Time to resume our coverage of Lopstock III at LopLops Lounge on July 29th in today's post, as we are now in the second half of the marathon 8+ hour concert with just four bands to go, albeit including three of the four previously acknowledged hard rock/punk-leaning acts among them! Once again, SooToday's multi-camera live-stream will guide the way. We'll pick things back up at the 4:28:34 mark of the lengthy livestream embedded at post's end, with promoter/MC Brendan Garlick relating how he met his old Gnaeus bandmate Matt Fronzi, who is the bassist for act #7 at Lopstock, local punk/hard rock band Far From Fine! This is the first public video of the former Ravencore in concert to surface online, so if you missed them at Toystock last year or Rotaryfest this year, now you can see what the fuss about! Former Suicide Kings bandmates Mike Gaetano (vocals) and Mitch Sirie (guitar) join Matt in this new group.
Id Iota/Free Beer alum Blair St. John (recently seen performing with fellow Lopstock act Juliana Regan) filled in on drums once again in lieu of the departed Austin McCrae. Far From Fine's all-original set began with an unintroduced original song (possibly named "Sunshine"?) followed by "Poison" (née "Poison In My Mind"), "Relapse", "Broken", "Whiskey Dick" (I didn't name it!), their first song written with Matt (which wasn't introduced by name), an upbeat song that also wasn't named, a song named (I think) "Go Away", "This Way Again" , and one more unintroduced song. Don't go into this expecting a revival of The Suicide Kings with a new rhythm section, as Far From Fine lean more into punk and don't resurrect any of that band's originals (I don't think), but styles do vary here and they do dip into ballad, hard rock, and even drinking song territory across their set. Mike also played guitar on a couple of songs.
One thing that hasn't changed from The Suicide Kings' heyday is Mike's brief & minimal banter/song introductions despite his ease on stage, but assuming that their debut album is on track to still come out, then we'll know all of these song names in due course. Assuming that we'll have an album to review on the SMS next year, then I'll hold individual song reviews for now, but the guys have good chemistry and can weave around punk songs well while also dipping into other styles where need be, and I was reminded a bit of how The Inner City Surfers weren't just a full-bore punk act in that way. Strong lyrics as a rule too, so definitely check out Far From Fine above and below to see what you think! Not sure about that "kazoo" section though. In a mild surprise for the running order, local alt-hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich were the 8th of 10 bands despite their recent profile, meaning that Mitch Sirie played in consecutive Lopstock sets!
After Brendan plugged his new promotional agency Sault Noir and their second event (a burlesque show at LopLops next month), he gave way to Handsome Sandwich, whose set started with five originals from their debut album "Deconstructed", namely "Better Off", "Monkey", "Stick Up" (with more of an intro than it had on the CD), "All Or Nothing", and "Bitter". Next, they tacked four songs that are not on the album, but are pegged for their planned follow-up EP, including "Without You", "Party Fuel", "Change A Bit", and "No Idea". Before "Without You", drummer Johnny Belanger noted that "we actually started recording (a demo of it) this week", which is encouraging, and we'll have to see how the EP plans continue to shape up! Their set closed with two more cuts from "Deconstructed", namely "Conquest" and "No Entry". Note that they were the fourth straight Lopstock act to forego their one allowed cover.
Fun set with a lively energy and an encouraging increase in fans on the floor (if to the detriment of live-stream viewers), and the block of new songs will be a nice appetizer for that EP ahead! It would be nice to see singer Taylor Emlaw (who guested with Sawbé & Stoneburgh earlier that night) be a little more vocal between songs though. Note that Handsome Sandwich's pro-shot multi-camera video footage from their album release party at The Loft in May is still not online that I'm aware of, so for the next best thing, check out their 11 song Lopstock set below! Today's covered bands can be seen from 4:28:00-6:10:00.
We are officially just over the 3/4ths mark of Lopstock II with just two bands left, including a surprise choice to cap off the "bohemian conclave", so we should wrap up our coverage this weekend. There's a big normal news post slated for tomorrow, and then we have weekend concert previews, so good things will come to those who wait! That's all for today, but look for more on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
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