LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Alien To The Ignorant & Handsome Sandwich), Weekend Concert Previews, And More!!

After a recently rare day off for the SMS, we're back with this weekend's hard rock concert previews, including SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, so here's what you should know! (Yes, I am aware of the Rotaryfest lineup announcements in progress, stay tuned for more when Saturday's lineup and/or Stage 2 are revealed!)

Saskatchewan post-hardcore trio Alien To The Ignorant will return to Sault Ste. Marie for a headlining concert TOMORROW NIGHT at The Rockstar Bar! Apologies for the short notice, this concert was only just announced via its official Facebook event page on Wednesday, and this is legitimately a late notice booking too. As you may recall, Alien To The Ignorant debuted here at local party metal duo The Apocalypse Afterparty's private venue Mellow D's Underground in October, and clearly good connections were made, as The A.A. have been working to get them a local date on their way back out west. There was apparently a venue change before The Rockstar Bar was locked in, but kudos to them for helping out, especially for a recently rare Friday night concert there! If you didn't request the new locale of Mellow D's last fall, you'll have missed Alien To The Ignorant's lively modern hardcore sound, so good thing they're back TOMORROW!

Like last fall, the aforementioned Apocalypse Afterparty will open in their first announced public concert of 2022, so look for more upbeat rap-influenced hard rock originals and covers from the Stanghettas! TOMORROW'S concert is a 19+ affair with doors opening at 7:00 PM, and despite the touring headliners, there is NO COVER CHARGE. If you can make it out TOMORROW, a diverse night of heavy music lies waiting, so visit the above links for more details, and here's Alien To The Ignorant live!

Next up, local alternative hard rock quartet Handsome Sandwich (or members thereof) will make their Shooters Downstairs Lounge debut TOMORROW NIGHT! Again, apologies for the short notice, this show was quietly announced on Wednesday the 15th on the band's Facebook page, but I didn't hear anything about it until this past weekend. While arguably better known from multi-band events, Handsome Sandwich have played solo headlining gigs on the weekend cover circuit before, and TOMORROW'S show at the Dennis Street nightclub fits in with that! The official poster notes that "members of Handsome Sandwich" are playing, with the name "Ourselves" given at the top, and that they'll be playing "radio hits", but the band proper have been plugging the show like normal on Facebook with no caveats, the full lineup is pictured in the poster, and they were an all-covers band before their pandemic hiatus anyway.

If the poster's very specific verbiage is accurate, does this mean that they're playing short-handed and/or with a guest fill-in, hence the Ourselves name and advertised covers focus? You can find out for sure TOMORROW at Shooters! A one nighter due to or resulting in classic rock cover quartet L!me's show there on Saturday, Handsome Sandwich (or "Ourselves") are on TOMORROW at 8:00 PM, expect a 19+ age limit, and there's no announced cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Handsome Sandwich last year!

Lastly for currently known & announced hard rock concerts in the Soo this weekend, let's head to Reggie's Place on Queen Street East, where local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard will return to the stage for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! The last of the second-quarter-of-2022 dates that the band announced back in April via this schedule, these will be Bone Yard's first gigs since their outdoor sets at the Queen Street Cruise last week, and for what it's worth, the band revealed on their Facebook page this past Friday that local country duo Jeff & Jeff (featuring Jeff McNiece) opened for them both days, an aspect never announced by event organizers. Apologies for missing that, hopefully the Jeffs set the tone well! Bone Yard last played at the downtown Reggie's over a month ago, and their hard rocking brand of southern fried covers should go over well once again this weekend with fans & regulars alike!

While we're on the subject, Bone Yard's next show after this weekend will take place on Saturday, July 2nd, when they return to the aforementioned Shooters Downstairs Lounge! That show was newly  announced via the venue's Facebook event page yesterday, and will be their first show there since June 10th. Yes, it is a one nighter, as Shooters' Canada Day event on Friday the 1st is separately booked and I hope to cover that on the site shortly! Both this weekend's Reggie's shows and next Saturday's Shooters gig have 19+ age limits and no cover charges, and while the advertised start time at Reggie's is 9:00 PM, they're on at 8:00 PM at Shooters. Visit the Reggie's gigs' Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's a new live-streamed videos of Bone Yard rocking out outside of GFL Memorial Gardens for the Queen Street Cruise this past Saturday afternoon!

The seven+ minute video starts with Bone Yard midway through a cover of Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show's "The Cover of "Rolling Stone" (my mom would have loved that) before playing their last song of that set, Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" with definitely more of a hard rock base as you might expect. Despite the vertical camera angle, the filmer did move around to get closer and more varied angles, so you can easily see where the stage was set up at the Cruise and how fans were enjoying the music. Nice quality too, and Bone Yard were on their game, so check it out for yourself below before you see them at Reggie's this weekend!

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