Marianas Trench/Trews and A Dire Setback Concert Previews, Plus A New Video!!

A busy concert weekend is upon us, so to spread things out, we'll only cover two shows to start, both with a lot to say and one with a new live video to acknowledge from one of the performers. If you're looking for previews of the late notice Bone Yard show this weekend, plus Soundcheck and gigs in the E.U.P., check back tomorrow, I promise!

We'll start with the big concert for punk and hard rock fans this week, as Vancouver pop punk quartet Marianas Trench and Nova Scotia hard rock mainstays The Trews will make their long awaited returns to the Soo TONIGHT at GFL Memorial Gardens! After dropping out of a planned November 2016 show at the Gardens due to a band member illness, Marianas Trench will finally be back in town for the first time since headlining at the arena in April 2013, so if you've been itching to hear their pop rock staples like "Shake Tramp", "Say Anything", and "Cross My Heart" in person again, the nearly decade-long wait is almost over! Meanwhile, tonight's show will mark The Trews' first local date since an acoustic show here in 2009, last playing in town plugged-in the previous year. I do like The Trews' rootsy hard rock hits like "Tired of Waiting", "Paranoid Freak", and "So She's Leaving", and it's great to finally see them back too!

Local indie punk quintet The Northwest have been tapped as openers, a fitting choice to pair with Marianas Trench in particular, and their brand of heartland-influenced punk originals should warm things up nicely tonight (and what a stage for them to play on too!) Co-promoted by F7 Entertainment, this show is one of three taking place during this week's Mocha Concert Series, put on by the Mocha Shriners Masonic society as a fundraiser event while they host their annual Mocha Fall Ceremonial convention in the Soo, home of the Sault Shrine Club. The ambitious scheduling called for five shows from major Canadian artists at the Gardens in five days this week, starting with Walk Off The Earth & The Monowhales on Monday and ending with Burton Cummings tomorrow, but the planned Kim Mitchell and Paul Brandt shows on Tuesday & yesterday were both cancelled due to "unforeseen scheduling issues".

I won't join the arguing about what that exactly means, but hopefully Kim and Paul try again to play here down the road! As for Marianas Trench tonight, this all ages event has a 7:30 PM start time, and tickets are still available for either $55.94 or $67.24 in the back seven sections (floor seats and the closest six sections to the stage are all sold out). Buy yours at this link, at the in-person box office, or at (705) 759-5251. I'm glad to see that tonight's show is selling pretty well (with the headliners playing here multiple times each back in the day, you'd hope so), and hopefully what's left of the Mocha Concert Series is a hit for the Shriners! Visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's Marianas Trench live!

Finally for today, local alt-punk trio A Dire Setback will play their first non-Northern Vibe set of the pandemic era when they take a road trip to nearby Desbarats TOMORROW NIGHT for another benefit concert for late Manitoulin Island rapper Zachary "$onny Vybe$" Cywink! To be held at the Johnson Township Community Center at 1 Cameron Road, this mixed-genre event is the fourth or fifth in our area to honour $onny Vybe$' memory and raise funds for the Ngwaagan Gamig Recovery Centre in Wikwemikong, and hopefully the more easterly location and continued kind thoughts go over well with Zachary's family and friends! Like with the Handsome Sandwich-featured shows at The Rockstar Bar, A Dire Setback are the rock respite in the mixed genre gumbo, with other performers including rappers Rick E, Bold Noize, Oh Zee, and James Stuart, and DJ AngelAzura. Promoted by Sooicide Records, this show starts at 7:00 PM tomorrow, it is all ages, and admission is $5.

Also, there is an attached canned food drive for Harvest Algoma, so keep that in mind if you're making the 40 minute drive. Should be a fun time for hip hop/$onny Vybe$ fans in particular, but hopefully this recently rare A Dire Setback set makes them some more fans on the outskirts of town! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's a brand new video of A.D.S. at the Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir last month! Posted to their YouTube channel last week, this is a cover of Greta Van Fleet's "Highway Tune", an odd choice for them, but it's still a closer sonic match than OneRepublic are. Bassist Matt Quinn handled lead vocals here, which is cool to see, though the other new things they teased playing during their set haven't made their way to a public online forum yet. I will admit, I'm not a Greta Van Fleet fan, but this version is better because Matt isn't trying to do the Led Zeppelin clone vocals.

I have pointed out in prior concert reviews of theirs that Matt's singing voice is tonally reminiscent of Serj Tankian, and it'd be interesting to see him play into that more, but again, I'll take this over forced raspy Robert Plantisms. Video quality is solid and clear, and the stationary camera is well framed, but the stage seems very cavernous, and Nick seems much further back than he likely was as a result. Solid cover for G.V.F. fans, so give it a look below, and don't miss A Dire Setback in Desbarats tomorrow night!

That's all for today, but stay tuned next for our previews of this weekend's other hard rock concerts next! Thanks everyone!