LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Vanity First & Generations), Plus New Videos!!

Here's a surprise news post on this Good Friday evening, which is half devoted to new punk videos featuring former Lion Ride bandmates, but leading off, here's two LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for next month!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will return to the stage on Saturday, April 13th when they rock The Water Tower Pub! Unless something gets booked beforehand, this show (announced by drummer Tony Santoro on their Facebook group earlier today) will be their first since playing at Jay's in early March, and their first at The Water Tower Pub since a Friday nighter the previous week (the Great Northern Road nightclub historically hosts different nightly bands). Generations are celebrating their one year anniversary since succeeding Jus' Chillin last year (they debuted at Jay's on April 7th, 2023), and while they aren't returning to the origin site for this particular gig, hopefully Valerie, the Tonys, and Pierre's classic and hard rock covers find another receptive audience! This 19+ show will have an 8:00 PM start time and no cover charge. Visit the above links for more details on Generations' next gig!

Next up, local punk trio Vanity First will indeed release their new album "Identity Crisis" on Saturday, April 20th with a formal release party at Soo Blaster! Confirming the Facebook comment from drummer Keegan McAllister's dad earlier this week, the concert will indeed see Vanity selling CD copies (no word on pricing yet), but unlike the limited pressing of their 2020 demo CD, this album is getting a more professional treatment, as "Identity Crisis" is getting released through local/Barrie rock musician Mike Haggith's label MorningStar Records. Now you know how Mike "played a small part in bringing the album over the finish line"! The album will be available to order through MorningStar's website too via the Kunaki on-demand printing process, but if Vanity First have properly signed with the label, they/Mike haven't confirmed it yet. Local metal trio The BAG will open the proceedings on 4/20, and they'll set the tone well with their heavy attack!

As per the poster by Mikhal & Keeghan's Hails bandmate Brenton Ellis (more on him in a bit), this all ages & licensed concert will cost $10 if you buy advance tickets from Vanity First band members (Keeghan's dad reportedly had them too), but the price will jump to $15 at the door. The concert proper begins at 8:00 PM. It's great to see that Vanity First have gotten this far already, and hopefully everything goes according to plan next month! Visit the official Facebook event page for more info!

Also today, let's look at the newest video in Mikey & His Uke's ongoing cover series paying tribute to Green Day's breakthrough album "Dookie" for its 30th anniversary! After an unusually long 18 day gap between songs #5 and #6 in this series, the new video came just a week later on Monday, so we're back on the normal "6-8 days between videos" scheduling. Next up in track listing order on "Dookie" is Green Day's classic single "Basket Case", and here, the guest singer is none other than Descendents frontman Milo Aukerman in his fifth appearance with Mikey & His Uke and first since 2022. Mikey Hawdon plays guitar and (initially) ukelele once again, with ex-Goldfinger drummer Darren Pfieffer behind the drumkit once again, while Pennywise bassist Randy Bradbury returns for his third "Dookie" cut out of the last four. Everyone puts in a strong performance here, and Milo's intensity with the camera is noted throughout!

No major setting quirks or post-production effects here, but this video legitimately got shared on Instagram by no less than Billie Joe Armstrong himself, which has to be a huge feather in Mikey's toque! As a fan of sports jerseys and logos, I do think Darren could do better as Buffalo Sabres jerseys go, especially given their current set, but that's irrelevant to the cover. The next song in the "Dookie" series (track #8, their single "She") should arrive at any point between Sunday and April 12th, but the average gap between videos so far would place it on Wednesday. Punk fans will absolutely want to give this cover a watch below!

Finally for today, here's a throwback to local punk fans of the 1990s... remember Gutwrench? While their mid-1990s heyday long predated the SMS, their lineup included four very notable names, including current Hails/Slumshine frontman Brenton "B.G." Ellis on vocals and bass, guitarists Mike "Vinyl" Muto (ex-Issues/Band Camp Rejects) & Paul "Paulo Rage" Melanson (of newer Alberta-based metal bands like Castigate and Syryn), and Mike's brother Marc Muto (ex-Lion Ride) on drums. A lot of local bands of this era don't have much in the way of public media in the 2020s, but Gutwrench are now an exception, as Mike's son Mikhal (now on guitar in Ha!ls with Brent) has had three vintage cassette tapes of theirs to his personal YouTube channel for over two years now! These include their 1995 debut "Phantasmagoria" (recorded before Paul joined the band), and its 1996 follow-up "One Nation Under The Gun".

The other tape is a live bootleg from a show at the former Knights Of Columbus Hall (also, Mikhal posted a tape of fellow 1990s punk band The Kite Eating Maples but it has no imagery or information on the band/album there). With artwork (albeit with camera glare) and track listings on the two albums posted, the Gutwrench studio albums are absolutely eligible for reviews on the SMS once our new album backlog is cleared (perhaps this summer?), and given that Brent still plays live with his current projects, it could get priority on that basis when we do run out of new albums! Have a blast from the past with this fast paced local punk band above & below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's CD review next, in all likelihood! Thanks everyone!