The Northwest's Online Battle Of The Bands Appearance, Plus New Videos!!

I have a new news post for you guys to check out on this Wednesday evening. and while the back half features some recent duo videos from some familiar faces, let's kick things off with big and somewhat late notice news for a prominent local band's big virtual opportunity tomorrow!

In their first Facebook page update since tacking "The" onto their name, local indie/punk quintet The Northwest have announced that they will be taking part in this year's NLFB Meltdown battle of the bands, albeit held virtually, and it goes down tomorrow night at 7:00 PM! Presumably not in person due to the pandemic, readers may recall seeing a local version of this event in 2017 at LopLops Lounge (won by M.D. Dunn), and like then and in the annual pre-pandemic battle in Sudbury, the winner is tapped as one of the openers at the Northern Lights Festival Boreal, which takes place at Bell Park in Sudbury over the July 7th weekend for its 50th anniversary. While the festival is not a hard rock haven, SMS covered acts like The Din and Id Iota competed at the local battle in 2017, and now The Northwest are trying in 2022, but how will they sound in their first pandemic-era public performance together?

Given that this is a battle of the bands not unlike Meltdowns of yore (albeit virtual), this is a ticketed concert, and tickets run for $11.62 at this link, and you'll presumably receive access to the link to view the concert from there. The concert will apparently take place on Zoom, and bands are advertised as performing live, so make of that what you will. No word on set lengths or judging criteria, but note that at the local Meltdown in 2017, bands had 15-20 minute sets, and NLFB representatives served as judges. Also, a performer lineup for the NLFB Meltdown competition has not been publically announced, but again, don't go into this expecting death metal (featured artists at the festival proper this year include The New Pornographers, Judy Collins, and Wax Mannequin, among many others). For other local ties, you may recall hearing that Frank Deresti & The Lake Effect played at the NLFB in 2018, though no local acts performed in 2019.

Without knowing the lineup for the Meltdown, it's hard to say how The Northwest will do, but I of course offer my best wishes to the guys as they make a run at quite a big festival, and it'd be great to see some Soo talent back at Bell Park this summer! A Zoom concert isn't ideal for many, especially at this stage of the pandemic, but the Northern Lights Festival Boreal staff have got to do what's best for everyone involved, as the pandemic isn't over yet. If you wanna see The Northwest and a bunch of other Northern Ontario original musicians battle it out for a spot at the NLFB, get your tickets A.S.A.P. and log into Zoom tomorrow at 7:00 PM!

Next up, here's some new videos of local southern hard rock quintet Fort Creek (well, 2/5ths of them) at Reggie's West this past weekend! If you liked the audio cover by singer Justin Grayson and bassist Robin "Bones" Lee of Stone Sour's "Imperfect" (not a Corey Taylor solo song, my apologies) from two weeks ago, then there's more where that came from! However, the first video that they shared to their Facebook page was from a personal Facebook account and the video is either private to non-friends or it has since been taken down. If it's the former, click here to see if it works for you, the guys were apparently doing two songs in it. Over the weekend, the band posted two cover videos onto their page proper, both filmed by a fan named Justyne, and they include unplugged renditions of "Imperfect" again, and as embedded below, Luke Combs' "Beautiful Crazy".

I'm not a country guy, but Justin and Bones handle that song well, and it's a good use of Justin's vocal range in particular! The "Imperfect" cover is also solid as you'd expect from the prior audio recording, and given the nature of the performance, the vertical cell phone camera angle isn't a hindrance. Check out both covers above & below!

Finally for today, here's a short new video from local party metal duo The Apocalypse Afterparty's Facebook page earlier this month, featuring Paul and Amanda (with dinosaur hat) covering The Format's "Tie The Rope". Despite presumably being filmed at home, the cover features fancy concert lighting that gives the bass-heavy jam a little extra visual zest! I'm not overly familiar with The Format, but this has a good melodic vibe, if somewhat laid back, so give The Afterparty's newest video a watch below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes in the days ahead! Thanks everyone!