LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Master Nate & The Reprobates), Plus New Videos!!

Here's a new news post to check out on this Tuesday morning, and it includes a bunch of new videos from the last little while, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month, so here's what you should know!

Napanee, Ontario ska punk band Master Nate & The Reprobates will make their local concert debut on Saturday, July 13th when they headline at Soo Blaster! A prolific band who has quickly made a name for themselves in the 2020s with a planned eight album suite currently in the home stretch for its release schedule, Master Nate & crew's upbeat but in-your-face brand of original punk rock should be more than welcomed to Soo Blaster next month! While this will be M.N.R.'s first local appearance, fans of The Northwest may recognize them from the two bands sharing the stage at The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto in April of last year. However, a different local band will open on July 13th, namely skate punk trio Vanity First in their... first Soo Blaster stop since their "Identity Crisis" release party in April. Hopefully the guys (and Carmen?) deliver a strong night of originals and covers for punk fans at Soo Blaster next month!

Doors open at 9:00 PM for this presumably 19+ concert, and admission will be $10. You can buy advance tickets on Soo Blaster's website, and possibly in person there or via Vanity First members (it has not been publically confirmed whether admission at the door will be higher or not). Add another quality punk concert on the 2024 calendar for fans of Mikhal Muto-featured bands, so definitely visit the above links for more on next month's action!

Next up, here's the latest from new local metal duo Hollow Sky, who quietly released their second single "Burn Away" on May 24th on "all platforms"! They actually mean that it's on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, Boomplay, and as embedded below via their YouTube Music channel. No Bandcamp (among others), so it's definitely not on "all" platforms, but it's easy enough to find! Nice technical metal sound here from ex-Uncanny Valley bassist Adam Fahrer, and singer Liam Tallon seems to be showing more of a nu-metal influence here with pseudo-rapped chorus vocals, which is certainly not something heard much nowadays! Good stuff with solid production, so check it out for yourselves below!

Also, let's go back to Vanity First (well, 2⁄3rds of them) for one more new video of their sister band Ha!ls' headlining concert at The Distraction on May 19th! This was uploaded to the band's Facebook page ten days later, and features the guys (and a mostly obscured Carmen Muto on guest guitar) playing their song "Nowhere Wolf", which closed their debut EP "Rock And Rolls". Unfortunately, this video is both vertically shot and only 25 seconds long, but Hails sound good and intense as you'd hope for the duration, and the filmer did pan around late to let fans see more of the barbershop's unique interior, so give it a watch below!

We'll close with two new videos from prolific local hard rock solo musician Mike McCleary, who posted two rare videos onto his Facebook page over the winter, and by "rare", I mean actual videos with him on camera! On January 7th, he dug deep to post this video from a performance at the former Bawating Collegiate & Vocational School in 2003, where he and unidentified friends covered Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" before Mike played a guitar solo. Yes, that's Mike with the afro! He didn't specify when in 2003 this was shot, but I started grade 9 at Bawating that September, so if it was from late that year, I very well may have been in the cafeteria to watch! Mike and crew sound good, if unpolished here, and given that the video is 21 years old, I think you can excuse the soft visuals to an extent. Embedded below is a much newer video from December of last year featuring Mike nowadays, so what should you know there?

While Mike didn't have much of an update at the time on his current musical exploits (and hasn't had one since), he admitted to forgetting to post this when he first filmed it, and the 28 second clip sees Mike covering "Pretty As You Please" by the 1990s southern hard rock band Cry Of Love. It's mirrored and the camera glare from the window doesn't help the visuals, but Mike's guitar talent is clear as day here, and hopefully we hear more from him soon! Check out Mike in 2003 and 2023 above and below!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!