Saigon Hookers Concert Review & Half A Man Updates!!

Hey guys, I'm back from last night's Saigon Hookers concert at The Rockstar Bar, so how'd it go! I will tell you in this review, followed by some new updates from Half A Man! I regrettably got to the show late, so I probably missed half of Brad Example & The Role Models' set, but I made a point to rush there when I finally left to see what I could! Fittingly, they were covering Black Sabbath's "The Wizard" when I arrived, which was cool! The band's lineup looked mostly the same as they did in March when I last saw them, although the drummer may have been different (don't quote me though.) Musically, what I saw was about as good as The Role Models' March show, with Brad Example making the most of his grittier punk singing, and Dave Bahun was as good as ever on lead guitar! Again, I wish Marco Pedalino had more lead time, but I'm only judging by what I saw. Decent sized crowd cheering them on, and they deserved it from what I caught! Nice straightforward punk with some metal flourishes here and there, hopefully they play some other shows at some point, cause hopefully I'll see the whole thing next time!

Then were the main attraction, The Saigon Hookers, returning from Kitchener for round 2 in Sault Ste. Marie! Their set was, musically, as good as it was in March, with tons of punk inspired hard rock for their fans, including originals like "Devil To Win", "Stray Dogs", "Ignition", and "Hopeless Case Of A Kid In Denial", and some Hellacopters, Rolling Stones, and Thin Lizzy covers to boot! Their sound is always an energetic blast of alcohol and hard rock, and they shown that again last night, from Tommy Smokes' attitude-infused singing to Ron Cybulskie's fast shredding! (Also, kudos on the retro Lion Ride shirt!) Lee Brook deserves lots of credit too for rocking out awesomely on bass despite a broken ankle, though it did restrict his on stage movements. While musically, everything was on par (save for some too-quiet singing early), the overall atmosphere of the show was lacking compared to the March show. Many fans seemed to leave when The Role Models wrapped up, very few people got on the floor until very late in the set (and only to dance), and there didn't seem to be a large amount of energetic response to the Hookers like the first time around. Many fans who stuck around enjoyed themselves, but I don't know, something seemed off.

I had fun though, and I know many in attendance did too! The Saigon Hookers rock and have lots of great tunes to go around, and Lion Ride fans will sure enjoy them! I also forgot to mention this in March, but The Saigon Hookers don't have a set break, they play all their songs straight through, so you get a non stop relentless attack and lots of time to drink post-show, which I find cool! Hopefully they come back sooner or later, though hopefully with some better advertising and more advance word, the environment will be livelier! I did get a bunch of photos, so click here to check them out, or visit our Facebook page! And yes, I did get a video, so here's The Saigon Hookers playing their original song "Ignition"!



And finally for today, here's some more news from Brimley hard rockers Half A Man, who are still hard at work on their first album! The band has uploaded two new videos from the sessions, likely at McNally Smith Studios in Minnesota, onto their YouTube channel over the past couple of days. One is a video showing various computer screenshots from Mikey Bishop's drum tracking, as overlayed with other song portions from various songs to be featured on the album. Not a lot to say on it, but the song clips sound promising, though obviously incomplete. The other video, which we have embedded below, is of Mikey doing live drum tracking, with him on camera busting out his parts for their song "Bad Way"! If you haven't heard the song before, it will basically just sound like a solo drum piece, but it's very well played and should sound even better with guitars and such wrapped around it! Nice video quality too, if a bit dark. Check out Mikey's drum tracking for "Bad Way" below, and stay tuned for more Half A Man studio updates! Check the above links for more studio stuff too!



That's all for today, but stay tuned tomorrow for a new news post with a big announcement concerning how YOU can win something related to an upcoming concert! Thanks everyone!