Most Of This Weekend's Metal/Hard Rock Concert Previews, Including Oddzfest's New Headiners!!

Today's post touches on most of this weekend's known metal/hard rock concerts, and while it's a quiet weekend on the Sault Ontario side, a HUGE metal show is going down tomorrow that will be both sad and brutal all at once! On the Sault Michigan side of the border, there's more going on, but I'm bumping our Tesla/Fifth Way preview to tomorrow to give it proper emphasis (and if we've missed any late notice hard rock shows, they'll go along with it!) With that said, let's begin out first weekend concert preview post!

TOMORROW NIGHT at The Oddfellows Hall, metal will reign in a stacked (yet very bittersweet) concert event named Oddzfest 2013 Metal Mash-Up! Promoted by Bear Hunters guitarist/Giwakwa frontman Josh Stephney, this show is half a local metal concert and half a farewell for both him and his Giwakwa bandmate Nolan Rainville, who are both coincidentally moving out of town next month, making this their last local concert beforehand. This is absolutely disappointing news, as Josh and Nolan have been among the most prominent and successful local death metal artists of the last 4 years, and hopefully they succeed in their future endeavours and bring their metal talents with them to their new homes! Oddzfest will feature 8 metal/hard rock acts rocking out to send off Josh & Nolan in the heaviest way possible, including late notice out of town headliners, as Vancouver heavy metal quintet West of Hell will hit the Soo for the second time on Friday night in the midst of their Demon Sent Tour! Last seen headlining one of Dismembertainment's last shows at The Canadian last May, their extreme and high energy classic metal sound is sure to be welcomed back after their show-stealing set last year, so don't miss The Heathen and company in their local return, and kudos to Josh for bringing them in on late notice!

West Of Hell will headline at 12:15 AM, with the bands preceding them including a one-off reunion set from 3 time battle of the bands-winning death metal quintet Bring The Fallen at 11:15 PM! Over 2 years after their breakup, this will be a fitting farewell for both B.T.F. and their two moving members, so don't miss tomorrow's show to stand before with Bring The Fallen one more time!

Note as well that this will likely be lead guitarist Andrew Chiarello's first live concert appearance since B.T.F.'s original breakup, so it'll be great to see him back on it's own! The other local performers with hour long sets include melodic death metal quintet The Bear Hunters (in their last set with Josh on guitar) at 10:00 PM, and grindcore/death metal trio Shit Liver (in their first live concert since May) at 8:45 PM. The other performers have half hour sets each, and in descending order, they include local solo musician James Watterworth at 8:00 PM, Josh & Nolan's last concert with their stoner/death metal quartet Giwakwa at 7:30 PM, local death metal band Crimson Crusade's first set since their brief breakup at 6:45 PM, and local grunge/alternative quartet Haggith's Oddfellows Hall debut to open the night at 6:00 PM. Note as well that Giwakwa's Facebook page yesterday asked fans to "come share one last sludgy night with us" tomorrow night, but it remains to be seen whether that refers to Josh & Nolan only, or if the band are dissolving afterwards. We should know by tomorrow!

As a thank you to fans and friends for their support during his local music career, Josh is offering FREE ADMISSION to anyone who wears local band merchandise to the show (anyone from As It Stands to Woods of Ypres works), while admission will be $5 if you don't. Doors open at 5:30 PM, and as you'd expect, this is ALL AGES! For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be an awesome (yet disappointing) evening, but the metal will come fast & furious, and there's no heavier way to send off Josh, Nolan, and Bring The Fallen (and maybe Giwakwa?), so do NOT miss Oddzfest 2013 Metal Mash-Up tomorrow night! For a preview, here's new headliners West of Hell letting sparks fly (literally) in the Soo two years ago!

Now to most of the known Sault Michigan concerts this weekend (Tesla's coming tomorrow), starting with young local metal quartet Tantrym Tyme's latest gigs outside of Harmony Health Foods at 217 Ashmun Street TOMORROW & SATURDAY as part of this weekend's live entertainment during Downtown Days! Also known as the Sidewalk Sales, this yearly community event features outdoor sales from local merchants, kids games, and live music across town, so there should be a little something for everyone this year! Not the most obvious event for metal/hard rock acts, but bands like Free Refill have played Downtown Days in the past, so this isn't unheard of. As you may also know, Tantyrm Tyme and Harmony Health Foods have a long relationship thanks to drummer Ethan Twardy's parents owning this popular natural grocery store, and they've played, been sponsored by, and sold shirts there in the past, so it's a fitting location for them! These are outdoor gigs (like so many of their other live appearances), and as a result, are obviously ALL AGES, but I'm not able to pin down an exact time for their sets. Check the above links for more details!

Tantrym Tyme are improving fast with age with their entertaining metal sound, and they've impressed at many recent live sets, so if you're in the region (Harmony Health Foods is just seconds from The Corner Pub), then go check them out tomorrow or Saturday, likely in the daytime! For a preview, here's Tantrym Tyme covering Poison's "Talk Dirty To Me" last year, and stay tuned soon for a new video from their old Abstract days!

Finally for this post, Sault Michigan hard rock/metal quartet 415E will return to the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT for shows at their Northern Pines Lounge! Increasingly getting more prominent at local concerts, the band featuring Nixxon Dixxon, Splitshot, 7/47, and Free Refill alumni are making a big local impression with their Van Halen-inspired originals and covers, so keep their latest regional dates in mind for this weekend! Still curious to see when they'll play outside of Kewadin Casino branches, but they fit well there! Both of this weekend's shows are 21+ affairs with likely 9:00 PM start times, and there's no announced cover charge. Check the above links for more details! These should be some solid concerts from this talented local quartet, so don't miss them, and for a preview, check out 415E playing their self-titled original below, and click here to see guitarist Chris Hubbard playing a 4 minute+ guitar solo in St. Ignace on June 28th! As a Facebook video, I can't embed it here, but his skills are clear as day!



That's all for today, but stay tuned tomorrow for our Tesla concert preview and more! Thanks everyone!