I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Boxing Day! We're back as we begin the dash towards the end of 2020, and given that most of this post is devoted to obvious recent news that goes beyond music, I am projecting that we will have at least one more news post after this, likely on Tuesday, with our year-end retrospective post now pencilled in for New Year's Eve. With that said, here's what you should know regarding a certain major news story in Ontario, with a belated Christmas bonus at the end!
As is likely common knowledge by now for most readers, the province of Ontario entered a new lockdown yesterday due to rapidly increasing COVID-19 infection rates. The lockdown is projected to last for two weeks in Sault Ste. Marie and the rest of Northern Ontario, running through January 8th, while Southern Ontario will be under this order for four weeks, though these are subject to change pending how case totals look over the lockdown timeframe.
Click here or visit your preferred local/provincial news sources for details, but the resulting closures and capacity restrictions will be very familiar from the lockdown we endured in Ontario from March-June. This news will not be welcomed by some, especially given that Sault Ste. Marie and the Algoma District are in code green, and have done a much better job at keeping case counts low than much of the province.
As of this writing, there have been 65 coronavirus cases reported here, and all but 3 are now resolved (
source here), but of course, we want to keep the numbers low in the area and discourage travel to & from Southern Ontario for the time being. I know this can be frustrating, but at least this is only 2 weeks (we hope), and luckily, this didn't go into effect until after Christmas. Stay home, stay safe, stay vigilant, wear a mask, and use common sense! With all of that said, this news does affect what little of a concert calendar we had in the Soo. Specifically, this will cancel the
Fort Creek-headlined New Year's Eve concert at Reggie's Place next week, though the guys are taking this in stride, and have teased on Facebook that they'll be spending the lockdown recording. We'll keep you posted on that! Also,
Tym Morrison crammed in one more late notice gig at the same venue this past Wednesday before the holiday break & lockdown went into effect.
I profusely apologize for not covering that concert on the site proper, as it was announced on too late of notice (and with too few stories for us to fill out a post with) to plug it on the site, but it was covered on
our Facebook page, and hopefully Tym put on a great show for downtown Reggie's patrons on Wednesday! Lastly, this isn't related to the Ontario lockdowns, but I have removed the previously announced
Scarkazm concert at The Rapids Lounge at
the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on New Year's Eve from our concert calendar. That date was announced well before COVID was an immediate concern, and while Scarkazm have been playing limited live dates in recent months, the casino has yet to resume booking regular live acts at their on-site lounges. As such, there are no concerts whatsoever listed in our Sault Michigan concert calendar at present, but when we hear of a publically attendable hard rock/metal event there, we'll let you know!
We'll close today with a new video from local hard rock band
Tarnished, specifically their cover of Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run"! This was posted onto
their Facebook page on Christmas Eve, and it is their "2020 holiday special", with everyone's parts filmed remotely (I can't confirm if this is due to convenience or social distancing) and combined afterwards in post production, with mixing & mastering by Ryan Nicklas. Despite everyone being apart for filming, drummer Gary Croad was still unable to appear, so the band gave a "shout out to Santa for letting us "borrow" one of his elves to fill in" for Gary in this video. The elf bears a striking resemblance to frontman
Alex Traynor, does he not? This cover won't be new to anyone who saw Alex & Nathan cover it
on Eagle 95.1 earlier this month, but of course, this is electric, has a full-ish band, and has lots of Christmasy accoutrements.
I will be honest, I'm not a fan of "Run Rudolph Run" (primarily for the somewhat illogical lyrics), but Tarnished turn in a fun and proficient version of this rock & roll carol, and it's well mixed and edited, so if you want the belated Christmas spirit, this may just provide it! Give it a watch below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for our last news post of 2020 on Tuesday, if all goes according to plan! Thanks everyone!
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