Saturday, July 7, 2012

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Buckcherry), A "New" Local Band, And New Videos!!

We're badly behind on news, so let's help clear out some of the back stories with this post! Today, we have a recent Shaw TV interview some of you guys should really like, a full concert video from a prominent former local band, and a "new" local band, but first, here's a huge LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for Sault Michigan!

A major hard rock concert is finally returning to The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on August 13th, and it will be headlined by the return of Buckcherry! This multi-platinum selling hard rock band from Los Angeles will hit the Soo for the first time since March of last year for what should be a huge concert, and with hits like "Lit Up" & "Sorry" in their setlist, and a new album on the way this fall, they should have a great performance lined up next month! Joining them in their Sault Ste. Marie debut will be Tennessee hard rock quartet Fuel, who also have multi platinum success from hit songs like "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" and "Shimmer", and with their original singer Brett Scallions back in the fold, hopefully they can deliver a great set of their own on August 13th! A third band is possible to be added, but this isn't official. Notably, this is Allstar Promotions' first Dreammaker's Theater concert since the My Darkest Days show in April, but if you don't count them as a "hard rock" headlining act, this will be the first hard rock/metal headlining concert at Kewadin Casino since the Stryper/Slaughter show in February, and it's nice to see some heavier music hitting the Dreammaker's Theater in a slower year for big SMS-coverable shows than we've tended to have lately!

Tickets will be $35 for this show, which is lower than Buckcherry's last stop here, while no age limits and a 7:00 PM-ish start time seem likely. Though tickets have yet to show up on Kewadin's online ticket depot, Allstar Promotions indicated they went on sale today, so if you want them A.S.A.P., try the box office in person or by phone at 1-800-KEWADIN until online purchasing pops up. This should be an interesting concert with a lot of recognizable hits and hard rock grooves, so if you like Buckcherry and/or Fuel, keep this concert in mind, and stay tuned for updates!

Next up, here's a "new" band to add to our local metal links, and if you read yesterday's first CASS Cafe video showcase, you may know who we're getting at! The band is named Column Ruins, and they're an inactive alternative/progressive metal trio from Sault Ontario that was roughly active for a year between 2010 and last summer. Their lineup consisted of former Diego Experience guitarist Ben Eppert and former Vendetta bassist Travis Garside, alongside drummer Marcus Doyle (no one was given vocal credit), and though the available information on their Facebook page wouldn't suggest that there's enough there to include in our band links, they did play at least one gig with fellow locals Crimson Crusade at the Bar River Hall in Echo Bay in October 2010. News on Column Ruins stalled in 2011 (last updating their Facebook page in July of last year), but I'm curious to hear what they brought to the table! From what I've seen, Ben and Travis have musical talent, and though I can't find any media of them in action, it's something to watch out for! There's just enough to put them in our inactive Sault Ontario band links, so check Column Ruins out at the above links, and stay tuned for our next CASS Cafe video post likely tomorrow!

We'll close this post with new videos, starting with an awesome new video of local doom metal standouts Woods of Ypres! On Tuesday, former guitarist Bryan Belleau uploaded a full Woods of Ypres concert video from 2008 onto his YouTube channel, which comes from Woods of Ypres' performance at the then-Lock City Grand Theater on November 11th, 2008, which was the first show of their only tour with their 2008 incarnation, featuring every 2008 member of Gates of Winter! As such, this was the only local appearance by the full "Gates of Ypres" lineup (and the first of three after frontman David Gold moved back home), the live Woods debut for Bryan and then-drummer Evan Madden, the only time that Lee Maines, Steve Fµrgiuele, and Brian Holmes played with them live in the Soo, and the last local concert of any type with the classic four Gates of Winter members to date. The video is of Woods of Ypres' full 45 minute set that night, which saw them play the entire "Against The Seasons" EP from start to finish, as bookended by two "Woods III" songs ("Your Ontario Town Is A Burial Ground" & "The Northern Cold"), and the latter is particularly rare to find live videos of, so it's notable even on that basis!

The lighting is mostly dark but it fits their sound well, as this was their last local show with no doom metal-leaning material, and the guys sound really good here! Their six-piece lineup definitely wasn't overkill, and even on the songs that didn't originally have keyboard, they meshed well, and it's a bummer that this lineup didn't go further. The harsher vocals on "The Northern Cold" are also interesting, and this gave me some nice nostalgia from when I saw this show live! Kudos to Bryan for uploading this, so check it out below, and if I hear of more archive Woods of Ypres videos to share, you know I'll have them here!



Finally for this post, here's a recent Shaw TV Sault Ste. Marie news piece that we completely missed for the site, despite it's own music connections! Uploaded last week, this ran last month on Shaw channel 10 presumably for a week, and it's about the recent renaissance of vinyl records with music fans & collectors. Produced & narrated by Christian Lemay, it features remarks from The Rad Zone's Paul Muncaster & Evan Belleau (a.k.a. Garden of Bedlam's bassist) along with local vinyl collector Brock Thivierge and audio enthusiast/record player repairman Ron Vincent about the appeal of collecting and listening to vinyl records compared to newer music technologies like CDs and mp3s, and though there's no direct metal link, I know darn well that a vinyl record still has a wide range of fans and appreciative listeners that understand why a record is special! Myself, I grew up as CDs were getting popular and cassettes were the norm in vehicles, so I didn't experience vinyl much, but there's definitely a special something about listening to music on a vinyl record and the care and detail in much of the packaging, so this video has a lot of resonance! Check it out below, and stay tuned for more Shaw TV videos that could fit on the SMS both on channel 10 and online!

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