Sunday, July 26, 2020

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Theatre of Night (Official)

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile, as we look at another randomly selected YouTube channel whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk musicians & concerts, in order to spotlight their videos for current readers and potential subscribers. This month's selection will give us a little Christmas in July via one of the most prominent metal bands in the Eastern U.P., so here's what you should know!
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Theatre of Night (Official) (http://youtube.com/theatreofnight1)
 
Owner: Theatre of Night keyboardist Craig Harrison, also known from his work in local bands like Integrated System of Machines, End of Existence, and Dust 'N Bones

Channel Timeline: Launched on July 2nd, 2014; Videos uploaded from that day through March of this year


Channel Summary: The official YouTube channel for the Sault Michigan classical metal project, it was launched to replace their prior channel after the departure of drummer Greg Giles in early 2014, who completely overhauled that channel for personal use. Theatre of Night's current channel features 37 videos, including studio rehearsal footage, audio tracks, solo performances, recording session content, and videos from their recent live concerts during their three Christmas tours from 2017 through 2019.
 
Why You Should Watch: This channel is absolutely worth checking out for fans of Theatre of Night's more recent Christmas-centric performances, and you also get a nice sampling of Craig's solo pursuits and their somewhat ambiguous ongoing studio projects as well! Assuming they can do a Christmas tour in 2020, more content would likely follow here then. That said, pre-2014 content is only sparingly included on the new channel, and direct references to their Reverbnation-exclusive albums like "Darkness Falls" & "Guntower Democracy" aren't as common as you'd think. Also, note that some content here is shared with Craig's personal YouTube channel, and more exclusive videos can be found on the band's Facebook accounts.


 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out: 

Studio Sessions 4 www.theatreofnight.com: Some of this channel's first uploads were studio session clips of Craig and guitarist Steve Giles (then the only official band members) working on new material, and these capture a more traditional, raw look at their creative process before later videos loaded on post-production colour filters and more ambiguity. Former Clownsack guitatrist Fran Blackwood shot a few videos of the guys and guest guitarist Eric Demaray working on some well done (if ominous sounding) material at Sault Realism in July 2014, and these are definitely an interesting watch to see where things were going at this time!



Hallelujah cover - by Craig Harrison: By an 8 vote margin at press time, Theatre of Night's most popular YouTube video is actually this solo vocal cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" by Craig, as uploaded in July 2017. Filmed in black & white, it's oddly framed with the camera shooting him from the side, but it's a solid rendition of this emotional classic that showcases Craig's underrated vocal range that old Dust 'N Bones fans will recall! A few other solo covers, some including him on live keyboard too, can also be found on his YouTube channels and the band's Facebook accounts.



Epic Christmas Music Live, Park Theatre show, Christmas Night Tour: The most substantial concert footage on Theatre of Night's channel comes from the December 23rd finale of their 2018 Christmas tour, when they rocked The Park Theatre in Holland (40 minutes west of Grand Rapids). The band was represented by Craig & Steve alongside their ex-I.S.O.M. bandmate Rachel Mender on vocals, plus bassist Scott Andringa & drummer Erik Sales. Assembled fans got to hear live versions of "What Child Is This", "Carol of the Bells", "The Little Drummer Boy", "Away In A Manger", "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", "Silent Night", "O Come All Ye Faithful", "O Holy Night", "Hark The Herald Angels Sing", "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", and "We Three Kings", plus some instrumental aria sections dotted within. Filmed on a stationary camera from the crowd, the conceptual nature and very strong performances are well captured here, even if out of season!


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, we'll be looking at multiple channels due to our first random selection only having two distinct types of SMS-relevant videos, so a second channel with only one video was added. That said, we'll be looking at the channels of users JoeNiemi17 (featuring solo performance videos and some live 10 Years clips), and AlexsGuitarCovers (featuring one surviving solo cover.) Look for all of this on or around August 26th, and for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

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