LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Blood Opera), The Matthew Good Concert Preview, And Sault Michigan Band Updates!!

Today's SMS post is divided in half between the Twin Saults, with new videos and band updates from Sault Michigan taking up the back half, but we're leading off north of the border with a big concert preview for tomorrow night and an intriguing LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month. Here's what you should know!

Toronto "dead metal/zombie glam" band Blood Opera will make their local concert debut on Saturday, May 18th at The Queen of Hearts Club above Shooters Downstairs Lounge! Billed as Canada's only "horror heavy metal" band, Blood Opera will be right up the alley of Frightlight fans thanks to their horror movie-influenced presentation and lyrics, but taken up many notches with an elaborately violent stage show to accentuate their hard hitting and melodic sound, and note their impressive guest performer list on their studio material too! This show is being promoted by Steel City Events and will serve as an afterparty for that day's Steel City CollectorCon at the Quattro Hotel, basically along the same lines as the planned First Jason-headlined concert that would have served as the Steel City Nostalgia Fair afterparty in April 2020 (one guess as to why that fair and concert were cancelled). It's great to see Steel City try a concert of this scale again, let alone another one for diehard horror movie fans!

Local support will come by way of party metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty in a rare support turn for a touring band as opposed to rappers. Hopefully the Stanghettas & Mikhal deliver a fun set to kick off the night! This is a 19+ event (as is Blood Opera's stage show in general), but $20 tickets bought in advance will double as passes to the CollectorCon, and the concert proper begins at 9:00 PM. Blood Opera are the sort of band best seen rather than described, but fans of horror movies won't want to miss all of the action over the Victoria Day long weekend, so visit the above links for more on this concert (and the CollectorCon) next month!

Next up, here's a preview of a big concert taking place TOMORROW NIGHT, as Coquitlam, British Columbia alternative rock musician Matthew Good will make his long awaited return to Sault Ste. Marie when he headlines at The Machine Shop! The former Matthew Good Band frontman and political activist will be familiar to many readers from band and solo songs like "Hello Time Bomb" and "In A World Called Catastrophe", so it'll be good to have him back on a local stage! Of course, this is Matthew's first stop here since his acoustic gig at The Speak Easy in October 2007 that was... divisive, let's say. I won't rehash what happened, but clearly, he wants to let bygones be bygones with the Soo! Remember that he was supposed to play at the Sault Community Theatre Centre in March 2020, but that show was one of the first cancellations due to the pandemic lockdowns, so kudos to him for coming back to Sault Ste. Marie four years later!

Guelph hard rock solo artist Vilivant will open tomorrow in her local debut, after dropping out of November's Big Wreck show at the same venue due to "logistical issues". Hopefully there will be none of the sort for Vilivant this time, as she's got some solid tracks herself! Unusually bumped up from its originally planned date on April 25th, this all ages concert begins at 8:00 PM, and general admission tickets are still on sale for $54.50 plus online & processing fees at this link, and presumably at the door. Fingers crossed that this show is a huge hit for Matthew and fans alike, so that we're not waiting another 16½ years for him to come back! Visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's Matthew live!

Also today, let's zip over to Sault Michigan for a new band in the works from two rising young musicians that have been covered on the site! Attendees of last fall's fan-voted Lake Superior State University Battle of the Bands will remember the surprise runner-up run by local singer/guitarist Molly Escherich, who has been increasing her profile ever since with more acoustic sets in the E.U.P., but is also working on a proper band named Aerials (System of a Down reference?). Joining her here is drummer Blaze Beairl, who is the son of Exit 808 frontwoman Amy Beach and former Shift guitarist Joey Beairl. Fans in Alpena saw Blaze fill in on bass with his mom's band at the Rock Recovery Battle of the Bands in last month, but Blaze is a drummer first and foremost, and he has his own solo Facebook page featuring him covering songs by Knocked Loose and Limp Bizkit.

While both Molly & Blaze have multi-instrumental skill sets, they are looking for a permanent bassist to fill out their lineup, and you can watch them covering The Offspring's "The Kids Aren't Alright", System Of A Down's "Sugar", and, as embedded below, Pop Evil's "100 In A 55" on Molly's solo Facebook page (Aerials do not have one of their own yet). These obviously aren't 100% indicative of their final sound, but Molly & Blaze are definitely talented young musicians with some intriguing bands in mind to cover, so check their first videos out above & below, and click here for details on their bassist search and how you can try out!

Finally, here's the latest from local hard rock/metal band Tarnished, and while the wait for the rest of their videos from the aforementioned Rock Recovery Battle of the Bands continues, they have more news to share. Remember this "Reel" from last month featuring frontman Alex Traynor and an unidentified guitarist playing the solo to Ratt's "Round & Round"? Well, the second guitarist was actually drummer Josh Fair! Of course, long-time fans shouldn't be shocked that Josh can play guitar, as Tarnished began life as an acoustic duo, with Josh playing guitar for their shows in this format through 2020, and he also played bass when the band had a separate drummer in the past. Leading from that "Reel", a normal embeddable video was shared on March 30th featuring Tarnished (with Josh on guitar) playing "Round & Round" in full, and sitting in on drums here was Rhythm & Brews/ex-Nixxon Dixxon drummer Chris Hubbard!

Tarnished gave mixed messages as to Chris' status with the band (they thanked him for "rocking out with us" in the description, but also said that they've "currently got Chris jammin' on the drums" in a comment reply), but remember that Chris and Alex filled in with each other's bands for concerts earlier this year. Whether Chris has joined permanently or not, let alone if he and Josh could switch roles if needed, I couldn't say, but he drums well on this strong cover! I've never liked "Round & Round", but Tarnished handle it as well as you'd expect, so give this jam a watch below!

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