LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide And Tym Morrison), Plus This Weekend's Concert Previews!!

March is coming in like a lion with today's post, as we're previewing an eventful weekend of concerts for hard rock fans on both sides of the border! That said, let's begin with LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for this month, including three on SHORT NOTICE!

With a new month underway, we'll add former Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison's slate of March 2018 concerts to our schedule, including Gliss Steak & Seafood gigs TOMORROW & SATURDAY (as well as March 9th-10th, 16th-17th, 23rd-24th, and 30th-31st), plus nighttime returns to The Roadhouse Bar & Grill TOMORROW and on the 30th! Apologies for the short notice on this weekend's three shows, remember that we approach Tym's solo shows on a month-by-month basis due to their prolific nature and long-term length. Now into the spring months with even more acoustic solo shows, Tym Morrison's skilled evenings of familiar covers should play to more positive crowds at Gliss over the next five weekends and beyond, so keep them in mind for your supper-time entertainment downtown! As for the Roadhouse shows, these are the final two shows of his advertised run of bi-monthly concerts in the first quarter of 2018.

It remains to be seen if Tym will play a similar schedule at this east end venue in April and beyond, but just in case, keep these shows in mind for the first and last Fridays of this month! As usual, Tym's Gliss shows (TOMORROW & SATURDAY included) are 6:00 PM events with no announced cover charges or age limits, but mind the locale, while TOMORROW and March 30th's Roadhouse gigs are 19+ events with no announced cover and a 10:00 PM start time. Visit the official Facebook event pages linked here & here for more details, and for a preview, here's Tym live!



Next up, here's a new show that's not going down this weekend, but is well worth addressing, as local/Toronto Celtic punk quartet Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide will return from a lengthy hiatus when they open for local indie rock solo musician Jesse Merineau & his band at The Speak Easy at Algoma University on Thursday, March 22nd! Having only played one local concert in the past 2½ years (July 2016's Hedley show), it's great to see The Tide back after way too long, and hopefully they can pick up where they left off with more entertaining original material! Yes, they are back in our band links, but no word on if Mikey Hawdon or one of their guest drummers will be behind the kit on the 22nd. As for the headliners, SMS readers will recognize Jesse Merineau from winning the 2016 Speak Easy Battle of the Bands, headlining last year's Rotaryfest Stage 2, and featuring Caroline Divine & Electric Church alums in his solo band. Jesse's infrequent solo concerts are usually big events, and fresh off of his upcoming music video/single release, attention should be high for fans of his indie/pop rock originals!

Doors open at 8:00 PM for this ALL AGES concert, which has $10 tickets available at The Speak Easy, The Rad Zone, Case's Music, and the Thomas Walls School of Music. Crank Sound Distribution will handle sound on the 22nd, and it will apparently be co-hosted by AURA (a.k.a. Algoma University Radio), which is their on-campus podcast/discussion forum. This should be a big concert for alt-rock fans in three weeks time, with some punk for good measure from a returning notable quartet, so visit the official Facebook event page for current and continuing details!

Moving back to this weekend's concert previews, we'll next head to The Northern Pines Lounge at the Kewadin Shores Casino in St. Ignace, where Sault Michigan classic/hard rock cover quartet Cousin Eddie will play their first shows of 2018 TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Last seen in Rudyard back in November, this should be another entertaining weekend of hard rocking covers from Highway 63's sister band, so fans craving some good old fashioned rock in the E.U.P. this weekend should keep these shows in mind! However, I will note that the band has not publically acknowledged these shows (they were confirmed on Kewadin's entertainment page), but we'll edit this if we hear that the shows are not going through. Expect 21+ age limits for these shows, which have 9:00 PM start times, and no announced cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, and hopefully some public videos surface in the future from Cousin Eddie concerts!

Finally, let's head back to Sault Ontario for Tidal Records' Punk Covers Night THIS SATURDAY at LopLops Lounge, where three different local bands will join forces! In public advertising, veteran local punk trio Redundant are the last listed band in a rare LopLops appearance of theirs, and with an established set full of punk covers (and perhaps originals from their forthcoming debut EP), they should deliver a fun set on Saturday night! The other two bands are listed in different order depending on source, but one will be another long awaited return from a Dustin Jones-fronted punk band, as his online page-less punk supergroup The Cover-Up will play their first advertised public concert set in three years on Saturday, with he and guitarist Marco Pedalino now joined by fellow Tide bandmate Marshall Jaaskelainen and K.I.C.K.'s Aaron Dunn. It's great to see The Cover-Up also back after their own hiatus, so don't miss them either! Saturday's other band is The Bananas Guerrillas, the new punk band from ex-Stereo North frontman Andrew Pucci and ex-Gnaeus drummer Brendan Garlick.

A successor to or renaming of their Blink-182 tribute Enema of the Soo from last year's Halloween Party event at The Algonquin Pub, I cannot 100% confirm who's on bass this weekend, but Long Shot's Adam Dawe handled that role last fall. It'll be interesting to hear how The Bananas Guerrillas do, and they have some solid returning names! A $5 cover charge is in effect for this 19+ show on Saturday, with a 9:00 PM start time listed on the Facebook event page, while the road on the poster above hints at bands to be covered. Punk fans should make a beeline for LopLops for all of the action on Saturday, so see above links for more details, and here's Redundant live!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post next! Thanks everyone!