We Will Rock You At The Gardens, Plus New Videos & More Updates!!

On this (Canadian) long weekend, let's tackle some more recent news and notes before we enjoy Thanksgiving proper, so what's on tap tonight? Some assorted recent stories, new videos from recent concerts, and leading off, a big event announcement for you fans of both live musicals AND hard rock!

Remember how St. Mary's College students put on a production of the Queen musical We Will Rock You in May? Well, the real thing is coming to GFL Memorial Gardens on Wednesday, January 29th! Though not a concert in the traditional sense, this live stage production will bring two dozen Queen songs to life in a jukebox musical about individuals rising against their oppressive leaders in a dystopian future, though if you saw the local production in May, you'll already know that. A very late (if not the last) stop in the fall/winter tour for We Will Rock You, this should be a fun way for Queen and musical theater fans to see these classic songs in a unique, over-the-top presenation, and preview videos I have seen showcase a lot of talented performers! Tickets run from $78.50 to $98.50, VIP packages aside, and plenty of great tickets are available at this link, at the Gardens' in-person box office, or at 1-866-775-9422. Visit the above links for more details!

Next up, we have a new video of local acoustic hard rock trio The Wyld Stallyns to share here, courtesy of their concert at The Canadian Motor Hotel's Upper Deck Bar & Grill this past Friday, which I regrettably missed for coverage on here. The band did plug it this past Monday on their Facebook page, but not afterwards, and the venue's Facebook page never mentioned it either. I profusely apologize for missing this show on here, I will try harder to stay on top of their gigs in the future! In any event, this was their first publically advertised show at The Upper Deck since November of last year, and seeing them outside of The Whiskey Barrel nowadays isn't common. That all said, we do have a video from their show on Friday, courtesy of SaultOnline's Mike Caruso, who is still posting a ton of videos from local cover bands onto his YouTube channel, and (barring new uploads) we'll have at least one more hard rock band clip of his to share later this week. Also, ignore the horse thumbnail, it's not part of the actual footage.

The video proper is of The Wyld Stallyns (plus Rob & Jesse's Elements bandmates James White & Jonas Gasperas) covering Dusty Springfield's "Son of A Preacher Man", which sounds good, but the vocal clarity is muddled through the audio setup. Also, why was Mike's stationary camera set up so far from the band? If you can avoid showing all of the empty seats at this point in the gig, you should do it! Still a solid clip, especially if you like seeing all of The Elements (and Christina) together in an unplugged setting, so give this video a look below, and apologies again! Hopefully the show was a hit!



Also today, here's a new video from local/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock solo musician Mike Haggith's Facebook page, courtesy of a "coffeehouse concert" he played at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Thompson last month, though it was only posted last week. This video features Mike playing his new song "The Best You Never Had", which was the song sampled in his original teaser video for his now-next CD "If Ever Comes The Day", so this is our first chance to hear the song in full, albeit live. I'll hold comment on the song proper for now, but this video uniquely includes a poll at the 0:50 mark, asking if Mike should release the full song as the second single from the new album. As far as I can tell, "Yes" is winning, so take that for what you will! The video proper is well filmed, despite an oddly low angle, so give it a look below, and stay tuned for more from Mike's new album as it rolls in, including more recent live material from Thompson!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

• Brutally Fatal frontman & Blood Shed Productions co-founder Austin McCrae is looking to join a band as a guitarist, as per his posting on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group on September 21st. He said that he misses playing on stage, and is "down for any genre", though note that his prior local band work has ranged from death metal to doom/punk. No word on what this means for Brutally Fatal, who claimed in May to be releasing a new album "this summer", but message Austin at this link or above if you want more info!
• A Me First & The Gimme Gimmes tribute band has quietly replaced the planned White/Rob Zombie tribute at J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween Party at The Rockstar Bar on November 1st, as per updates (including a new poster) to the Facebook event page. A reason for the switch was not announced, but remember that inactive local punk band The HTs did a Gimme Gimmes tribute set at this event in 2017. I am unsure if the 2019 tribute is related otherwise, but one imagines J.D. himself may be singing. Look for lots of punk covers of non-punk covers from this band, in any event!
• I have moved local metal musician Mike Vincent to our inactive band links, as he has not posted a public update regarding his solo project since posting his newest song "Nocturnal" on his Bandcamp page in September of last year, past our one-year cut-off. The Skull After Betrayl & Bear Hunters alum had revived his solo project in 2017, and even released two solo albums in March 2018, but updates for his planned third album "For Dear Life" were few and far between, and he never launched a public page outside of Bandcamp to promote his music with. Mike's a talented guy, hopefully he revisits his solo work down the road!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates this week, and to all of our Canadfian readers, have a great Thanksgiving! Thanks everyone!