LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Battle Of The Bands & Pillory) & Sault Michigan Weekend Concert Previews!!

Keeping our weekend concert previews rolling, we're mostly focusing on Sault Michigan today, but we also have LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for shows TOMORROW and later this month, including Sault Michigan's next battle of the bands, so read on below for what you need to know, and if any late notice concerts pop up, we'll have them here A.S.A.P., if possible!

A night of grindcore and death metal will hit the P-Patch area TOMORROW NIGHT in honour of former March Into Regression/Fountain of Betrayal bassist Tyler St. Amour's birthday, in what is being called "Grinded Live In Your Ears"! Apologies for the short notice, the Facebook event page was only launched yesterday. To be held at 110 Pentagon Boulevard (Tyler's home?), this publically attendable concert is being hyped as an option for Sewer Swampstravaganza attendees to hit after leaving that concert, and it reminds me in ways of the old F.A.T.I.L. Gatherings, but who's lined up to perform? The headliners are local thrash band Pillory in just their second live show, first in over 8 months, and first since the passing of guitarist Andres Duchesne & addition of new bassist Cole Royal, and it's great to see them gigging again! Swampstravaganza performers Crimson Crusade are also lined up, while two death metal acts from local grind/horror rap label Blood Shed Productions will make their public concert debuts in the preceding slots, those being Crucify The Whore and Tyler's own long-gestating death metal project Social Suicide!

No word on if either have full lineups for these performances or if they'll be solo sets, but it's nice to see Ringsnaps and Tyler finally bringing these bands to a live audience, and hopefully it's just the next step in their evolution! The show will be opened by a solo performer credited as "Todd The Shitty Busker" at 11:20 PM, though I can't reliably verify his identity, sound, or genre at present. This show has free admission and no announced age limits, Blood Shed demos will be on sale, and doors open at 11:00 PM at 110 Pentagon (which is seconds from the St. Bernadette Elementary School.) Check the above links for more details! There's a lot of unknowns with this concert, especially given it's location and somewhat mysterious live forms for two of the bands, but it should provide attendees with death and grind intensity all night, so keep it in mind for tomorrow! For a preview, here's Pillory live at The Canadian last year!

The other new concert is this year's "Rock Till You Drop" battle of the bands at this year's Chippewa County Fair, which goes down on Thursday, August 29th at the grandstand at the Kinross fairgrounds, so what should you know? Like past years, three local bands will compete for votes from fans, with votes likely being determined in a busker style via cash donations in a bucket after each set, with the winning band being the one whose set raised the most cash. This year however, all donations will go to Team Jessica, the fund to help local high school student Jessica Jorgensen through her leukemia battle (which is also the cause behind next week's Pop Evil concert at The Dreammaker's Theater), which is awesome, so hopefully attendees give generously! The three bands include two returnees from last year's "Rock Till You Drop", as local classic hard rock quintet Banned and young local metal quartet Tantrym Tyme will give this yearly battle another stab on the 29th, and note as well that Tantrym Tyme (then Abstract) won the 2011 edition, so are they the band to beat?

The third band (replacing pop duo Missy & Chelsea from last year) is new local hard rock quintet RamWagon, who should give a strong performance in what I believe is their first ever local battle appearance, so don't bypass them on the 29th! To be emceed by Rock 101's Allison "Alli J" Miller, "Rock Till You Drop" has a 7:30 PM start time and no age limits. For more details, visit the above links, and thanks to Tantrym Tyme for battle updates! The field's wide open for this year's battle, and hopefully lots of money is raised for Team Jessica! Who'll take this year's "Rock Till You Drop"? Be at the Chippewa County Fair to find out, and stay tuned for updates!

We'll close this post with this weekend's Sault Michigan concert previews (at least, the ones with advance word), and conveniently, both bands in question are among the "Rock Till You Drop" battle competitors! We'll start with RamWagon, who will make both their non-Sault and Kewadin Casino debuts TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT when they hit The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin! RamWagon have been making a quick regional impression in the past month, and with more gigs and exposure imminent, this union of Full Throttle and Analog Deficiency members should impress with their blend of covers this weekend in St. Ignace! 9:00 PM-ish start times, no announced cover charge, and 21+ age limits are to be expected, and for more details, check the above links and Kewadin's entertainment page! RamWagon should deliver a fun weekend of hard rocking covers, so don't miss out tonight or tomorrow, and when we get some embeddable preview videos, I'll let you guys know!

Finally for the known advance hard rock shows across the river, Kinross classic/hard rockers Banned will play their next local concert TOMORROW NIGHT at The Runway Bar in nearby Hessel, Michigan! Their second show at this venue in just over a month, watch out for the Traynors, Tara, Denny, and Jim to knock it out of the park with their own diverse blend of covers and originals, though remember that their 2011-2012 concerts are proof that they can deliver lots of metal still! Tomorrow's show in Hessel (a half hour northeast of St. Ignace, 50 minutes south of the Soo) will have a 9:00 PM start time, 21+ age limit, and no announced cover charge. For more details, visit Banned's Facebook page! Banned continue to be one of the most entertainingly prolific bands on weekends in the E.U.P., so keep tomorrow's Runway Bar stop in mind, and for a preview, here's Banned's current lineup covering The Black Keys' "Lonely Boy" earlier this year!



That's all for today, but barring late notice show announcements, we'll likely touch on some non-preview news tomorrow, with Hempfest and BFGs previews coming on Saturday! Stay tuned!