LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Soundcheck), Weekend Concert Previews, And New Videos!!

Before we begin today's post (including weekend concert previews), just a heads up that SooToday's events calendar is still advertising a Wyld Stallyns show at Gateway Casino on Saturday, despite the casino being closed since April 16th due to a system outage following a cyber attack affecting all Gateway locations in the province (visit your preferred news outlets for details). Though never announced on Facebook, the SooToday listing predated the closure. Gateway Casinos are expected to re-open in phases starting later this week, but there is no current timeline on when the Soo branch will re-open. I don't expect that The Stallyns' show will take place on Saturday, but I'll let you know if I'm wrong!

Now to the post at hand, featuring weekend concert previews for another light weekend for hard rock shows in the area, and some new videos to round things out with, and we'll start with SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, as local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to Jay's Piston Broke Pub for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, these shows were first announced via venue owner Jay Scott in a post shared to the pub's Facebook page on Monday. Yes, these follow tonight's regular Thursday jam night, and they mark Soundcheck's first traditional concerts since rocking Jay's three weeks ago, having filled time since at private gigs. In Jay's promotion of this weekend's gigs on Monday, he implied that one (if not both) of these dates will double as their Bring Back Summer Party, so what does that entail, waiting for June to arrive aside?

Giveaways for Molson and Labatt products were plugged, as well as some sort of draw or contest for a floating island. The conceit of a themed gig TOMORROW and/or SATURDAY is not new for Soundcheck at the Korah Road venue, as they have played a few such gigs at Jay's in 2023. Themed or not, you can enjoy Soundcheck's classic and heavier covers TOMORROW & SATURDAY at 9:30 PM with no cover charges and 19+ age limits, and note that singer/guitarist Cameron Oliver will pull double duty on SATURDAY with an acoustic country matinee set at 2:00 PM. Visit the above links for more details, and here's a new video of Soundcheck live! This was uploaded to drummer Glen Thomas' YouTube channel after their Esquire Club gig on St. Patrick's Day, and it features clips of them covering Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!" and Big & Rich's "Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)".

The former is vertically shot and features singer/guitarist Terry Eaton on vocals, while the latter is in horizontal orientation and has Cameron singing lead (the two videos are also from opposite sides of the stage). Saying that this upload has "video snippets" undersells them a bit, but if you like Soundcheck's country covers, you'll like these even with the mixed audio quality. I prefer their more frequent rock stylings, but the fans on the floor were digging them! We'll have more from Soundcheck soon, but give these a watch below, and don't miss them at Jay's TOMORROW & SATURDAY!

Next up is this weekend's only other known and announced hard rock/punk show in the Twin Saults, as local punk trio Vanity First will rock Reggie's Place for one night only on SATURDAY NIGHT! Announced three weeks ago but oddly not plugged on the band's Facebook page since, I believe this is Vanity First's.... first crack at a weekend nightclub show on the cover circuit, where they'd have a four hour block with four sets and breaks and whatnot. It'll be interesting to hear how Andrew, Mikhal, and Keeghan do in this setting, especially at Reggie's, a venue not known for punk music despite the current regime's efforts to expand their reach. Speaking of which, Vanity First aren't playing there tomorrow due to or resulting in The Hip Hop Chronicals' concert there. Rap at Reggie's, who'd have ever thought they'd see the day?! This is a 9:00 PM & 19+ event with no cover.

With 2/3rds of the band recently forming Hails, it is good to see that Vanity First are still active and gigging, and hopefully their up-tempo originals and covers can adequately fill four sets and deliver lots of rock for fans on Saturday! See above for more details, and here's Vanity First live!

 

There's a fair amount of big stuff in our backlog that I don't want to bury at the end of the post, so let's end tonight with something a little unexpected, namely a cover of Linkin Park's "Given Up" by Half Past bassist Arthur Lacasse! The first uploads on his YouTube channel since posting Half Past jam session videos over a year ago (no word on where that band has been), this is the first solo video to show up on his channel. You don't see a lot of local bassists doing this, surprisingly, but Art handles this song (my favourite cut from "Minutes To Midnight") very well and with clear poise! The camera angle is a little tight, but good stuff, so give it a watch below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a stacked news post on the site next! Thanks everyone!