Saturday, February 2, 2013

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Powerslug), Recent Sault Star Hard Rock Interviews, And Much More!!

As promised, here's our first news post of February 2013, so what's on tap? Today, we have a lot of assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, along with a new solo original song, and some catching up on hard rock band interviews from a major local news source, but first, here's a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for TONIGHT (and check out this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post below this one!)

There are indeed heavier concerts this weekend in the Sault Ste. Marie area, courtesy of Sault Michigan hard rock trio Powerslug! Their second announced concert weekend of the year, the band featuring I.S.O.M., Kilacel, and River Witch alumni are playing at Golanka's Bar (a.k.a. The Bird) TONIGHT, following a first concert either yesterday or Thursday. When drummer Bob Helsten announced the shows on his personal Facebook page on Thursday, he indicated the first show was that night, but bands in the area generally play Friday first instead of Thursday, so I'm not sure if there's scheduling differences at play, or if it was just a typo. Regardless, I missed the show until now, and I profusely apologize as a result! They could really use an online page to update show information though. As for tonight's gig, Powerslug will bring their hard rock covers to the stage at 10:00 PM, a cover charge wasn't announced, and you must be 21 to attend. If any more details pop up, I'll add them here! These should be good concerts from this talented trio, and with no online media either, take my word for it, and go occupy The Bird for some hard rock this weekend!

Next up, if you're a Sault Star subscriber, you may have noticed an interview last month with Sweet's Steve Priest in advance of their show with April Wine at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino next weekend! That alone was worth mentioning, but today, it's just part of a catch-up I wanna do for other recent Kewadin Casino hard rock performer interviews held with The Sault Star since the beginning of last year, so what'd I miss? All conducted & wrote by The Sault Star's Jeffrey Ougler, the recent SMS-suited articles included interviews with Buckcherry guitarist Keith Nelson (prior to their Kewadin show in August) and members of both of Stryper's opening bands last February (Slaughter bassist Dana Strum & Lynch Mob guitarist George Lynch), so click each link above to give them a look! I apologize for the late notice on most of these, but I'm not a Sault Star subscriber, so I miss a lot of their quality articles as a result.

If you're not familiar with Jeffery's concert preview articles/interviews, these all feature general discussions with the band member(s) on their history and recent events, along with promotion of the Kewadin concert, and they're all informative and deserve a look, even late! Check them all out above, and don't miss Sweet with April Wine on February 9th at the Soo Kewadin!

Also today, here's the newest solo track from Alterwhite mainman Mike Matthews! Entitled "Erase Me (Please)", he posted it onto the AlterWhite YouTube channel on Thursday, Mike recorded this for his "album "Something Left Inside", but how is it? The music's good, especially the heavy second half, but Mike really overdoes the clean vocals on the soft first half, and he should have done the first few minutes in a more reserved and less exaggerated style. The second half makes up for it though, so check out "Erase Me (Please)" below!



Finally for today, here's SIX assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, as we've had a bunch of these in the last few days! As usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or band name:

  • Former Skull After Betryal bassist Adam Brett is currently looking to join or form a new local metal/hard rock band, though he aims to play guitar this time around. I know he's been working hard to improve his skills recently, so give him a shout at this location or find his Musicians Wanted Facebook group posting from yesterday for more details!
  • Prolific Sault Michigan guitarist Mike Libertoski is back with a new original demo! His first publically available new song since 2011,  this blistering & short technical metal demo is full of promise and shows a skill evolution from his other early 2010s work, so give it a listen at his SoundCloud page, and his solo project is now back in our active Sault Michigan metal band links! (Note that this is credited to himself, not his Galactic Alignment project.)
  • Valentine's Day Massacre frontman Steve Rhodes has joined a new band, that being the London, Ontario death/thrash metal band D3athcharg3r! Early reviews are very good, and congratulations to him on this big opportunity! However, he was quick to point out on his personal Facebook page last month that The V.D.M. (who all still live in London) remain alive, and he'll be with them as long as they want him, so fingers crossed we see both of his bands up here soon!
  • Last night, Sault Ontario hard rock quartet The Suicide Kings revealed on their Facebook page that they were working on their own debut EP, which should be "ready to go" by the end of the month. Nothing else is publically known yet, but keep an eye out to see how this progresses!
  • Also last night, new Sault Ontario metal project Unbound revealed that they plan to make their live debut in March, though extra details (i.e. location, lineup changes, Justin Fratpietro tributes) have yet to be posted. I'm very curious to see how Unbound shapes up after all that's happened, so stay tuned for updates as they roll in!
  • Has Jason Ladouceur rejoined Winkstinger? Nothing official has been publicized, but Jason plugged a Thursday night Winkstinger show on "the 11th" at The Rosie in a recent MSN status, which (barring a typo) would likely refer to April 11th. If true, this would mark the band's first show since July, and Jason's return to the band following his exit in May, with Anthony Orazietti replacing him on rhythm guitar last summer. If I here any concrete confirmations or denials, I'll let you guys know!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news at some point this week, as our cache of news slowly grows! Thanks everyone!

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