The Go North Music Festival & Handsome Sandwich Concert Previews!!

Let's continue with this weekend's hard rock/punk concert previews in today's second post, but with our write-up on a big local concert festival eating up most of this post, I have opted to hold our preview of Project 906's show in Strongs, Michigan tomorrow night to our next post, but it is coming! Now, here's what you should know for that Sault Ontario-area festival and one more show here tomorrow night!

We'll start with an hour's road trip southeast to Richards Landing on St. Joseph Island, where local indie/punk quintet The Northwest will be the local openers for the fifth annual Go North Music Festival TOMORROW! Last seen at Outspoken Brewing in May, The Northwest have been oddly quiet in the last couple of months, but it will be good to see them add a little punk flavour to the Go North Festival, which returns to the former Cornfest grounds at 1511 Richards Street. As in past years, this all ages festival will feature loads of food and craft vendors, family entertainment, games, and on-site camping, so visit the official website and the official Facebook page for complete non-musical details! The conceit of having a separate "family stage" for bands to play a second kid-friendly set will return too, so clearly that did well last year! Organizers have clarified that the "kids zone" stage will have short 15 minute sets between main stage acts.

The Northwest are one of three bands to pull double duty tomorrow, as they are the opening band on the main stage at 4:00 PM and the headliners at the kids zone at 6:45 PM. For the remaining bands, I'll note in brackets if they are on the kids zone stage or not. Juno winning Toronto alternative trio The Monowhales will make their local debut in a big headlining set at 9:40 PM, preceded by London alt-rock quartet Texas King at 8:15 PM, and Guelph garage rock trio The Royal Castles (finally playing Go North after dropping out of last year's event due to COVID exposure) at 7:15 PM (5:45 PM on the family stage). Toronto country/folk singer/guitarist Jeremie Albino takes the big stage at 6:00 PM (and opens the kids zone at 4:45 PM), with Toronto retro rock quartet Propter Hawk beginning the non-local contingent of the frstival at 5:00 PM. A shorter country-centric program featuring Toronto's The Holy Gamblers, Port Hope's Nickola Magnolia, ...

...and Kingston's Solomon Woodland takes place tonight at 7:00 PM. Advance ticket sales have wrapped for Go North V, but general tickets at the gate are $65 (full weekend), $55 (Saturday only), or $25 (tonight only), price points that are $30, $25, and $15 respectively for youths aged 13-18 (kids 12 and under are FREE). Camping fees are separate if you are looking into that, so click here for full ground rules on this licensed festival. The festival will happen rain or shine (the main stage has a roof), but 9&10 News is calling for partly cloudy weather of around 23° for tonight's country program, and mostly cloudy weather with a high of 22° and a 30% chance of rain on Saturday. At least this year's Go North Music Festival seems to have dodged the recent humid snap that we had up here! The lineup this year mostly doesn't cross the SMS' genre radar, but The Northwest will add some punk zest, and there's still a lot of talent!

Visit the above links for complete details on Go North's band lineup, vendors, camping details, and much more going on an hour southeast of the Soo tomorrow, and for a preview, here's The Northwest live!

Lastly for this preview post, we'll head back into Sault Ste. Marie for local alternative/hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich's debut at The Water Tower Pub TOMORROW NIGHT! One week away from their return to Rotaryfest Stage 2, this will be Handsome Sandwich's first solo headlining concert with no other bands of the year, so expect a lot of covers along with their fan favourite originals to fill out a full night's worth of music, not unlike many of their quartet gigs in early-mid 2022. Hopefully this trip up Great Northern Road will prove bountiful for the Sandwich, and that they make some new fans at The Water Tower Pub tomorrow! Shows here are traditionally one-nighters, as The Water Tower Pub almost always books different bands on Fridays and Saturdays, and if you're curious, folk/country musician and Face To Face co-headliner Brian Tremblay (with his wife Lynn) will be playing there tonight.

Tomorrow's Handsome Sandwich show has an earlier 8:00 PM start time, a 19+ age limit, and no announced cover charge. This should be a fun show for fans of Handsome Sandwich's eclectic sound, so don't miss out tomorrow, and here they are live!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for the Project 906 preview and more on the site soon! Thanks everyone!