The Rest Of This Weekend's Hard Rock/Punk Concert Previews, Including Surfers News Coverage!!

Alright, let's finally close up this weekend's concert previews by looking at two big headlining shows in Sault Ontario and one busy weekend in the E.U.P.! Remember, for previews of this weekend's Pop Evil/Buckcherry, Tym Morrison, and Tarnished concerts, plus the already-occurred Wyld Stallyns show, visit the posts below this one. Now, here's what you need to know!

We'll start this last round of previews in Sault Michigan, where local classic/hard rock cover quintet Highway 63 will return for shows at the local Kewadin Casino's Rapids Lounge TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! These shows are advertised on the venue's website linked above, though note that Highway 63 have not posted on their Facebook page since June. Given that Kewadin is plugging them, we will treat these as on unless otherwise stated. That said, these shows are well timed like in June, as after playing the same weekend as the Slaughter concert in St. Ignace, the Monkey's Uncle/Mama's Boys successors will be rocking out after Saturday night's Pop Evil/Buckcherry concert (previewed on the SMS yesterday), so if you want some more live music action after the show, let alone indoors, head to The Rapids Lounge tomorrow night! Of course, that and tonight's concert are 9:00 PM affairs with 21+ age limits and no cover charge. See above for more, and here's Highway 63 live!



Next up, let's head north to Sault Ontario, where local concert promoters Live705 will promote their first event in over a year TOMORROW NIGHT, and it's a spiritual successor to their well received Rivers of Nihil show from last July, no less! Like that concert, this will take place at The Rockstar Bar, and it will also be headlined by a technical death metal band from Reading, Pennsylvania, but in this case, it's Reading, Pennsylvania metal band will be there on this night, namely Black Crown Initiate. A fast rising name in their own right, Black Crown Initiate's brutal and proficient brand of extreme death metal should win over many fans in their local concert debut tomorrow, so don't miss them if you can help it! Two touring bands will be joining them here, including Nashville death meta quartet Inferi (who did open for Rivers of Nihil locally last year) and Chicago death metal quintet Warforged in their own Soo debut. Inferi are a known commodity now, but Warforged should melt faces with their own distinct original attack too!

The local openers are death/thrash metal trio Pillory (replacing the now-drummerless Denver death metal band Vale of Pnath) in their own first local concert since Rivers of Nihil last year, and just their second since late 2017. I don't know why they've been so quiet as of late, but hopefully Robert, Bret, and Blair(?) set the tone well once again! Tickets for this 10:00 PM, 19+ concert are $15 in advance at this link or $20 at the door. If you love technical and progressive death metal, there's only one option for Saturday night, so kudos to Live705 for bringing this package here, visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's Black Crown Initiate live!



Last but not least, local punk quartet The Inner City Surfers will hold a one-off reunion TOMORROW NIGHT at LopLops Lounge to honour the 20th anniversary of their inception! As well advertised in local news media, this will be The Surfers' first public concert appearance since playing a couple of holiday shows in the Soo back in December 2012 (not 2009), and if you believe the buzz on social media, this show has definitely been anticipated by a lot of fans from their heyday! Dustin, Dave, Brad, and Mikey will all be back with a set full of their classic originals, but will the new songs being recorded at Tidal Records turn up tomorrow as well? The opening band will be the debuting Love & Rehab, featurng Alexis Mantello on drums, but I have no other public information on their identities or sound. Intentional secrecy, or does the lack of a Facebook event page not help? We'll let you know when/if anything comes out regarding Love & Rehab otherwise. As for those local news articles, what new to reveal and discuss from those?

SooToday's James Hopkin covered the show in this article on July 22nd, where frontman Dustin Jones talked about why they're reuniting finally, what to expect tomorrow, his musical and personal life events in recent years, future event possibilities if tomorrow's show goes well, and the aforementioned singles. Nice and informative, and you get a great sense of how The Surfers are still very much brothers, and bad blood didn't cause their 6+ year break from the stage! The Sault Star's Brian Kelly plugged the show/reunion in two different articles in the past week, including this one from July 25th featuring brief interview remarks from Dustin, and this more substantial article from just today. The article treads some of the same ground as SooToday's, but goes into more detail about why there's not a second show/larger venue, as well as revealing the names of their three new songs ("Excess Express", "Open Ambition", and a cover of Stompin' Tom Connors' "Algoma Central 69".)

Expect single releases in the fall, but could an album be in the works if these go well? Given that The Surfers are back for more than just this show, they are back in our active band links, FYI. Aside from continually referencing 2009 as the year of their last show (it was 2012!), James articles are absolutely worth a read above or in those days' newspaper! The Sault Star and social media postings indicate that this show is SOLD OUT, but in case tickets open up, they were $20, with a likely 9:00 PM start time and 19+ age limit. It's awesome to see The Inner City Surfers back with their high energy punk attack for one night, so see above for more, and here they are live!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post and much more on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!