Weekend Concert Previews And More Recent News & Notes!!

A quiet concert weekend is upon us in the Sault area for fans of hard rock concerts, so we have some assorted recent updates to fill out the back half of today's post. Now, here's what you should know for this weekend's heavier concerts, all previously announced!

We'll start at Jay's Piston Broke Pub, where local southern hard rock cover trio Bone Yard will play their first shows of the year TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! After taking a month+ break, the guys will return to the site of their 2022 finale weekend for what should be a fine double header of hard rocking covers, and not only that, but Bone Yard will have official band t-shirts on sale this weekend! $25 apiece on a limited run, first come first serve basis, and you can preview the artwork on both sides of the shirts in this this "Reel" and the shirts proper in this "Reel". Hopefully Greg, Alex, and Warren deliver the rock at the former Reggie's West and open their 2023 calendar on a high note! Expect 9:30 PM start times, 19+ age limits, and no cover charges both nights. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Bone Yard live last year!

Next up, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to Shooters Downstairs Lounge for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Fresh off of their Esquire Club gigs last week (Thursday jam nights at Jay's acknowledged), this weekend's shows will see Soundcheck back at the site of their New Year's Eve gig, so fans can expect another pair of hard hitting classic-filled nights from Soundcheck at this Dennis Street mainstay! As far as I can gather, bassist Paul Belair (if not his usual fill-in Rob Gilmar) will be back after missing their last two non-jam night concerts. Fans can expect 8:00 PM start times, no cover charges, and 19+ age limits tomorrow and Saturday night at Shooters as usual. Alas, the band hasn't plugged these shows on their Facebook page at press time, but visit the venue's Facebook event pages linked here & here for more details, and here's Soundcheck live at Shooters last year!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

 

• I can't embed Facebook "reels" externally, but local alt-punk trio A Dire Setback posted on on their Facebook page on October 19th, which features frontman Chris Nielsen (I think) showing off a sample instrumental clip from early recording sessions for their second studio album! He had been working on it "for the past couple hours or so", but it sounds promising already, and just needs vocals! I still don't like "reels" for how restrictive they are, but this at least has some substance to it, so check it out at this link!
• Short & Sweet frontman Cory Murchison has posted two new audio performances on his YouTube channel, both as set to extremely personal videos set around or in tribute to his family, which gives me pause to embed them here, much like his old video for "Love's Countryside". The new songs are covers of Shinedown's "A Symptom Of Being Human" and an original named "Guide Me Home", and both show solid vocals and emotion from the ex-Sense of Truth frontman! They just come off as too personal to embed here, but give them a look/listen above if you're so inclined.
  
• I forgot to cover this on the SMS last year, but Handsome Sandwich drummer Johnny Belanger portrayed Buddy Hobbs (a.k.a. Buddy the elf) in the West End Theatre Project's live production of the Elf musical at the Sault Community Theatre Centre! Johnny's band work was referenced in this Sault Star article by Brian Kelly about the musical. I heard nothing but good things about Johnny's performance last month, and the experience seems to have been positive, so click here to check out Shaw TV's preview video of the show!
  
• St. Ignace, Michigan metalcore band Heavy Lies The Crown's first concert of 2023 has been announced, albeit not a local one, as they'll be heading to Kalamazoo on Saturday, February 25th as one of four bands opening for Oregon metal band Sleep Signals at Papa Pete's. A 5+ hour drive south won't appeal to many local readers, but hopefully H.L.T.C. make lots of fans on the road next month!
• In his first Facebook update in three months, Sault Ontario hard rock musician Mike McCleary revealed two weeks ago that "progress has been slow" since his hard drive crashed that contained his instrumental album-in-progress "Fallout From Midnight Tides", but he acknowledged that his unplanned break has helped keep him "as energetic and enthusiastic about the music as I was before". He assured fans that "things are back on track", if "slowly but surely", and he vaguely hinted that "there may or may not have been a few ideas during the downtime". Stay tuned for more from Mike when we hear it!
  
• This came out too late for me to include it in last week's concert previews, but local funk/hard rock band The Wyld Stallyns' shows at Shooters Downstairs Lounge last week were their first ever stab at a "no repeat weekend", as per band members' promotion of the shows on personal Facebook accounts. In other words, they aimed to have entirely different setlists on Friday and Saturday with no song repeated at any point, not unlike radio stations' "No Repeat Workday" playlists or Metallica's no repeat weekend shows next year. I hope the concerts were hits!
   

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