Toystock Concert Preview & This Week's Classic Video!!

It's time for our next local concert preview for the weekend, and because this one ran longer than I expected, we'll bump our preview of The Locals Attack to our next news post, likely tomorrow morning! It's coming though, and it should be a great show with lots of great young local talent! Today's post features an extended preview of a major event going down tomorrow and this week's classic video, so without any further adieu, here's what you need to know!

10 local bands will descend upon The Canadian Nightclub tomorrow for a great cause in the concert known as Toystock! Planned to be the first installment of an annual event, this is being put on by local musician Greg Simpson's event promotion company Maxx Entertanment, and the goal of Toystock is to sercure donations to Christmas Cheer! To that end, admission will be by toy, canned food, or monetary donations, and the Stuff-A-Bus will be on site, while some Facebook postings have indicated that there will be some sort of prize draws and raffles. As well, this is an ALL AGES and family friendly event, so feel free to bring the kids, especially as Santa Claus will be in attendance! For all details on the non-musical elements of Toystock, visit the official Facebook event page! This all alone is awesome to help secure donations for Christmas Cheer, and kudos to Greg for coming up with this great event! On the musical side of things, this might be the biggest concert at The Canadian for band-count since the Ypres Metal Fest, but who all's playing?

The lineup is mostly local cover bands, including many who you can see at local bars and concert venues on weekends, but there's tons of talent present with these 10 bands, including three making their live concert debuts, and one hard rock-leaning act, that being newer local quartet The Suicide Kings! Fresh off their Bushplane Musical Madness set later tonight, what can we expect from Mike, Steven, Mitch, and Ben in their fourth local show? I'm not sure yet, as I have yet to see them and they have no online media yet, but I have a feeling they may be the heaviest of tomorrow's bands! They'll be on at around 3:00 PM, replacing a band named K.I.C.K. (who I have absolutely no information on. If you can help, let me know!) As for the rest of the lineup, the headlining band at 9:00 PM will be local rock trio Boxcar Junction (formerly Cleveland Steamer), and they'll be preceded by local pop rock outfit Cherry Crush at 8:00 PM, country rock quartet Bone Yard at 7:00 PM, and the recently reunited rock notables Stiffler's Mom at 6:00 PM!

The four band slots from 2:00-5:00 PM are largely for newer bands (only one of which has an official online page as of this writing), so bear with me on any missing details. The 5:00 band is named Griphook (presumably after the Harry Potter character?), and their lineup includes ex-Flat Stanley frontman Jim O'Leary, former Bigsuit guitarist Brian Oja (also a veteran of many past metal bands), prolific local bassist Dan Beaupre, and his old Southern Fried bandmate Anthony Fabiano (ex-Gsis Murphy) on drums. Dan had told me that this new band will play a variety of styles to suit a wide audience, which is a good safe bet, but will they have any heavier selections? We shall find out tomorrow! The 4:00 band is named Lucky 13 (a reference to the clothing line?), but I know a lot less on them. All I can confirm is that ex-Turner Up/Johnny Lunchbox bassist Jeff Gray is in their lineup, but I have no idea on any of their other members or their sound/setlist. Again, if you can help, let me know!

The aforementioned Suicide Kings are on at 3:00 PM, and a new local band named Asylum are on at 2:00 PM. Though they are without online pages too, their lineup is essentially local country band Asylum Country with Blind River singer Mark Tarantini in place of the departed Tyson Hanes. Will their sound retain their country leanings, or expand further to new genres? Again, we'll know tomorrow! The lineup tomorrow is rounded out by local dance rock band Obsession at 1:00 PM, and country notables Summer Thunder opening things up at 12:00 PM. Check the above links for more on the bands who have pages! As already mentioned this is an ALL AGES event running from roughly noon-10:00 PM tomorrow, and admission is via Christmas Cheer donations (toys, canned goods, or money.) For more details, check the above links! This is sounding like a great event for awesome causes, and it unites a good deal of talented local bands, so hopefully the turnout is as big as is expected, and I hope to be there for at least most of the night! For a preview, here's Stiffler's Mom playing one of their predecessor metal band Sin Stereo's tracks live at The Essar Center a few years back!

Finally for this post, here's this week's classic video! Late, I know, but it does tie in with Toystock well! When looking for non-YouTube videos featuring Toystock performers, I did find some of Griphook frontman Jim O'Leary from his past work in local progressive rock band Flat Stanley, and while drummer Glen Thomas has uploaded some videos of theirs to his YouTube channel, this video of them covering Jane's Addiction's "Been Caught Stealing" was not there! Filmed at a November 2007 concert at Docks Riverfront Grill (which was the source of various other Facebook/YouTube videos of theirs), their classic lineup is present here, including current members/Wishbone bandmates Tony Kajnar on guitar (and vocals for this song) & Glen on drums, alongside Jim on guitar & Mark Brandow on bass. This is a solid heavier song from a band not explicitly known for them, but Tony's vocals are hit & miss in trying to replicate Perry Farrell's uniquely high singing. The camera work is also very shaky and not entirely focused on the band, but I was able to correct the washed out colours after uploading this video.

NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!!! This video was originally posted on Facebook by Glen at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=14271315474 and all credit for this video goes to Flat Stanley and the original filmer! This is a good video, if patchy for quality, so give it a look below, and go see Jim's new band Griphook tomorrow at Toystock!



That's all for today, but I'll see you guys at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center TONIGHT for Bushplane Musical Madness, and stay tuned for our review of that tomorrow, along with our Locals Attack preview and more news! Thanks everyone!