This Weekend's Remaining Hard Rock Concert Previews, Plus A New Video!!

Before we get into this post, just a heads-up that the Hellbent concert at The Rockstar Bar on Saturday appears to have been cancelled, as per the quiet deletion of it's Facebook event page by promoters Oh!No Collective at some point in recent weeks. A reason for the cancellation was not announced, but Hellbent themselves have not posted on their Facebook page in three weeks. Hopefully nothing bad happened! Now, let's dive into this weekend's remaining hard rock concert previews, plus a new video!

The finals of the second edition of The Soo's Got Talent go down TOMORROW NIGHT at Soo Blaster! After a few weeks of strong local competition from local musical entertainers here and at The Verdi Hall, plus a two-week layoff from the semifinals, the final 7 acts will return to the Queen Street East establishment to see who will take home the top prize! Oddly, what the champion will win isn't advertised yet online, we'll let you know when we hear something. The five automatic semifinalists will include revived rap/metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty, beatboxer Robert "Killabeatz" Drolet, singer/guitarist Adrian Sullivan, and pop singers Bethany Pelletier LeBeouf & Juliana Regan, while vocalist Coulson Perri and young pop trio The Dancing Divas were also advanced as this year's two wild cards. It's hard to predict what way the judges will vote, but for reference, Bethany was a Soo's Got Talent finalist last year, Juliana won the Soo Youth Songwriters Contest in 2017, and The Apocalypse Afterparty were finalists in 2015's VM Radio Battle of the Bands.

Alongside the seven finalists, tomorrow's festivities will see guest performances by 2018 Soo's Got Talent champion Daniella Brewer and guest judge Tim Murphy, a veteran of the local arts community who you may recognize from ONNtv's morning show. As well, "a surprise celebrity tribute artist" will also perform, identity not yet known, but remember that Tim's impersonation of Joan Rivers is a popular sight locally. This should be a fun night of diverse local entertainment, but who will take home the top honours in 2019? You can find out tomorrow at Soo Blaster! Like in preceding rounds, admission for this ALL AGES event is $10 (or $5 for kids), and the show starts at 7:00 PM. I'll refrain from showing a preview video of any one act here to avoid showing favouritism, but visit SaultOnline's YouTube channel for video interviews with all of the finalists (except The Apocalypse Afterparty, oddly enough.) Good luck to everyone tomorrow night, and stay tuned for fallout!

We'll wrap up this weekend's publically announced concert previews by staying at Soo Blaster, where local Tool tribute band Parabol will headline a special solo headlining concert there THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! It's not every day were a local band plays alone at a venue of this size with no openers, chartiable aims, or special frills, but Parabol's faithful tribute to Tool's prog-metal stylings should be enough to fill the room with sound, and hopefully fans! With Tool's long awaited new album "Fear Inoculum" now out, what are the odds that John, Steve, Al, and Anthony have learned any songs from it? A self-promoted event with 705Live (not Live705) handling sound, this 19+ concert has a 10:00 PM start time, and admission is $5 in advance or $8 at the door. Tickets are on sale at Soo Blaster, through the band, at Case's Music, and in two atypical Great Northern Road locales, namely Myers Chiropractic Clinic & Fratelli's Kitchen.

If you've seen Parabol at all since their debut last year, you'll know how well the guys handle Tool's classic songs, and this could be their biggest headline appearance in scope yet (their road trip to Sudbury next month acknowledged), so if you're up for a couple of hours of prog metal brilliance, you know where to be! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Parabol live last year!



Finally for today, here's a new video from local Celtic punk quintet Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide's ongoing album recording sessions! This was posted to label Tidal Records' Facebook page earlier today, though it's share on the band's Facebook page marks their first public update there in almost four months. The video featured fiddler Sheldon Jaaskelainen playing for a few seconds at Mission Control Studios while frontman/label head Dustin Jones does a bit of an Irish jig, before saying "Tide tracking" to the camera. Fun while it lasts, and hopefully the album's on schedule, so give the video a look!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on the site next! Thanks everyone!