A New Local Band, Offspring/Sum 41 Concert Preview, And More Updates!!

Here's a new news post for your Monday night reading, and while it mostly focuses on a major concert preview for tomorrow night, we also have some assorted recent updates, and leading off, a new addition to our local band listings. Here's what you should know!

We have a new local band to add to our Sault Ontario band links, namely a new southern/hard rock quintet named Fort Creek! Named after the local conservation area, this group stems from local acoustic hard rock duo Tattoos & Scars' search earlier this year to find musicians to join that project, though it appears that this is a separate band, given that Fort Creek have quietly had their own Facebook page since May. Time will tell if Tattoos & Scars will be the Bearded Lounge to Fort Creek's Bone Yard, but in any event, both bands feature singer/guitarist Justin Grayson and guitarist Shane Biron. Their lineup is rounded out by rhythm guitarist Matt Sibilo (ex-Redefined, Scary Uncles, et al.), former Thin Ice/Soundcheck bassist Robin "Bones" Lee, and Griphook/ex-Gsis Murphy drummer Anthony Fabiano. As it turns out, they made their live debut at an open mic night at Reggie's West last month, with pictures to boot, though we have never considered open mic nights to be true "concerts" for our purposes.

If you want to hear Fort Creek in action, this video of the guys jamming Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" was posted on Facebook, but it only shows Justin, and it runs for under 30 seconds. Robin's YouTube channel has audio recordings of the guys covering Radiohead's "Creep" and, as embedded below, Thriving Ivory's "Angels on the Moon". We haven't gotten a massive look at their southern rock side yet, but Fort Creek have a very talented lineup with hard rock chops, and they're already further along as a live band than Halfway Loaded were. Give Fort Creek a look above & below!

Next up, here's our preview of a very special Tuesday night concert going down TOMORROW at GFL Memorial Gardens, as California punk legends The Offspring and Ajax, Ontario punk quintet Sum 41 will join forces for a night full of hit and fan favourite songs! This will be The Offspring's local concert debut, and with songs like "Come Out & Play", "Original Prankster", "Hit That", and many more in their repertoire, their upbeat punk hits should attract a great reception at the former Essar Centre tomorrow! Meanwhile, this will be the first local stop for Sum 41 in 15 years, having last came through when they headlined at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion in September 2004. As any MuchMusic watcher should know from years gone by, Sum 41's classic songs like "The Hell Song", "In Too Deep", and "Pieces" still hold up today, as do their newer songs, and it's great to see them back! This will be their first local gig with Gob's Tom Thacker on guitar or with Frank Zummo on drums.

Finally, English alternative rock trio Dinosaur Pile-Up will open in their own local debut, and with their own single "Back Foot" climbing on the rock radio charts and getting airplay on Stingray Loud, they should set the tone well with the grunge-inspired original attack before the punk sets in! An Invictus Entertainment Group production presented by Rock 101, this ALL AGES & 7:00 PM concert still has floor and bowl seats available at this link, at the in-person box office, and at (705) 759-5251, though the price remains $90 for most seats and $67 for the upper back bowl, minus service fees and taxes. The steep cost will scare off some fans, but hopefully this show is a huge hit to encourage more punk and alternative bands to come to the Gardens! With all of the hit songs and Rock 101 standbys from both bands, I know this will be a great concert, so visit the official Facebook event page for complete details, and here's The Offspring live!



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

• Back on July 31st, a 20 year old punk/metalcore guitarist named Brett Macchio posted on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group regarding a search for players (presumably a bassist and/or drummer) for a local band that he's working on. At the time, Brett had found a singer, and he has a handful of live experience from a high school band, plus some songwriting work since then. I'm not familiar musically with Brett, but if you want more information, message him at this link or above!
• Local Distillers tribute quartet Coral Fang will join frontwoman Tiffany Stocco's Volbeat tribute band The Guitar Gangsters for their Sudbury road trip on November 29th! This will be their first out of town gig, their first anywhere since Go Skate Day in June, and just their fifth show total. It's great to see that one of Tiffany's pre-existing cover bands will survive despite her move out of town, but will we ever see Poison Girl again? See above for more on the Sudbury concert at The Asylum!
• I have moved local hard rock quintet Halfway Loaded to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity, coupled with members Justin Grayson & Shane Biron launching the aforementioned Fort Creek as their apparent primary band. Active since 2016, this promising quintet never advanced beyond open mic nights and private gigs, but follow Fort Creek to see what Justin & Shane have in store, and best of luck to Ryan, Jesse, and Dylan in the future!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the site this week! Thanks everyone!