Two Belated Additions To Our Sault Ontario Band Links!!

After our last post so heavily looked at bands inactive for over a year, let's go the opposite way with two bands being added to our band links, if not new ones! Yes, we will be covering the finals of The Soo's Got Talent here also, check back when videos are posted. Now, here's what you know on these band link additions!

First for our new (and belated) additions to our Sault Ontario band links today is local southern hard rock duo The Bearded Lounge! Publically launched in early 2017, they are the unplugged side project to Bone Yard, with frontman Greg Simpson and guitarist Alex D'Ettore picking up acoustic guitars for separate gigs, and the occasional event where both bands take the stage. Like with Bone Yard, I initially didn't roll The Bearded Lounge into our full coverage because of their original country-centric stylings, but both bands have evolved more to a southern-leaning hard rock cover set, so with us doing the same for Bone Yard earlier this year, let's complete the pair! Playing their first announced concert set in March 2017 at The Machine Shop (frequently so as part of the Group Health Centre's "Catch the Ace" promotion), The Bearded Lounge would become a common sight at many local concerts, if less often than Bone Yard.

Fans may recognize The Bearded Lounge from appearances at community events like the Rides for Autism and ARCH, Toystock, Downtown Street Parties, Cruisin' the Dub car shows, and the Twin City Tattoo Convention. For standard concerts, Greg & Alex have played primarily at Reggie's West, but have been seen at numerous other venues, often non-traditional or more intimate ones that lean more to acoustic acts. After the same pandemic hiatus as almost everyone else, The Bearded Lounge returned to the stage at the downtown Reggie's for gigs in July 2021, and have been seen since at the recently dormant Rockstar Bar, Mane St. Cafe, Water Tower Pub, and most recently, Gateway Casino this month. As of this writing, The Bearded Lounge do not have further gigs listed, we'll keep you posted when any new ones are announced by the band or venues.

A number of videos from Bearded Lounge gigs are online to check out, with former SaultOnline correspondent Mike Caruso filming them often for his old YouTube channel in their early run, and their Facebook page has eight live videos including multiple live takes of The 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up" (of course) and Charlie Daniels' "Long Haired Country Boy" (with Alex on vocals), but embedded below is one of Mike's higher quality videos from the Reggievelt in 2019, where the guys covered Kris Kristofferson's "Me & Bobby McGee" and their slowed down version of Kiss' "Rock & Roll All Nite". If you like Bone Yard and aren't against acoustic music, you'll absolutely like The Bearded Lounge, and Greg & Alex adapt well to a stripped down format. The modern day Bone Yard set is very similar to what The Bearded Lounge's, with the obvious changes, so give them a look for yourselves above & below!

Today's other belated local band addition is inactive local hard rock band Steel Sour! Quietly active from November 2018-May 2019 and presumably getting their name in part from Stone Sour, this band featured ex-Re:Born singer Robert Nevitt, his future Big Mistake bandmate Rick Atkins on guitar, future Lockdown bandmates Nicole (Ambeault) Bentley on backing vocals & Randy Russell on guitar, Eclipse/Re:Born bassist Fred Dunn also on guitar, Steve Bentley on bass, and ex-Redundant bassist James White on drums. Also, Rick & James later were bandmates in Dealing Without. Seven members in one hard rock band does seem a little like overkill, but who knows if this was just for this jam or if everyone would have been a part of the live gigs that never happened. Robert and Rick did sample their sound in this 19 minute acoustic live-stream from January 2019.

There, they covered the aforementioned "Me & Bobby McGee" (what are the odds?), Pop Evil's "100 In A 55", and The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil". Not bad renditions with strong vocals, so don't bypass that video! For something involving the full plugged-in band, all we got was this cover of The Tragically Hip's "New Orleans Is Sinking", which was uploaded to their YouTube channel as their last real public act. The band did lampshade this as a quickly recorded basement jam session recording, but it's solidly performed with good energy, and it doesn't feel overcrowded (Steve's amusing rocker wig notwithstanding). Shame that Steel Sour didn't last into the 2020s, but give them a look above & below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!