So firstly, after a quick detour to Galaxy Cinemas to get my ticket for The Big Four (See you guys on June 22nd!), it was off to The Oddfellows Hall for Downtown Showdown, my first concert there in 14 months! It felt like the good old days again, back when I was a short haired teenager off to see Gates of Winter. No really, Lee Maines and Brian Holmes were there volunteering and doing sound! Nice to see them again, but you know me, I wanna see Gates back! The Sault Youth Association were pulling out all the stops, they were selling lots of refreshments, including pizza (if it wasn't Mrs. B's, it was a close facsimile), and they also had the raffle for the Future Shop gift certificate too that many people entered! The judging panel featured SYA members and, much to my surprise, Len Ward from Turner Up and The Rad Zone! Slow to get going though, but when it did, we could feel it, as Bring The Fallen were first up!
This was my first time seeing Bring The Fallen live in three months, and luckily, they're as brutal as ever! They played their originals "Defiling Despondence" and "Stand Before", along with a new original named "Nostalgia", and all were really good! Fast, heavy, and quite moshable, I saw people getting pits going! And yes, they only played three songs, that was the limit for each band. Seemed short to me, but I enjoyed what I heard! Josh Stephney gave his all for the show, you know how I could tell? In the photos I took, his face is very red, but it was worth it, he looked like he was enjoying himself! Brutal death growls, gotta love them! Andrew Chiarello and Dan Souliere continue to impress on guitar, I love Andrew's solos and Dan holds the rhythm well! He should use his backing vocals more though, he's got decent pipes! Bassist Nolan Rainville was absent, thanks to a trip up north, so Mike Kyle (formerly of O.B.C.D.) filled in on bass, and he held his own! And of course, Travis St. Amour was great on drums, I think he's underrated locally! Bring The Fallen sure kicked things off with a bang, and to me, it didn't sound far fetched for these talented young musicians to win their third battle out of four entered!Local "no-genre" band The Fury were next, and you can tell they're popular cause the crowd seemed to double when they hit the stage! And the mosh pit was at it's peak for them too! Paul Stanghetta sure has a lot of energy vocally and on the bass, and sometimes, you can't really tell that there's no guitar, you just get into the music! Very unique and talented young band, they're well worth seeing live for one of their full sets, even if they're not really metal! Where else are you going to find a band with two bassists, no guitarist, and lots of energy?
After them, we witnessed the second live set from local experimental hard rock band SBD, and for my first time seeing them, it was a mixture of nostalgia and enjoyment! Nostalgia for No Arrow (great seeing Dann Pichette on stage again) and enjoyment for their weird, yet heavy and catchy tunes! They played an instrumental, "Ess", as well as "It Just Won't Work" and another song (I think it was "Pow! Right In The Kisser", correct me if I'm wrong.) "It Just Won't Work" was my favourite of the three, I love how they switch from slow and bouncy to fast and relentless like someone flipped a switch! Luckily, they retained much of The Fury's crowd and got some huge pits going themselves! Though I know they don't like being compared to No Arrow, they have more resemblances than they let on, and that's not a bad thing to say! Dann Pichette and Brad Griffith have good styles, raw and heavy, but not afraid to try things, and Shane Triplett was great on drums himself! It's not the type of highly refined music that the judges may have been drawn to, but it's just entertaining hard rock, that's what I expected! I hope to see a full set of theirs soon!After revealing who won the Future Shop gift certificate (no luck on my end), it was time for the last band! Ending the battle were local indie band The Tenagens, and I do appreciate their musical talent, they play their instruments very well and appeared to love being on stage! Unique seeing Pat Bonne on keyboards too, you don't see much of that locally anymore! But I have to be honest, they weren't really my thing. They're talented to be sure, but you know me, I'm a metalhead! But The Tenagens did good, and they kept the crowd for the most part! The musical portion of the battle ended there, and after some thank yous to involved workers, we learned who won and in what order. So here is the final placement of the competing bands:
1st place: Bring The Fallen
2nd place: The Fury
3rd place: The Tenagens
4th place: SBD
They won the YMCA battle last March, the Algoma University battle in December, and now they're the champions of Downtown Showdown! Bring The Fallen have won their third battle of the bands out of the four they've entered (only losing the Kiss battle!) And they definitely deserved it, they're great young musicians that put their all into their songs! I agree with the order for the most part, except for SBD placing last. I'm not trying to put the other bands down at all, but I'd have at least given SBD third, maybe second! But hey, everyone's tastes are different. The SYA didn't announce prize details online, so I only heard about them last night when they were announced, so I'm 100% missing things, but I can tell you that Bring The Fallen will be on the cover of a future issue of The Fresh Magazine, and have won a photo shoot and lots of gift cards! The Fury and The Tenagens also won Future Shop gift cards, photo shoots, and Fresh Magazine articles on them, not sure if SBD won anything though. Also, thanks for the free pizza after, that was nice of them to give what wasn't sold to everyone!
Overall, Downtown Showdown was fun while it lasted, although limiting each band to three songs really took away from the experience. I'd have given them a couple more each to help make up for the fact that there was only four bands! But hey, it was free, what more do you want? The music was good, the experience of an Oddfellows show was in full force, and there were lots of familiar faces, be they from bands or not! Hopefully there's another battle of the bands soon, cause these are always fun to hit! And yes, I took pictures, so click here or visit The Sault Metal Scene on Facebook to check them out! Sorry for the lack of them (not much time to take lots) and the quality (the lighting was no help.) And yes, there are videos! I got SBD playing "Ess" and Bring The Fallen playing "Stand Before", check them out below!
So with Downtown Showdown ending at around 9:30 PM, there was plenty of time to get to The Canadian in time for Hells Bells! Part of me was still bummed that Phatstick got cancelled (which I can now verify was due to the pre-summer renovations), but at least I had a backup plan! I'm coming to realize something though: When a band plays there that isn't a typical three-set local "bar band", and they say 10:00 PM as the start time, they mean 11:00 PM. Still, I was able to kill time playing Ms. Pac-Man and Arkanoid in The Knights Inn lobby while I waited! When Hells Bells took the stage finally, they were instantly impressive! They really did sound like AC/DC, and at least on the part of the singer and guitarist, they looked it too! If you looked quickly, I wouldn't blame you for thinking that it was really Brian Johnson and Angus Young, they looked the part even more than Who Made Who did! The rest of the members didn't look like Malcolm, Cliff, and Phil, but as long as Brian and Angus are covered, most fans don't mind. They covered almost ever major AC/DC classic, along with a couple surprises like "Sink The Pink" and "Rocker"! I'd have liked to have heard "Let There Be Rock" and "Rock n' Roll Train", but no worries!
The singer really did sound the part of Brian Johnson.....at first. In the second set (following a lengthy break), he really seemed to overdo it. I don't know if he was overcompensating for something or just excited, but he was singing way too hard and missing some things in the process. The lead guitarist had Angus down pat though, he had all the motions spot on! The duck walk, the stepping in place, the schoolboy outfit, the spinning on the floor, he did it all! The rest of the band were solid too, my biggest gripe from them was the backing vocals, definitely not up to speed with what I was hoping! Some nice additional touches though, like the horned baseball hat that "Angus" wore, prerecorded bells and cannons for "Hells Bells" and "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)", and "Brian" had some great onstage banter with the crowd! Also, it should be noted that Hells Bells take requests, which is a great touch! More tribute bands should do that, it's just a shame that the crowd wasn't as good as the one for Who Made Who at The Canadian last year.
Last time out, there were tons of fans, mostly 30 and up, dancing and enjoying themselves! This time, most people sat down and drank, no one got on the floor until the last few songs, but at least this time, the crowd was younger, I didn't feel so out of place! Even with my complaints, I had fun, you've gotta love AC/DC, and a tribute band is the next best thing to seeing them live! They, for the most part, had the sound accurately placed, and they looked like they were having a blast, crowd activity notwithstanding. Always a good time, hopefully Hells Bells are back soon, cause they're at least as good as Who Made Who, though both have points better or worse than the other! I got photos, but just to note something, they're not really close to the band or in detail because I didn't want to be "that guy". You know, that guy that wanders around in front of the stage taking photos and blocking everyone's view. I don't wanna turn into that, so I just took pictures where I knew I wouldn't be in anyone's way. Click here or visit The Sault Metal Scene on Facebook to check them out, and here's the video I shot, of Hells Bells playing the AC/DC classic "Shoot To Thrill"!
So there are my reviews! That's all I have for today, I will have a new news/updates post by Tuesday, though in all likelihood, May will have at least one more update! Remember, Turner Up are playing live in Sault Ontario and Orange October are in Sault Michigan, hopefully you guys can make it out to one of them! Myself, I'll be at Sault Area Wrestling, so if you like that, I'll see you there! Stay tuned for more news, updates, and other interesting stuff on the SMS!
2nd place: The Fury
3rd place: The Tenagens
4th place: SBD
They won the YMCA battle last March, the Algoma University battle in December, and now they're the champions of Downtown Showdown! Bring The Fallen have won their third battle of the bands out of the four they've entered (only losing the Kiss battle!) And they definitely deserved it, they're great young musicians that put their all into their songs! I agree with the order for the most part, except for SBD placing last. I'm not trying to put the other bands down at all, but I'd have at least given SBD third, maybe second! But hey, everyone's tastes are different. The SYA didn't announce prize details online, so I only heard about them last night when they were announced, so I'm 100% missing things, but I can tell you that Bring The Fallen will be on the cover of a future issue of The Fresh Magazine, and have won a photo shoot and lots of gift cards! The Fury and The Tenagens also won Future Shop gift cards, photo shoots, and Fresh Magazine articles on them, not sure if SBD won anything though. Also, thanks for the free pizza after, that was nice of them to give what wasn't sold to everyone!Overall, Downtown Showdown was fun while it lasted, although limiting each band to three songs really took away from the experience. I'd have given them a couple more each to help make up for the fact that there was only four bands! But hey, it was free, what more do you want? The music was good, the experience of an Oddfellows show was in full force, and there were lots of familiar faces, be they from bands or not! Hopefully there's another battle of the bands soon, cause these are always fun to hit! And yes, I took pictures, so click here or visit The Sault Metal Scene on Facebook to check them out! Sorry for the lack of them (not much time to take lots) and the quality (the lighting was no help.) And yes, there are videos! I got SBD playing "Ess" and Bring The Fallen playing "Stand Before", check them out below!
So with Downtown Showdown ending at around 9:30 PM, there was plenty of time to get to The Canadian in time for Hells Bells! Part of me was still bummed that Phatstick got cancelled (which I can now verify was due to the pre-summer renovations), but at least I had a backup plan! I'm coming to realize something though: When a band plays there that isn't a typical three-set local "bar band", and they say 10:00 PM as the start time, they mean 11:00 PM. Still, I was able to kill time playing Ms. Pac-Man and Arkanoid in The Knights Inn lobby while I waited! When Hells Bells took the stage finally, they were instantly impressive! They really did sound like AC/DC, and at least on the part of the singer and guitarist, they looked it too! If you looked quickly, I wouldn't blame you for thinking that it was really Brian Johnson and Angus Young, they looked the part even more than Who Made Who did! The rest of the members didn't look like Malcolm, Cliff, and Phil, but as long as Brian and Angus are covered, most fans don't mind. They covered almost ever major AC/DC classic, along with a couple surprises like "Sink The Pink" and "Rocker"! I'd have liked to have heard "Let There Be Rock" and "Rock n' Roll Train", but no worries!
The singer really did sound the part of Brian Johnson.....at first. In the second set (following a lengthy break), he really seemed to overdo it. I don't know if he was overcompensating for something or just excited, but he was singing way too hard and missing some things in the process. The lead guitarist had Angus down pat though, he had all the motions spot on! The duck walk, the stepping in place, the schoolboy outfit, the spinning on the floor, he did it all! The rest of the band were solid too, my biggest gripe from them was the backing vocals, definitely not up to speed with what I was hoping! Some nice additional touches though, like the horned baseball hat that "Angus" wore, prerecorded bells and cannons for "Hells Bells" and "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)", and "Brian" had some great onstage banter with the crowd! Also, it should be noted that Hells Bells take requests, which is a great touch! More tribute bands should do that, it's just a shame that the crowd wasn't as good as the one for Who Made Who at The Canadian last year.
Last time out, there were tons of fans, mostly 30 and up, dancing and enjoying themselves! This time, most people sat down and drank, no one got on the floor until the last few songs, but at least this time, the crowd was younger, I didn't feel so out of place! Even with my complaints, I had fun, you've gotta love AC/DC, and a tribute band is the next best thing to seeing them live! They, for the most part, had the sound accurately placed, and they looked like they were having a blast, crowd activity notwithstanding. Always a good time, hopefully Hells Bells are back soon, cause they're at least as good as Who Made Who, though both have points better or worse than the other! I got photos, but just to note something, they're not really close to the band or in detail because I didn't want to be "that guy". You know, that guy that wanders around in front of the stage taking photos and blocking everyone's view. I don't wanna turn into that, so I just took pictures where I knew I wouldn't be in anyone's way. Click here or visit The Sault Metal Scene on Facebook to check them out, and here's the video I shot, of Hells Bells playing the AC/DC classic "Shoot To Thrill"!So there are my reviews! That's all I have for today, I will have a new news/updates post by Tuesday, though in all likelihood, May will have at least one more update! Remember, Turner Up are playing live in Sault Ontario and Orange October are in Sault Michigan, hopefully you guys can make it out to one of them! Myself, I'll be at Sault Area Wrestling, so if you like that, I'll see you there! Stay tuned for more news, updates, and other interesting stuff on the SMS!
There is a reason why the crowd doubled when the fury came on.There is a reason why they are wildly popular. Sooner or later people will realize. But knowing them and the way they are, seeing the crowd double when they came on after bring the fallen was "The" victory for them. I was there and I saw it. The crowd is everything to these guys, they are there for their fans, they care about their music and their fans. It also looks like you are starting to like them "even though they are not metal"...... Overall it was a great show and like you said Sault youth Association pulled out all the stops. All the bands were great, too bad there is not more shows like this (free admission and great bands) Congrats to Bring the Fallen, they were great!!!
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