Hydra's Teeth/Haggith/Danger Cats Concert Review!!

Now, here's our review of last night's Hydra's Teeth-headlined concert at The Algonquin Pub! Solid turnout (especially given that two of the bands were debuting), and everything was in good order yesterday, with setu-up and tear-down done very efficiently & fast, but did I manage to make it upstairs to see Glitch's debut? I'll have more on that probably by Monday, but for now, check out our review below, and check out a late notice concert alert for TONIGHT at The Rockstar Bar and more recent updates in the post below this one!

Opening the show was new local all-female rockers The Danger Cats, so what should you know on their set? It definitely leaned towards hard rock sounds, with covers of Runways, Joan Jett, and Misfits songs joining Go-Gos and Ramones renditions, and they had the rocker look down (complete with cat ears for most of them.) Musically, they clearly improved as the night went on, and the fans dancing during their last two songs was a neat sight! They do have talent as musicians, and I'm impressed with how fast Jamie Jaguar and Kate Kougar have gotten the hang of their current instruments, but the band's overall stage presence needs to be looser, and Summer Snow-Leopard was often hard to hear when singing. Also, I don't know if the Beatles songs they did are the best fit for their genre and look, they should look at later Beatles songs that have more of a bite to them. Solid first outing for The Danger Cats though, and it's great to see Sault Ontario getting some added girl power compared to Sault Michigan! (And yes, they're now in our active Sault Ontario band links!)

Second last night was the only non-debuting band of the night, grunge/alternative quartet Haggith, and they pumped out another entertaining mix of covers and originals for fans last night! Setlist-wise, they debuted a new original song named "Metal Cage", and also played a new cover of Led Zeppelin's "Fool In The Rain", but the rest of the set (including originals like "Leon the Janitor" and "75", and covers of Jimi Hendrix & Cheap Trick songs) will be familiar to Haggith concert regulars. Aside from a guitar hiccup during "Clifton Hill", the guys were on fire, and it was nice seeing Curtis McKenzie break out the keyboard on a few songs to shake things up (though the amount of lyric sheets present is still a bit odd.) Daniel Horton's guitar work was solid as ever, and Mike Haggith continues to express vibrant energy and enthusiasm when drumming, and it all added up well for their set! If anything, I was disappointed by the lack of fans up front compared to the bands bookending them, but by the end, we were all hailing Haggith, and with good reason!

Headlining last night was new local classic metal quartet The Hydra's Teeth, so how did they sound? The obvious comparison to make is with Late & Loud, but the new band has more of a power metal and Iron Maiden influence, and was overall more melodic, but whether that's better or not is for you to decide. I enjoyed them flat out, and the fact that they covered no L&L songs is a sign that they're their own animal! In fact, all but their last song (a cover of "Hallowed Be Thy Name") were originals, including tracks like "The Circle", "Army of Bones", and "Siren's Call", and the guys nailed them with a lot of enthusiasm and attitude! Brendan Christie has a better singing range than Jon Tiberi did in Late & Loud, and he put it to good use last night, making the most of it with some good falsettos in the process, but the Iron Maiden cover wasn't a good fit for his vocals. His and Anthony Orazietti's guitar work was great though, and Roy Kreutzberger's tested drum talents came in handy, including during a drum solo! Great first set from The Hydra's Teeth, and hopefully we'll hear more from them soon!

Overall, this was an entertaining and well-recieved concert that hopefully left a good first impression for the debuting bands! I did get photos and videos of each band, so visit this link to see the photos or our Facebook page, but the videos, I'm trying something a little different. As Facebook now allows external embedding of uploaded videos (this was quietly enabled last month), and because of YouTube's copyright rules, I'm gonna try splitting videos between YouTube and Facebook and see how it goes. Basically, if I film a show with or upload material with covers, I'll put them on Facebook, and if it's all original, it'll go on YouTube. Plus, this way, we'll hopefully get more hits and views of our Facebook page, so we'll see how it goes, and if it doesn't fly, I can always post said videos on YouTube later! With that said, here's my videos from last night, of The Danger Cats covering Hole's "Celebrity Skin", Haggith playing "Metal Cage", and The Hydra's Teeth playing "Live By The Axe Or You'll Die By The Sword"!







That's all for today, but stay tuned tomorrow for this month's YouTube Channel Profile, and either tomorrow night or Monday for stuff on Glitch's debut and more! Thanks everyone!