Halloween Night Concert Previews, Plus A Mini Soundcheck Concert Review!!

For our last news post of October 2023, let's preview the two known hard rock shows on Halloween night proper (unfortunately on a Tuesday this year), along with a mini-concert review and video from this past weekend, so here's what you should know!

We'll start at Shooters Downstairs Lounge, where their stacked lineup of Halloween events concludes with local funk/hard rock cover sextet The Wyld Stallyns taking the stage TOMORROW NIGHT! This Halloween night event will be nothing too new for the Speers' & company, having played at The Whisky Barrel over Halloween weekend last year, while their old sister band The Elements were a frequent sight at Halloween concerts in their heyday. Unless they played somewhere since and didn't advertise it, tomorrow's show will be be The Stallyns' first gig since playing at The Water Tower Pub early last month, and it will feature all of Shooters' Halloween frills, including drink specials, spooky decor, later kitchen hours and a costume contest. Gift cards await the attendees with the best overall costume, best couples costume, and best makeup, much like at the shows on the weekend.

Tonight's festivities are at 9:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge. October 31st or not, tomorrow's concert will not be timed ideally for many, hence why it's good that Shooters had Soundcheck playing on Friday and Saturday for those who have work/school to worry about on Wednesday, but if you can brave the work week timing, The Wyld Stallyns' varied and often heavy covers should turn some heads for the occasion tomorrow night! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's The Stallyns live in concert last year!

Next up, five different acts will take the stage at The Art Hub At Spring for a rare post-pandemic multi-band Halloween concert TOMORROW NIGHT! Now, full disclosure that organizers are calling this a "private event", but the show is being publically advertised with a publically known venue, so the verbiage is intended to reflect that they want you to RSVP to attend rather than just waltz in as normal. Given that, I'll cover it on the SMS, but make sure you RSVP via the Facebook event page if you want to guarantee that they'll let you in. Five acts are scheduled to rock The Art Hub tomorrow, and if the poster order is any indication, local metal trio The BAG will headline the festivities. A mystery act named the Psychic Spies are listed before them, and while I don't know any 100% details on them/their sound, a possible sonic hint is that "psychic spies" are the first words sung in The Red Hot Chili Peppers' song "Californication". Could that be a red herring?

The middle band are new local rock quartet Skinbox (featuring Pixo Control, Gnaeus, and Stoned To Deaf alumni, plus recent Half Past drummer Jamie Labreche), who are actually putting this event on. Still no word on their sound/genres, we'll let you know when we hear anything! The other acts are solo musicians, including folk punk/emo act Agnosticism (who were supposed to play at the cancelled Goulais River Halloween concert on Saturday) and folk/pop singer/guitarist Hannah Lindsay, who you may recall seeing with The BAG and other acts at Lopstock in July. Costumes are encouraged for this Halloween night event, which has no announced age limit. It is a BYOB event starting at 9:30 PM, and while admission is free (RSVP notwithstanding), a tip jar will be present if you want to support the bands. Again, a Tuesday nighter will be tough for many, but to see lots of rising young talent, this is a very worthy event to attend!

The action takes place at 504 Queen Street East, but remember to RSVP if you want to attend! An event like this with a publically advertised venue but RSVPs to enter is not common for the Soo (at least as heavier concerts go), but hopefully the crowd is good and energetic on a work/school night for some spooky vibes and good music! Visit the above links for more details, and here's The BAG & Hannah live at Lopstock!

Finally, here's a surprise: a mini concert review! On Saturday, I took a friend to Shooters Downstairs Lounge so she could check out the Entomica bug lab exhibit as part of the Dennis Street nightclub's Halloween events, and we coincidentally happened to still be there at the start of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck's concert that night! This was unplanned, I didn't have my proper concert camera, but while I was there, I captured a (horizontal!) video with my cell phone and took a picture, albeit far from the stage. I hate being that guy in everyone's road, especially when I wasn't in costume. We caught Soundcheck doing nine songs, three with Terry Eaton (complete with very cool animated mask) on vocals & the rest with Cameron Oliver singing lead, including renditions of Three Doors Down, ZZ Top, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Tragically Hip songs.

Everyone was in costume, with drummer Glen Thomas especially dressed to the nines as an evil clown! What I heard sounded good and familiar for fans of their classic and hard rock cover array, plus a southern/country tinge (we last heard them do Eddie Rabbitt), though I will say that I do think Soundcheck should banter with the crowd more and introduce songs moreso, especially on a big weekend like this. Here's Soundcheck covering Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" with Cameron on vocals as their second song at Shooters on Saturday night!

That's all for now, but to end the month, look for our newest CD review on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!