Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Nixxon Dixxon

It's now time for our penultimate Defunct Local Band Profile of 2021, as we continue our monthly spotlights of defunct/inactive local metal, hard rock, or punk acts from our band links in order to spotlight their run, material, and accomplishments for modern day readers! This month's randomly selected band was quite a notable group from Sault Michigan over a decade back, so here's what you should know on them!

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Nixxon Dixxon

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Genre: Hard Rock

Lineup:

Brandon Carr (Rhythm & Brews), vocals
Chris Hubbard (415E), guitar
Kyle Beaumont (The London Gentlemen, Splitshot), bass
Jake Lalonde (Miller Holler, The Lifeline), drums

Audio/Video: Nixxon Dixxon never released a studio album, but they did have a few original songs that were performed live in 2009 & 2010, like "One Shot Woman", "High Life" and what sounded at the time like "Life All Around". On their old MySpace page, the band said that they sounded like "the pumping eighties that we all love", but their setlist did reach into more modern hard rock covers rather than going all '80s (though given Chris' love of Van Halen, they easily could have!) A handful of live videos from the second half of their run can be watched on YouTube, mainly via users myangels1266 and rubbs001's channels, but here's Nixxon Dixxon playing two originals at the Kiss Battle of the Bands in Sault Ontario in 2009!

Info/Analysis: Launching their MySpace page in October 2006, Nixxon Dixxon were active when their members were just teenagers, but they definitely transcended their age to become one of the most prominent E.U.P. hard rock bands of the late 2000s. Self-described as playing "rock & roll music for the American working man", information on their early run is hard to get from public sources nowadays (partly because their primary social media account was on MySpace), but they were often seen at regional nightclubs & festivals, and many casual fans took notice when they were tapped as the late-notice openers for Bret Michaels' Kewadin Casino concert in March 2008. Nixxon Dixxon became one of the very few E.U.P. bands to play in Sault Ontario post-9/11 when they competed in the Kiss Battle of the Bands at the former Canadian Nightclub in December 2009, making it all the way to the finals!

Despite a big 2010 including sets opening for Pop Evil at The Dreammaker's Theater and for Vince Neil & Bret Michaels again at Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Festival, Nixxon Dixxon disbanded that August following gigs at the former Golanka's Bar, with Jake moving out of state for college, but members would later perform together in Splitshot, Trail's End, The London Gentlemen, and presently, Rhythm & Brews. Nixxon Dixxon were a very solid band with good chemistry and a fun live sound, and every band member stood out on his own merits! I wish they'd stayed together longer, at least to release an album, but everyone has done promising music since, so check out their later projects to see what they've been up to!

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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! Next month, we'll end the year back in Sault Ontario with a double profile, as the first randomly selected band we picked doesn't have a lot of surviving information outside of their videos, so I randomly picked one more with similarly minimal information to round things out. Unless more is uncovered, we'll be looking at early 2010s metal project ApocalyptiCDistroyeR and a short lived contemporary hard rock band, namely RXN. Look for these on or around December 10th, and for more news soon! Thanks everyone!

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