Former Haggith/Eclipse singer/guitarist Curtis McKenzie will return to The Dive Gastro Pub for one night only on Saturday, August 3rd as part of their "Patio Play" acoustic concert series! Newly confirmed on his Facebook page earlier today, this will be Curt's first show at the former Low & Slow since playing there on July 13th, so things must be going well at The Dive for him to get called back three weeks later! This will also be one of two shows that he plays there in a six day span, joining his previously announced "Think It Over Thursday" gig on August 8th. That show (weather permitting?) has a 9:00 PM start time, no cover charge, and a 19+ age limit. In another new confirmation, Curtis will be the Saturday matinee entertainment at the Rowdy Ranchers Horse Show at the Laird Fairgrounds just outside of town on September 14th! On name alone, you'd assume that country music would be booked instead, but you'd be wrong!
Hosted by the local Rowdy Ranchers Round-Up horse club, this FREE & ALL AGES event features horse and pony shows, local vendors, kids entertainment, pony rides, a petting zoo, a movie, and more so be sure to visit the above links for more on all that the Rowdy Ranchers are bringing to Laird that weekend! Curt will be performing matinee sets during the day, with pop rock cover quartet Lime headlining as the featured Saturday night musicians. I don't know when musicians take the stage on September 14th, but doors open at 8:00 AM. Visit the official Facebook event page and the above links for more on Curtis' upcoming unplugged hard rock shows
Next up, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations' next public concert goes down on Saturday, August 10th at Shooters Downstairs Lounge, as per drummer Tony Santoro on their Facebook group on Monday! After a string of weekly gigs leading up to their Rotaryfest Stage 1 set this past Thursday at their casino gig on Saturday, this union of Jus' Chillin, Obsession, and Flat Stanley alumni will be taking the next couple of weekends off (interim gigs for Pierre and Tony S. with Tex Riviera & The Ride aside), so if you enjoy their classic and hard rock cover range, keep this show in mind! A one-nighter due to Shooters' Friday DJ nights this year, this show has a 9:30 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and stay tuned for lots of video footage from Generations' Rotaryfest set in the coming days, likely over the weekend!
Also today, let's take a brief detour to Sault Michigan for some updates from local hard rock sextet Exit 808, whose shows at The Rapids Lounge at the local Kewadin Casino this past weekend had a lot of different faces! We knew going in that Project 906 guitarist Joe Jenkins was filling in for Will Robbins (who was on vacation), but they had one more guest musician, as singer Amy Beach was ill over the weekend and had to sit out the gigs. Rather than go full Infathom with Dillion singing all weekend, they recruited Jeremy Sheckell of the Marquette hard rock band No Expectations to fill in for her parts (the two bands have shared the stage in the western U.P.). Also, Exit 808 have officially confirmed that Division of Sanity/Exiled alum Myke Young is their new permanent bassist (replacing the long since departed Isaac Royer), though Myke and recent fill-in Blaze Beairl both played sets this weekend.
There's been no shortage of moving parts in this band since they formed as Double Jack last fall, but hopefully the current lineup holds long term! While Exit 808 implied that "videos" were shot at these gigs, only one has been uploaded to their Facebook page so far, and it features everyone covering Nazareth's "Hair Of The Dog" with Dillion on lead vocals (Jeremy backing) and Blaze on bass. Shot in odd dimensions (vertical but wider than 9:16), the cover is well performed, but if you ask me, the two singer balance doesn't work as well when it's two guys, and there seemed to be an awkward jump into the chorus in the clip. Check it out below, and look for more updates & content from Exit 808 soon!
Finally, here's three assorted shorter news items out of Sault Ontario from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:
- In the past three weeks for Shooters Downstairs Lounge's annual Talent Quest karaoke competition, the guest judges were members of pop rock cover band Bourbon Blue on July 7th, southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 on July 14th, and Mike Haggith & The Big Finish Band on July 21st. The latter is notable in that guitarist/backing vocalist Elly McWatters won Talent Quest last year, so it'd have been neat to have her on the other side of the table this year! Three qualifiying rounds (judges unclear) remain before the 25 semifinalists return on August 18th, so visit Shooters' Facebook page for more on that event!
- The first public video of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down with new guitarist Beej Syrette was shared to their old Facebook page (the personal account that I thought they abandoned after Adam left) last month! It features the guys covering Big Wreck's "That Song" at Reggie's Place on June 21st with Beej's cousin Joel on lead vocals, and was shot by attendee Lisa Corbett for her personal Facebook page before being publically shared by the band. Sounds good to me, and Beej's guitar playing seems sound! I can't embed the video here due to privacy settings on Lisa's account, but stay tuned for lots of Double Down footage from Rotaryfest soon!
- I have removed defunct local classic/hard rock trio The Nostalgic Band from our inactive band links due to the quiet deletion of their Facebook group (and only social media band page) in recent months. This band united Caveman Morrison and Nikkfitt alumni on the weekend nightclub circuit from May-September 2023, but activity abruptly ended last fall due to personal differences. Note that bassist Randy "Dutch" Vanderploeg prefers to take down his bands' Facebook pages if they break up, hence why Browbeat aren't linked on the site. The Nostalgic Band were a promising veteran act, but don't miss frontman Tym Morrison's acoustic shows at multiple venues all summer!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for another busy concert preview weekend on the SMS in the coming days! Thanks everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment