Sunday, April 14, 2019

Soundcheck Concert Video Showcase!!

Today's post is entirely devoted to a bunch of new videos from local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck, all courtesy of drummer Glen Thomas' YouTube channel in the past two weeks! Glen posted 11 new videos in this span, adding up to over an hour of new content from this talented veteran group, and with things being spread across multiple different venues, it only makes sense to give each concert's videos their own write-ups! Two of these videos were previously shared to Soundcheck's Facebook page and subsequently featured here already (this Alanis Morisette cover at The Esquire Club & their classic rock medley at The Machine Shop in February), so I won't rehash them in this post. Also, one video is a sampler of scattered clips from various shows of theirs, and I'll approach it at a later date. Going in rough chronological order, we'll start with Soundcheck's set at a drag racing event in Wawa in August, oddly not featuring Glen on drums.

Prior to his addition to the band, this was filmed during Scott McLurg's brief stint behind the drumkit last year. The video is of Soundcheck's aforementioned 12-13 minute classic rock medley, where they cover David Wilcox's "Riverboat Fantasy", Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", Metallica's "Enter Sandman", Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time", Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer", Van Halen's "Jamie's Cryin'", and a reprise of "Riverboat Fantasy". This is the third video of this medley that I've seen, and it still has a nice balance of tunes, if with fuzzy visuals, so give it a look below!



Next up, here's Soundcheck (now with Glen on drums) covering REO Speedwagon's "Take It On The Run" at what I believe to be their Rockstar Bar show on November 15th. Featuring guitarist Terry Eaton on lead vocals, the performance seems to be solid, especially on the guitar solo, but the vertical camera angle, green lighting, abbreviated run-time and even fuzzier visual quality don't help matters. If you can look past the above points, there's good stuff to take in below!



Moving to another Christmas-season concert, Glen posted three more videos of their Toystock VII set at the Northern Grand Gardens later that month to his YouTube channel as well, all featuring Travis Sharpe on vocals only, not even playing guitar here. These include covers of Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", Kenny Loggins' "Footloose" (complete with overlaid cell phone footage of attendees dancing), and as embedded below, John Mellencamp's "Wild Night". Filmed on the same strong camera & angle from their prior-posted medley video, these are largely well done covers, but attendee heads remain in the foreground. Give these a look above & below!



The other three videos are from two (maybe three) different concerts at Reggie's West over the past few months, all again with Travis singing lead. One undated video (possibly from the November show mentioned in a minute) is a very blurry and distant clip of them covering Keith Urban's "Somebody To Love", which is a fitting choice for either Reggie's branch, and the audio here holds up far better than the visuals! This is the only one of the three where Travis plays guitar too. Another video from the Reggievelt features Soundcheck covering Greta Van Fleet's "Highway Tune" in February, distinct from their Esquire Club cover of the same song from November. Solid rendition of this recent rock radio hit with much improved visuals, and the vertical camera angle better frames the band here! Embedded below is this set-ending cover of Ozzy Osbourne's "Bark At The Moon" at Reggie's West in November, which happens to feature guest guitarist Tym Morrison!

Nice to see him back with his old Hollow and Carbon Black bandmates for a brief spell, and it's a shame we don't see his proficient guitar work in an electric setting as much anymore! Travis' vocals strike me as a little soft for this cover, but everyone performs well, and Tym fits in like a glove, so give Soundcheck's Ozzy cover a look below as well!



That's all for today, but thanks to Glen for sharing all of these videos, and stay tuned for more news and updates on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

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