LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (i.o), Matthew Good Concert Fallout, New Videos, And More!!

Before we dive into weekend concert previews and look at the recent lineup announcements for two big summer concert festivals on the outskirts of town, let's cover some recent news and notes on the site today, including new videos, recent updates, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, so here's what you should know!

The first hard rock-leaning concert of 2024 from local promoters Piecing It Together Shows (née Dryer Fire) takes place at the somewhat misleadingly named March Street Stage (beside June & Friends Hair Salon at 485 Queen Street East) on Sunday, May 26th, and will see the return of Victoria, British Columbia experimental noise project i.o to the Soo! Readers may recall seeing i.o headline at The Drawing Club on Bruce Street during the then-Dryer Fire's summer concert series in June, but they're heading outdoors for their local encore. Max isn't playing alone this time though, as advertising indicates that he's performing in/alongside Pet Retina, an also-Victoria-based noise rock duo that will be an intriguingly eclectic group to take in next month! Local support includes Hinterbrane (a "noise art" project led by artist Michael Burtch) and local folk/Americana band The Tye Lawless Co., who opened for Catriona Sturton for Dryer Fire last year.

This all ages concert takes place at 6:00 PM on May 26th, and admission is under a "pay what you can" model. Definitely a diverse range of entertainment to take in next month, but it'll end heavily and creatively with i.o and/or Pet Retina (weather permitting?), so visit the official Facebook event page for more details! Also, stay tuned for updates on the It's The Pits festival that the promoters are holding in Leeburn on Saturday, June 22nd, especially if hard rock/punk-leaning bands are playing! Yes, I am well aware of Crucifest in Leeburn too, we are waiting for public promotion to start before plugging it here.

Next up, you may be wondering where our fallout coverage of the Matthew Good concert at The Machine Shop on April 14th has been. Honestly, public videos from the show have not been plentiful whatsoever, but SooToday's Donna Hopper was back to cover it for this article, picking up 16+ years after his contentious acoustic show at The Speak Easy in 2007 that she also covered. Thankfully for all involved, this concert went off without a hitch, and while Donna didn't go into great detail about the show, there was apparently "a lively sing-along" of his Matthew Good Band hit "Hello Time Bomb". It's great to see that bygones are now bygones (now if only we can get Danko Jones back here!). Donna took thirteen colour photos on the 14th, nine of Matthew and his band, and four of openers... Silent 9? Yes, the local classic/hard rock cover quartet were tapped as late notice openers three days before showtime!

They replaced planned opening act Vilivant, who is still on tour with Matthew Good but did not play at the local date for unannounced reasons, and never acknowledged why they didn't play in the Soo. After dropping out of the Big Wreck tour last fall (including its local date), are we snakebit re: Vilivant playing here? Hopefully she and the band come to the Soo at some point! Silent 9 did post a video on their Facebook page featuring clips of multiple songs from their set, but unfortunately, it is A. vertically shot and B. a "Reel", so I can't embed it here. Everyone sounds good while the clips last, co check it out at the above links!

Also today, you may have seen scattered plugs on social media that local punk trio Hails were playing a show in Bay City, Michigan on April 6th, and that event did take place! It's very rare to see Sault Ontario bands play in the US, let alone not in Sault Michigan, but clearly Ha!ls did the paperwork and followed the rules they needed to! Even if it was local, the show was not something that I likely would have covered as normal, as the venue ("The We/Us House") is not a public venue with a freely posted address. Even the other bands (Rot Knot, Piss Soup, and Unabomb) had cryptically designed logos as far as name readability. The Vanity First side project were filmed in Bay City (outside of Saginaw) by attendee "Fish" playing for 60 seconds, and while the video was horizontally shot, it was regrettably uploaded in vertical dimensions with pillarboxing, which is why it's so tiny and sandwiched by black bars.

As uploaded to their Facebook page, the video shows Hails dipping a bit into thrash with the intensity on offer, and while I wish they'd uploaded this horizontally like it was filmed, it's a strong video overall! Just watch it in full screen for best results. Hails have also announced that they're heading to Toronto for the first time to play at the Humber River Art & Music Festival on August 24th, which will be a huge opportunity for Brent, Mikhal, and Keeghan, so click here for details on that booking, and check out their Bay City concert video for yourselves below!

Finally, here's the latest from St. Ignace, Michigan metalcore band Heavy Lies The Crown, so what have they been up this month? Last week, they shared this image on their Facebook page that heavily implies that they're releasing a new single named "Marble Skin" in the near future, which will be their first new song since Nathan Switzer returned to the band to replace Ted Olson as lead guitarist. A string of social media application logos was included, but take that with a grain of salt re: the song's availability, as I don't think Pinterest and Instagram are known as music streaming platforms. A new video featuring drummer Jaxon Massaway (clearly before or after work) was also posted on April 2nd to hype up their next announced concert, where they will open for Born Of Osiris and many other metal bands at The Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac on May 26th.

I can't embed the video here, as Facebook content matched audio used in it from the headliners in the generic promotional video for the show at large that followed Jaxon's plug, but it gets the job done to hype what will be a huge night for fans downstate or locally who are willing to make the 4-5 hour drive! Click here to watch the video, see above for more from H.L.T.C., and look for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!