Monday, October 14, 2024

Local Metal/Punk Video Showcase!!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving on the Canadian side of the border! Before we begin this all-video post, I did want to apologize for missing a very late notice show on here, as classic/hard rock solo musician Tym Morrison was a late replacement for today's Thanksgiving dinner concert at Jay's Piston Broke Pub, something only announced on the venue's Facebook page this morning. Apparently, Tym filled in on short notice for Soundcheck's Cameron Oliver, who withdrew from the matinee booking for unannounced reasons. Kudos to Tym for filling in, and I'd have happily covered this show on the SMS had it not been announced so late! Apologies again, and I hope everything went well for Jay's Thanksgiving!

As for tonight's videos, we'll go in alphabetical order by starting with classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down, who uploaded two videos from their Water Tower Pub show on Friday to their Facebook page yesterday! Both incomplete (but at least filmed horizontally), the covers are of No Doubt's "Hella Good" with Joel Syrette on lead vocals, and as embedded below, The Stone Temple Pilots' "Plush" with his cousin Beej on lead vocals. The former is a very surprising cover given that it's from No Doubt's dancier post-ska punk era, while the latter is (to me) not the best showcase of Beej's vocal range, though given that it's not the full song, it does avoid the repetitive back half of "Plush". Still, both covers are strongly performed, so give these new Double Down videos a watch!

Next up, here's the latest from local hardcore punk/crossover thrash quartet Hails, starting with the surprise reveal that they'll be on the "Punk Canada Vol. 4" compilation album next year! This is the next in an annual series by En Guard Records featuring many name domestic bands. Hails will have two very familiar discmates next year, including British Columbia skate/hardcore punk quartet Mean Bikini (who headlined at The Speak Easy last year) and Windsor hardcore punk band Avoid The Comment Section, one of the current bands from prolific Saultite guitarist Ash Richtig. I'd love to see Ash bring one of his bands up here for a show, but it's neat to see him on this! Keep in mind that the Punk Canada compilations exclusively feature bands covering older Canadian punk bands, so who will Ha!ls be tackling? Find out next year! In the realm of new videos, Hails did post one on their Facebook page on Friday!

The 23 seconds-long video features the guys playing "something we're working on", which they will reportedly debut when they open for Skoff at Piecing It Together Shows' Halloween party at The Fraternal Order Of Eagles Club on October 26th. The video focuses primarily on guitarist Carmen Muto playing a solo (only he and Brent are seen on camera), and it's definitely promisingly heavy for what we see, so check it out below, and stay tuned for more from Ha!ls when we hear it!

Also, here's a new live concert video from local hard rock quartet Half Past's big headlining concert at Soo Blaster on Satutrday night! As uploaded to their Facebook page, this video sees them covering almost all of Crossfade's "Cold", which is expertly timed given that Crossfade just announced that they had reunited. Alain's backing vocals could be louder but this is a solid cover that lets Jordan stretch his vocals to good effect, and it looks like they got a quality presentation for the larger venue! Check everything out for yourselves below, and look for more from Half Past soon!


We'll close today with a 52 second clip of Hamilton punk legends Teenage Head's headlining concert at The Machine Shop last month! This comes from Mike Blair at 705Live Sound Co., who manned the soundboards on this night and often films a video for their Facebook page from shows that he works on. Mike filmed Teenage Head playing their song "Infected", albeit largely when Dave Desroches left the stage mid-song, and everyone sounds good for what we hear! Nice to see a good crowd of people, especially given the mental health fundraising angle of this concert, so check everything out if you want below, and we'll let you know if more videos surface!


That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

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