Tuesday, February 6, 2024

New Videos & Updates From Tarnished, Half Past, And Double Jack!!

Before we begin this post, just a heads up that Tym Morrison's Valentine's Day matinee concert at Misty's Fifties on Wednesday the 14th has been cancelled, as per the deletion of its Facebook event page yesterday. A reason for the cancellation was not announced, but hopefully nothing bad happened, especially given his shows there the past two Saturdays! If you want to see his unplugged solo act for the holiday, he will still be rocking Tazzi's Valentine's dinner this coming Saturday, preview forthcoming. Now, let's dive into some recent news and updates, mostly involving new videos!

To kick things off, let's look at returning local hard rock quartet Half Past, who played their first show in over twelve years this past Saturday night at Shooters Downstairs Lounge! While more videos are floating around on personal Facebook accounts, the band uploaded two to their Facebook page, including a cover of Breaking Benjamin's "Blow Me Away" and, as embedded below, their closing rendition of The Foo Fighters' "All My Life". The former was filmed by an attendee roaming the floor a bit, but the latter was in a stationary location pointing towards the corner of the stage from a higher vantage point. All in all, Half Past sound good for their return, and it's nice hearing Breaking Benjamin covered live, but I would boost Jordan's vocals in the mix. Give Half Past's return videos a watch above & below, and stay tuned for more updates from their camp!

Next up, here's some brand new live videos of newer Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Double Jack at their concert at The Merchants Bar on January 20th! Two are known to have been publically posted, but curiously, they're both an identical recording of the band covering Black Sabbath's "N.I.B.", only with the copy on their Facebook page being 37 seconds longer than the copy on YouTube user 50 Rock's channel. As our first look at the band with ex-Shift singer Amy Beach and new guitarist Alex Zimmerman, the performance is well done with strong guitar work, but from what I recall of Amy's past vocal work in concert, there are songs better suited to her range than this. Very red lighting too, but of course, that's not the band's fault! While we're on the subject, Double Jack also posted this "Reel" of the band (sans Alex and Jackie) hyping up the show five days prior, and they get the urgency across given that it was announced on late notice!

No word yet on when we'll next see Double Jack live, but it does sound like they show at The Merch went over well in terms of re-introducing the band after their battle of the bands run and post-lineup changes. Give their cover of "N.I.B." a look above and below, and stay tuned for more when it rolls in!


Finally, let's look at Double Jack bandmates Nathan Webber & Isaac Royer's old band Tarnished, so what have they been up to? Concert-wise, their first announced show of 2024 will actually be on the road, as they're slated to play downstate in Alpena in a battle of the bands on March 2nd (click here for details). Tarnished aren't the only familiar band playing this event, as Manistique hard rock cover duo Fyrbird will reportedly also be playing, as per personal Facebook postings, so organizers are attracting this event to non-local bands effectively, and best of luck to them and Tarnished! $500 and studio recording time are on the line, and speaking of which, Tarnished have been in the recording studio themselves as of late! On January 8th, they revealed that they had been recording with producer Matt Dalton at Rock Hill Sound in Rochester Hills (outside of Detroit), and they have posted three teaser videos from the sessions to their Facebook page, so what is there to see?

All are cross-posted from TikTok, and unfortunately, all are "Reels", so I can't embed any of them here. The first one has them on the road, including driving on the Mackinac Bridge and going through the toll there, revealing in that one that they're recording a new single named "Lightswitch" (no space), which will be their first studio track with new bassist Parker Talentino. No comment on the line of discussion relating to current events during the drive (this isn't that kind of website), but hopefully they had a safe drive! The second "Reel" has the band working and having fun in studio, giving us our first teasers of "Lightswitch" in the process, and if we're being honest, I'd like to hear Tarnished cover "The Oompa Loompa Song" in full! The third "Reel" has more of the same, if less teasers of the song, but at the end, Parker confirms that the song is finished and he can't wait for us to hear it.

It's great to see that Tarnished are recording already with the current lineup, even if they're still a trio, and it'll be interesting to hear the final product, let alone whatever else they have cooking in 2024! Visit the above links for more from Tarnished, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

No comments: