Garden Of Bedlam Concert Preview, A New Band Discovery, And More!!

Let's get back to some news at the SMS as we slowly wind down October, and while this isn't the longest post we've ever had, it's packed with info on the three stories! Today, we have a new concert video from a recently prominent band, a new band discovery for our inactive band links, and leading things off, a preview for a very big concert going down tomorrow, so here's what you need to know!

Tomorrow night is Devil's Night, and to help celebrate this penultimate night of October, The Rockstar Bar will host the return of Garden of Bedlam to the local concert stage! Last seen opening for Anvil in July, this popular local metal band will hit the Algonquin Hotel's upstairs bar for the first time since April for what should be a great concert of originals and covers, so it's notable on that basis alone! However, there will be a special air to the proceedings, as Garden of Bedlam are playing in honour of local music/skate shop The Rad Zone's 18th birthday! Hard to believe they've been around since 1994, huh? Garden of Bedlam have worked with The Rad Zone frequently in the past, so they're perfectly fitting to help rock out on Devil's Night for their birthday bash! In that spirit, there will be door prizes and giveaways ranging from Rad Zone gift cards to prizes from skate apparel company Vans, and you can get a preview of some of those prizes by clicking here. And of course, costumes are encouraged, with a costume contest planned for tomorrow night as well, so have yours ready!

Like Garden of Bedlam's past Rockstar Bar shows, there's no opening bands, and the age limit will be 19+. Doors open at 9:30 PM tomorrow, and there's a $5 cover charge. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be an awesome concert, and kudos to The Rad Zone in advance of their birthday! They're doing great things locally, and hopefully the best is yet to come for them! Garden of Bedlam themselves are sure to be welcomed back to the stage, so be there early with your costumes, and I'll see you guys at The Rockstar Bar tomorrow night! For a preview, here's Garden of Bedlam playing "With A Spark" there in 2010!



Next up, we have a "new" band to add to our local metal band links! Their name is Gentlemen's Bet, and they're an experimental/industrial hard rock duo from Sault Michigan that were active from roughly 2001-2008. I've actually heard of them before, but I think I wrongly bypassed their songs as not being heavy enough. The band featured members named Brian & Greg (a.k.a. BK & Gretch), and though I can't confirm their last names or anything else on their identities, I know that one of them is a guitarist & the other specialized in techno & ambient genres. Online indications suggest that the project, which was worked on for much of the 2000s, was made public around 2006 for themselves and interested fans, with the hope of making more material, and though I believe the project is now defunct, Gentlemen's Bet had promise! Their MySpace & PureVolume pages feature some widely varying electronic rock material with a lot of heavy flourishes, and there is talent present!

The guitar riffs and techno beats flow well on songs like "I Was So Mean" & "Good Night Sleep", but if anything, these songs strike me as unfinished, and I think Gentlemen's Bet could have made much deeper local inroads if they had drum tracks or vocals on their originals. They probably won't shatter any local perceptions, but their sound is a welcome variance, so check the above links (especially their PureVolume page) for lots of original songs, and Gentlemen's Bet are now in our Sault Michigan inactive metal band links!

And finally for today, here's one of a few recent video uploads from Sault Ontario grunge quartet Haggith! There's more new videos on their YouTube channel to share, but I'll break them up to spread them out, especially as they're mostly from different performances. On Saturday, the band posted this video of the majority of their set from the Soo Zombie Walk afterparty for fans to check out, and it features their performances of their originals "Days", "Chaos In The Streets Of Aftermath", "Red Car", "If You Get Out Alive", both parts of "Fin", and "Leon The Janitor"! The first 5 are from their planned third album "Apocalypse", while the latter is expected for their second album "Deuce", and has previously featured in drummer Mike Haggith's solo project. The video footage was mainly shot by Dylan Taylor (with the exception of the beginning of "Days" due to a technical error), while they opted to use my footage of "Fin" rather than Dylan's take. I'm not sure why (possibly to have a more professional multi-camera look), but I don't mind at all, and I'm glad they like what I shot!

The quality of Dylan's camera work isn't bad, and the stationary angle keeps everything in clear view, but they misspelled "Apocalypse" repeatedly on the video captions. That's minor though, and it's great to see more live concert footage of Haggith in action, so check out this full 20+ minute video below, and stay tuned for more Haggith videos and updates in the coming days, including our review of their first CD by Wednesday!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for the aforementioned CD review and more shortly, and in case there's no new posts tomorrow, I'll see you guys at The Rockstar Bar tomorrow night! Thanks everyone!