LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Generations & Double Down), Plus Jonesy Land & Bookclub Updates!!

Before we begin today's otherwise all-Sault Ontario post, I wanted to apologize for missing Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished's unplugged concert this past Tuesday at the Sault Area Arts Center's ribbon cutting ceremony for their relaunch at their 217 Ferris Street location. Alex Traynor & Josh Fair brought back their late 2010s acoustic two man band for a matinee set that day, which the band did not promote on social media. Hopefully things went well for the Arts Center and Tarnished equally, and I apologize again, I'd have plugged it here had I known Tarnished would be there! Now, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS and new updates from two linked projects north of the border!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down will return to the stage for concerts at Reggie's Place on Friday, May 3rd and Saturday, May 4th! The shows were announced via the band's new Facebook page yesterday, but there will be changes afoot compared to when we last saw Double Down at the end of last month. The big news is that they have quietly parted ways with singer/guitarist Adam King for unannounced reasons, and he has been replaced by "a new band member", whose identity has yet to be revealed. Notably, the band's prior Facebook page (the one formatted as a personal account that you had to add as a friend) hasn't been updated since March, so was Adam its primary administrator, hence the need for a new page? Hopefully things are amicable between Adam and the band, and that we see him back out there soon, as he'd be an asset to other bands!

We'll let you know more on the band's new guitarist(/singer?) when they are revealed, but they could be waiting for a grand unveiling at Reggie's in two weeks. In any event, Double Down have teased having new songs in their set (possibly influenced by their new member coming aboard) to play that weekend, so keep everything in mind then! Expect 9:30 PM start times, 19+ age limits, and no cover charges on both nights. Visit the above links for more on Double Down's upcoming plans!

Next up, fellow local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations have confirmed two more new dates for next month! While we already knew about their Gateway Casino debut on Saturday, May 18th, they will kick off the Victoria Day long weekend by rocking The Water Tower Pub once again on Friday the 17th. That will be their first show since playing at the same venue this past weekend, so fans of the central venue will have an option to see them next month before they head back downtown! Speaking of which, fans can also now see Valerie, the Tonys, and Pierre at Shooters Downstairs Lounge for a third one-nighter in just over a week when they take the Dennis Street stage on Saturday, May 25th! Good to see bookings ticking up for Generations, and hopefully things are even busier for them as we enter the summer season! The Water Tower Pub show is at 9:00 PM, while the Shooters concert takes place at 9:30 PM.

Both of these new dates have 19+ age limits and no cover charges. Hopefully things keep rolling along for the Jus' Chillin successors in their second year of classic and hard rock hits, so visit the above links for more details on Generations' May schedule!

Also today, let's dive into two local projects from local punk musician Dustin Jones, starting with his online page-less solo project Jonesy Land, who released their first studio recording since their debut album "Zoom - Out" came out last May, but it's not what you may be assuming compared to their 2021-2022 punk singles or the folk/alternative singer/songwriter material from the album. Since at least 2022, Dustin has wanted to record a full studio cover of The Ronettes' "Be My Baby", inspired by his appreciation of the musical work of producer Phil Spector, Much of the music had been recorded for this classic 1960s pop cover already, but Dustin had waited to find the right local singer for it, and he eventually went with Hollow Heads frontwoman Gabrielle Dumas, who has been recording her own material at Mission Control Studios as of late herself.

Dustin is joined on guitar here by his old Rising Tide bandmates Sheldon Jaaskelainen (strings) and Chris Johns (drums), alongside his current Bookclub bandmate Josh Norling on horns, as well as fellow horn player Vince Filetti, the ever-prolific Jay Case on bass, and "miscellaneous people" on added instrumentation. You can hear the "Be My Baby" cover on major streaming services, but a video featuring Gabrielle singing the track was posted to Tidal Records' YouTube channel on Tuesday. Music from this era isn't really in my wheelhouse, but it is well produced and performed, and Gabrielle adds some quality rasp to the proven melodies here, so see what you think of outside-the-box cover below!

We'll close with Dustin's current (and also online page-less) local alternative/punk cover band Bookclub, who played at the Great Lakes Outdoor Show at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre last week, but there are lineup confirmations to make after that set! First, it does appear 100% confirmed that the aforementioned Josh Norling (also of The Wyld Stallyns) has joined the band on saxophone, confirming Searchmont Resort's listing of him being a band member when they plugged Bookclub's Kiln show in January. It's too bad that Bookclub seem set on 1980s-leaning alt-rock covers, as with Josh and Erin as a horn section, they'd kill doing ska punk! Josh was listed with everyone else in tags for videos shared on personal Facebook accounts from last Saturday, as was Handsome Sandwich guitarist Brandon Ruch, who appears to have replaced Dave Bahun in Bookclub for unannounced reasons.

Hopefully nothing bad happened with Dave (Mikey & Dustin's old Inner City Surfers bandmate, mind you), but Brandon is a talented guitarist on the rise, and hopefully he fits in well with Bookclub, assuming that he is 100% in the band now! Alas, without a proper social media page for Bookclub, there was no 100% public confirmation of lineup changes beyond what may have been said in concert. There were black & white videos floating around from the Outdoor Show set too, but alas, I think they were Facebook "Stories" and thusly not viewable more than once (I really don't see the point of "Stories"). Stay tuned for more from Bookclub when we hear it, and for more news and notes soon! Thanks everyone!