Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile: The Dookies

It's now time for this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile, as we once again spotlight a band that's not from here, but featured a past or present Sault Ste. Marie-area resident in any of their lineups! This month's selection features a very familiar face covering very familiar songs, so check out this month's profile in this monthly feature series below, and check out our latest news post from this morning below this profile!
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The Dookies (Toronto, Ontario)

Lineup: (Saultites in RED)

Mikey Hawdon (vocals/guitar)
Matt Leitch (bass)
Darrin Pfieffer (drums)

Official Facebook group: http://facebook.com/groups/310896088965878

Local Info: Dookies frontman Mikey Hawdon is arguably one of the most familiar and experienced faces in the local punk scene thanks to his extensive band work locally and in Toronto as both a frontman and drummer in numerous projects. Likely best known as the drummer for The Inner City Surfers and singer for Lion Ride, Mikey is also familiar from past work with bands like Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide, Bin Hawdon & the Taliband, Detroit, Tha Bombed Squad, and numerous others. Currently living in Toronto, you can see Mikey there in his original punk band The Fairmounts and their Ramones/Joan Jett tribute side project The Merves, not to mention his other active punk tribute band, The Dookies!

Band Bio: One of two active punk tribute bands fronted by Mikey Hawdon, The Dookies obviously pay tribute to Green Day, and have a fittingly familiar lineup, with Mikey joined by Crush Luther's Matt Leitch and Goldfinger's Darrin Pfieffer, both of which having national hit songs with their main bands. Debuting on stage at The Port in Barrie in March 2012, The Dookies would make their only local appearances to date at The Rockstar Bar that April & October, joining an array of Southern Ontario concerts during that timeframe. Due to Darrin's move to Los Angeles in early 2013, bookings have slowed down since then, but The Dookies still play the occasional concert, most recently in Toronto last summer, while they'll return to the stage on June 19th at next month's annual Amnesia Rockfest in Montebello, Quebec.

Like The Merves, The Dookies deliver a faithful sound to the original band with a fun live atmosphere, though I'll concede that Mikey's not a perfect vocal match for Billie Joe Armstrong. He, Matt, and Darrin are all experienced pros that know these songs inside & out, and they're always a fun time, especially if you like Green Day already, so consider checking The Dookies out if possible, especially as they often cover their namesake album "Dookie" in full! As a tribute band, online media is limited to videos from their concerts, but I wonder how the guys would sound in an original project? YouTube user fromstephtolast has videos from one of The Dookies' local shows, but the audio is scratchy on them. Arguably the best place for Dookies videos is Mikey's own YouTube channel,  which has a number of 2012-era clips, including this one from that September in Toronto!


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I hope you guys liked this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile! Next month in this series, we'll stay in the punk realm for a look at The Sunk'n City Gypsys, a British Columbia "folk/punk/grass" band that formerly featured Honest Job frontman Mister Tahti in their lineup, so look for that on or around June 26th! That's all for today, but stay tuned for news, concert previews, and this month's CD review in the coming days! Thanks everyone!