The Rest Of This Year's Victoria Day Long Weekend Concert Previews!!

Before we dive into a recent pile of new show announcements from a common venue and/or musician, let's cover the rest of our Victoria Day/May 2-4 long weekend concert previews on this Friday morning! For bands playing tonight in some description, let alone Tarnished's late notice Sault Michigan date TONIGHT, check out yesterday's post below this one. Now, here's what you should know for your hard rock delectation!

We'll start with the earlier of the Saturday-only gigs, as local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down will rock The Water Tower Pub on Great Northern Road for the first time TOMORROW NIGHT! Last seen two weeks ago at Reggie's Place, this one-nighter will be Double Down's third concert since Beej Syrette replaced Adam King on guitar, and while public videos from their debut gigs have not surfaced online, you can see pictures from that weekend on their Facebook page, along with this image listing some of the bands that Double Down currently cover (is it just me, or are there less Canadian bands now?) Hopefully this proves to be a well received debut at this central nightclub for Double Down, and that Beej is settling in with the guys as expected! Remember that The Water Tower Pub hosts different nightly artists, with tonight's act being fellow local classic/hard rock cover band Generations.

Tomorrow's concert has an 8:00 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no cover charge. Unless you were in attendance at Reggie's for the new lineup's debut weekend, there will still be a lot of unknowns re: Double Down version 2.0, but come on down to The Water Tower Pub for all of the action tomorrow to see what they have in store! Visit the above links for more details, and here's Double Down live!

Next up, here's the biggest show in scope of the weekend, as Toronto "dead metal/zombie glam" band Blood Opera will make their local concert debut TOMORROW NIGHT as headliners for the Steel City CollectorCon afterparty at The Queen of Hearts Club above Shooters Downstairs Lounge! As teased in this Facebook promotional video featuring two band members, Blood Opera are a highly theatrical band whose stage show is full of horror movie special effects and tropes, so if you've ever wanted something Gwaresque on a local stage, Blood Opera will provide that along with a melodic old school metal sound with thematically relevant original songs! Me describing Blood Opera won't do them justice, I highly recommend watching videos for a better sense of what they'll bring to the table tomorrow! Local party metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty will open tomorrow in a rare support turn for a touring rock band rather than rappers.

Hopefully The A.A. set the tone well with their upbeat double-bassed rock attack! Promoted by Steel City Events in a spiritual make-up event for their Nostalgia Fair afterparty with First Jason in April 2020 (one guess as to why that was cancelled), tomorrow's festivities are 19+ with a 9:00 PM start time above Shooters, and admission is $20. If you buy advance tickets for Blood Opera, admission to the CollectorCon at the Quattro Hotel tomorrow afternoon will be free, so keep that in mind! This will be a must-attend show for horror and metal fans, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Blood Opera live!

Also this weekend, local southern hard rock cover trio Bone Yard 225 (the number is pronounced "two two five") will return to Shooters Downstairs Lounge for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! A rare occasion where both floors at 72 Dennis Street have concurrent live bands, fans looking for more familiar classic and southern rock covers (and less gore) will want to head downstairs to Shooters for their first show there in almost a month, and it should be a fine opportunity to see Greg, Alex, and Warren rock out for fans and patrons alike! Note that Bone Yard have been in studio recording original material again recently, as documented on their Facebook page, and they starred in two "Reels" there in the past two weeks, including this one of them smoking cigars after a recording session and this one with Greg and Warren outside of Reggie's, with Warren saying what they are.

No sign yet of their long-gestating studio originals, but hopefully they're getting closer! Tomorrow's concert is at 9:30 PM with no cover charge and a 19+ age limit, so visit the above links for more details on how you can F.A.F.O. with Bone Yard 225 tomorrow night, and here they are live!

Finally for this weekend's known hard rock and punk concert previews, we'll head to The Distraction on East Street on SUNDAY NIGHT, where local skate punk trio Ha!ls will headline! In a similar fashion to their Sunday nighter at the same venue in March, the Vanity First side project will bring their "rock and rolls" to the former barbershop, in their first local date of any kind since their Bay City, Michigan concert last month. Unlike in March, this Sunday's show isn't on a work/school night for most thanks to the long weekend, so hopefully Hails get a solid turnout for their fast paced punk attack, and guitarist Mikhal Muto should be riding the momentum following his set with The Apocalypse Afterparty at the Blood Opera show tomorrow night! Prolific local folk punk/extreme metal musician Chase Wigmore will open on Sunday, and if you're familiar with Chase, you can expect a talented display of guitar intensity then!

Sunday's concert is an all ages affair with an 8:00 PM start time, and admission is via a "$5 or pay-what-you-can" model. Mikhal and/or The Distraction have a lot of shows to take note of very soon, but Ha!ls will be playing first before that batch come up, so keep all of the punk action in mind downtown on Sunday, especially as many of you won't have to get up early on Monday! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Hails live last month!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!