The First Of This Weekend's Hard Rock Concert Previews!!

The busiest concert weekend of the summer begins tonight, so let's kick off what I anticipate to be three weekend concert previews posts with shows taking place today and/or tomorrow, at least in part! If a show you're expecting a preview on, don't worry, this is a busy weekend and I have to spread the wealth, it's coming! Now, here's what you should know to start!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck are reportedly rocking The Esquire Club with a pair of solo headlining concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the shows were only first learned about via their listing on the Sault Music News Letter Facebook page on Tuesday, and had not been publically promoted by the Mourning Wood successors at press time. After over a month off from publically advertised concerts, Soundcheck will hit The Esquire Club for the first time since the June 2nd weekend, shows that we missed on the site at the time, partly due to the band not announcing the Friday gig until 9:34 PM that same night! Profuse apologies for missing their Esquire gigs last month, we'd have previewed them somehow had we known about them prior! Of course, TOMORROW & SATURDAY'S Esquire shows follow their Rotaryfest Stage 1 debut tomorrow evening, and our preview of the main stage is coming in our next preview post, so look for it then!

No word though on if recent Reggie's Place performers "Jute Box Junkie" are the same band as The Jukebox Junkies, the short-lived Mourning Wood side project from late last year. You can catch the ace as well as Soundcheck's classic and hard rock covers at this popular west end venue TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT at around 10:00 PM both nights, with a 19+ age limit and no announced cover charge to be expected. See the above links for more details, apologies again for missing their June shows at this venue, and hopefully some public video turns up soon!

Moving to previously announced concerts, we'll next look at the  Downtown Street Party on Queen Street East (the entire Square One block from Pim to Dennis) TODAY, where local alternative-hard rock trio The Din will open one of the six stages! This annual community event will feature plenty of FREE & ALL AGES activities for locals to enjoy, including refreshments, fitness demos, downtown store discounts, games, kids entertainers, and much more, so be sure to visit the official Facebook event page for full details on this year's party (of course coinciding with day 1 of Rotaryfest!) The Din will open "Stage 5" at 6:15 PM today (exact stage location unclear, but maps will be on hand), with that stage being headlined by As It Stands drummer John Mignacca (credited as "Flo McNasty") in a rare solo set at 10:00 PM, with acoustic trio The Campfire Crooners playing in between at 7:15 PM. Note that the headliners were originally advertised to be John's hard rock band Skeyes of Seven, but that was quietly removed without word from the band. Hopefully nothing bad happened, they've been missed on the stage!

The other stages do not have an advertised punk or hard rock band, but here's who to look out for on them. LopLops Lounge will be the backdrop for "Stage 1", featuring indie rockers K.I.C.K., jazz rock quartet The Wild Iris, ex-Pixo Control frontman Mike Mikus, and young local solo artist Juliana Regan playing under a pop-up patio (get more details at this link.) "Stage 2" will be headlined by Bone Yard side project The Bearded Lounge and their acoustic country covers, with rock/violin quartet Sometimes Ange and an unidentified guitarist(s?) representing Konoba Tapas & Vino on Gore Street opening for them. "Stage H" (3?) will actually be headlined by Toronto ventriloquist Mark Crocker, with country veterans The Stumpy Coldwater Trio & The Bearded Lounge again as opening acts. Stage 4 is more religious in tone, with rapper Tristan "Bold Noize" Goslow and an unidentified band from The Summit Community Church as featured acts, with Mark Crocker opening there himself.

Finally, the stage at Queen and March Street will solely have local DJ duo Electric Therapy manning the turntables, so keep all of the musical acts in mind! All are playing between 5:30 PM and midnight, so visit the above links for full timeslot details. This sounds like a fun event to help invigorate the downtown with, and hopefully with all of this music and family entertainment, all who attend have a blast! Most non-musical events begin at 6:00 PM, and remember, this year's Downtown Street Party is FREE & ALL AGES! For a preview, here's The Din live at LopLops earlier this year!

Next up is an artist who's not playing the Downtown Street Festival or Rotaryfest, but will still have some musical entertainment downtown this weekend, namely prolific local acoustic hard rock frontman Tym Morrison, who will return to Gliss Steak & Seafood for solo shows TONIGHT & TOMORROW! Despite his seasonal return to Thursday night bookings beginning last week, Tym is only playing at Gliss twice this weekend, with his regular Saturday nighter postponed while he sees Iron Maiden live in Toronto. Should be a great concert, hopefully Tym has an awesome time! As such, fans can take in Tym's varied and often heavy array of classic renditions over these next two evenings, and for Downtown Street Partty attendees, keep in mind that Gliss & The Quality Inn are just a three minute walk from the corner of Queen and Dennis, so if you want to see Tym Morrison live, it's not an inconvenience at all to come over for his sets!

Expect 6:00 PM start times, no announced cover charge, and no formal age limit tonight or tomorrow, but remember that this is a sit-down proper restaurant. For more details on tonight & tomorrow's (but not Saturday's) solo concerts, visit the official Facebook event page, and here's Tym live!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our previews of this weekend's Rotaryfest stages and more in the coming days! Thanks everyone!