LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Bone Yard 225)!!

Local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 have updated their website's concert calendar to reflect their slate of summer concerts taking place in August, so when can you check them out then? Their first show that month will be out of town, as they'll be heading 90 minutes east to Thessalon to play at the Aubrey Falls Trading Post & Outpost Camp on Saturday, August 3rd for their Civic Holiday weekend pig roast. Thessalon is outside of our coverage range, but hopefully this show goes well despite the atypical venue, and keep it in mind if you're in Central Algoma moreso! And yes, it is that Aubrey Falls, namely Bone Yard singer/drummer Greg Simpson's old That's Chester bandmate. Your local 225's first truly local show of August 2024 will see them rock Algoma Tree Services' sixth annual community meet & greet/charity barbecue on Saturday, August 10th! This will be Bone Yard's first ever appearance at this event.

Readers may recall that the musical entertainment at the Goulais River-based business over the past two years was local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck and classic rock band Angry Joe & The Growlers, and according to their website's calendar, Bone Yard 225 will be replacing Soundcheck as the headliners this year for unannounced reasons. In the past two years, I didn't hear a peep about this event until after it took place, so kudos to Bone Yard for publicizing it, and hopefully lots of money is raised for the Kiwanis Club that weekend! The Growlers kick things off at 1:30 PM with Bone Yard headlining at 7:00 PM, and there is no cover for this public, outdoor, and all ages event. Click here for more updates! On Friday, August 16th, Greg, Alex, and Warren will hit the road (if still nearby) to perform at the opening night of this year's Laird Fair outside of Echo Bay! 

The Laird Fair (a.k.a. the North Shore Agricultural Fair) is new to me as SMS coverage goes, but music is not new there, with last year's featured act being local country singer Mark Tarantini and his solo band. If similarly staged/plotted, Bone Yard 225 will rock a covered stage at the fairground site at Lake George Road East at 9:00 PM. Specifics on this year's fair are not out yet (follow their Facebook page for updates), but this should be an all ages event, and I didn't see reference to a cover charge last year. See above for more on the 2024 fair so far! On August 17th and 31st, Bone Yard are slated to go "uncorked", but not at one of their usual two acoustic haunts, as they'll rock Gino's Fired Up Kitchen & Bar at 1076 Great Northern Road for the first time on those Saturday nights! Gino's (which re-opened after heavy remodeling early last year) began hosting live musicians on weekends on their patio this past Friday.

So far, Gino's has welcomed Matthew James and Leslie Cook for shows at their covered patio (apparently the largest one in town), and while there is a roof on the patio, one imagines that live music will only be a seasonal thing if Gino's keeps it going into 2025. Will hard rock-leaning acoustic performers beat Bone Yard 225 to the Gino's stage before August? Stay tuned, but both of their shows are 6:30 PM affairs with no cover charge or stated age limit. The Gino's dates sandwich two shows elsewhere in August, starting with Bone Yard's return to the second annual Dragonfly Run (the rebranded/re-organized Ride For ARCH) on Sunday, August 25th! Their concert events move from an outdoor stage outside of Jay's Piston Broke Pub to The Grand Gardens on Great Northern Road this year, and Bone Yard 225 knows the new locale very well via their involvement in the annual Toystock charity concerts there in November.

Of course, the Dragonfly Run is a motorcycle rally supporting the Algoma Regional Community Hospice, which has attached community events to support ARCH, the concert included. No word on who else will be playing, but Bourbon Blue offshoot Nicky & The Southpaws and alt-rock band The Haze (née Skinbox) also performed last year. Just for the record, I am not getting into the recent controversy over this event vs. the unrelated ARCH Run that Jay's Piston Broke Pub is hosting the previous day at/outside the Korah Road venue, but if you want to read the Dragonfly Run organizers' statement about why they didn't return to Jay's for 2024 and their view on a competing rally/festival that same weekend, click here. Expect family activities, a bike show, and yes, the rally proper based at The Grand Gardens on August 25th, and this is an all ages event as usual.

There is no cover unless pledging/riding in the rally, with Bone Yard 225 playing at 7:00 PM. Lastly, the guys will return to The Water Tower Pub for one more "uncorked" show on Friday, August 30th as they kick off the Labour Day long weekend! As usual, that one-nighter has an 8:00 PM start time, no cover, and a 19+ age limit. Like last year, Bone Yard 225 are prioritizing special events over normal nightclub gigs to end the summer, so there's a lot to take in as such with their classic, hard, and southern rock cover attack, so see above for more details, and look for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!