LSSU Battle Of The Bands Rehearsal Videos & More From Sault Michigan!

Before we begin this all-Sault Michigan post, I wanted to apologize for a missed concert in our previews last month, as local blues/hard rock quartet Project 906 took a trip to nearby Brimley on Saturday, November 11th to headline the 12th annual Veteran's Day ATV ride at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9023. The guys played at 7:00 PM that evening after the ride proper and dinner for attendees, and while their involvement had advance notice via the Facebook event page, Project 906 only confirmed that they were playing on their Facebook page that Monday, which completely slipped us by last month. I profusely apologize, but hopefully 906 delivered a rocking set that night for a very worthy cause!

Today's post is otherwise devoted to recent videos from Sault Michigan, specifically surrounding two acts from the Lake Superior State University Battle of the Bands, namely runner up Molly Escherich and third place finishers Double Jack! As you may recall, Molly's YouTube channel filmed half of the acts in the battle last month (everyone else besides H.L.T.C. uploaded their sets on their own), but besides the actual performances, Molly's channel also has videos from rehearsals for the main event at LSSU's Arts Center. We already touched on her video of Tarnished's rehearsal when we last previewed a show of theirs, but hers and Double Jack's rehearsals were also filmed, all in the Arts Center with full daytime lighting. Molly's solo rehearsal video saw her cover Slipknot's "Snuff", which she played fourth of five songs on November 16th. Sounds fine to me, and it is interesting seeing the rehearsal process!

The natural lighting from earlier in the day lets us see everything better, even if its not natural to how the battle itself would look, This talented young Dafter product is on her way to big things, so give her solo battle rehearsal video a look for yourselves below!

Next up, remember how Molly joined in for new local hard rock band Double Jack's final two songs, en route to both of their respective podium finishes? Well, both of those songs (Alice In Chains' "Man In The Box" & Lit's "My Own Worst Enemy") were rehearsed by her and the band before showtime, and both were filmed in separate videos! Both are a little more distant from the stage and are from a relatively opposite angle of Molly's solo video, to say nothing about how this full band +1 video is shot vertically, but both songs come across well in these pre-show jams! I've embedded the longer Lit cover below, but do check both out for a different side of the battle!

Going even further back, how's about the first ever full band rehearsals of "My Own Worst Enemy" & "Man In The Box"? Despite coming earlier, these were uploaded to YouTube after the videos shot at LSSU were, and they feature Molly jamming these songs with Double Jack, complete with early versions of Molly's "stage crashing" intro for these two songs. The vertical angle still isn't ideal, and these are definitely rawer than what we got, but you can see how Molly & the guys worked well even this early on! As it's longer and doesn't feature obvious lyric sheets, "Man In The Box" is embedded below, so give these a look also, and stay tuned for more content from Molly's channel soon!

I wanted to preface today's final videos with the above because they are among the last videos we'll apparently get with Double Jack's original lineup. After a near month-long break from their Facebook page, the guys posted on Wednesday to reveal that "things have been cooking over here" but they also plan to announce "a lineup change" in the near future. The attached video (embedded below) features a guitarist playing a Kramer guitar with Eddie Van Halen's unmistakable Frankenstrat pattern. Of course, when it comes to Sault Michigan guitarists, none screams "Van Halen fan who owns EVH gear" more than Rhythm & Brews/ex-Nixxon Dixxon guitarist Chris Hubbard, but this is purely an educated guess on my part until Double Jack say something specific. What we don't know is whether the replaced guitarist is Nathan Webber or Melvin Willis, but for what it's worth, Melvin is one of the Facebook users who liked the video.

Whether this is Chris or not, the new guitarist definitely has the chops in this 20 second guitar solo clip, and if the guitar type/design is a red herring, then good on Double Jack to obscure his face from view. We'll let you know more when Double Jack 100% say who's in and who's out, but give their new guitarist teaser video a watch below!

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