LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Nudge & Hammerspace), Concert Updates, And The SMS On Reverbnation!!

We're kicking off February in style with a packed news post, including possible upcoming concert, an official lineup change for another upcoming show, and a big SMS related story, but first, here's a bunch of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!!!

Marquette hard rockers Nudge have announced TEN more local dates this year at The Satisfied Frog! A frequent sight locally, Nudge will be back at The Frog for Friday and Saturday shows THIS WEEKEND, April 29th-30th, August 5th-6th, September 23rd-24th, and November 11th and 12th! Each show will be preceded by a Thursday solo acoustic set by frontman Danzo McCracken, so if you're interested in chilling out with some acoustic rock, head to The Frog on the Thursdays before the above dates! Incidentally, thanks to Danzo for telling me about these concerts, as my usual source for their shows (their MySpace page) isn't updated. However, their full concert schedule is listed on their Reverbnation page, so there's a good online source! Looks like all of the above dates have 10:00 PM start times with 21+ age limits, and there is no announced cover charge for any of the above shows. For more details, check out all of the above links! Nudge are a talented hard rock band with good handles on their material, and they're absolutely worth checking out, first and foremost, THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY! I'll keep you all posted!

The other absolutely confirmed new concerts that I know of are also in Sault Michigan, courtesy of local metal quartet Hammerspace! You hopefully already know about their backup slot at THURSDAY'S Half A Man show at The Bird, but thanks to their new Reverbnation page, I can confirm an additional two concerts for the band in Sault Michigan at two venues we don't see too many concerts for. One will take place on February 10th (one week from Thursday) at Zim's, which is a relatively newer local concert spot on Ashmun Street that has hosted Hammerspace before at concerts we regrettably missed here. Two days later, they'll return to The Merchant's Bar on Spruce Street for another night of metal! This is a another venue that is slightly new to the SMS, but they have a good following and is well known in the area, so you never know what shows could pop up there either! Of course, with either venue, shows have proven hard to source, so let me know if you hear of anything going on there! Both shows appear to have 10:00 PM start times, 21+ age limits, and no announced cover charge. Check the above links for more details!

Sounds good, but before I move on to another topic, I should add a couple more Hammerspace notes. A day or so ago, the band officially launched a new Facebook page to replace their now deleted old page, and with their new presence on Reverbnation as linked above, I can confirm a few new band details! Guitarist John Bergeron is officially singing for the band now as well, officially replacing Kirk Labadie in that position. Their Reverbnation page confirms that they formed in late 2009, and that Half A Man guitarist Denny Breslin was briefly a band member as well. No mention is made of their past singers either. Three songs were posted on Reverbnation as well, but all are instrumentals. Good promising stuff though, they're heavy charging tracks that sound like they'd be pretty good in concert! Check out their pages, and stay tuned for updates on their show on Thursday, as part of the fourth annual I-500 Pub Crawl!

Speaking of the I-500 Pub Crawl, I have an additional update related to that event to kick off this paragraph of concert updates for this week. Now if you don't know, the Thursday before the annual I-500 snowmobile race in Sault Michigan is the famous I-500 Pub Crawl, where concertgoers, social drinkers, and I-500 fans can crawl area bars and have a blast! Concerts tend to pop up at some of the bars at "Pub500", and one looks like it will feature Charlevoix metal trio Peril! The band confirmed on their Facebook page they'd be playing in Sault Michigan this Thursday, but they have yet to announce or confirm a venue. Common wisdom would suggest a return to The Rapids Lounge at Kewadin Casino, where they'll be hitting at least six times this year, but until they confirm it either way, I won't list it as an official concert on here. Stay tuned though!

The other concert update that I have relates to another Thursday concert, this one being the next metal night at The Roosevelt Hotel! State of Misery are now confirmed as the replacements for Bring The Fallen, who dropped off of the show yesterday. Solid choice for a band, hopefully the short notice won't affect their performance! They'll join Desbarats death metal band For All That Is Lost and locals The Bear Hunters for this heavy night of death metal on Thursday! Stay tuned for more details in our upcoming concert preview post!

And finally, I have news on a brand new SMS page, and honestly, we should have been on here years ago. I'd like to officially announced that The Sault Metal Scene is now on Reverbnation! With the growth of local usage of Reverbnation in recent years, it only made sense for us to have a presence there, especially with some people's arguments that it's better than MySpace for band pages. I find it's easier to get concert news there, a number of prominent local bands are there now, and it has some cool advantages for bands and musicians, like online stores, press boxes, and the ability to get material on external pay music sites. For us, I don't know if we'll prominently update and focus on it as much as I'd like, but Reverbnation is still largely unknown to me as a "member", so I have to check around and see what all it offers and what we can do through there. I'll update you guys as to what we do next on and with Reverbnation, but I've officially "liked" a number of bands there, and I hope to get an audience going over there, so click here to check our page out, like it, add it, whatever you want to do!

That's all for tonight, but stay tuned tomorrow for our latest "Where Are The New Albums?" post! And remember, our draw for the $20 Rad Zone gift card ends TOMORROW NIGHT AT 8:00 PM! Click here, scroll to our contest status from January 26th, and add your name A.S.A.P. to enter if you haven't already! We randomly draw a name at 8:00 PM sharp tomorrow for the gift card, so stay tuned to our official Facebook page to see if you won! Thanks everyone, and good luck!