LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Soundcheck), An Inactive Band Note, And New Videos!!

It's rare as of late for the SMS to have posts in consecutive days, but as we have a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT to address, here we are! Of course, it is St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, so luckily there is a bit of live hard rock to take in despite the pandemic! A related apology for a missed concert is also tied in with that, while this post also features a note on a band moved to our inactive links, and two new videos, so here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will reportedly be at Reggie's West TOMORROW NIGHT as the musical entertainment for their St. Patrick's Day party! Apologies for the short notice, the venue only announced their involvement on their Facebook page yesterday, though note that Soundcheck proper have not confirmed this date on social media at press time. This will actually be Soundcheck's second Reggievelt date of 2021 so far, having played a one-nighter there on Friday, March 5th (a week and a half ago) that completely slipped us by for proper coverage on the site, partially because it's Facebook event page was only launched with six hours notice. In any event, I do apologize for missing that date, and hopefully it went as well as it could have under current circumstances! Had it had more notice, we would have covered it on the SMS!

As for TOMORROW'S concert, you can see Terry, Cameron, Paul, and Glen rock out with their fan favourite covers at this popular west end venue at 7:30 PM, and there will be green-coloured food and beverages, plus specials. Of course, please respect Reggie's West's social distancing regulations, and remember that there will be an early closing time and capacity limits inside the bar proper. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Soundcheck live at this very location last fall!

Next up, I have moved local alternative rock/punk trio Handsome Sandwich to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity. The band has not been heard from since their planned set opening for Jean-Paul de Roover at LopLops was cancelled just over one year ago due to the onset of the pandemic, and they hadn't posted on their Facebook page since February 15th of last year anyway. Formed by prior Elements, Jack Spades, and Caveman Morrison bandmates, this irreverently named trio debuted on stage in February 2017, and proudly claimed to have "no genre" and to not be a side project or have a similar sound to their prior bands, instead hewing closer to singer/drummer Johnny Belanger's mid-2010s solo concert sets. A relatively frequent sight into early 2018, you may recognize Handsome Sandwich from the 2017 Oh!No festival, opening for Jesse Stewart at Low & Slow, and playing multiple all-local concerts.

 

Handsome Sandwich's activity became very sporadic afterwards, primarily being seen in a looser jam setting, and a formal 2020 return was stunted last March after just two dates. Hopefully the pandemic is a key factor into Handsome Sandwich's status, as they had a lot to offer, and they were definitely a unique band on the scene (who else was covering Biffy Clyro AND Abba on the same night?) Best of luck to Johnny, Jesse, and James in the future, and here's hoping they're back when normal concerts resume! 

Also, remember how revived local progressive metal duo Kraken Mara had a "scheduled video" on their YouTube channel that was scheduled to go public on Friday? Well, here it is! A play-through of their song "Vibe Check" from their forthcoming debut EP (which will now be called "Press Start", according to the video description), this features guitarist Brendan Christie playing the track across multiple camera angles. I'll hold on commenting on the song proper for now, but the video is well shot and in nice quality, so fans of Brendan's local work and prog metal will want to check out Kraken Mara's play-through video below! Stay tuned for more from their camp!

We'll close today with another YouTube video from a familiar face that scheduled a video for a specific release date, namely ex-Garden of Bedlam frontman Erik "Buzz" Boissineau, whose cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" went up on his YouTube channel on March 7th! Featuring Buzz on vocals and acoustic guitar, this is a naturally strong & powerful rendition that makes great use of his vocal abilities (also, I have that exact "...And Justice For All" poster flag too!) Check out Buzz's rendition of "Hallelujah" below, and hopefully Buzz has more videos in the pipeline!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for last month's poll results and more on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!