Weekend Concert Previews Through Tomorrow Night!!

Apologies for the delay on this post, but we're kicking off our weekend concert previews today! As this busy stretch of concerts goes into Monday, I'll break them up into two posts, with Friday/Saturday shows this morning and the concerts on Sunday & Monday tomorrow. With that said, we have two concert weekend sets in the Sault Michigan area, and a notable fundraiser concert on the Canadian side of the border, so read on below for what you need to know!

We'll kick off our concert previews across the river with two bands' latest concert weekends in the Eastern U.P., starting with Kinross hard rockers Banned's second straight weekend set at The Runway Bar in Hessel! Plugged frequently on the band's Facebook page, these add to Banned's prolific recent live resume, and hopefully the Traynors and company have a great set full of originals and hard rock/metal covers tonight and tomorrow night! Like Banned's Hessel shows last weekend, admission is likely free for both tonight & tomorrow's concerts, both of which are presumably 21+ with no announced cover charge. For more details, check the above links! Sounds like fun to me, so hopefully if you guys are up for the drive to Hessel, you can make it there to witness Banned's latest concerts either tonight or tomorrow night! For a preview, here's Banned covering Alice In Chains' "Man In The Box" earlier this year!

The other verifiably heavier band playing in the region this weekend is Sault Michigan hard rock trio Powerslug, who are returning to The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino tonight and tomorrow night themselves! As always seems to be the case, this talented but online-elusive band have no online pages to plug these shows, but kudos once again to Kewadin Casino's entertainment page for advertising them in advance, so don't miss these ones! Bob and the two Chris' have delivered lots of great hard rock covers all year at varying venues, and if you're up for the hour's drive south to St. Ignace, you'll find some solid live music in the process! Admission should be free for these 21+ concerts, and 10:00 PM start times are likely. For more details (such as they are), check the above links! Powerslug have the necessary talent and chemistry (even if online media isn't around to prove it), so don't miss their St. Ignace dates this weekend, and stay tuned for more from their camp when & if it makes it online!

Lastly for today's concert previews is a special fundraising concert tomorrow night at a new venue for us, that being The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center! As recently promoted on Local2, the local museum at 70 Pim Street has been opening it's doors lately to some non-historical events, concerts included, and three local hard rock bands are gathering there tomorrow evening for "Bushplane Musical Madness"! The headliners tomorrow are the original crash band themselves, Sykotyk Rampage, who are continuing a busier-than-usual concert schedule with their Bushplane Museum debut, and look for an exciting set of alternative and blues influenced crash music that always show their creativity! I believe guest bassist Tony Briglio will be back tomorrow night, and guitarist Dirk Becker is likely providing sound under his "Sykotyk Sound Company" branding. Directly preceding them is local grunge quartet Haggith, who are putting on this fundraiser concert, and will also make this concert the launching pad for the release of their second album "Apocalypse", which (along with their debut "Dragon Joy Ride") will be on sale for $5 at this show!

Themselves no recent strangers to local concerts, their prolific & entertaining alternative & grunge originals should go over well in what might be their biggest undertaking yet, so don't miss them! The opening band will be new local hard rock quartet The Suicide Kings (featuring Bear Hunters, Wishbone, and Limelight alumni) in just their third local concert, and while there are still many unknowns for how they sound and/or what they play, I've heard positive feedback from their Nicolet Tavern debuts last weekend! I plan on being in attendance for this show, so if nothing else, I'll share more details on The Suicide Kings' sound/set on Sunday! As mentioned above, this concert is a fundraiser event for the Bushplane Museum, so admission proceeds will go towards that cause, so know that the $5 ticket price is going to a great cause! Tickets are available through band members and the Bushplane Museum in person, but I assume it costs the same at the door. The show starts at around 8:00 PM tomorrow, and while the show is ALL AGES, alcohol isn't available (but The Algonquin Hotel's two bars are just down the road.) Concessions will also be on sale, and I understand that there will be some type of prize raffle as well.

For more details, visit the official Facebook event page and Haggith's Facebook page, which features a bunch of Facebook-exclusive promo videos for this event! This should be a very interesting concert given it's setting and fundraising nature, and kudos to Haggith for the great idea to help out one of our best local museums & tourist attractions! I plan on being in attendance for this first show on a busy concert weekend, and hopefully this one is a success to encourage more concerts at the Bushplane Museum! I hope to see you guys there, and for a preview, here's Sykotyk Rampage at last month's Algonquin Pub Halloween Party!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for previews of big concerts on Sunday & Monday likely tomorrow and more news as it comes in! Thanks everyone!