Black Label Society Concert Video Showcase (Part 1!!)

As promised, it's time to finally dive into some of the fallout from Friday night's Black Label Society-headlined concert at The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, a show quite literally 2+ years in the making! Mercifully, there were no pandemic hangups or positive tests to throw yet another spanner in the works, as the fourth time was the charm for Zakk Wylde and crew to finally rock out with members of the Sault Ste. Marie chapter! I regrettably did not go as I caught a bad cold (not COVID) last week, and was still under the weather on Friday, so better safe than sorry, especially with the remaining pandemic measures at the border. That said, all reports I heard from attendees were very positive, and you can see for yourself via videos from the show, which have popped up from three known YouTube channels so far, and we'll start with a single Black Label Society upload from user Anthony Roy on Saturday!

Anthony filmed just the one clip of Black Label Society playing "You Made Me Wanna Live", and despite being in the vertical cell phone orientation, it's solid quality! Capturing Zakk in his finest kilt and sounding just like you'd expect from their albums, Anthony was in the second or third row on the floor, and the audio on this slower, more deliberate original is nice and clear with a good view of the stage, do don't bypass this one below!

The rest of today's videos all come from the prolific YouTube channel of Christopher Paci in his first concert video uploads since Buckcherry in Sault Ontario last fall, and his first at The Dreammakers Theater since The Hair Scare Live in February 2020 (we all know why it took this long). Good to see that Chris is able to cross the border and see shows across like normal, and he got eleven videos from all three acts on Friday, so let's start with Black Label Society, who were filmed for six of them! Along with 57 seconds of Zakk shredding and this 99 second clip of Zakk and fellow guitarist Dario Lorina dueling with guitar solos, Chris filmed four full songs from B.L.S.' set, including "Demise of Sanity", "A Love Unreal", "Spoke In The Wheel", and as embedded below, their closing song "Stillborn". While not as close to the stage as Anthony was, Chris was far more centered, and you get a good view of the mass of berzerkers in attendance on Friday!

The lighting can be a little overexposed from this vantage point, but Chris got some solid footage of the Doom Crew doing what they do best, and from his videos, you get songs that are both musically and emotionally heavy depending on your preference! Give these a look above and below!

From the openers, Chris shot three videos of Alice Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss' set, including her & her solo band playing her instrumental "Our Most Desperate Hour", her hit single "Dead Inside" (featuring a backing track of Disturbed singer David Draiman rather than live vocals), and embedded below, two different instrumentals, namely "Alegria" & "Lion Among Wolves", with Nita acknowledging playing on that very stage during her second ever show with Alice Cooper between songs. Really strong videos here capturing Nita's technical guitar wizardry very nicely, and her band's up to the task, so give these clips a watch above & below as well!

Finally for today, Chris did film two videos of opening blues rock musician Jared James Nichols' set, including of his original "Bad Roots", but given that he's not a hard rock/metal musician, I wasn't projecting embedding a video of his here... until I noticed that he covered Alice In Chains' "Man In The Box" on Friday! The audio quality of the camera is noticeably rougher here compared to the later bands, but Jared gets a strong beefy sound in both songs, and he's clearly a very talented guitarist who can back it up vocally! Maybe with a little too much vocal emphasis at the end of some verses, but A.I.C. fans will dig it, and you can see more above & below!

That's all for today, but more Black Label Society concert videos will be hitting the site soon, and for now, stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!