Tons Of Assorted News About Kiss And/Or Battles Of The Bands!

I said my next post would likely be another assemblage of news, and I was right! This all has something to do with either Kiss or one of last week's battles of the bands (or both), and hopefully we'll be mostly caught up with local metal news now! Let's start with an update to the Kiss ticket situation!

Frank Dobrovnik from The Sault Star has wrote an article entitled "Odds still good you can get KISS tickets", which is about exactly what the title says! Just 10 days to go until Kiss (and Garden of Bedlam) rock The Essar Center, and there's still hope for you Kiss fans who have yet to get a ticket! According to Essar Center events manager Trevor Zachary, Kiss' concert promoters AEG Live are still holding extra tickets, and may release more to the public before the show. Zachary expects tickets to be released from their hold (this happens at most major concerts anyway), and he says the secret is for fans to be vigilant and never give up trying to get tickets through The Essar Center's box office or website! Well, we did see extra tickets released earlier in the week, so there must be something to this! I have my ticket, but if I was among those of you guys without one, I'd be trying all the time too! Check out the article at this location!

Now that that's out of the way, let's go from Kiss to the Kiss Battle of the Bands! And we have another video up from the battle, and just like the Nixxon Dixxon video I posted yesterday, we have another clip online from the Tuesday part of the battle! It features the set from local hard rock band Stillbroke, who played their self titled song and "Never Enough" that night! It was filmed by frontman Jesse Frigault's mother Laurie, who was near me during the filming (Me and my broken camera can be seen sometimes on the right of the clip!) The video description also has some critical comments about the sound for their set and the band not being allowed to have their normal stage arrangement, but I still enjoyed their set, and the video is good quality! The video has been uploaded on Stillbroke's YouTube channel, so check it out there, and right here! (Oh, and I forgot to mention, I wore my Stillbroke shirt to the finals on Wednesday!)



Here's three more quick news items coming out of the Kiss Battle! First, photographer Curt O'Neil has taken some AWESOME quality photos of Lion Ride's two performances at the battle, and these are rivalling Donna Hopper's on quality! The one I'm showing here has a cameo from some guy in the crowd on the far right, he can't be that important. But the band itself, amazing shots of from all angles! Check out Curt's photos at this location! Mikey Hawdon told me that Curt also took pics of Garden of Bedlam, so keep an eye out for those if you see them pop up online!

Also, Dirty Virgin have announced that Richard "Dicki" Blackstock is their new drummer, and we of course saw him make his live debut Monday night at the Kiss battle! I don't recall him in any previous local bands, but he did great with only a day to learn the songs! My source is the band's Facebook group. Also, in the wake of their close finishes in the battle, I've heard from a couple people that Rock 101 were either playing or interested in playing Garden of Bedlam and Lion Ride on the station! Well, I'll do my part to help get them some well deserved airplay on Rock 101, so call 759-9193 if you live in Sault Ontario, or 632-2231 if you live in Sault Michigan to request either Garden of Bedlam or Lion Ride on Rock 101! We need more local bands on the radio as it is, let's help give these two awesome groups some support!

And now we transition from one battle of the bands to another, as I've found out a few more details from the Battle of the Bands at The Speakeasy from last Tuesday night! According to a recent article on SooNews.ca, that battle raised $576 for The United Way, which is great! Sadly, only 65 people shown up, but going up against the Kiss battle with only 4 bands and an honestly lesser prize, how could it get a huge crowd? Still would have been cool to hit, and seeing Bring The Fallen win is awesome! Besides the top prize of opening for The Inner City Surfers on the 22nd (still need official confirmation of that show) and the $300 cash prize, Bring The Fallen also won a $100 gift certificate to Joey Calzones', a $25 gift certificate for Case's Music, and 4 more hours of recording time! The Fury & RedD Monkey (who placed 2nd and 3rd) also won Boston Pizza gift certificates of $50 and $25 each along with their normal cash prizes! Nice to hear more details about it, check out the full article at this location!

That's all for now, my next post will definitely be a review of TONIGHT'S Garden of Bedlam concert at Madison's Pub! $5 cover, 11:00 PM tonight, it'll be the band's official celebration on winning the Kiss battle, so you know they'll be pumped tonight! I'll be there, hopefully you will be too! Confirm your attendance at this location! Thanks everyone, stay tuned for my review!