LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Rhythm & Brews), A New Local Band, And New Videos!!

As we continue to catch up on news and notes from last month, today's post includes new video discoveries from both sides of the border, LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for later this month, and leading off, a new addition to our Sault Ontario band links, so here's what you should know!

We have a new local metal band to add to our links, namely Hollow Sky! This is the new project from former Uncanny Valley bassist Adam Fahrer, who also played in country musician Brendan Hodgson's backing band. Primarily credited now on guitar, Adam is joined by singer Liam Tallon, who you may recognize from competing in the Soo Youth Songwriting Contest in 2017 and later via recording hard rock material at Tidal Records in 2018, project unclear, but you can sample what he was doing at this link. Hollow Sky publically launched via their Facebook page on December 2nd, and haven't posted there since December 4th, but they did release their first studio original that day, named "The Spiral". They said that the song can be streamed on "all platforms", those being Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer (all handily linked via DistroKid), plus YouTube, Amazon Music, and Boomplay.

At least far as this song goes, Hollow Sky are very promising with a modern metalcore sound including strong clean vocals and some djent influence in the guitar riffs, and the production quality is pretty good too! Again, we haven't heard anything from their camp in over a month, but give Hollow Sky's first song a listen below, and look for more from them this year!

Next up, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for later this month, as Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Rhythm & Brews will return to The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino on Friday, January 27th & Saturday, January 28th! These come courtesy of Kewadin's entertainment page, and mark the only hard rock-leaning shows at the St. Ignace Kewadin this month. These shows will be Rhythm & Brews' first in three months, last seen rocking the Soo Kewadin branch over the Halloween weekend, though given their infrequent usage of their Facebook page, something definitely could have been missed since then. Hopefully Brandon, the Chris', and Ron deliver another entertaining weekend of fan favourite rock covers for fans in a few weeks! Expect 9:00 PM start times, 21+ age limits, and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details!

Let's make our way back north now, starting with a stop in Sault Michigan for a much belated video from the Pop Evil concert at The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino in March of last year! This was actually uploaded to the Muskegon hard rock band's Facebook page right after the show took place, as filmed by videographer Matt Akana from what appears to be the end of their set. The video was uniquely shot on stage with the camera generally pointing towards the audience, with Matt weaving his way through the band while frontman Leigh Kakaty thanks the crowd (admittedly, what he says is hard to hear). Sadly, this was shot vertically, and a film grain was added to it in post-production that doesn't seem entirely necessary, but this is a neat look at a side of major local concerts that you don't always see, and the crowd was definitely receptive, so give this Pop Evil video from their Sault Ste. Marie date last year a watch below!

We'll end things back in Sault Ontario for a video promoting last year's tenth annual Toystock! In advance of the annual Christmas Cheer charity concert at The Grand Gardens on November 26th, Toystock got some deserved hype from CTV News Northern Ontario during their evening newscast, with anchor and former Sault Ste. Marie city councillor Tony Ryma interviewing promoter/Bone Yard frontman Greg Simpson on air! If you missed this on the former MCTV at the time, never fear, as Greg posted the 2+ minute segment to Toystock's Facebook page, and it is embedded below. In the interview, Tony asks Greg about how Toystock came together, the format for this year, how much help families do need in the Soo at this time of year, and about the family friendly aspects of the event. During the interview, we even see some video footage from a prior installment, rather Toystock VIII in 2019, which CTV was there for!

At the time, Jairus Patterson had led this news piece to cover parts of the event, but we only briefly saw a bit of Kaitlyn Parr's set in it. Four years later, the new interview features her set again, but now joined by Brendan Hodgson, Soundcheck, their frontman Cameron Oliver, and the Case's Music instructors' band. That constitutes five of the first six acts in 2019, with only The Jeff & Jeff Show not included in the 2023 interview footage, so kudos for the local CTV crew for staying as long as they did! It'd be nice to see the raw footage, but good on CTV for digging these up to back up some very nice promotion for this year's Toystock, and check it out below!

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