Updates & Videos From Theatre Of Night, Convergence, And Honest Work!!

A bunch of notable YouTube videos have turned up in recent days, so let's focus on them and the stories that led to them in today's post, which includes a highlight video of a band's recent tour, a musician search and album uploads, and first, lots of details on a new local punk band! Here's what you should know on this Sunday night!

Remember how the surviving members of Nebraska Arms joined forces with Rising Tide alum Sheldon Jaaskelainen in a new local punk band named Honest Work at last month's Fuller reunion concert? Well, their online presence in their own accord is starting to crop up! The band has launched official pages on both TikTok and Instagram, though note that I've never listed bands in our links solely based on TikTok or Instagram because of how restrictive and photo/shortform video-focused they are. If you want to follow these "four dudes making tunes to beat that Northern Ontario gloom" until(?) they get a Facebook page or more elaborate online presence elsewhere, you know where to go! In his first YouTube channel uploads in 13 years, guitarist Dave Prendergast posted seven videos from their debut gig at LopLops Lounge there, and two of these were cross-posted (in edited & pillarboxed form) to TikTok, but we'll focus on the full YouTube copies here.

During their half-hour-long debut, Honest Work (not to be confused with Honest Job) were filmed by a representative covering Nirvana's "Aneurysm", Alkaline Trio's "Radio", Dead To Me's "Die In Los Angeles", and in a fitting tribute, Nebraska Arms' "Lighthouses" (R.I.P. Guy!). Their own originals were titled "Rock + Paper", "Dead Friends", and as embedded below, "Be Better". It wasn't 100% clear from Jimmy Polnick's live-stream of their set given the distant & vertical camera angle, but Sheldon is Honest Work's lead singer, with bassist Wayne Watkins (also frontman of The Northwest) handling backing vocals. I don't know if they opted to not revive the Nebraska Arms name out of respect to Guy/deference to Sheldon, but it's great seeing Wayne, Dave, and Adam back together on stage again in any form, and Sheldon does have good vocals to show off now that he's up front! Also, kudos to the filmer for shooting these videos horizontally and from a central front row placement for an optimal first look.

Honest Work definitely hew closer to Nebraska Arms than The Northwest, especially in terms of punk influence, which is something that The Northwest have seemingly been phasing out with time, so genre fans won't want to bypass this talented veteran foursome! Give their debut videos a watch above and below, and stay tuned for more from Honest Work!

Next up, let's head to Sault Michigan for our first video look at local classical metal band Theatre of Night's new lineup! Following their Christmas tour last month, the band uploaded the demo video embedded below to their YouTube channel on January 4th, giving fans who missed the live dates their first look at the band since Marquita & Luke Bernard replaced Rachel Mender and Scott Andringa on vocals & bass corurtesy of their Gun Lake Casino show in Wayland. Marquita has the vocal chops to fit right in with their existing metallized carols, and Luke's a solid bassist, so musically, fans don't have much to worry about! The biggest change otherwise is that (at least) this show had a live narrator between songs, namely Sandi Bernard (quite a family affair all of a sudden!), who played the character of "Mother Christmas" and provided backing vocals on some songs. Note that her attire is not unlike the Ghost of Christmas Present from A Christmas Carol.

The idea of Theatre of Night featuring two singers in concert is not new, as their first ever Christmas tour in 2017 had Rachel joined by Stacie McCarthy on co-lead vocals, but this is a distinct touch, and Marquita & Sandi doubled up well on "Silent Night" in the video! If you missed the "Reels" on their Facebook page featuring unembeddable highlights, you'll definitely want to watch this high quality footage from Red Wolf below, and hopefully there's more from last year's tour to come!

We'll close this post with the latest from local progressive metal duo Convergence, who are looking for what appears to be a permanent lead singer! While they did work with State of Misery alum Steve Rhodes as a session vocalist on "Stratus", the band posted this "Shorts" video on their YouTube channel on Friday to plug the search for a vocalist who is capable of fry/false chord screaming, clean vocals, and songwriting. If you're interested in trying out for the former Kraken Mara, message them above and they'll send you a demo instrumental track so you can show what you've got! In the meantime, Convergence have uploaded both of their EPs (last year's "One" and this month's "Dead & Dreaming") to their YouTube channel, as single video uploads and broken up into individual songs, so whatever your preference, you can stream both for free there now. "Dead & Dreaming" is embedded below in full, but see above for more music from Brendan & Jake, and look for our review of the "One" EP in April!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes, plus this month's CD review, in the coming days! Thanks everyone!