LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Double Down), The Destroyer Concert Preview, And New Videos!!

As promised, we're wrapping up this weekend's hard rock concert previews in today's post, with added SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS to boot! As well, we have some new videos on both sides of the border to look at also, so here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down will return to Jay's Piston Broke Pub for concerts TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the band only announced these shows via their Facebook page yesterday, and the venue didn't acknowledge them until after the band did. We haven't seen Double Down live in over a month, last seen rocking Reggie's, with TONIGHT & TOMORROW'S shows being Joel, Adam, Brad, and Ric's first at the former Roosevelt Hotel in over three months. We haven't heard too much from Double Down since the summer, but it is good to see this familiar veteran outfit back at it, and hopefully their hard rocking covers go over well in the west end TONIGHT & TOMORROW! These shows have 9:30 PM start times, no cover charges, and 19+ age limits. See above for more details, and here's Double Down live!

Next up, here is one more hard rock concert preview for this weekend, and it's arguably the big one, as Toronto-based Kiss tribute band Destroyer will return to Soo Blaster TOMORROW NIGHT! Certainly no strangers to Sault Ste. Marie, this will be Destroyer's (at least) sixth headlining concert here, last seen locally at Soo Blaster in April 2022. If you're a Kiss Army soldier, you'll be right at home with Destroyer's faithful sounding & looking stage show, and after so many prior appearances in city limits, you know that they pull a decent crowd, so if you want the best, this is the next best thing! Like last year, there will be a local opening band, with this show being led off by new pop rock cover band Bourbon Blue (featuring Cherry Crush and Settle For Silver alumni). Admittedly, Bourbon Blue do not lean towards hard rock from what I have seen, but they have a talented lineup and should get things off on the right foot tomorrow!

This 19+ concert has doors opening at 7:00 PM and $20 advance admission (well, $22.63 with taxes/processing fees) at this link, and the door charge jumps to $25. VIP booths will also be available, expense acknowledged. Kiss fans will absolutely want to head to Soo Blaster for all of the action tomorrow, so see above for more details, and here's Destroyer live!

Also today, let's zip over to Sault Michigan for a lengthy new video from local classical metal band Theatre of Night's YouTube channel! In July, they posted this 92 minutes-long video featuring 24 original instrumental metal songs, so if you want to hear their recent non-Christmas output in a convenient and free place, this is a good way to do it! With one exception (two if you count the intro), these songs are otherwise compiled on their "Compilation: Epic Instrumental Metal" album, which quietly received a paid release in May of last year on Amazon for $9.49, and is also available on iTunes/Apple Music. Note that this image is the cover artwork, despite singer Rachel Mender being pictured on the cover of an instrumental album. I wish Theatre of Night had better promoted releasing a new album, even if just a compilation of one-off metal songs, as I'd have formally reviewed it on the site last year when it was still new & timely!

Given our backlog of new albums to review already, I won't be able to get to this (or any unreviewed past) Theatre of Night album until next year at the earliest, but give it a listen above, on Spotify, or on YouTube below, complete with dark and suitably epic imagery to accompany each song! I'll hold comment pending a possible future review, but if you like progressive and classical-inspired metal, you'll take to this release! No word on if the track listing being almost alphabetical is intentional or not though. Stay tuned for more from Theatre of Night soon!

Finally for today, here's a new performance video from veteran Sault Ontario hard/progressive rock guitarist Mike Cliffe's YouTube channel, his first there in over a year! The video has Mike "noodling" a song that he self-deprecatingly named "'Scuse the Bad Note or Two Around the 2:13 Mark". You can see what he means when 2:13 hits, complete with a momentary head shake, but the performance is otherwise solid and all-business, with the Audiofumes podcast host showing his underrated skill on this short instrumental, so definitely check it out for yourselves below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!