Sale", as frontman Dann Pichette has uploaded a few more songs to his YouTube channel in the past year that are credited to the band! Along with a free streaming copy of all 12 songs from the CD, Dann uploaded an extended 6+ minutes-long version of "Colderside Of The Sun", a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" from 2009 that Dann self-recorded, and two non-album originals named "Question Marked" and "Obliterator". The former was remotely recorded by Dann, former bassist Brad Griffith, and a drummer (likely not Joe Falco) credited as "GliTcH!?" circa 2014, and Dann remastered it for a re-upload on his channel last year. I have no idea how recent "Obliterator" is, but it's a slower and sludgier track compared to the more typically grungy "Question Marked".

 Of course, Dann has gotten involved in those "DIY independent musician showcase/networking" channels and communities in recent years from hosts like Thomas Christ and Frank Terzo, so his music (No Arrow or otherwise) has been getting a lot of diverse and far-flung attention as of late, perhaps spurring along the idea of posting these songs online, let alone finally releasing "Souls For Sale". No Arrow are defunct, but it's cool to see Dann bringing them back and giving them a new belated platform, and hopefully we hear more new/old music from him soon! Check out "Obliterator" below!

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

Where Are The New Albums? (February 2026 Update)

It's time for our second "Where Are The New Albums?" post of 2026, as we again spotlight the current public statuses of announced upcoming albums from Sault Ontario metal, hard rock, and/or punk artists! While this is largely a holding pattern installment without major changes from the albums from last month, these is a brand new entry, as noted with its title in italics, and because of alphabetical order, we're leading off with them, so here's what you should know!

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The BAG - Sacculus

Rumoured Songs: "Eccentric Refuge", "Our Rock"

Background: Immediately launching in the summer of 2022 with original music in their back pocket, local metal trio The BAG (featuring With Gunfire and Jupiter Marvelous members) quickly released their first studio single "Eccentric Refuge" to major streaming services, with "Our Rock" following in 2023. The BAG didn't confirm that an album was in the works until October of 2025, when they revealed the cover artwork for their debut album "Sacculus" on their Facebook page, also confirming at the time that the whole album was already done mixing and mastering. These were the band's only proper updates about their own activity, album or otherwise, in the second half of 2025. It's not clear if their first studio singles will be included on "Sacculus", and if so, if they were re-recorded in last year's recording sessions.

Current Release Status: The BAG confirmed last month that they will release "Sacculus" on Saturday, April 18th via an album release party at Soo Blaster, though specifics on the track listing, price, and formats are all forthcoming. It will be great to see the fruits of Spencer, Austin, and Bradley's quiet work last year finally out for fans to hear in the spring, so stay tuned for more updates on the impending release over the next couple of months!

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Bone Yard 225's debut album

Rumoured Songs: "F.A.F.O.", "Gypsy Spell", "Fuck!", "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" (Mike Posner cover)

Background: After months of teasers that they were planning to record original music, local southern hard rock cover trio Bone Yard 225 began releasing their own songs on major streaming services in July 2024, a whopping fifteen years after the pre-225 band debuted as a country cover quartet. Their first three singles (all recorded at their home studio) were posted online by January 2025, though it took until May for the band to confirm on their Facebook page that they were indeed working on a proper album. It's not immediately clear if their existing three singles will be included, but it's not a given, as Jonesy Land fans saw with "Zoom-Out". As of August 11th, it was reportedly "album tracking time", while this video from three days later shows bandmates Alex D'Ettore and Warren Reville recording backing vocals for their cover of Mike Posner's "I Took A Pill In Ibiza". That will be one of "a couple of covers" for the album, as confirmed by frontman Greg Simpson during recent concerts. "Fuck!" was renamed "The F Word" on streaming services in December, but it's not clear if the less explicit name will stick on the album. The band was still "in the studio finishing shit" as of December 4th, source here.

Current Release Status: In that Facebook post from May 30th, your local 225 said that "the album is coming along nicely", and they hoped to release it "by the end of 2025", but Greg has since adjusted the timeframe to "early 2026" when mentioning it during live shows. While singer/drummer Greg Simpson did release an EP with his old band Stiffler's Mom, it's hard to compare the release methods and schedule given that "The Demo" came out in 2004.  It is neat to see that Greg, Alex, and Warren are going all in on a studio album, and stay tuned for updates as they roll in!

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Chase James Wigmore - The Chaotic Rite

Rumoured Songs: "The Cities Alive & It's Angry"

Background: Ever the prolific artist & songwriter, local folk punk/extreme metal musician Chase Wigmore has been working on an extensive rock opera for years (once claimed to be a 33 part work), originally named "A Story About A Kid Named Todd". Worked on in between his other unrelated solo albums, released for sale or otherwise, Chase posted a lengthy elaboration of the rock opera in 2022, now titled "The Chaotic Rite", outlining its concept, recording plans, and long-term release timeline. Clips of songs have surfaced on his Facebook page, as have full songs not explicitly tied to the album, as well as the final artwork. In more recent promotion, Chase has hinted that "The Chaotic Rite" might be his final solo album as part of aims to focus on his personal life more than his prolific original material. Regardless, the final product has been pared down to 25-30 minutes.

Current Release Status: Chase elaborated on Facebook in mid-2024 that the album was 95% done earlier that year when the files "got trapped on my desktop's hard drive", and he had been unable to procure a backup of the material or recover the files as of that post. In any event, three of the full songs uploaded to Facebook in 2023 were clarified as not being planned for "The Chaotic Rite", but they could surface on a separate EP. Fingers crossed that Chase is able to save this album and put it out when able, especially given the years that he's put into the making of it!

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Convergence - In Bloom

Rumoured Songs: "Gemini", "In Bloom", "Breaking News", "It Ate The F&$%ing Moon", "Kraken Mara", "You Are Not Flesh", "The Ebb"

Background: Just over a month after releasing their sophomore EP "Dead And Dreaming", local progressive metal band Convergence announced in February 2024 that EP #3 would be named "Gemini", with its cover artwork being released at the same time. Teaser clips of most songs from the EP were posted on their Facebook page and their YouTube channel throughout much of 2024, but most prior media was wiped as they retooled as a full band, now including singer Stephen Gagnon-Ruscio and drummer David Peredun. Convergence worked in studio last year with producer Dustin Goodall at Unsalted Audio, documenting the sessions in Facebook "Reels", eventually confirming in concert that the EP (now named "In Bloom") is still in progress. Live versions of early instrumentals (now with vocals) have also been played in their early sets. A new version of "The Ebb" (first seen on their 2023 EP "One") was released to streaming services on Christmas Day.

Current Release Status: No clue, and given the complexity of their music yet their independent studio trappings so far, that could bode a quick or lengthy timeline for "In Bloom" to come out, depending on what angle you take. Since their modern studio cycle commenced in 2023, things have been relatively steady for Brendan and Jake as a recording act, and here's hoping that Convergence keep that up for their third offering! 

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Fort Creek's debut album

Rumoured Songs: "One For The Road", "Sweet Rosie"

Background: Background: Local southern/hard rock band Fort Creek have sporadically teased plans to record an EP since February 2020, but they wouldn't release any samples until almost two years later when they shared (now-deleted) clips of their original song "Hammer Down" on their Facebook page. The guys would play it regularly at concerts from 2022-2023, with studio sessions taking place in early-mid 2023 as well. After the departure of bassist Robin "Bones" Lee and drummer Anthony Fabiano in the fall of 2023, Fort Creek opted to abandon material recorded with them "as a show of good faith", and have been working on new material and rebuilding their studio over the past two years. Now featuring Phil Greco on drums, their first single (the acoustic "One For The Road") was posted online in January, with the band confirming plans to now record a 10 song album at Jettison Studios prior to returning to live concerts. Their new single "Sweet Rosie" was being recorded as of August 31st, and a teaser of the song was posted to their Facebook page on New Year's Eve.

Current Release Status: Prior release timelines for their debut EP reflected their early 2020s lineup's material, and Justin, Shane, Bill, and Phil have largely kept things somewhat close to the vest prior to putting out "One For The Road". There are a lot of unknowns, especially given the 5+ years of production time and their decision to basically start over in 2023, and that this is a band that was primarily known for their work on the weekend cover circuit before their rhythm section left. It will be interesting to see how things develop, so stay tuned for updates!

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I hope you guys liked this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post! This series will return on or around March 2nd, while our next monthly feature post will be this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next week. That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS this week! Thanks everyone!