Saturday, April 3, 2010

SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Turner Up) And My Garden of Bedlam/Half Past Concert Review!!

Hey everyone, I can FINALLY get this post online now that the internet in town is restored (hopefully I wasn't alone in dealing with that incovenience.) I have my review of last night's Garden of Bedlam/Half Past concert, but first, here's a VERY SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!

Yes, once again, Turner Up have a short notice concert, though I admittedly am slightly at fault here, cause I heard about it yesterday. But I wanted to wait for more stuff for a full post, and I couldn't predict that Shaw internet would cut out for 12+ hours. So if you're not going to see Destroyer or Kilacel tonight, here's another option! Turner Up will be at Foggy Notions TONIGHT for what they're calling a "benefit for alcoholism". And by that, they mean if you buy them some alcohol, you help support their alcoholism! Got to love a band with a sense of humour, huh? They're scheduled to take the stage at 10:30 PM tonight at Foggy's, I'd expect a cover charge of around $2, but it hasn't been publicly announced. Get full details at the official Facebook event page! Should be a fun concert, so why not head down there? Remember, it's TONIGHT! For a preview, here's a video of their cover of the Wild Cherry song "Play That Funky Music" from their show last weekend at The Canadian Nightclub, thanks to YouTube user neckthroughbody for the upload! And remember, their heaviest stuff is in their last set, so don't be discouraged by this clip, and it's still pretty good!



And now, finally, my review of last night's Garden of Bedlam concert! I'm never this late for posting a review in general, but hey, I can't predict internet issues. Bit of a wait to get things going, but when Half Past hit the stage as openers, we were ready! Another impressive set by Half Past, I enjoyed their brand of hard rock! Their set mostly comprised of covers from bands like Godsmack, Alice In Chains, System of a Down, and Incubus, though they also broke out three originals! "Dead Again" and "War Inside My Head" we've heard before, but they closed their set with a brand new, never before played original named "One More Day", which sounded pretty good! Nice and heavy, I wonder what everyone else thought? Frontman Luke LeBlanc continues to impress as a frontman, I think he could make a good radio DJ, with his entertaining on-stage banter! The rest of the band also impressed, really like Arthur Lacasse's bass work, though I do miss him on guitar! Al Fletcher was hitting some great notes and solos on guitar, and Chris Thompson's hurt wrist wasn't evident at all, he drummed awesome! If I had complaints, it'd be this: Their set flew by too quickly, and no one got up to the front of the stage! Still, a fun opening set, here's hoping they're back soon!

Following them was your headliners, Garden of Bedlam, in what will be their last concert before they hit the studio (barring the rescheduled Garden River fundraiser), and they were AMAZING! I haven't headbanged that much for one band in a few months! Thankfully people got up to the front of the stage for them, so I could too, I never wanna be the guy standing by himself at the front blocking the view from others. They played a 12 song set, including all the songs on their debut E.P. (Buzz gave out some free copies to the crowd), 6 new originals to be featured on their full length debut, and Tool, Disturbed, and Deftones covers! (The latter was their encore.) Of the originals, I really like "New Rain" and "Torment" a hell of a lot, the latter of which gets especially heavy! No sell-out worries for the new album, it will be heavy and you'll love it!

The band were on top form, and I really do believe that Buzz's singing gets more and more impressive to me the more I see them live! He can hit some awesome notes, and the falsetto screams he hits are really something! Josh Belleau continues to impress on guitar, trust me when I saw some of the solos on new songs will really grab your attention! Evan Belleau and Derek Turner, I have no complaints for, they were both great as well! Awesome musicians all around, and great energy too, especially when Buzz and Josh jumped to the floor to rock out with the fans! Also, I really liked the lighting setup and the smoke machine! I don't know if that was a Canadian, Crank Sound, or band deal, but it added to the environment! Small crowd compared to some of their more recent shows, but I chalk that up to the holiday weekend more than anything. The fans that were there loved every second of it!

Overall, an awesome concert, even if the celebrations of their new website weren't pushed too much, but make sure to check it out at http://www.gardenofbedlam.com! Don't worry, while they're absent from the live stage, they'll be working on their awesome full length debut, so it will all be worth it! It was an awesome show, one of my favourites so far this year, and next time we see them in Sault Ste. Marie, the fruits of their labour will be ready for us to check out! As you can tell, I got photos, click here to check out my pictures, or visit the SMS on Facebook! And I of course got video, and you can check out my clips of Half Past's "War Inside My Head" and Garden of Bedlam's "New Rain" below! Oh, and expect much better quality video than this soon, as the guys from CML Productions were filming there last night too!





And finally to cap off today's post, a new review of Woods of Ypres' latest release "Woods IV: The Green Album" is now online! It's by Tyler Munro of Sputnik Music, and he gave the album 3.5 out of 5! It's a mostly positive review, he says the musical content may be the band's best yet, but he criticizes the lyrics pretty harshly. I think he's only focusing on a couple songs, I thought the lyrics were good or better on most songs, but I can see his angle. Still, it's a positive review, check it out at this location! That's all for now, sorry again for the lateness of this post, things will get back to normal soon! Remember, stay tuned this week for a preview of Wednesday's Sykotyk Rampage concert, my review of Integrated System of Machine's debut album, and more!

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