LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tesla & Night Ranger), Woods Of Ypres Tribute CD News, And J.P. Fecteau Benefit Fallout!!

In our first of two likely posts today (I hope to have this month's YouTube Channel Profile up tonight), we have a lot of big stuff to get to in this post, including fallout from a recent benefit event, and the release of a major tribute album with a clear local inspiration, but first, we have some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS concerning two huge shows coming to Sault Michigan later this year! Without any further adieu, here's what you need to know!

Two new major concerts at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino have been announced, starting with the return of Sacramento, California hair metal legends Tesla to the Soo on Saturday, July 27th! Best known for hit songs like "Signs", "Love Song", and "Mama's Fool", this entertaining quintet were last seen in the area over 3 years ago when they and Fifth Way rocked The Dreammaker's Theater in June 2010, and it'll be great to see their multi-platinum selling original material back on stage for a fourth stop at Kewadin Casino! Note that the exact same lineup from their last local stop will be back for this show, but I'm seeing no reference to an opening band at present. Tickets for this all ages show (which starts at 7:00 PM) are NOW ON SALE for $38.50 and $35, and there's lots of good seats still available (though they're going fast), so buy yours at this location, at 1-800-KEWADIN, or in person at the Kewadin box office! It's great to see Tesla back in town once again, and their classic hard rock and hair metal sounds are sure to attract another large crowd, so don't miss this show come July!

The other newly announced Dreammaker's Theater concert will see San Francisco hard rock notables Night Ranger hit the Sault Kewadin on Sunday, September 22nd for what I think may be their first ever local concert appearance! As announced on SooToday yesterday, you may remember Night Ranger most for their hit singles "Sister Christian", "Sentimental Street", and "Don't Tell Me You Love Me", and their classic ballads and energetic hard rock hits should be welcomed in the fall! Opening for Night Ranger at this show is former Bad English frontman John Waite in a solo set, and you may remember John best for his 1984 hit single "Missing You". While best known for softer pop rock solo material, he has hard rock and AOR experience from his bands, and he should impress in September! Tickets for this concert don't go on sale until May 31st (a week from Friday), but they will cost $48.50 & $38.50 via the same methods as the Tesla show, with no age limits and a 7:00 PM start time likely. Classic rock and metal fans should be excited for this show as well, so don't miss the on-sale date next week, and hopefully Night Ranger rock the Soo this fall!

Finally in Kewadin Casino hard rock concert notes, Pop Evil tickets are now on sale via the Kewadin ticketing page & links above for just $20! Remember, proceeds from this August 14th concert go to Team Jessica to help local student Jessica Jorgensen's battle with leukemia, and this show has a 7:00 PM start time (though openers haven't been announced yet.) There's tons of good seats available, so get yours A.S.A.P., and stay tuned for updates on these and other upcoming heavier Dreammaker's Theater shows!

Next up, the Woods of Ypres/David Gold tribute album "Heart of Gold: A Tribute to Woods of Ypres" is now officially on sale to the public! Following online pre-orders and a lengthy development process, the 19-track album can be downloaded in mp3 format for just $10 at this location, so pick it up A.S.A.P. to hear all of these great tributes to the band & David's memory! Each track can be streamed there before buying as well, but the full download version also features the full liner notes, which I have heard good things about! Details on public sales of CD copies have yet to be announced beyond the pre-orders, but it will be a 2 disc set due to the length of the songs and amount of featured artists. Even though there's no local artists on this compilation, there's a bunch of emotional and devoted covers that pay tribute to Woods of Ypres in their own ways here, and all were penned by David Gold, so I will confirm that this will be a CD review on the SMS this summer!

I have "Heart of Gold" pencilled in for July, as I have Haggith's new album "Deuce" planned for June, and I'll tentatively bump our review of Mike Haggith's "The Present Din" to August to spread our reviews of his projects' new CDs. I can't wait to hear the Woods tribute album in full, so stay tuned for updates on it and the public CD release when I hear it, and buy "Heart of Gold" today!!

Finally for today, here's a bit of fallout from last week's Jean-Paul Fecteau benefit concert at The Canadian Nightclub! The day after the May 14th event, Jean-Paul's former J.A.B. bandmate Glen Thomas (now of Flat Stanley) posted a recap of the event onto his message board Freq's Music Planet, where he revealed some of the performers and songs played that night. Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison reportedly played a solo acoustic set, and the other performers appeared to all jam various covers, including a spell where Glen joined Asylum Country guitarist/event organizer Terry Eaton and ex-Bud Shamble bassist Rob Gilmar for some songs, including covers of ZZ Top's "Tush" and AC/DC's "Highway To Hell", as caught in the video below! Uploaded to Glen's YouTube channel the night of the show, the video quality isn't that great, and it's often dark and fuzzy, but the audio's nice, and Terry has a really solid voice for these songs! Talented musicians all around, it's nice to see them jamming, though it's disappointing that a proposed reunion of surviving J.A.B. members didn't materialize.

Other performers included the rest of Asylum Country and Turner Up/Havadder alum Jason Roy (according to the Facebook event page), and it sounds like the event was a major success! And yes, there were prize draws and food available for attendees. Hopefully the benefit gave Jean-Paul's family and young daughter a boost (financially and emotionally), and I hope that somehow, somewhere, J.P. was there last week enjoying all the music! Check out Terry, Rob, and Glen's covers from the benefit below, and if I hear anything more from that night, I'll let you guys know!!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile (focused on Frightlight's channel) either tonight or tomorrow morning! Thanks everyone!