Last Month's Poll Results & Our Final Poll On Your Favourite Concerts Of 2018!!

It's now time to wrap up last month's poll and launch our final "favourite _____ of 2018" poll for another year! As you may recall, we posed this question to you guys last month: What was your favourite local metal, hard rock, or punk concert in the second half of 2018? Sadly, we only got 10 votes, but that is surprisingly over double our total from it's matching poll from the first half of last year, so thanks to everyone for getting that much higher numbers! Now, here are the final results!

Rivers of Nihil & Alterbeast at The Rockstar Bar on July 6th (4 votes, 40%)
Oh!No II at Robbie's Church in Leeburn on September 8th (3 votes, 30%)
The Gabba Heys at LopLops Lounge on September 22nd (2 votes, 20%)
The Din & A Dire Setback at LopLops Lounge on July 21st (1 vote, 10%)
Treble Charger at Rotaryfest Stage 1 on July 20th (0 votes)
Id Iota & Great Chamberlain at LopLops Lounge on July 20th (0 votes)
The Costanzas & Stegadeth at The Rockstar Bar on August 4th (0 votes)
Ten Foot Pole at The Rockstar Bar on October 25th (0 votes)
Halloween Party #1 at The Rockstar Bar on October 27th (0 votes)
Halloween Party #2 at The Rockstar Bar on October 28th (0 votes)
Shit Liver at The New American Pub on November 22nd (0 votes)
Parabol & The Elements at The Rockstar Bar on December 14th (0 votes)
The Cover-Up at LopLops Lounge on December 21st (0 votes)
Northwest & K.I.C.K. at LopLops Lounge on December 22nd (0 votes)
Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide at LopLops on December 28th (0 votes)
Other (0 votes)

What do you guys think? Well, for the non-voted shows (almost all in the last quartet of 2018), I am most surprised that the Treble Charger-headlined Rotaryfest lineup didn't get any attention, same for Shit Liver's New A show in November, but it's all in who votes! At least "Other" didn't get any votes. The Din's high profile reunion show last July got a vote, which is great to see and helps validate their talent and recognition locally, while the Gabba Heys concert made the podium with two votes, which is mildly surprising, but it's always an event when Mikey comes home to front one of his bands! The second annual Oh!No festival got a good vote total as expected, finishing in second place, and after that huge lineup and fan-friendly camaraderie, how could it not? However, the winner of the half-year poll was the Rivers of Nihil-headlined concert in July at The Rockstar Bar, which speaks to how brutal and entertaining that death metal blast was just after our 11th anniversary, and here's hoping more big shows are in the works from Live705! Maybe Rivers of Nihil will return down the line?

Thanks to everyone for voting, but now we enter our final year-end poll from last year by posing this question to you guys: What was your favourite local metal, hard rock, or punk concert of 2018? As always, we combine the vote getters from last July's poll on the first half of 2018 with those that recieved votes in the second-half poll above, in order to determine a winner for the whole year. If a show you would prefer to vote for isn't listed below, you should have voted in the prior polls! That said, "Other" is an option as usual. Now, here are your final choices from all of 2018!

Bands: Big Wreck & Attica Riots
Venue: The Machine Shop
Date: February 13th
Info: Over 16 years after last rocking Sault Ste. Marie, Juno Award-winning Toronto/Boston hard rock band Big Wreck returned for a well attended and received headlining show at The Machine Shop last February, with Winnipeg alt-rockers Attica Riots along for the ride! The Ian Thornley-led group brought fans back to the 1990s by playing their entire "In Loving Memory Of..." album on this winter night, and fan response was very positive, but can you vouch for this concert?

Bands: Archelon, Jack Spades, Doors & Fours, and Re:Born
Venue: The Rockstar Bar
Date: March 10th
Info: The first promoted concert of the year from J.D. Pearce saw Sudbury metal quartet Archelon  play their first local set in over 3 years, alongside Hamilton grunge/punk trio Doors & Fours, and the 2018 debuts of local punk/metal favourites Jack Spades and Project 421-successors Re:Born, who impressed early fans with their power rock covers and originals. Despite medium attendance, fans at The Rockstar Bar responded well to this four pack, but would you pick it in this poll?

Bands: I Mother Earth, Finger Eleven, and J.J. Thompson
Venue: The Machine Shop
Date: April 18th
Info: Just when you thought the Big Wreck concert was a big deal, The Machine Shop played host to I Mother Earth and Finger Eleven on April 18th for a massive night of hits from these Juno-winning hard rock standouts! Alongside their own sets, fans were also treated to two joint sets from the headliners, including a V.I.P. acoustic pre-show and a plugged-in encore, ensuring that fans got their money's worth from this major package! Would you vote for this concert?

Bands: Rivers of Nihil, Alterbeast, Inferi, and Pillory
Venue: The Rockstar Bar
Date: July 6th
Info: One of the heaviest shows of last year saw a trifecta of American death metal bands make their way to The Rockstar Bar in July, with Reading, Pennsylvania's own Rivers of Nihil inciting a huge circle pit for their brutal original headlining attack! Alterbeast and Inferi were more than up to the challenge as openers, while local death/thrash metal trio Pillory impressed in their only public show in the past 18 months. Was this extreme metal blast your preferred choice?

Bands: Treble Charger, Mustang Heart, Turner Up, Road Fever, and Tripod The Dog
Venue: Clergue Park (Rotaryfest Stage 1)
Date: July 20th
Info: As part of their "Rotaryfest Rewind" theme of band reunions at the covers-centric main stage last year, our local summer festival loaded up the schedule each night, with a very SMS-friendly Friday lineup to boot! Featuring prominent indie/punk quartet Treble Charger, a one-off Turner Up reunion, and the return of Tripod the Dog alongside festival regulars Mustang Heart and a reunited Road Fever, fans ate up this day's roster, but would you vote for it in this month's poll?

Bands: The Din & A Dire Setback
Venue: LopLops Lounge
Date: July 21st
Info: The second post-Rotaryfest show from LopLops last year saw a surprise reunion set from defunct alt-hard rock trio The Din, marking their first local concert appearance since their "Suburban Sendoff" at the same venue last fall! Also featuring their friends in pop punk trio A Dire Setback fresh off of their own Stage 2 set, this "Dinunion" reminded LopLops patrons how big of an attraction The Din were in their heyday, but was it your favourite 2019 show featured here?

Bands: Garbageface, Cross Dog, The Therapists, The Franquilizers, Lightmares, Beaver Slap, Fat Cop, Forest City Aurora, Planet Rock, Pointless, The Dynowaves, Jack Spades, Mik & Steve, Winkstinger, A Dire Setback, The Elements, Jackson Reed, and Shae Tull
Venue: Robbie Adamson's Church in Leeburn
Date: September 8th
Info: Local promoters Six, Two, Oh. brought back their Oh!No concert festival to the familiar church locale in nearby Leeburn on September 8th, and delivered with an even bigger day of music than in 2017! Featuring the long awaited local return of Mark Rand's Cross Dog, the Soo debut of The Therapists, fan favourite returnees from Oh!No I, Beaver Slap karaoke, and even a piano bonfire, would you vote for this fast-rising festival?

Bands: The Gabba Heys, The Cover-Up, and Amy Gabba
Venue: LopLops Lounge
Date: September 22nd
Info: After an almost 2 year hiatus from fronting bands locally, veteran local punk musician Mikey Hawdon returned home in September with his new Ramones tribute band The Gabba Heys (not the same band as the former Merves), with his AMY/DC bandmate Amy Zucchetto breaking out a Joan Jett tribute set for good measure! Also featuring the online page-less Cover-Up for a set of their own punk classics, was this punk rock lineup your preferred show out of all others in the poll? 

Other: Did we miss a preferred concert that you saw locally last year? For reference, metal, hard rock, or punk artists like All The Wasted Years, The Bananas Guerrillas, The Bear Hunters, Carried Away, Chase Wigmore, Coral Fang, The Costanzas, Crucify the Whore, Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide, Electric Church, The Elements, The Faps, Fluid 5ive, Frightlight, Handsome Sandwich, Id Iota, James Watterworth, Northwest, Parabol, Poison Girl, Redundant, Shit Liver, Soundcheck, Stegadeth, The Steves, The Suicide Kings, Ten Foot Pole, That's Chester, The Therapists, The 3 Day Millionaires, The Truth Of All Death, Tym Morrison, Who Made Who, Whoop-Szo, and The Wyld Stallyns all played live last year, not to mention shows from Sault Michigan-area acts, and un-listed concerts featuring bands already in the poll. If, for whatever reason, the show you want to vote for isn't here, vote for "Other"!

VOTE TODAY!! You have until June 18th to cast your votes, and hopefully we get a decent turnout to wrap up another year of polls with, as a lot of good shows happened in the area last year! That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post tomorrow! Thanks everyone!