It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, where we once again shine a spotlight on a local band of the past, in other to promote their run and media to modern day readers! For the first time in 2024, we're heading to Michigan for this month's randomly selected band, and while they heyday was over a decade ago, they will be familiar to many E.U.P. readers from their run at the turn of the 2010s. With all of that said, here's what you should know on them!
Audio/Video: A covers-only band, Free Refill's MySpace page once indicated that they covered bands like Queen, Motley Crue, Green Day, Blink-182, Metallica, Skid Row, and Kiss. Between videos being deleted/made private and the degradation of MySpace over the past 12+ years, the only verifiable live videos that I can find in 2024 of Free Refill come from YouTube user amourdete's channel, featuring their original five-piece lineup at an outdoor gig for the annual Sidewalk Sales in Sault Ste. Marie in August 2009, where they covered AC/DC's "Back In Black", The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army", and as embedded below, Pearl Jam's "Even Flow". The quality is not spectacular, but it's good to have these around!
Info/Analysis: Launching in 2007 among then middle/high school students, Free Refill were among the better known acts in the crop of teenage rock bands that emerged in the E.U.P. in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Updates and official posts from the first half of their run are in short supply nowadays (thank you, MySpace), but you may recall seeing them at The Sugar Island Music Festival, Kewadin Casino's 25th anniversary festival in 2010, and at numerous community and school events, including at least two battles of the bands. Their lineup remained relatively stable throughout their run, aside from guitarist Tyler Wall's departure in late 2009, reducing Free Refill to a quartet. The band's last public postings were about their second place finish at a talent show at Sault Area High School in February 2012, and Free Refill quietly dissolved that summer, with multiple band members leaving the area for college.
Between the three extant videos and my recollections of Free Refill's local run, I can say that they were an entertaining band with a good range of covers and well developing musical skills, especially for their ages! Picking songs that really suited Mary's vocal range seemed to be a recurring point, but given members (especially Devin) have been up to musically downstate in the past decade, Free Refill was a good starting point that showcased some rising talent to an appreciative local audience!
I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! We'll head north to Sault Ontario for our next installment of this series, when our next randomly selected band will be 2015-2016 & 2022 death metal band Kaepora Gaebora, a.k.a. Exploring Detritus! Look for that on or around March 10th, and for more on the site next week! Thanks everyone!
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