LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tarnished) & Related Weekend Concert Previews!!

After a one week lull following Rotaryfest, we have an unusually busy concert weekend at the SMS  to kick off August, so here's what we have in store. Due to a number of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (some on SHORT NOTICE) from the same local band, we'll focus only on them to start, while we'll look at Tym Morrison, The Wyld Stallyns, and Pop Evil later today, before looking at Saturday's Inner City Surfers, Highway 63, and Black Crown Initiate concerts tomorrow. Hopefully that covers everything, barring more late notice announcements. Now, here's what you should know to start this weekend!

New Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished will continue their "every Thursday" run of acoustic matinee concerts TODAY at Biggby Coffee, but that's not all for Alex and Josh (and Tommy?) this month! Joining their increasingly busy concert schedule, the Banned successors will also play outside of Phat Boutique at 559 Ashmun Street for a second straight week as part of the ongoing Ashmun Alive festival series TONIGHT, while they'll also be playing another acoustic set TOMORROW AFTERNOON as part of this year's Sidewalk Sales! Apologies for the short notice on the latter two gigs, they were only publically confirmed via Facebook event pages linked here and here earlier this week.  All three of these two man unplugged gigs are FREE and ALL AGES matinees, so whether you're up for some 10:30 AM indoor jams for tips and coffee today, or you want to head downtown TONIGHT at 6:00 PM or TOMORROW at 12:00 PM, you have ample opportunities to hear Alex & Josh break out some fan favourite covers this weekend!

Note that I don't know where exactly Tarnished will be playing during Sidewalk Sales, but Phat Boutique again would make sense. That all said, Tarnished will also have one non-Biggby/Ashmun show this month in the region, as they will (more or less) take Banned's place at this year's Sugar Island Music Festival on Saturday, August 10th! Advertised without the "acoustic" tag in it's Facebook event page's title (and thusly implying that they'll have electric instruments and drums here), this will be frontman Alex Traynor's ninth straight year at this annual festival, and first not fronting Banned, though Tarnished get a high co-headlining slot at 8:45 PM on Saturday. Other bands this year, again of the festival regular, country/folk, and online page-less variety, will include headliners 3 Zip, 3½ Men, Aberdeen, 2 Cents, All Arms, Joel Choate, The Gentleman George Band, Walkers Rye, Moose River and February Sky, and an Al Gross-hosted open mic block opening at 11:00 AM.

With the exception of Friday openers Steph & Dave and Sunday headliners Jim & Joe Schutz, every band on those days is also playing on Saturday, unlisted "friends" aside, and Tarnished are only advertised for Saturday. As usual, admission for this ALL AGES outdoor festival on Sugar Island is via a $10 souvenir button purchase (kids 12 and under are FREE), which gets you admission for all three days of the festival, with no single day passes available. Buttons are on sale at Ed's Bayview Store, The Hilltop Bar & Grill, or the Westshore Convenience Store in Sugar Island, and at Crooked Music in Sault Ste. Marie, and presumably at the gate, and for more details (including on all of the non-musical festivities), visit the official website! Also for Tarnished's busy concert slate, they just played out of our coverage area today in Curtis, they'll take a road trip to Alex's current(?) Mount Pleasant home base for a show on August 15th, and will also travel to Gould City and Toledo, Ohio for gigs next month, so keep those in mind if you live afar!

Lastly, Alex Traynor's previously advertised solo concert at The Signatures Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on September 5th, and Banned's previously announced Kinross Speedpark gig on September 6th have both turned into Tarnished concerts, as per their new Facebook event pages linked here & here, so both are now credited in our Sault Michigan concert listings as such. This seems to confirm that Tarnished have superceded Alex's own solo project in live priority, though hopefully he doesn't completely put his original music on the shelf. I think that covers all of Tarnished's new concert updates, and it's great to see Alex & Josh (and Tommy) staying busy! No word on how long this will last, especially if Alex has any impending Mount Pleasant commitments, but enjoy Tarnished while you can at all of these gigs, including TODAY & TOMORROW! See above for more details on all of these new concerts, and here's Tarnished live!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more weekend concert previews this afternoon! Thanks everyone!