LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (All The Wasted Years & Jack Spades), Plus New Videos!!

Here's a new news post for your Tuesday afternoon, including some new video postings and some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for in over a month's time! Read on below for what you should know!

Reports of July's Rivers of Nihil concert being Live705's promotional return are premature, as they will end their almost 10 month concert hiatus on Friday, June 1st for a Rockstar Bar concert that they are calling The June Jam! This show will feature one touring headliner, they being Timmins punk quartet All The Wasted Years in their local concert debut, and their accessible, familiar punk originals should be up many fans' alley when they hit the soo in just over a month's time! Is it wrong to detect a Surfers resemblance in some of their songs? Despite their involvement, local hard rock quintet Skeyes of Seven are actually advertised as the headliners on the event poster, in their first concert set of 2018 and just their second since their return from hiatus last fall. It's great to have this union of Sense of Truth, Half Past, and As It Stands alumni back, so don't bypass them either! The other local openers are Live705's flagship punk trio A Dire Setback in their second concert of the year, and new local power rock quintet Re:Born in just their second live concert set to date.

Stacked lineup featuring a number of bands we haven't seen much of on stage in recent months, so don't miss out on all of this action! Also, note that A Dire Setback are heading to Timmins the following day for All The Wasted Years' CD release party, with Coach Bombay (from last year's local Vaultry show) also on the bill. This should be a big concert on it's own, so hopefully that show's a blast too! As for the Soo show on June 1st, there is a 9:00 PM start time, 19+ age limit, though a cover charge or ticket fee has not been announced at press time. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details on The June Jam as they roll in!

Next up, here's another new concert the following week on Friday, June 8th, as local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades and "no-genre"/alt-punk trio Handsome Sandwich will make their Room 21 debuts in support of British Columbia alternative folk musician Jesse Stewart! If you're not familiar with Jesse, he's a singer and mandolin player who's attracted a cult following with his energetic, impassioned YouTube videos, and even won a Trailer Park Boys contest in 2014 to appear in the season 9 finale (look for "The Liquor Snurf" episode on Netflix.) It's easy to see why Jesse is picking up steam, his performances are lively and have a punk essence to them, and it'll be interesting to see how he's received locally in June! Jack Spades will be making their first local concert appearance since opening for Archelon in March (in a rare Room 21 set by a band of more than 3 members), while this will be Handsome Sandwich's first announced concert set of 2018.

Solid lineup overall, and hopefully this show helps encourage Room 21 to bring more electric concerts in as the year progresses! This 19+ concert above Low & Slow has a 10:00 PM start time, with $15 tickets going on sale this Friday at Room 21. Promoter/Jack Spades frontman J.D. Pearce has indicated that tickets are "extremely limited", with only 40 tickets guaranteed to be on sale, likely owing to Room 21's smaller size, though I can't confirm if the local openers will have tickets on hand. This should be an intriguing concert for punk and alternative fans, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and remember that tickets go on sale on Friday!

Moving to some new videos, here's 10 minutes of local/St. Catharine's grindcore trio Shit Liver's set during their "Hitting the Fan" release tour kickoff show at The Rednecks Saloon on April 6th! This was filmed by attendee Christopher Paci for his excellent YouTube channel, though he unfortunately did not film openers Stegadeth & Id Iota. The video features Shit Liver playing multiple songs across 10+ minutes of brutality, which are predictably hard to identify by track name, but their live ferocity is on full display! The lighting's not overly bright, and I'm surprised that it's not more packed on the floor, but Shit Liver sound as heavy as ever, so give their new video a look below, and stay tuned for our review of their new album soon!



Finally, here's some new videos from Sault Michigan music/record store Crooked Music's Facebook page! One is just a sale video for the Ashmun Street business' 20% of sale last week, showcasing store stock. The sale's passed, but it's a nice idea of what all Zac & Christy have in store for purchase! The former Grooves Music also posted this video in January (apologies for the delay) that operates in place of their cover photo on Facebook, courtesy of local photographer Jay London's company London Media. Not too many Facebook pages that we deal with on the SMS have a cover video of this kind on their page, but it outlines their products and services well for new visitors, so give it a look if you're browsing! That very same video also has an extended commercial version with sound (I presume that's Zac Crook playing guitar), which is the optimal view of this ad. Give it a look below, and head to Crooked Music for your musical listening and performance needs!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and features in the coming week! Thanks everyone!