Sunday, February 5, 2017

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Who Made Who, Peril, And Scarkazm), And More Recent News!!

On this Super Bowl Sunday, let's get a new news post up early so that everyone can focus on the game! Below, you'll find some assorted shorter stories, but mostly LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS on each side of the border, so here's what you need to know!

Let's begin with the remainder of the new hard rock concert announcements from Kewadin Casino's newly updated entertainment pages (linked here & here), let's start with Traverse City, Michigan classic metal trio Peril, who have a reasonably busy slate of shows planned for 2017 at both of the regional concert-hosting Kewadin branches! Jeff, Adam, and Brooks will return to The Northern Pines Lounge at the Kewadin Shores Casino in St. Ignace on April 7th & 8th, May 26th & 27th, August 11th & 12th, and October 13th & 14th, while they'll also return to The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on July 14th & 15th, September 15th & 16th, and November 17th & 18th. These shows don't include previously advertised gigs on March & June, which we'll elaborate on in a bit, while the Soo shows this summer will mark their first at The Rapids Lounge since September.

Peril's entertaining hard rock and metal covers should continue to find an audience all year at the Soo & St. Ignace's Kewadin lounges, and it's great to see them playing a little more frequently in the new year, so don't miss out on these new shows, or their already announced June gigs! All are 9:00 PM affairs with 21+ age limits and no announced cover charges. See the above links for more details, and stay tuned for more details!

Next up, let's take a detour to Sault Ontario for the long awaited return of Toronto-based AC/DC tribute band Who Made Who to The Rockstar Bar on Friday, April 7th! Just for clarification, this is not the same AC/DC tribute band that were forced to drop out or postpone Rockstar Bar shows twice last year, that was Hells Bells, so if you're feeling wary about buying tickets after last year, don't worry, it's not the same band (though hopefully Hells Bells can finally come back to the Soo at some point!) Who Made Who have played here a bunch of times in the past, but not since November 2014, so it'll be nice to get Who Made Who's faithful sounding and looking blend of high voltage rock & roll back on a local stage again in April! This 19+ concert will have doors opening at 9:00 PM on April 7th, and advance tickets are on sale for $10 at The Algonquin Hotel's front desk, though no word on if the price will jump at the door (2014's show here had a $14 door charge.) Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and if you love AC/DC or missed this tribute, don't miss Who Made Who this spring!

Also, let's wrap up the new Kewadin Casino concerts with Peril's sister band, Traverse City metal trio Scarkazm, who also have a number of shows scheduled for this year at both branches! In terms of The Rapids Lounge in Sault Michigan, the casino's entertainment pages have Scarkazm (misspelled there as Scarcasm) returning there on April 21st & 22nd, August 25th & 26th, and October 20th & 21st, while they're scheduled to rock The Northern Pines Lounge in St. Ignace on May 5th & 6th, July 28th & 29th, September 29th & 30th, and December 15th & 16th! However, there are some inconsistencies between Kewadin's schedules and Peril/Scarkazm's own advertising. As per this photo's comment reply, Scarkazm noted Soo gigs on May 21st & 22nd in the Soo, which are actually on a Sunday & Monday, so it looks like the band mistakenly credited their April gigs as being a month later. Also, that picture and their early 2017 concert calendar lists the March 10th-11th St. Ignace and June 16th-17th Sault weekends as being Peril gigs, where Kewadin's entertainment page says those are Scarkazm gigs.

Who's right here? I believe the latter are now Scarkazm shows, as Peril didn't appear 100% certain about the date for them when they gave it, but given that the March weekend is on an official Peril concert calendar, I'll leave that weekend alone unless they/Scarkazm confirm otherwise. In any event, Scarkazm will be welcomed back to the E.U.P. this year, and it's encouraging to see them playing in Sault Ste. Marie much more than recently usual! Again, these are 9:00 PM shows with no announced cover charges and 21+ age limits. Check the above links for more details, and stay tuned for potential clarification on those March and June weekends!

Finally, here's three shorter assorted news items from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or business name:

  • Last month, in their first Facebook page posting since April, Sault Ontario experimental hard rock solo project The Coyote Speedfreaks (led by The Autumn Roots' Chase Wigmore) noted  that while he considered the project "a series of albums under a unifying name" moreso than a band, "recent developments" may lead to him making a live band that plays some of their material. That would be cool to see, Chase has been missed in the metal and hard rock scene, so stay tuned in case there are updates!
  • This is somewhat old news now, but music/video retail chain HMV is going out of business, with all locations (including the store at The Station Mall) liquidating stock, and all must be closed by the end of April, while extant gift cards can be used until the end of this month. You can read about the receivership and overall chain struggles leading to this news on major news outlets, but this is very disappointing for music fans, as this was always a prime stop at the mall to get new CDs, movies, and gifts, and it was the same when the spot was Music World prior. HMV will be missed, but take in the sales while you can, which are currently up to 30% off!
  • We have moved Bear Hunters guitarist Mitch Sirie's Sorrow Fields solo project to our inactive band links, as that project hasn't posted a public update in well over a year (not helped by the deletion of their most recent Facebook page prior to that.) Previously known as Animas, April Eyes, and By the Gods, The Sorrow Fields had long been working on a pair of different studio albums, but what was posted was later taken down, and the albums haven't had any form of recent follow-through. Hopefully Mitch revisits his solo work again down the road, there was a lot of promise there!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates over the coming days! Thanks everyone!

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