LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Scarkazm, Banned, And Tym Morrison), Plus Weekend Concert Previews!!

(Updated at 4:41 PM) The first concert weekend of 2018 is about to begin, but despite that, things are fairly quiet among currently announced hard rock shows, with only a handful of SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS to speak of for proven heavier concerts through Saturday. As such, this post has been rounded out with more new concert announcements through next month, so here's what you should know for this weekend and beyond! We originally led off this post with the announced Top Hat Billiards debut of local classic/hard rock cover quartet The 3 Day Millionaires tonight, but that show was cancelled this afternoon. Bassist Bill Brouillard confirmed this in a Facebook e-mail, noting that the venue called off the show due to low attendance for their recent live concert bookings this season. For what it's worth, neither Top Hat nor The Millionaires ever acknowledged the show publically, with our initial source for the booking being a post on Bill's personal Facebook page this morning.

Very disappointing, especially so soon into Top Hat's live band experiment, but hopefully Top Hat tries live bands again in the future, look for new bookings elsewhere from The 3 Day Millionaires when they're publically announced, and thanks to Bill for confirming both this show and it's fate!

Next up, local hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will kick off his 2018 slate of acoustic solo concerts this month with the continuation of his weekly arrangement at Gliss Steak & Seafood for matinee shows TOMORROW,and SATURDAY, plus January 12th-13th, 19th-20th, and 26th-27th! But that's not all, as Tym has announced a twice-a-month schedule at The Roadhouse Bar & Grill through (at least) March, which kicks off with Friday night shows TOMORROW NIGHT & on January 26th! Apologies again for the short notice on this weekend's three shows, remember that we go month by month for Tym's regularly scheduled gigs due to the amount and longevity of them, so January's are new to the site. The Gliss bookings continue his weekly run of acoustic solo gigs that began at The Quality Inn's house restaurant back in 2015, notably returning to a twice weekly schedule through June once again (no Thursday nighters), while his return to The Roadhouse on Trunk Road will be his first announced gigs there since last summer.

In other words, fans of Tym's hard rocking covers have plenty of changes to see him this month and beyond, including SATURDAY and twice TOMORROW! The Facebook event pages for each venue's shows (linked here & here) confirm Tym's twice-a-week slate through June, plus him playing the first and last Fridays of the month at The Roadhouse through March, but we'll approach those as each month comes. The Gliss shows remain 6:00 PM engagements with no announced age limit, the Roadhouse shows are at 10:00 PM with a 19+ age limit, and none have an announced cover charge. See above for more details, and here's Tym live!

Moving to shows with lots of advance notice, we can add our first hard rock concerts at Kewadin Casino lounges of the year to our concert calendar, as Kewadin's entertainment page has added shows taking place at Sault Michigan's Rapids Lounge and St. Ignace's Northern Pines Lounge through next month! That said, there's not much in the way of hard rock at press time, and a few bands are oddly credited in shortened form (TOC is The Touch of Class Band, for example, and I can't confirm who "Pard. Excus." are.) As far as I know, no confirmed Rapids Lounge bands are heavier, but a few playing the Kewadin Shores Casino in St. Ignace are, including Traverse City metal trio Scarkazm, who will play their first E.U.P. shows of 2018 when they hit The Northern Pines Lounge on Friday, January 12th and Saturday, January 13th! Coming just a month after their last shows at this venue, this should be another prime opportunity to check out this hard hitting and high profile Northern Michigan band on a regional stage!

Note that these shows are solely credited to Friday the 12th on the entertainment page linked above, but so is every other lounge show that's currently listed, so that appears to be another short form entry just to reference the entire weekend. In other words, don't worry! You can take in Scarkazm's heavy covers and possible originals next weekend at 9:00 PM both nights, these are 21+ engagements, and there are no announced cover charges. See above for more details, and stay tuned for more on when we'll next see Scarkazm (and Peril) in our neck of the woods!

Finally for today, we'll also see Kinross classic/hard rock cover trio Banned back at The Northern Pines Lounge in St. Ignace for shows on Friday, February 2nd and Saturday, February 3rd! Barring an interim announcement, these will be Alex, Don, and Wayne's first publically announced concerts of 2018, their first in about two months at any locale, and their first at The Kewadin Shores Casino in three months. Banned have been fairly quiet so far this winter, and have yet to acknowledge these or any 2018 shows publically, but hopefully they'll heat things up with their fan favourite and often heavy covers next month in St. Ignace! Like with the aforementioned Scarkazm shows, expect 21+ age limits, no announced cover charge, and 9:00 PM start times both nights. Check the above links for more details, and stay tuned for more from Banned when it becomes public!

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