LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Sugar Island Music Festival), Your First Look At Chronic Demonic, And More!!

Well, I wasn't expecting to have a second post today, but with a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for TONIGHT, I had to get this up, so read on below for that (plus a new song posting, ticket availability for some upcoming shows, and the first video from a newer local band), and check out some new concert announcements (including one for tomorrow) and more Sault Michigan weekend previews in the post below this one!

I completely forgot about this (blame slow updates for the schedule), but there will be one hard rock band at this year's Sugar Island Music Festival, as Kinross, Michigan quintet Banned will be playing at this annual event once again TONIGHT! This probably explains why Banned are only playing in Hessel tomorrow night rather than all weekend. The guys (and girl) will be on at 8:00 PM tonight, with new Dafter classic rock band Thieves In The Night headlining at 10:15 PM, and they're preceded by Flint duo 3-Zip at 9:30 PM, The Fosters Sportsmen's Club Band at 8:45 PM, Banned at 8:00 PM, Junior and the Dinosaurs at 7:15 PM, Hillsdale indie quartet All Arms at 6:30 PM, 3 and a Half Men at 5:45 PM, and local pop duo Missy & Chelsea opening at 5:00 PM. Apologies for not knowing about some bands, this is a recurring theme for the Sugar Island Festival's schedules. The rest of the schedules feature no heavier leaning bands that I can source, but everyone playing today except Banned and Thieves of the Night have another set coming up tomorrow or Sunday, so keep that in mind.

Emceed by Rudy Villareal, admission is $10 for the weekend (no single day options), while kids 12 and under get in FREE. For more details on events, schedules, games, and advance ticket locations, click here! Sure, there have been heavier years for metal/hard rock bands, but The Sugar Island Music Festival is a consistent success in the region, and it gives an American alternative to Buskerfest and Hempfest, so don't miss Banned and the other bands TONIGHT and this weekend! Remember, it's about 45 minutes east of the Soo, and for a preview, here's Banned at the 2011 Sugar Island Festival covering AC/DC!



Next up, remember last week's benefit concert at The Roosevelt Hotel to fund Frightlight bassist Mike Gingras' short film "The Kid Who Made The Face"? Well, aside from the previously announced bands (Frightlight, The Bear Hunters, and Redundant), two newer local metal/punk bands played surprise mini-sets at the show, including Jack Spades and Chronic Demonic! The former (featuring T-Rex Manning, Bear Hunters, and Asylum Country members) was confirmed through personal Facebook posts, and while I don't know much on what they played in their second preview set, Chronic Demonic confirmed their brief performance on their own Facebook page the following day, complete with a video! Featuring members of Frightlight and Faithless Sin in their lineup, the video (which was uploaded to Facebook and is unembeddable here) was filmed by attendee April Fogal, and while the song's name wasn't given, my first thoughts point to what Frightlight would sound like if they had a female singer (Ririe "Sabrina Strange" Lavoie), and it works on that level!

The audio quality isn't great, and make sure your speakers are low, but there is something there, and I'm curious to hear more when they make their full debut! Click here to check out Chronic Demonic's first video, and don't miss the full debut of Jack Spades on September 9th at The Rosie when they open for The Dayglo Abortions! Speaking of concerts promoted by Frightlight/Jack Spades frontman J.D. "Johnny Pints" Pearce, tickets for his upcoming Bunchofuckingoofs and Dayglo Abortions concerts are now on sale at both their host venue (The Roosevelt Hotel) and at The Rad Zone in the Wellington Square Mall, so get yours A.S.A.P., especially as the BFGs show is THIS MONDAY! J.D. also announced that if you buy tickets for the BFGs show and the Airbourne concert on August 19th, bring them with you to the Black Cat Attack-headlined show on the 17th and you will get in FREE! Sounds like a good deal to me, so keep that in mind, and don't miss the BFGs on Monday and the get more details on all of J.D.'s upcoming metal and punk shows at the above links!

Finally for today, here's a new YouTube song upload from defunct experimental/grunge trio SBD! Uploaded to frontman Dann Pichette's YouTube channel this past Saturday, it's of the No Arrow successors' original instrumental "Ess", though I don't know off hand if this is the same recording from their "Sonic Experiments" album. Nice psychedlic tinged take on alternative rock with solid instrumentation, but it does hint towards the largely instrumental nature of their album. I miss Dann's local music work since SBD's hiatus began in 2011, but hopefully this helps fill the void, so check out SBD's "Ess" below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned tomorrow for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on Infrastrate! Thanks everyone!