LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Frightlight), Plus More Frightlight News & This Week's Classic Video!!

Let's get your Friday going right with a pile of news, and most of it revolves around one band, who have a lot of big announcements on their plate, though we also have this week's classic video to round things out. So let's kick things off with LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!

Local horror punk/metal quintet Frightlight will return to the local stage for at least two shows over Halloween weekend! The shows were announced via a press release that the band sent to SooToday yesterday, so click here for the full article! First, the band will rock Bossy's Pub N' Grub on Friday, October 28th for the first time, in what will also be the first metal concert at the former Smack Daddy's since Hollow's reunion show there last month! Interesting spot, but Frightlight will bring the horror to Bossy's as only they can at this show! Details on possible cover charges, additional bands, and times are not out yet, but I expect this will be a 19+ concert. When I hear more, I'll let you guys know! The other new local concert will be the very next night, as Frightlight will presumably headline the sixth annual Coch's Corner Halloween Party! Always a highlight of the Halloween season, Coch's Corner pulls out all the stops to give a Halloween ambiance to the bar each year, and expect lots of great music and good times to go along with it! Last year, there was a costume contest too, so look out for that on October 29th as well! Admission should be around $5, which isn't standard for Coch's Corner shows, but is definitely worth it! I'd expect a 9:00 PM start time and a 19+ age limit as well.

As for the complete lineup, that isn't out yet, but for reference, the Halloween parties in 2009 & 2010 featured Half Past & Winkstinger respectively, along with one-off cover bands Glamoween in 2009 & The Mothermakers last year (who shared identical members.) Also, both of these shows will be among the first featuring Frightlight's current lineup, but we'll have more on that later. Awesome to see Frightlight back for some big concerts next month, and I'll definitely at least be at the Coch's Corner Halloween party, but in terms of scope, their biggest concert is happening a couple days before...

... as on October 26th, Frightlight will head to Toronto to open for horror punk legends The Misfits at The Phoenix Concert Theater! How about that for a concert? Frightlight will join Chicago punk standouts Juicehead and Toronto-area punk bands Rehab For Quitters, The Unbelievers, and Bi-Kneel at this concert, which is part of The Misfits' tour cycle in support of their upcoming album "The Devil's Rain"! This is awesome news for Frightlight, and it's great to hear public word of them playing with such a legendary band as The Misfits! For the record, this show was the main focus of the SooToday press release linked above. Now, being that the show is in Toronto, you may be wondering why we're covering it in extra detail on The Sault Metal Scene. Simple, because you can buy tickets for the show locally! The Rad Zone at The Wellington Square Mall has limited tickets available for this concert for $32.50, so if you want to take a road trip down to Toronto on Wednesday, October 26th, get your tickets A.S.A.P. at The Rad Zone! Yes, you can buy tickets online or by phone too, but you won't get saddled with shipping or other additional fees if you buy them in person. For complete details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be an awesome concert, so if you can make it to Toronto on October 26th, definitely head down to see The Misfits and Frightlight together on stage! Get more details at the above links!

And finally in Frightlight news, the band appears to have parted ways with drummer Jeff De Rose. Though still listed on Frightlight's band pages, he's not credited on their Misfits show press release linked above, and through some additional searching, it definitely looks like he's out of the band. I don't know why he left, but everything looks amicable. Under the stage names "The Count" & "Dr./Mr. Bates", Jeff had been Frightlight's drummer for about a year, after replacing Jeff "Shrek Ogre" Richards in August 2010. It's disappointing to see Jeff leave, but hopefully he'll pop up behind a drumkit again soon! Though not officially confirmed on band pages, it looks like Jeff has been replaced by Half Past drummer Chris Thompson, making him the band's fourth drummer in under two years. He's credited solely as "Thompson" in the band's press release, implying that that's his current Frightlight stage name. Solid choice, especially given Chris' talent and his past work in Fitswitch, seeing as he, J.D., Rick, and Kevin were all Fitswitch bandmates for a time in the mid-2000s! In fact, click here to see all four of the now-Frightlight bandmates playing "March of 1,000 Corpses" at The Canadian Nightclub as sort of a preview of what's to come! Chris should do great in Frightlight, and stay tuned for their new lineup's debut late next month!

Lastly for today, here's this week's classic video! I honestly couldn't find many suitable non-YouTube videos to tie in with any metal bands playing this weekend, so I'll dip into the general archives for a video this week, but for which band? Lion Ride, they'll work well! I chose a video of the talented quintet playing their new original "Bang Bang Bye Bye" at a 2009 concert for this week, but I'm not 100% sure where it was filmed. Judging by past tour dates and photo evidence, I think it's from Lion Ride's show at Maxwell's Music House in Waterloo, Ontario on April 25th, 2009, but correct me if I'm wrong. If that's all correct, this is the earliest video I've seen of the band playing "Bang Bang Bye Bye", and it features their 2009-2010 lineup, including then-bassist Diamond Brent Panther (now of Maximum RNR.) Very good quality, though I think newer versions of the song have a bit more aggression to them. This video was originally filmed by attendee Rob Schramm, who uploaded it to his personal Facebook page that same day, and you can see the original video at http://facebook.com/photo.php?v=80227591746.

NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! I want to share this video with a wider audience like it deserves, and all credit for this video goes to Rob and Lion Ride! Also, I did come minor colour correction to the video after uploading it, but it didn't need much work. With that said, check out Lion Ride playing "Bang Bang Bye Bye" in Waterloo(?) in 2009 below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes over the weekend, and our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on Paricide on Monday! Thanks everyone!