LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Wyld Stallyns), More Weekend's Concert Previews, And Oh!No IV Updates!!

As promised, let's wrap up this weekend's concert previews today, specifically concerning two punk-featured shows downtown tomorrow night, but we also have some big updates to an annual concert festival, and leading off, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for year's end!

Local acoustic hard rock trio The Wyld Stallyns will end 2019 with a New Year's Eve concert at The Whiskey Barrel on Tuesday, December 31st! This show was quietly announced late in the band's latest Facebook page post from Monday, largely spent thanking everyone from their guest performer-laden gig at the same venue this past Saturday. FYI, they were joined there by Crossroad Magdalenes bandmates Greg MacLachlan & Aaron Dunn, Guitar Gangsters drummer Derek Turner, and prolific local singer Jackie Fuller, so they definitely had some talented friends helping out. It makes sense that The Stallyns would return to their favourite venue for another go-around in 11 days' time, so don't miss all of the action then! Despite the expected New Year's frills, this remains a cover-free event with a 19+ age limit and a presumed 8:00 PM start time. Check out the above links for more details on The Wyld Stallyns last show of the year!

Next up, let's conclude this weekend's pre-Christmas concert previews with two big punk concerts TOMORROW NIGHT, starting with local Celtic punk quintet Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide's last show of 2019! Returning to the site of their St. Patrick's Day concert in March, this will be The Tide's first public show since their festival gigs in St. Joseph Island and at Rotaryfest in July, with recording sessions for their planned fourth studio album taking up much of the year in their camp. Might we hear some more new songs for the upcoming CD tomorrow? Either way, it's great to see Dustin, the Jaaskelainens, Liam, and Chris back for another go-around! Local funk/hard rock quartet The Elements (featuring 2/3rds of The Wyld Stallyns) will open in their first live show since Halloween weekend, and while they're not LopLops regulars, their high impact originals and covers should set the tone, so don't be late for their set!

This concert has a special $10 cover charge, a 19+ age limit, and a 10:00 PM start time. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details on what should be a great night of punk rock action, and here's The Tide live!



Lastly for this weekend's publically announced hard rock or punk concert previews, we'll head to The Rockstar Bar, where local promoters The Oh!No Collective will host their Oh!Noel fundraiser concert TOMORROW NIGHT! Primarily a fundraiser for next year's Oh!No concert festival (more on that in a bit), this will be another genre-hybrid event with a little something for everyone, with alt-punk trio A Dire Setback filling the SMS coverage-void on this night, and their original attack and new material should bode well here tomorrow. Surf rock instrumental trio The Dynowaves and rappers Rick E and Kodex will round out the bill for Oh!Noel, and don't sleep on them, all will bring their own talented and diverse sounds to the table for the occasion! Admission for this 8:00 PM and 19+ event is $10, but if you bring canned good donations for The United Way's Harvest Algoma food resource center, you can knock up to $5 off of the cover charge ($1 off per can, 5 maximum.)

Also, note that there will be an ugly sweater contest tomorrow night, so bring your best (or worst) sweater to see if you can win a prize! This sounds like a fun event for a couple of worthy causes, and there's a bit of punk, rap, and surf rock to go around for the holidays, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's A Dire Setback live!

Finally for this post, let's talk about the Oh!No collective's namesake concert festival, which will be moving from Robbie Adamson's church in Leeburn to Sault Ste. Marie proper for it's fourth annual installment next year, as per this Sault Star article by journalist Brian Kelly earlier this month, which also features interview remarks by Oh!No representative Alex Moore. The move into city limits will reportedly be to make it easier to attend while also giving extra promotion to booked acts, which all makes sense to me, as not everyone was able or willing to drive/carpool to Leeburn, especially with the 2 day model this year. Most of the rest of the article concerns Oh!Noel tomorrow, but one line gives some interesting information, namely that "Oh!No will run in late August at various venues downtown". The past three festivals have been in early September, but a move into the summer season alone may help overall exposure.

As for hosting Oh!No IV at multiple venues, this had been a rumour since even before this year's festival, and the idea of a multi-venue festival like this isn't locally foreign. Remember the Algoma Hope4Haiti fundraiser in January 2010, which had live entertainment at 7 nightclubs simultaneously? Time will tell how ambitiously scheduled things will be for this event, but it'll be interesting to find out how things shape up come the summer. Visit Oh!No's Facebook page for continuing details, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!