The First Of This Week's Metal/Hard Rock Concert Previews!!

Largely thanks to the expanded hard rock & metal presence at our local winter festival this year, we have a pile of concert previews to touch on this week, so I'm forced to break them up into three posts. Today, we'll look at shows taking place between TODAY and tomorrow, with any Friday-included shows coming tomorrow, followed by Saturday-only shows on Friday, and any late notice gigs will be slotted where needed, so other previews are coming! Without any further adieu, here's the first of your heavier concert previews for this week!

In it's second year among the entertainment at the Bon Soo Winter Carnival, the outdoor live performance stage known as The Marquee is bigger both in scale (now based at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion) and in performer amount, including featuring hard rock and metal bands for the first time (unless you counted Lazer Queen last year), with at least one hard rock band rocking The Marquee for three of the next four days! The SMS-leaning bands kick off TONIGHT with a lineup headlined by Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands winners The Suicide Kings! Last seen at The Rosie last month, the guys should have an exciting set of heavy originals and covers this evening, so don't be late to see them for their 7:30 PM set! The only other band that I can confirm for tonight is a debuting local punk quartet named Fist Fighting Stephen Hawking (amusing name!), who will be on at 7:00 PM according to their Facebook page.

Curiously comprised of 4 local drummers, their lineup includes two Frightlight alums (ex-drummer Jeff De Rose on vocals & current guitarist Rick White) alongside Late Shift bassist Clint Wilson and ex-As It Stands guitarist Ryan McLaughlin on drums. No media yet, but expect a solid half hour of old school punk covers from this promising new band, and it's great to see Rick back on stage for the first time since what happened last September! The day's Marquee entertainment begins at 5:00 PM, attendance is FREE with the purchase of a $7 Bon Soo button from local merchants (or upon entry to the Winter Playground downtown), and given that this is a family festival, it's obviously ALL AGES. For more details, click here and the above links! This should be a great showcase for both the established Suicide Kings and the debuting Fist Fighting Stephen Hawking, so don't miss out on this action at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion TONIGHT! For a preview, here's a video from The Suicide Kings' most recent outdoor set, courtesy of last year's Rotaryfest!



For reference sake, the reason we don't have full daily schedules is because Bon Soo hasn't released them, likely out of respect to possible timeslot alterations. However, according to this recent press release on SooToday, upcoming Marquee performers (some of which may have played yesterday) include Salty Mollies dancer Tallulah Gin, solo artist Steevy LaPlante, a dance team from Central Algoma Secondary School, former Chronic Demonic singer Sabrina Strange (though her set may be performance art-based), beatboxer Killabeatz, a band named Foreign A Chord (who I know nothing on), and the Sault College Cougars Competitive Cheerleaders, among others. As well, a recent post at this link says that tomorrow's Marquee lineup will be centered around DJs, with DJ Seith opening at 5:00 PM. I just wanted to get those names out there, even if we don't know times for them, so you guys have more of an idea of who to expect at The Marquee through Saturday!

Finally for this preview post, the second installment of the brand new Heavy Thursdays series at The Roosevelt Hotel goes down TOMORROW NIGHT, and the lineup will be very familiar for confirmed attendees of next month's Anvil concert, as all three local opening bands will rock The Rosie tomorrow! The listed headliners (though the order is subject to change) are newer local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades, in their first show of the year & just their second with new guitarist Jesse Cook, and their hard hitting originals & covers should go over well on familiar ground tomorrow! The other bands are both making their Rosie debuts tomorrow, including new local classic metal quintet Project 421 (in their second show with new singer Curtis McKenzie) and resurgent local thrash quartet Pillory, so don't be late for their varying takes of metal either! Also, if you're a fan of the original Rosie metal night series, keep in mind that members of Frightlight, The Bear Hunters, Winkstinger and March Into Regression will all be performing tomorrow.

Also titled "Smash the North Kickoff", tomorrow's show has FREE ENTRY if you show or buy your Anvil concert ticket at the door! Otherwise, there's a $5 cover charge, and regardless of entry method, there is a 19+ age limit, and 10:00 PM start time. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be another solid entry for the new Heavy Thursdays, and the bands should all devastate to help kickoff the road to Anvil's return on March 15th! For a preview, here's Jack Spades live in December, and stay tuned for our preview of their Bon Soo Marquee set tomorrow!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our next concert previews (including Friday's Marquee lineup) tomorrow! Thanks everyone!