Toystock IX Preview, Plus New Steel Panther Concert Promotional Videos!!

As I will likely be tied up all tomorrow with Christmas decorating and such, here's a special extended post on this Friday night, devoted to both recent promotional videos surrounding a major concert tomorrow night, and leading off, here's our preview of a big returning charity concert!

After a two year, pandemic-induced hiatus, Toystock is back for its ninth annual installment on SUNDAY at The Grand Gardens North! This special charity event will once again see ten bands/solo musicians in ten hours donating their time for Christmas Cheer, with admission by donation of new/gently used toys, non-perishable food, and/or money to help needy families at this time of year. Always a wonderful cause, so kudos to organizer & Bone Yard frontman Greg Simpson for sticking with the concept through the pandemic, and hopefully there's a great turnout on Sunday! Like in past years, expect a children's play area, face painting, appearances by Santa & Mrs. Claus themselves, but no word on the Stuff-A-Bus. 705Live will be on hand to provide sound on Sunday, with this being the sixth Toystock at its current 1324 Great Northern Road homebase. Now, who all is playing Toystock IX and when?

Three of the closing four bands are Toystock returnees, including Greg's own southern hard rock cover trio Bone Yard in their record eighth Toystock set, but first with their current lineup. They're closing at 9:00 PM, with veteran classic rock quintet Mustang Heart making their surprising debut at this event at 8:00 PM. Country musician Brendan Hodgson returns for his third straight Toystock at 7:00 PM, while classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will hit the stage for their fourth straight year at 6:00 PM. Yes, drummer Glen Thomas will be donating three drumkits to young attendees after their set, including the drums that he will be using, so keep that in mind! The preceding six acts are all new to Toystock, including new local pop rock cover quintet Bourbon Blue (featuring Soo Fighters/Cherry Crush alum Jules Cote on drums) at 5:00 PM, though specifics are still slight on this band as of yet.

Country musician Rob Wagner "and friends" are on at 4:00 PM, preceded at 3:00 PM by a debuting local band named Ravencore. This group still has not issued any public details on their lineup or sound, aside from their advertised involvement in the Matthew Nadon memorial concert (postponed from tomorrow to February), and while some personal Facebook posts have hinted towards possible band members, Ravencore are clearly keeping things somewhat quiet until showtime. We'll keep you posted! Rising young punk trio Vanity First take the stage at 2:00 PM, preceded by The Long & McQuade Band (presumably a student group from the MacDonald Avenue music store) at 1:00 PM, which will pick up where old Case's Music and Bocturoc student bands left off at Toystocks past. Acoustic singer/guitarist Jeremy Logan Newman will kick off the festivities at 12:00 PM.

Toystock IX is an ALL AGES event and kids are happily welcomed to come enjoy the holiday festivities and meet Santa Claus on Sunday! Again, admission is via Christmas Cheer donations, and this should be a great event once again to enjoy a diverse array of local musicians! In some musical respects, this is kind of like a winter Rotaryfest (if indoors), but the charitable causes are absolutely paramount with Toystock, so be generous and come on down if you want to kick the holidays off right! Visit the above links for complete current details, and for a preview, here's Bone Yard, Soundcheck, Brendan, and the other 2019 acts last time out!

Next up, here's something you don't see posted every day, an on-air interview with a major touring musician on The Sault's Rock Station, Rock 101! In his first upload on his YouTube channel in over two years, Hair Scare host Scott Cook posted his interview with Steel Panther drummer Stix Zadinia from his morning drive show Scott Cook In The Morning on Saturday, in advance of their Dreammakers Theatre concert tomorrow night at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino. If you missed the live interview on 101.3 FM, what can you hear in this one? The 17 minute audio interview (uploaded alongside a photo slideshow) features Stix talking about his experiences on tour and playing shows of varying sizes, his musical origins and influences, perceptions of their adult comedy lyrics and sensibilities, their upcoming studio album, his favourite drummer between Neil Peart and John Bonham, and more related topics about well loved bands and so forth.

Honestly, this interview comes across like Scott and Stix talking like old friends without a lot of hard hitting questions specific to tomorrow's concert, which is cool to see, and Stix sounds very friendly and natural on the phone here, so Steel Panther fans should be into this! Give the whole thing a listen below, and visit Scott's YouTube channel for a handful of other interviews he conducted for Rock 101 a decade back!

Finally, local hard rock quartet Tarnished (who are the first band up at tomorrow's concert) also got to promote things on local radio, albeit outside of the Sovereign umbrella, as they returned to local classic hits station Eagle Radio 95.1 on Wednesday morning! While the Eagle isn't a rock station (comparable in format to Oldies 93), it's good to see Timmy E and the crew there supporting local talent, especially given Tarnished's appearances on there in 2020 & 2021. The interview proper was not excerpted in video format, but Eagle 95.1's Facebook page did post this video of the guys covering Chuck Berry's Christmas classic "Run Rudolph Run" in studio, and it's a fun rendition! Here, Alex & Nathan handled guitar as you're used to from their plugged in gigs, with Isaac also joining in on guitar, and Josh handled tambourine. Far from my favourite Christmas carol, but Tarnished make it work despite the vertical camera angle!

Of course, Alex & Nathan also played "Run Rudolph Run" at the Eagle in 2020, and a pre-Isaac lineup did record a full studio version that you can watch at this link. Elsewhere, a "story" video was shared where Josh hyped the show during setup at The Dreammakers Theatre (with interjections from Isaac), but alas, it was not posted separately as a regular video, so catch it if you can, while you can. A contest was also held for two pairs of tickets for the show, as promoted in this jokey video where Nathan bought everyone tickets without knowing that they were playing. Amusing hype, and congratulations to the winners, but give their new "Run Rudolph Run" cover a watch below, and don't miss the concert tomorrow night!

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