Concert Cancellations, A Missed Show Apology, HeadFirst Concert Previews, And More!!

Before we begin this weekend's concert previews, just a heads up on a pair of cancelled concerts for this weekend. Firstly, local funk/hard rock cover band The Wyld Stallyns are not playing at Shooters Downstairs Lounge tomorrow, and have been replaced by local country cover band Tex Riviera & The Ride, as per updates to the Facebook event page (it wasn't deleted, it was just completely rebranded for a different group). A reason for The Stallyns' withdrawal was not announced, but hopefully nothing too serious happened, and that we see this talented sextet back soon! As well, the Just Leppard/Saturday Night Special concert at Soo Blaster on Saturday was also quietly cancelled, as per the Facebook event page & the deletion of its EventBrite page. As I recall, "unforeseen circumstances" were cited for the cancellation on the (now deleted) paid Facebook advertising. Shame to see, as Just Leppard went over well in prior local gigs!

Hopefully we'll get our Def Leppard and Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute fix again down the line, but alas, these cancellations wipe out most of this weekend's known hard rock concerts (November is always quiet after Halloween, but not this quiet, pandemic years aside!) Of course, we'll let you know if anything short notice or bypassed comes up.

This is a light concert weekend to be sure, so before getting too far ahead, I wanted to offer my profuse apologies for a concert that we missed covering on the SMS this past Saturday, at The Satisfied Frog in Sault Michigan, a venue that we haven't talked about in ages on here! I was told about it in e-mails by musicians affiliated with the concert, but between the busy Halloween season and personal commitments, it completely slipped through the cracks and I apologize again for that, especially as it was a rare multi-band show with touring acts in Sault Ste. Marie proper! The show featured sets from Grand Rapids/Muskegon hardcore punk band Cell Rush, Grand Rapids experimental/synth solo project Dick Texas, Escanaba indie/minimalist band The Hell Town Trio, Muskegon alt-punk band Ledhead, and a surprise reunion of online page-less local hard rock band The Karstens.

The show was promoted under the name Serious Business, with poster design credited to Lucid Pixels. Once again, I profusely apologize for not covering this show on the SMS, it's certainly not every day when touring bands (plural) play at a local concert, let alone one not affiliated with Kewadin Casino, but hopefully it was a hit and encourages more smaller touring bands to come to Sault Michigan, let alone play at The Satisfied Frog! It still surprises me that they don't really have a social media presence. If The Karstens, Serious Business, or The Satisfied Frog have more public material to announce, I hope to address it on time!

Now let's dive into known and publically advertised hard rock concerts in the Soo area this weekend.... all two of them, as new local classic/hard rock quintet HeadFirst will play their first ever public concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT at Reggie's Place! The new group from ex-Raincourt guitarist Raine Rancourt and ex-Them drummer Anthony Boudreau, HeadFirst will bring their retro inspired brand of rock covers to this downtown staple this weekend, and it will be very interesting to see how things go for this group of talented rising musicians! If you can't make it this weekend, HeadFirst's third announced public gig will be at Toystock on November 26th. These two concerts have 19+ age limits, no cover charges, and 9:00 PM start times. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's HeadFirst's ...first video of them in action!

That's surprisingly it for verifiable hard rock concerts currently advertised in the Twin Saults, but a familiar local band will actually be hitting the road next weekend for their first ever tour run! Local alternative hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich will venture beyond the Algoma District for shows in Sudbury and Oshawa next week (each city is linked to the respective Facebook event page), before playing in Ottawa and Cornwall over the January 19th weekend, details forthcoming. The Sudbury show will actually have local relevance beyond the close-ish 4 hour drive to The Townehouse Tavern, as Jesse & Johnny's old Jack Spades bandmate Tiffany Stocco will open for them next Friday with her current punk band The Knuckle City Dusters. Good to see her still rocking out! The Sudbury show is a headlining gig, but the next night's concert at The Atria will be in support of Oshawa metal band Dead Silence.

To promote the upcoming tours, the band (minus the guitarists) appeared in this Facebook video on Monday, and with their song "Shiver" as background noise, the guys promoted the upcoming shows, pointing at the cities' rough locations on a map of the Great Lakes, and noted that official t-shirts & CDs will be on sale. Taylor also noted that they are looking for recommendations of the best sandwich (of course) in each city for them to try. Of course, good luck on the road next weekend, and see above for more details! I can't embed the video here due to Facebook flagging "Shiver" as copyrighted audio. That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next! Thanks everyone!