In terms of the amount of bands, the biggest primarily-metal concert of recent memory is going down on the Easter weekend, as Heavy North Entertainment & Blood Shed Productions are hosting "Dank Fest 2014" on Saturday, April 19th at The Oddfellows Hall, with no less than 14 bands currently slated for this show! Sounds ambitious right off the bat, but let's run through the bands in reverse chronological order (though keep in mind that the performance order is expected to change shortly.) North Bay metal bands Thekillingfield & Buried Out Back, who are slated to headline at 1:00 AM & midnight respectively, in what appears to be their previously hinted makeup date following their weather-related dropout from January's Oddfellows Hall show from the same promoters. Nice to see these brutal Northern Ontario bands back just three months after the fact, and hopefully there's nothing to throw a wrench into their extreme sounds in April! Four local bands are currently slotted before them that night, including local thrash quartet Pillory at 11:00 PM, and they are alive & well despite dropping out of this past Thursday's Rosie show!
Also playing on the night of Dank Fest are local solo goregrind project Crucify the Whore at 10:15 PM, grunge/hardcore duo Bad Back (in their first Oddfellows appearance since last summer) at 9:30 PM, and funk metal trio The Strange Coyotes at 8:45 PM, and all should deliver brutal sets in their own style! The 8:00 PM slot actually belongs to an out of town band at present, Orillia progressive metal trio Like Animals, who you may remember from once being scheduled to open for Thekillingfield at The Rosie three years ago. It's a make up date for them in a sense too, and their unique technical sound should fit in that evening, so don't bypass them! Newer local classic metal quintet Project 421 currently hold the 7:15 PM timeslot, while the 6:30 PM slot is currently filled by a debuting band temporarily known as Viva Emptiness, but you'll know them better as 3/4ths of the former Borderline Divine, better known as Stillbroke! Almost two years after their last show, the band's last members (minus their relocated frontman Jesse Frigault) are picking up where they left off with this new band, but as of yet, fuller details are not public. Click here for what we do know though!
Local sludge/doom trio AlgomA will make their Oddfellows Hall debut that day, and currently hold the 5:45 PM slot, while local rock duo Re-Born (formerly Brutaly Fatal) will make their first live appearance since their name change that day at 5:00 PM, and we'll have to see how their sound has developed! Another debuting band is slated for 4:15 PM right now, that being a new local alternative/punk band named The Pixo Control, whose lineup currently features ex-Fever Tops frontman Michael Mikus and ex-Social Suicide drummer Keeghan Rosso, though a bassist addition has been teased. Their demos show promise for the included genres, so check their early demos out at this link! The lineup is rounded out by the Oddfellows Hall debut of local all-female hard rockers The Danger Cats at 3:30 PM, with local goregrind duo Rotopsy currently slated to open at 2:30 PM, but remember, the lineup order is subject to impending changes.This ALL AGES concert will have $13 admission at the door, but advance tickets will go on sale through members of Pillory & Rotopsy on March 1st. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! For just the second show for Heavy North Entertainment since their launch, I greatly admire Tyler's ambition putting together a 14 band marathon of a show like this, and I sincerely hope there's no hiccups along the way to this being a success! The Easter weekend is great timing too given that many people won't be at work/school, and we'll be sure to follow any changes and announcements towards Dank Fest as they roll in! Definitely stay tuned for updates, this will be a massive show if everything holds together!
Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last while (including lineup adjustments for another upcoming H.N.E. show), and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by concert or artist name:
- There's been lineup adjustments for the Fuck The Facts-headlined all ages show at The Oddfellows Hall on May 4th, as local funk metal trio The Strange Coyotes have been added as an additional opening band at 5:00 PM (I guess the fan campaign worked out well!), while North Bay's Empyrean Plague have moved up to the 10:00 PM co-headlining slot for unannounced reasons, bumping Shit Liver to the 9:00 PM slot, though this switch does make sense given that Empyrean Plague are from out of town. Click above for more info!
- Just to clarify something we mentioned above, local thrashers Pillory were replaced on late notice for the most recent Heavy Thursday at The Rosie the other day by local hard rock quartet The Suicide Kings, reportedly due to personal reasons in the Pillory camp. There had been a related announcement concerning the lineup at next month's Anvil show too, but until something 100% public is stated, I won't get into more detail here yet. Hopefully Thursday's show went well!
- Dafter, Michigan solo hard rocker Ken "SweetKenny" Sutton has uploaded three new original songs ("Bridge To No-Where", "It's All Up To You", and "Up & Down") to his Reverbnation page, and all will be included on his forthcoming new album "Ink!" I won't get into too much detail (as I hope to review the album upon release), but only "It's All Up To You" features vocals. Check out his new (and old) songs at the above links, and keep an eye out for updates on his next CD!
That's all for today, but I'll see you guys at Bon Soo around supper time for The Marquee at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion, with a bunch of local hard rock & punk bands on the bill! Thanks everyone!
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