Friday, January 19, 2018

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Soundcheck), Weekend Concert Previews, And Much More!!

Today's post is half devoted to this weekend's hard rock concert previews (on a fairly quiet weekend overall), including a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, but we're filling things out with lots of assorted recent news and notes! Here's what you should know on this Friday morning!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to The Rockstar Bar for one night only TONIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was actually announced last Wednesday via it's official Facebook event page, but we couldn't slide it into a post before it got too soon to cover twice. Two months removed from their last stop at this venue, this will be Soundcheck's first public concert appearance of the new year, so if you've missed the Mourning Wood successors as of late, head to The Rockstar Bar TONIGHT to get your fill! Much like in November, this is a one-nighter, due to or resulting in classic rock veterans RPM's concert there on Saturday night (good to see them back out there as well!) As usual for Soundcheck's Rockstar Bar stops, TONIGHT'S show has a 19+ age limit and no announced cover charge, and while the event page lists an oddly early start time of 8:00 PM, I wouldn't head there until 10:00 PM or so. See above for more details, and hopefully some public videos of theirs turn up soon!

Next up, here's this weekend's only other announced hard rock concerts in the Sault area, as former Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison's ongoing weekly concert arrangement at Gliss Steak & Seafood marches into another weekend with shows TONIGHT & TOMORROW! Now in week 3 of his bi-annual contraction to twice-a-week bookings, Tym should have another solid couple of nights in store for fans of his unplugged covers, so head to The Quality Inn's house restaurant for more entertaining music action over these next two evenings! While Tym isn't playing at Gliss on Thursdays until July, it's worth noting that he has recently begun playing "online concerts" via his Twitch.tv channel, where he basically plays his usual acoustic show for an online audience from his home, scheduled for each Thursday at 7:00 PM through the end of June. These aren't concerts in a traditional sense, but it's a nice way to check out Tym's covers with no commitments!

As for tonight and tomorrow's Gliss shows, expect no announced cover charge or age limit for these 6:00 PM matinees, but remember that this is a sit-down formal restaurant (and if that scares you off, his Twitch.tv "concerts" are free as well!) Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Tym live!



Finally for today, here's six assorted shorter news items from the last week or so, and as usual for these short form stories, these are in alphabetical order by artist, festival, or company name:

  • In their first public update since announcing their return from hiatus in August, local hard rock cover quartet Griphook shared a concert poster for a metal show in Orlando, Florida next Saturday that they're advertised as opening. The Facebook event page lists Griphook & even includes their exact logo, and the band likewise shared it to their Facebook page. I'm inclined to believe that there's a separate newer Florida band with the same name and no Facebook page, and the Soo's Griphook shared the event jokingly once they were tagged as performing, but in the off chance they booked a Florida show, good luck in Orlando next week!?
  • Eight months after announcing the long running marijuana culture/concert festival's demise, Hempfest owner Robert Neron has sold rights to the event to a man named George Bachir, though I can't confirm his background, nor is it public yet what he plans to do with Hempfest. No word on if it'll stay in Moonbeam, come back to Ophir, or move elsewhere, but hopefully he can bring Hempfest back to a successful level this year!
  • Local concert promotion/live sound company Live705 announced on their Facebook page on Tuesday that they haven't promoted shows lately because of their recent focus on benefit concerts, and new aims to service the community more than their band A Dire Setback. To that end, they encouraged fans from out of town (especially band contacts) to check out other local companies that support musicians, citing Tidal Records and Mission Control Studios as a start to help "close the gap" between the Soo and the rest of Canada. Hopefully Live705 don't entirely stop putting on shows, but good on them to promote local businesses!
  • Local/St. Catharine's grindcore trio Shit Liver announced on their Facebook page yesterday that they are planning to tour Canada in the spring with "a new release" and new merchandise, and are asking fans where they should play during this tour run. One would assume that a Sault Ste. Marie stop is a given, but if you want Shit Liver to play a specific locale out of town, comment at the links above, and stay tuned for more on their new release, perhaps their announced sophomore album "Hitting the Fan"?
  • The obituary for late Sault Michigan guitarist & Steve's Music Center owner Steve Pevarnic was belatedly posted in The Sault Evening News on October 21st. You can read it at this link, and it notes that he died just 13 days shy of his 60th birthday, partially due to congestive heart failure, and is survived by his brother, aunts, and extended family. A celebration of life was held at The Savoy Bar on October 15th, with proceeds going to the Chippewa County Animal Shelter. The obituary goes into nice detail on his life and musical career, so give it a look above, and apologies for adding to the delay in this making the site!
  • Earlier this week, in their first public postings since 2016, inactive local "blue Chinese metal crash punk" quartet Sykotyk Rampage apologized for their recent dormancy and hinted that they'd be back in some form in the future. I'd give more exact wording, but their Facebook page was quietly taken down since, so either plans changed and they'll remain inactive, or their it is being fully relaunched. In any event, their Facebook page wasn't listed in our band links (we used Reverbnation), but hopefully this isn't the absolute end of the line for Sykotyk Rampage!

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

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