Well guys, I apologize for the lack of news since the weekend, but things have hit a surprisingly low point for updates in the last few days. That ends now though, as we have some big stories to get to, including new videos from two wildly different local acts, details on how you can apply to play at an annual local festival, and first, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT featuring a prominent local band's return, so here's what you need to know!
Frightlight are back! The local horror punk/metal standouts will end a 7 month concert hiatus in just under two weeks when they open for Montreal psychobilly quartet The Brains on Tuesday, May 28th at The Rockstar Bar! Frightlight's energetic and always fun sound has been missed since the Halloween season, but with everyone back in town (I assume), hopefully Frightlight shakes off the stage rust and delivers a frightfully good set in what may be their first ever set at The Algonquin Hotel's upstairs bar! The Brains themselves are local favourites that were just seen at The Rockstar Bar last week at a very well received punk concert, and promoter/Frightlight frontman Johnny Pints is bringing them back for another go-round, so fans of their punk and rockabilly hybrid should be right at home once again! The other opening band will be local punk trio Redundant, who'll open for The Brains once again with their own entertaining mix of covers, originals, and banter, so don't miss them either come the 28th! This 19+ concert has an advertised 9:00 PM start time, and there's a $5 cover charge.
For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be a very fun concert for punk and psychobilly fans, and anyone who saw The Brains & Redundant last week should attest to that! However, with The Small Town Rivals swapped out for the return of Frightlight, there's an extra spark for metalheads to hit this one up! I always like to ramp up on concert bookings around my birthday, and this year's looking far better than 2012 for that, so I imagine this will kick off a great week of shows to attend! Stay tuned for potential updates!
Next up, the annual registration period for the ninth annual Tenaris Second Stage at this year's Rotaryfest is coming up on July 19th & 20th, and as usual, YOUR BAND can enter! Of course, this is the outdoor concert stage on Queen Street East outside of The Grand Theater, which traditionally hosts local original talent and out-of-town indie bands during our local summer festival, and though metal & hard rock hasn't always been featured, bands like Gates of Winter, Stillbroke, Garden of Bedlam, and Sailor's Tongue have all played the Second Stage since it's 2005 inception. As originally announced last week on SooToday (apologies for the late mention on here), you have until May 31st (two weeks from Friday) to submit applications to be considered for a slot at this year's Rotaryfest Second Stage, so how can you do that? To register online, visit this location and, in the given forms, provide your name, e-mail address, and phone number, and your band's name, biography, performance history, websites, at least one band photo, and a sample of your music.
If submitting in person or by mail, provide a work sample with all of the above info, and with music on a CD or DVD with at least 3 good quality original songs (and possibly press clippings) to the address provided at this link, and preference will be given to bands with professionally released CDs. I'd love to see more metal & hard rock on the Second Stage this year (getting two bands last year was a good start), but we won't get any unless some heavier bands apply, so register A.S.A.P. at the above links! (Also, note that there's no advertised Thursday night for the Second Stage, so they may have cut it since last year.)
We'll close today with new videos, starting with new videos from Haggith drummer/local solo musician Mike Haggith, who's launched a new YouTube channel! He already has one, but he's aiming to either replace or succeed it as part of a rebranding project according to his solo project's Facebook page yesterday, which is a good idea given that his older channel isn't under his name. He plans to upload full albums of his onto the new channel, albeit with songs as single video uploads rather than together as one video, and his newest CD "The Present Din" has already been uploaded in said format, with more likely to come. The other videos are brand new to YouTube (as far as I can tell), and they're of Mike playing solo songs at (I assume) open mic nights at Sault College's former bar/venue The Outback over 2 years ago! Likely among the first live sets Mike played in town, two are of Mike playing his original songs "Trinity" & "Hot Summer Sun" in February 2011 (there was more filmed that night, but the rest was lost during processing.)
Embedded below though, we have Mike playing "Nightmare on Reed Street", "As Memories Fade Away", and "I Love You Anyways" at an Outback set in December 2010, and all of the new postings feature him on vocals & guitar with backing tracks to fill out the lineup. I hadn't seen these in quite a while, but they give a glimpse into how a Mike Haggith solo concert would look/sound, and his vocals and guitar abilities are on full display, despite some audio issues midway through. Solid stuff overall, so give his 3 song set a look below, and stay tuned for more from Mike's new channel!
Finally for today, local goregrind solo project Crucify The Whore uploaded their second demo "Fetel Pig Dissection" ("Fetel" intentionally misspelled) onto their label Blood Shed Productions' YouTube channel on Friday! It's in two parts (click here and here for each), and if you like their past work, this should be just as appealing, though it's still very much an acquired taste despite some more varied influences. There's more techno & electronic influences, and the heavier parts are definitely brutal, but the pig squeal vocals, recording quality, and somewhat divisive themes will not be universally accepted by listeners. Still, I appreciate what Ringsnaps is doing, even if this isn't my cup of tea, but I'd still like to see him expand the band and take it beyond just releasing solo demos and split discs. As both halves of the album's YouTube upload feature images that some readers may find disturbing, I've embedded only the audio below, but if you're up for some original grind, give Crucify The Whore's second demo a listen!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for this weekend's local metal/hard rock concert previews likely tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
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