Fuller & 20 Musicians Of Christmas Concert Previews, Plus New Northwest Videos!!

With this year's New Year's Eve weekend being busy as ever, especially post-pandemic, we have to break our weekend concert previews into three posts! We'll start today with two upcoming shows at LopLops Lounge, then we'll look at Friday-Saturday nighters elsewhere, before capping things off with New Year's Eve shows proper, so there's a glimpse into the upcoming post timeline, and we also have a YouTube Channel Profile, this month's CD review, and our year-end recap post ahead, so expect some busy times at the SMS to end the year! Let's lead off with those LopLops previews, with some new live videos from there to cap things off with!

For punk and emo fans of the early-mid 2000s, the New Years weekend begins in style TOMORROW NIGHT when Fuller reunite at LopLops for their first public gig in at least seventeen years! On this night, Fuller will be represented by founding singer/guitarist Jamie Vincent (last seen with No Funeral) and late-era bassist Mark Rand (now of Barrie's Cross Dog), with Pointless/All The Tired Horses drummer David Peredun taking over for the absent (and also blonde) Nathan Sauve. It will be great to see Fuller back for the holidays, and hopefully the promise of their jam session teaser videos spill over into tomorrow's set! Local punk supergroup The Gambit (née The Sick Sons) will return to the stage for their second gig as a quintet and under their current name when they take the stage tomorrow, in their first live set in exactly one year. Good to see them back after way too long, and they should have a fun set in store for old school punk fans tomorrow!

The opening band tomorrow is the debuting Honest Work (not to be confused with the defunct Honest Job), who feature the surviving members of Nebraska Arms alongside Rising Tide alum Sheldon Jaaskelainen on guitar. It's not clear who's singing here (Wayne?) or if they will sound similar to Nebraska Arms, but it'd help if they launched an online page! Regardless, they'll be a talented lead-off to tomorrow's SOLD OUT and 19+ concert, which begins at 8:00 PM, though tickets were $20 when still available. This should be a great time for punk and emo fans, especially those around in the 2000s scene, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Fuller live back in the day!

Next up, the holiday season program at LopLops ends on FRIDAY NIGHT when many familiar faces take part in the return of the 12 20 Musicians of Christmas! Since we first covered this special concert event on the site two weeks ago, when it was already inflated from the traditional 12 artists to 16, organizers have added four more local musicians to inflate this event to its biggest state yet! As you may recall, The 12 Musicians of Christmas was a holiday season-tradition at LopLops from 2005-2018, where musicians were (at least at the time) given three song sets where they were joined by assorted other participants for some tantalizing one-off supergroups throughout the night. How that format will look with an extra eight people involved is to be determined, but with this performer roster, you won't want to miss out! Unlike in the earlier installments, there are a number of punk and hard rock alumni performing, so who can you expect?

Fans of Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide will be curious to check this out, as Dustin, Mikey Hawdon, Liam Seymour, Chris Johns, and new addition Marshall Jaaskelainen (good to see him back in town!) will all be taking part. No word on if we'll get a mini-Tide reunion or not, but don't bypass their involvement! Readers will also recognize Treble Charger/Pointless guitarist Bill Priddle, Wyld Stallyns saxophonist Josh Norling, and ex-Generations guitarist Brandon Ruch among the roster of performers on Friday. The other twelve Musicians of Christmas are Frank Deresti, Al Wood, Lindsay Pugh, Cliff Alloy, Shannon Moan, Juliana Regan, Hannah Lindsay, Andree-Ann Dechesne, Chris Belsito, and new additions Gabrielle Dumas, Craig West, and Vince Feletti. That is a stacked lineup of local talent covering a wide range of styles, so it'll be very interesting to see who plays what and with whom!

This special concert begins at 7:00 PM on Friday, it has a 19+ age limit, and admission is $50 at the door or in advance (+ processing fees & taxes) at this link. Yes, it's a pricey event, but that is on par with past installments, and look at the value you're getting. While the 20 Musicians of Christmas are gathering four days after the fact, it'll be a big night for fans of local music to see this much talent together for the holidays, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details! Given the nature of the event, I'll forgo a preview video, as everyone is advertised on an equal playing field and it'd be tough to find one video to sum up 20 people!

We'll close today by staying at LopLops, where Honest Work's Wayne Watkins performed on Friday with his primary current indie/punk band The Northwest! Attendee Christopher Paci filmed three videos of their set from their 10th anniversary concert for his excellent YouTube channel, and for the record, I do not believe that Far From Fine (who were advertised as opening in some personal Facebook plugs) played on Friday night after all. A reason for their apparent withdrawal wasn't publically announced, but be advised that the band never confirmed their involvement on social media (granted, The Northwest didn't even promote the show publically on Facebook). Hopefully we see Far From Fine in the new year! Chris filmed The Northwest covering The Who's "Baba O'Riley" and playing their own originals "Unsober October" and, as embedded below, "Walls".

In a nice touch, Chris shot each Northwest video from a slightly different angle, and while I chose "Walls" to embed because of its length, it was also shot from the most central locale of the three. It's also one of The Northwest's punkier originals, and the guys sound good and lively across all three videos, though be advised of very purple lighting for most of the combined runtime. Give these a watch above & below!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for non-LopLops concert previews next! Thanks everyone!