Tarnished's New Lineup & Full Traverse City Concert Video From Last Week!!

Before we begin today's post, I wanted to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Chippewa Theatre Guild actor and director Pirie "Bear" Kaufman, who passed away yesterday after battling cancer in recent years. A familiar presence locally from his long-time work in theatre and as a cab driver, you may recall the #TeamBear benefit concert for Pirie & his family at The Sault Theatre Workshop at 121 Pittsburgh Avenue in October 2018, featuring Re:Born & Tym Morrison in it's varied lineup. Though not a musician, Pirie's impact on the local arts community and as a person are well established, and for further proof, Re:Born guitarist Blair Burch put up a very nice post about him on Facebook that is worth a read if you are able. Of course, our best wishes are with the Kaufman and Zuke families at this difficult time. R.I.P. Pirie!

Now, this is otherwise a single topic post, as a prominent local band managed to play a full concert last week, and it was captured on video for all to see, including their big lineup changes! Here's what you should know!

If you couldn't make it to Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished's concert at The Workshop Brewing Company in Traverse City on Friday, then you don't have to worry, as the full concert was live-streamed for the venue's Twitch page! Not only that, but this was a full band set rather than a two-man acoustic joint for the first time since they headlined Rock The Border locally in July, which wasn't emphasized in the show's online marketing. Nice to see the guys back at in their full form... but wait, who was behind the drum kit? Josh Fair, moving from bass to drums in lieu of the departed Gary Croad, which goes along with his recent studio work at that role. On bass here was Donald Alexander, in what frontman Alex Traynor called "his first gig with us", so it looks like he's a permanent addition. I'm not familiar with Donald musically, but he fits right in here, especially for a 2+ hour gig 2+ hours away!

For the record, the band has not otherwise confirmed these lineup changes on social media. In the first half of Friday's concert, the guys tackled The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army", Van Halen's "Runnin' With The Devil", AC/DC's "TNT", their own "The Path", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary", Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long", Skid Row's "18 & Life", C.C.R.'s "Bad Moon Rising", Stone Sour's "Through Glass", Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band's "Old Time Rock & Roll", Alice In Chains' "Man In The Box", an instrumental jam while Alex sorted out some technical difficulties, and Neil Young's "Keep On Rockin' In The Free World". After a 10 minute intermission (captured in full in the live-stream), Tarnished return with renditions of  The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band's "Blue On Black", Sublime's "What I Got"...

...Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell", their original "Cabin Fever", Incubus' "Drive", Poison's "Talk Dirty To Me", Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Mary Jane's Last Dance", Bob Seger's "Turn The Page", Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down A Dream", and lastly, their brand new original "SDR&R", which will be your first chance to hear this song if you didn't hear Tarnished's interview on Eagle 95.1 that morning. Solid and energetic set from Tarnished's apparent new lineup, and they tackled a lot of familiar covers for both attendees and regular local fans! That said, I was surprised that they only played three originals, but remember that they don't have an inbuilt local audience in Traverse City to be familiar with them yet. The staging and video quality is strong, but the lighting changed a little too frequently for my liking, the audio wasn't always in sync, and the text over the Twitch stream could be distracting.

It's worth noting that along with the live-stream, The Workshop Brewing Co. actually broadcasted this video outside the venue for attendees on their patio, helping ensure that as many people as possible got to see Tarnished live despite social distancing (they do similarly for other recent concerts too.) Despite the obvious pandemic hang-ups, it looked like Tarnished's Workshop debut went well, and you can see for yourselves above! I haven't had any luck getting Twitch's new embed code to work on the SMS, apologies for it not being embedded below. That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site later this week! Thanks everyone!