LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Soundcheck, Bone Yard, And The Apocalypse Afterparty) & Weekend Concert Previews!!

After a brief spell of feature posts, I realized that we have quite the backlog developing, partly due to seasonal commitments on the personal end of things, so let's slowly start remedying that! Luckily in that respect, this is a quiet weekend for announced hard rock concerts, so let's also including some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (two on SHORT NOTICE) to fill things out. Here's what you should know!

Local southern hard rock cover trio Bone Yard have announced their year-ending concerts for next month, all brand new confirmations that hadn't previously been announced by themselves or the venues, so where can you see them in December 2023? Bone Yard will actually be playing at six different venues across the five weekends next month, starting with shows at Jay's Piston Broke Pub TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, we only heard about these shows via this concert calendar from the band's Facebook page yesterday, and Jay's have not publicized them at press time. Next, they'll head downtown to Reggie's Place for shows on December 8th & 9th, in the only dates next month at a locale that they haven't played at in the past month. On Friday, December 15th, they'll return to Shooters Downstairs Lounge for a one-nighter, as the Saturday DJ experiment continues there next month.

Instead, fans can see Greg, Alex, and Warren unplugged (or, as they call it here, "uncorked") at Gateway Casino on Saturday the 16th, so look for a more relaxed acoustic show that night! Leading into a Christmas break for most, Bone Yard will return to The Esquire Club for shows on December 22nd & 23rd, and in their apparent last show of the year, they'll bring their unplu.... uncorked show back to The Water Tower Pub on Saturday, December 30th. Remember that The Water Tower Pub traditionally hosts different nightly bands, with classic rock veterans Angry Joe & The Growlers playing there on Friday the 29th instead (source here). At least as of this writing, Bone Yard have not signalled a booking on either the 29th or on New Year's Eve, but we will let you know if either are announced. In any event, Bone Yard are quite busy to end 2023 with, so don't miss their southern, hard, and classic rock covers across all of December!

The acoustic gigs have 8:00 PM start times, the rest all begin at 9:00 or 9:30 PM, none have an announced cover charge, and all are 19+ events. If you like Bone Yard, you will enjoy their final shows of 2023, so visit the above links for more details, don't miss them first off at Jay's Piston Broke Pub TOMORROW & SATURDAY, and for a preview, here's Bone Yard live!

Next up, local party metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty have been added as openers for another otherwise rap concert at Soo Blaster, this time opening for Guelph rapper Robbie G on his latest tour! The show takes place on Friday, December 8th, and is along the lines of the past rap concerts at Soo Blaster that The A.A. opened, only now featuring Ha!ls' Mikhal Muto as a second bassist. Robbie G will be familiar to local hip hop fans for opening for Tech N9ne, Afroman, and Madchild here (all shows at The Apocalypse Afterparty opened), but this is Robbie's own headlining tour, and while I'm not a rap scholar, he does have a strong flow and rhymes to match! As usual, The Apocalypse Afterparty are the sole rock band outliers next Friday, with Sound Syndrome, Sawbe, Bold Noize (likely not in a reprise of his punk turn from last summer), Jaay Sheps, Lumberjack Pat, and Lil Clout. Occxpied & King Mickey are advertised on Eventbrite but not the poster, but I don't know which source is currently accurate.

Presented once again by R-Evolution Media, I do apologize for the month-long delay in plugging this show on here, but I was waiting for the final poster listing the opening acts to be shared publically (initial posters only mentioned Robbie G). This all ages show has an 8:00 PM start time and tickets run for $20 at the door or via this link (with processing fees/taxes), while VIP packages for $50 or $140 also exist. These rap shows at Soo Blaster do seem to do well, and The Apocalypse Afterparty definitely enjoy playing them, so hopefully they continue their cross-genre campaign with style and intensity next Friday, and visit the above links for more on the (mostly) rap festivities ahead!

Finally, let's go back to weekend concert previews on this seemingly quiet hard rock concert weekend by previewing the previously announced show by local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck, who will return to the aforementioned Shooters Downstairs Lounge for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Soundcheck (no space) even lead off the Dennis Street nightclub's December concert calendar from their Facebook page, which is the first formal schedule posting that they've made to confirm their Saturday DJ nights that began earlier this fall. As hard rock goes, they and Bone Yard are the only largely amenable bands playing this month, but Lime do have a few SMS-friendly covers. New Year's Eve will there will be a karaoke night, for the record. Last seen at Shooters over Halloween weekend, hopefully this proves to be another fun night of classic and hard rock cover action for them there tomorrow!

I am well aware of Soundcheck's New Year's Eve concert for this year, check back for that in an upcoming post. Tomorrow's concert at Shooters has a 9:00 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Soundcheck live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more (overdue) news and notes on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!