With a couple of big LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS coming to my attention in the last few days, let's spotlight those in today's news post, as well as clearing out some backlogged news items and videos. Here's what you should know!
Tidal Records' annual Go Skateboarding Day festivities return to Queen Elizabeth Park outside of the John Rhodes Centre on Wednesday, June 21st, and live music is planned once again! As announced via a "Reel" shared to
Tidal Records' Facebook page yesterday, this will be the seventh installment of the local Go Skate Day to have bands playing atop the big ramp, and all four bands are new to the event this year, so who can you expect? In advertised order, they include two online page-less local bands, namely punk trio Hails (in just their second announced gig) and alternative/punk supergroup Bookclub. Members of these bands played last year with The Cover-Up, Vanity First, and These Magnificent Tentacles, so there will be some familiarity there! For the first time since 2016, hip hop will be part of Go Skate Day via local rap collective
Sound Syndrome, who feature ex-As It Stands frontman Justin "Nadj" Pregent in their ranks.
I'm a bit surprised that it's taken this long for rap to return to this event, but hopefully the Sound Syndrome crew delivers a fitting soundtrack during their block! Rising young metal trio The BAG will open in their first show since rocking The Esquire Club in March, and they should set things off on a heavy foot later this month! As always, expect food, local vendors, games, and more at Go Skate Day on Wednesday the 21st, absolutely an ALL AGES event with all skaters welcome of any skill level, plus general attendees too! This remains a FREE event, which starts at 4:00 PM. Should be a fun time as always, so visit the above links for more details!
Next up, local classic/hard rock cover quartet
Soundcheck will make a rare trip to
The Moose Lodge on Friday, June 30th when they honour singer/guitarist Terry Eaton's induction into
the Great Northern Opry this fall! The ceremony is in November, but inductees traditionally get celebration concerts set up by
the Northern Ontario Country Music Association a few months prior where they are the sole guest of honour. Of course, Terry has a long history as both a rock and country musician in the Soo, notably playing with Asylum Country and as a backing musician with other artists, and he still covers select country songs in Soundcheck's setlist. Thusly, this show will no doubt skew quite heavily towards Soundcheck's country covers, but it's a big platform regardless, and Terry deserves this honour after all of his work in the local music community! He will join SMS-familiar names like Kyle McKey and Ric Datson in the Opry once inducted at The Quattro Hotel in November.
Given the purpose of this event, there will be advance tickets running for $20 (call the number on the poster if you don't want to chance getting them at the door), and a 6:00 PM start time is advertised. My late step-grandpa Len Nevin was an Opry inductee in 2003, so I'm familiar with the honour even without covering local music, so this will definitely be a big night for Terry, and don't miss out on Soundcheck's presumably quite country-centric set at 543 Trunk Road for the occasion! See above for more details!
We'll close today with
SaultOnline's coverage of both
the Sault Ste. Marie Festival of Beer at
the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre on May 6th! Heidi Ivany was on hand to cover this event, via an article you can read at
this link, Her comments on the Festival of Beer bands were summatively general, if positive, but she does give good insights into the craft beer and local vendor aspect, so fans on that wavelength will like her coverage! Nine pictures are included, with two of the aforementioned Bookclub's headlining set and one from
The Wyld Stallyns (though none of The Hollow Heads). That sure looks like Odd Man Out/ex-Sense of Truth guitarist Steve Myers filling in for Jesse Cook in
the Stallyns picture, but I have heard nothing about any lineup changes, temporary or otherwise. No sign of Josh Norling either, but he has missed Wyld Stallyns gigs before. Also, there was one concert video shot for
SaultOnline's Facebook page!
Heidi (I presume) shot 9+ minutes of Bookclub's set, with Mikey, Dave, Dustin, Al, and Erin's cover of Sloan's "Everything You've Done Wrong" in progress when recording began (watch for The Northwest's Wayne Watkins on guest backing vocals). The only full song captured is Vampire Weekend's "A-Punk" (with Mikey just singing), and they closed with most of Doug & The Slugs' "Making It Work". Despite the unfortunately vertical camera and just the middle song being complete. True to their early descriptions, they had an eclectic group of covers here that you don't hear covered locally very much, if at all, and it's a lively performance with good crowd response, so check it out below, and look for more from SaultOnline soon!
From a Go Skate Day band this year to the 2016 headliners (then as Jack Spades), we'll close with the latest from local/Barrie crossover thrash quintet
Spades GT, so what have they been up to this month, album release aside? Well, "Reels" have come hard and heavy on
their Facebook page, starting with
this one to hype "Sewer City Radio" being on sale, even on platforms like Tidal, Google Play, and Deezer, so if you'd rather stream it there, you know where to go! A clip of the title track can also be heard. Starting on Wednesday, they've gotten in the "one reel per day" mode again, including
this montage of live footage set to the studio copy of "Black on Black", followed by three videos shot by attendee William Wai Yun Lum at the Indie Night In Canada concert in Toronto on Tuesday, including clips of their cover of Turbonegro's
"All My Friends Are Dead" and their original
"Negative Headspace", ...
...and in today's "Reel", another song from that night with the camera focused on singer J.D. Pearce and drummer Tyler Reiner. William's footage is really solid, but they were uploaded as "Reels", of which my complaints are unchanging until Facebook lets you embed them externally, play them in background tabs, and let them be longer and horizontal... but then it's just a video, right? Speaking of which, they did upload just a video on May 31st of them playing "Final Girl" at the Anti-Queens show in Barrie in April (the same footage was used for the "Black on Black" "reel"), which has excellent side-stage footage of the full song at The Rec Room, so give it a look below, and look for more from Spades GT soon!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on the site next! Thanks everyone!
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