LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Crued & Orange October), Rotaryfest Info, And More!

It's news time! I've missed a lot over the past week, but now we can work towards getting you all caught up once again, and kicking things off today are some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!!! And if you notice something missing, no worries, that's coming in an upcoming post too!

Firstly, this should interest fans of a major band that's been here before! Crued, The World's Number One Tribute To Motley Crue are coming here in a couple weeks! Based out of Toronto, Crued have a really cool stage setup and costumes identical to most eras of Motley Crue's storied history (They'll be rocking 2006 "Saints of Los Angeles"-era gear for this show), and they have the sound to back it up! So if you wanna rock out to some live Crue hits, you'll wanna be where? The Canadian Nightclub! When? May 1st, and I apologize for the short notice of the show, it's not well advertised locally. A start time of 10:30 PM is listed, and bring cash too for a cover, cause I doubt it's free! And yes, it's 19+. For more details, visit this location to confirm your attendance! They definitely have the goods, I'll sadly be out of town when they're playing this show, but hopefully there's a good turnout! For more information on Crued, and to check out some of their versions of Motley Crue classics, check out their official MySpace page!

The other new shows I have are courtesy of a Michigan band that are finally coming back up here for shows! Muskegon hard rockers Orange October are finally back in Sault Michigan for a pair of weekend shows next month! I don't think they've been here since, at the latest, early last year, so it's been a long time coming! They'll be playing at The Satisfied Frog on the last weekend of the month, playing there on Friday, May 28th and Saturday, May 29th! Start times of 10:00 PM are given on their MySpace page, and knowing shows at The Frog, there shouldn't be a cover. These should be fun shows, especially for those of you that miss Orange October! Solid accessible hard rock, really catchy too, I like Brian Swisher's vocals! Click on the above links for more info on Orange October, hopefully some of you can make it out!

On a personal note, that weekend with the Orange October shows is the last weekend where I'll be under American drinking age. So close and yet so far!

Now for a handful more news stories (And don't you worry, there's more later this weekend!) Starting things off is more info on Sault Ontario's longest running music festival, Rotaryfest! No word on metal bands on the main stage, but here's something that could apply to the metalheads of the area! For a sixth straight year, Rotaryfest is putting on The Tenaris Second Stage as part of this year's music festivities, where Square 1 of Queen Street East will once again be shut down, and local acts will hit the stage there to rock downtown! This year, the Second Stage will be on July 1st from 1:00 PM until midnight, and who's playing? We don't know, and that's where you guys come in! As always, the open call's out for bands of any genre to send in entries to possibly be added to this year's Rotaryfest lineup, and maybe YOU will be on the Second Stage this year!

If you'd like to play in this year's Rotaryfest, here's what you need: You need a professionally released CD (or mp3 files of it if you're submitting online), with at least three good quality original songs that you own the copyright for. You also need a press packet with a band biography, a good quality photograph of the band, links to internet websites/pages/videos, and optional press clippings. Preference will be given to bands with released or planned pro-quality material. If you are interested in compiling all this to submit to Rotaryfest for consideration for a spot on the Second Stage, you can submit it two ways: Online by clicking here (might be easier, if you want my advice), or by mailing it all to this address:

Tenaris Second Stage selection committee
c/o The Rotary Club of Sault Ste. Marie
364 Queen Street East
Sault Ste. Marie, ON
P6A 1Z1

Keep in mind that any CDs, photos, press clippings, or papers that you send to Rotaryfest will NOT be returned to you, for whatever reason, so keep that in mind. The deadline to submit your entries is MAY 7TH, so get on that if you want to play at Rotaryfest! More info can be found at SooToday's article on the Second Stage, and if you have questions, e-mail ken.desaulnier@shaw.ca with them! Hopefully this year's Rotaryfest is a blast, though I was curious as to the lack of metal last year. Rotaryfest has hosted prominent metal bands in the past, like Gates of Winter and Stillbroke (you can see pics of them on the Second Stage front page) yet last year we were completely dry for it. So come on metalheads, send entries in! And even if there's no metal, it should be a fun festival, it always is, bring the family out and enjoy yourselves!

And finally for today, I can scratch a local metal CD off of my wish list, as I am now in the possession of The Harsh Heads' lone disc, "First Hated Then Forgotten"! Recorded as cassette demos way back in 1994, the songs never found an actual release until 2005 when copies were made into CDs and distributed locally! Prominently featuring Destroilet/Billy Bastards mainman John Conway and his Billys bandmate Aaron Gibbs on drums, they were a prominent fixture in the local punk/metal scene in the early-mid 1990s as teenagers, and their album is pretty good stuff, nice punk/thrash sound, fast and unrelentless! And I give HUGE thanks to John's Destroilet bandmate Christian Foisy for helping hook me up with the mp3s from the album, and I was able to get the liner notes from The Harsh Heads' MySpace page, so all is well on that front! Thanks Chris!

So now that I have the album, I'll tell you guys this much: There WILL be a review of "First Hated But Forgotten" in the coming months, and I have uploaded the whole album to YouTube! All 13 songs are now streamable on The Sault Metal Scene's YouTube channel, along with a little bonus: The early '90s public access TV interview with guitarists Hugh Merz & Bob Bromley Jr. that was only previously available on Photobucket! NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT OR ILL WILL IS MEANT IN UPLOADING THE ALBUM OR THE INTERVIEW ONTO YOUTUBE! This is great stuff that the world should see, because the more exposure it gets, the better! I'll link you guys to the first track on "First Hated Then Forgotten", entitled "Violence", but click here to check out the rest of this album that shouldn't be forgotten!



That's all for now, but here's what's coming up on The Sault Metal Scene! Tomorrow, there will be my profiles of two more out of town bands with local members (Levitate and Necramyth), while Sunday will have both my review of the Garden of Bedlam fundraiser tomorrow night (I AM GOING!) and all kinds of stuff pertaining to the SMS poll! And yes, somewhere in there, there will be a news post with some more exciting news! Stay tuned everyone, there's much more coming!

(P.S. Does ANYONE have the As It Stands, Foothill Road, or Infrastrate albums?! How hard is it to find them? I am willing to reasonably pay for copies, and will take mp3s and album scans if need be!!!)