LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Theatre Of Night), SweetKenny & Mike Haggith Updates, And More!!

We have more news to get to as we kick off the last week of May 2013, but before that, I'll note that I'm bumping our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on Giwakwa guitarist Chris Page's old band Lead The Dead to tomorrow so I don't de-emphasize the content of today's post, which includes a preview for a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!! It's for a great cause too, and it's the debut of a popular local band, so I wanted to give that the proper attention, so for that and more updates from two local solo projects and much more, read on below!

Sault Michigan classical metal band Theatre of Night will make their live concert debut TOMORROW in the parking lot of The Corner Pub Bar & Grill to help honour Memorial Day! Apologies for the short notice, the Facebook event page was only just created on Friday night. For the occasion, Theatre of Night will be playing numerous songs from their second album "The Dawn's Early Light" (with "Taps" kicking things off at 12:00 PM), and there'll also be a barbecue & silent auction to help benefit The Forgotten Eagles of Michigan, an organization that helps assist war veterans in the state. For Theatre of Night, this will be their first live set in the area that I can source, and if so, I believe it will be the first public concert that Craig Harrison & the Giles brothers have played together since I.S.O.M.'s 2009 breakup! Note that the songs being performed are all instrumentals, so I wouldn't expect singer Gaby Koss (who lives in Germany anyway) to be featured. There's no admission price or posted age limits for this benefit event, and everything starts at noon tomorrow. Check the above links for more details!

It's great to see Theatre of Night playing a live local concert finally, and given their proud American heritage and recent material, it's awesome to see them paying tribute to those lost protecting their freedoms! Hopefully this is just the first of many live concerts for them, and if you can make it down to The Corner Pub tomorrow, donate generously and rock out for a great cause! For a preview of tomorrow's event, here's one of Theatre of Night's promo videos for their American/patriotic themed album "The Dawn's Early Light", which you'll hear songs from tomorrow afternoon!

Next up, here's the latest from Dafter, Michigan solo artist Ken "SweetKenny" Sutton! First, he's revealed a tentative release date of June 30th for his sixth original studio album "Perception" (album cover pictured), and he plans to upload songs from it soon as a preview. No word yet on the full direction or length of it, but the most recent song posting on his Reverbnation page ("Magic Girl") mixes a hard rock groove and spoken word verses, so if it's on the album, it might be heavier-leaning! Now, if it comes out as expected this summer, we won't review it on the site until September at the earliest, as it'll be too soon from our review of his last album "Doo Hickey" in March, but it'll come if it does get released! As well, Ken put the call out for musicians in the Upper Peninsula to join a band on May 13th, presumably featuring him, though no word on if this will be an extension of his solo work or something completely new. This could be very interesting, so message him at sweetkenny@sweetkenny.com if you're interested, and stay tuned for more from SweetKenny!

Also today, Haggith drummer/local solo musician Mike Haggith has completed his YouTube channel transfer by posting four more back albums of his onto his new YouTube channel! His old "Sid Fucktard" channel has been deleted, along with some older audio tracks (he cited only bringing "relevant" material over), though I believe anything that didn't come over was posted before he moved to Sault Ontario, so nothing too familiar to local fans is gone. The new channel now has full uploads of 7 of his last 10 solo studio releases (only "Ace" and the not-previously-uploaded "For My Fallen Angel" & "The Best of Mike Haggith: Volume 2" aren't featured), though in at least one case ("The Curse Was The Cure"), the track listing is altered as an effective "re-issue". Among the postings were a couple of demo tracks that weren't released in this form on his albums, including a 2010 studio demo of "In A World" from his solo/The Thorns album "Laps In A Lake Of Fire", and a 2011 instrumental demo of "The Day The Lights Went Out" from "Neighbourhood Watch"!

Both are clearly unfinished, and "In A World" has some messier elements, but there's good stuff in each, so check out the instrumental take of "The Day The Lights Went Out" below, and stay tuned for more from Mike, the Haggith band, and The Din as I hear it!



Finally for today, here's three more assorted recent news items, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

• Local all ages concert promoter/Algoma drummer Jamie Vincent appears to have secured a show for Vancouver drone metal project Ahna on June 27th, as per a posting on his promotion agency's Facebook group two weeks ago, but full details and confirmation of the show have yet to come out. It's great to see Ahna finally get a local booking, and stay tuned for updates!
• I've updated our GarageBand Profile on T H E I D to further emphasize the now-inactive status of drummer Matt Hicks' more prominent later band Dirty Virgin, who have not made any public updates since last spring. Hopefully we see him back at it with Riverin or another project soon though!
• I've also updated our Defunct Local Band Profile on Faithless Sin to reflect frontman Jason Bourcier's recent addition to Winkstinger's lineup, as the profile was posted before Winkstinger publically confirmed that he had joined on bass. Not a major edit, but it makes the information more current, so I thought I'd acknowledge it, and don't miss Winkstinger's return on Wednesday night!

That's all for today, but stay tuned TOMORROW for our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on Lead The Dead! Thanks everyone!