Nick Cam Jam & Biipiigwan Concert Previews, Plus New Sault Michigan Concert Videos!!

At last, here's our last weekend concert preview posts on this very busy weekend in the region for metal/hard rock concerts! Today, we're previewing a second cancer benefit concert featuring local hard rock acts, as well as an anticipated ALL AGES concert in Sault Ontario, but to fill things out, I've also included two new video discoveries from a pair of linked Sault Michigan bands, so read on below for what you need to know!

A very special event is going down at Bay Mills Resort & Casino in Brimley, Michigan (a rare metal-featured concert there) TONIGHT, as Munising metal quartet Infathom and young local metal standouts Tantrym Tyme will be among the bands playing at The Nick Cam Jam! The event (which will be held in the casino's Horizons Conference Center) is in honour of Bay Mills resident Nick Cameron, who's currently battling cancer, so a number of performers are gathering together on Saturday to raise funds and support for his fight, which is awesome of them! Performers will include the aforementioned Infathom (featuring former local metal frontman Dillion Semasky) and Tantrym Tyme alongside local cover rock quartet Chump Change and duo performers Adrian & Taylor Hatfield and Candy & Larry Fultz (unsure of how they sound), while Phoenix Sounds Entertainment (a regional live sound/DJ company) are credited alongside the bands. Admission will be $10, with 50/50 draws and other raffles on hand to raise funds, there is an 8:00 PM start time, and this event has a special younger age limit of 18+.

For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! I don't know Nick, but hopefully the Nick Cam Jam helps him and his family out a lot at this time of need, and there's a solid entertainment lineup in store for what should be an interesting event at a venue we don't cover a lot! I wonder if this will help jump start hard rock shows there? It's awesome to see Infathom back in the area for a second show this year too, so hopefully everything goes well on Saturday, and for a preview, here's Infathom covering Alter Bridge!



Finally for this weekend, a rare public metal concert will hit The Moose Lodge at 543 Trunk Road TOMORROW NIGHT, where Ottawa sludge metal quartet Biipiigwan will finally rock the Soo! Last seen in the district as headliners of a F.A.T.I.L. event in Thessalon in 2011, Biipiigwan (Ojibway for "flute") have a strong local following thanks to their hard hitting extreme metal sound and proud Ojibway heritage, so you know they'll devastate the local stage on Sunday night! The local openers have completely changed since originally announced, but there's solid stuff to go around even still, including local death metal quartet The Bear Hunters (replacing Giwakwa) in their first concert since winning Viva La Battle, and they're definitely riding a wave of momentum right now, so be sure not to miss their brutal set! The opening band will be local grunge duo Bad Back (replacing promoter/frontman Jamie Vincent's sludge trio AlgomA) in their first show in 3 months, and their unique (yet minimal) attack should be a solid fit tomorrow, so come early to see Jamie & Nathan rock out!

Promoted by Jamie and Oh! Right Arm! Promotions, this ALL AGES concert will begin at 8:00 PM tomorrow night at The Moose Lodge (just seconds from The Wellington Square Mall), and admission costs just $5. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! It's great to finally have Biipiigwan in the Soo tomorrow night, and hopefully there's a solid attendance despite falling right before the work week! Note as well that The Bear Hunters opened for Biipiigwan at the aforementioned Thessalon show, so this could be seen as a partial make-up date if you missed that event! Check the above links for more details, I'll see you guys there, and for a preview, here's Biipiigwan live in Halifax last year!

We'll close today with some new Sault Michigan video finds, starting with a few new Power Slug video discoveries (nice to finally have a few more in good quality!) Courtesy of YouTube user Ernesto Marquez's YouTube channel, these are from one of the pageless hard rock trio's concerts in July at Golanka's Bar (a.k.a. The Bird), and they're of Power Slug covering Puddle of Mudd's "She Hates Me" and (as embedded below) Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak". Very solid audio quality on these videos, and the band sounds good on each, with Chris Leask making nice use of his vocal range, and he, Bob Helsten, and Chris Gurnoe know the songs well, but the lighting isn't fantastic, and it's hard to make out faces or details of the members (especially Bob.) I can't to be too critical though, as it's been so hard to track down Power Slug footage in general, so I'm just glad to see any! Check out Power Slug covering Thin Lizzy below, and catch them at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino TONIGHT!



And to close this post, here's a new hard rock cover video from Power Slug drummer Bob Helsten's other recent band project Toast, courtesy of singer Melissa Strand's YouTube channel! Though Toast haven't played live since the summer (with Melissa moving to Ishpeming), a handful of live videos from an acoustic show at (I believe) The Corner Pub Bar & Grill were posted onto her channel in early August, including covers of R.E.M.'s "The One I Love", The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army", and (as embedded below) Seether's "Gasoline"! Note that as these were acoustic shows, Bob isn't featured, with Melissa joined by guitarist Mike Libertoski & bassist Tony Rogers only. The Seether cover's an interesting adaptation, but they handle it well, and Melissa still has a nice singing voice! Again, the video quality's the problem, as it's from a far dark angle with no attempts to zoom or move, so keep that in mind. Check out Toast's latest videos above and below, and keep an eye out for Mike & Tony's new acoustic band with Tony's former Shift bandmate Amy Beairl on vocals!



That's probably all for today, but I'll hopefully see you guys at The Canadian TONIGHT for the Amy Ellis benefit show featuring The Suicide Kings, the returning Havadder, and the debuting Late Shift! Thanks everyone!