Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Local Metal/Hard Rock Video Showcase!!

Before we begin this post, I wanted to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Sabra Rajput-Gingras, who suddenly passed away on Thursday at the age of 49. Fans of inactive local horror punk band Frightlight should remember Sabra as the wife of bassist Mike Gingras (a.k.a. Eddie Fright), and she was a frequent presence at their concerts and in their inner circle over the years, while also singing in punk bands many moons ago. Outside of that, she was a well liked and respected person who loved animals and horseback riding, and you may recall seeing and talking with her at The Vape Escape in recent years. My best memory of Sabra would actually be at The Marquee at Bon Soo in February 2014, which was held in freezing cold temperatures at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion. From the 6:00 PM hour onward, the only attendees that weren't in bands or working as staff were me and Sabra, so naturally we talked for a while, and it was good to have some company for Frightlight's abbreviated headlining set!

As per her obituary, funeral services will take place on Saturday at 11:30 AM (visitation from 9:30 AM) at Northwood Funeral Home with Helen Smith officiating, and with interment to follow at Pine Grove Cemetery. Memorial donations to the Sault Ste. Marie Humane Society would be appreciated by the family, and she is survived by Mike, her parents, brother, niece, nephew, and stepdaughter. This news came out of nowhere for sure, and to lose someone so close to Christmas is never ideal, but hopefully everyone keeps the good memories close at this difficult time. R.I.P. Sabra!

Today's post is video-centric from three acts playing live in some form or fashion this month, and let's start with local southern hard rock quintet Fort Creek, whose "Christmas blowout" concert successfully took place at Soo Blaster on Saturday night! As you can see, even Santa Claus (portrayed by Soo Greyhounds radio colour commentator Spanky Robinson) showed up for the occasion! Two videos were posted on their Facebook page of the stage before their set (linked here and here), and while neither has the band proper, you do get a sense of the more professional approach to this show than their standard nightclub gigs. One video of their set did get shared from attendee Lori Amendola's personal Facebook page, which sees Fort Creek playing 2+ minutes of their first original song "Hammer Down". Despite the vertical camera angle, the audio is solid enough and Lori got a good view of the stage!

Notably, this is the first public video of Fort Creek with new rhythm guitarist Bill Brouillard, and he does seem to fit in just fine here, helped by what looks like a good and receptive crowd! Good stuff, so give this video a watch below, and stay tuned for more from Fort Creek when it rolls in!


Next up, here's a new video from fellow local southern hard rock band Bone Yard during their gig at Jay's Piston Broke Pub (formerly Reggie's West) on Saturday night! Purportedly their final show of 2022, their cover of The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" with bassist Warren Reville on lead vocals was live-streamed to their Facebook page that night. Alas, this too is shot vertically, but at least the filmer got up to the front of the stage to capture everyone in close-up angles, and while Greg does have a stronger voice, Warren fits the tone of Joey Ramone well on this rare punk cover from Bone Yard, so give it a watch below, and look for them in 2023!

Finally, we have a new video from prolific local extreme metal/folk punk musician Chase Wigmore, and following his Pink Floyd solo cover from earlier this month, he's dipping into that well again via his cover of Dire Straits' "Sultans of Swing", as posted on his Facebook page on Sunday. This time, it's of the full song, and Chase even recorded a backing track for it, but beneath his guitar, it's hard to make out most of the instruments aside from his vocals. The video is grainy as hell with poor foreground lighting (I'm unsure if that's a filter or not), but he performes this classic rock staple well as you'd expect! I'm not a Dire Straits fan, but Chase gets room to show his stuff, as you can see below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates as the week continues! Thanks everyone!

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