LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Hails), New Videos, And More Updates!!

Before we begin tonight's news post, I wanted to apologize for missing Silent 9's concert at Soo City United's fundraiser at The Rockstar Bar this past Saturday in our last weekend's concert previews. While I did cover it when announced, I had it listed on an incorrect later day in our calendar and completely bypassed it when rounding up that batch of shows. My apologies, and I hope Silent 9 and the soccer program & families had a blast! They shared Facebook "stories" with media from the event after the fact, but of course, "stories" vanish after one or two viewings, and the band did not permanently upload them separately.

Today's post otherwise has new videos, some assorted recent updates, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for the holiday season, as local crossover thrash quartet Hails and party metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty will join forces to rock The Distraction on Saturday, December 21st! Specifically, this is taking place downstairs in The Stellar Door, their basement venue space that was memorably used to host The Ripcordz and Total Chaos this summer, with sparing use since for all-local events. This will be Ha!ls' first show since the Halloween season, while The Apocalypse Afterparty (who also feature Mikhal Muto in their ranks) will be playing their first public date in almost five months. Note that The A.A. have replaced The BAG on the bill for unannounced reasons, but hopefully all is well in The BAG's camp! Former(?) Sylo frontman Elijah Russell will open in two weeks with his own acoustic material, in his first local gig since Sylo headlined at Soo Blaster in August.

Eli moved out of town for university that month, so it is good to see him home for the holidays! Doors open at 7:00 PM for this all ages concert, and while admission is $10, you can shave up to $5 off of the entry fee by bringing in up to five non-perishable food items (one assumes for Christmas Cheer donations but they did not specify that). Visit the official Facebook event page for more on this multi-band concert later this month!

Next up, here's some new videos and updates from both sides of the border, starting with local southern hard rock band Fort Creek, who resurfaced after almost a month of silence on their Facebook page on November 10th to share teaser photos from their upcoming music video for their debut studio single "One For The Road"! The pictures all feature the band playing the song unplugged at Jay's Piston Broke Pub, and confirm that new drummer Phil Greco is on the track despite this being acoustic. The video (shot by Spacebag Productions) was further teased on Sunday with the teaser clip embedded below, which has a few seconds of the song's apparent chorus, and some extra footage from the video, including singer Justin Grayson driving a pick-up truck from Douglas Street onto Korah Road, as well as walking into Jay's while talking on a cell phone. There's way too little to assess the video and song with yet, but the teasers are effective to get buzz for the final product!

The song has not been released in full yet, with Fort Creek saying that they have to "tie up a few loose ends" and "work out the final details" first, but it looks like things are progressing naturally, if not as fast as some fans would prefer! Check out the "One For The Road" teaser below, and stay tuned for more from Fort Creek in the near future!

Also today, here's some new videos from Sault Michigan hard rock band Exit 808's concert in Wolverine (90 minutes south of here) this past Saturday! That show seemed to creep up on me on short notice, hence why I never mentioned it prior, but late notice or not, Lower Peninsula gigs are outside of our coverage range. Warren Woeste (who has worked sound at multiple Exit 808 shows this year) live-streamed two videos from the show at the 2 Wheel Tavern to his personal Facebook page, which the band publically shared afterwards, with the first seeing them cover The Goo Goo Dolls' "Long Way Down" with Amy and Dillion sharing lead vocals. Lively cover that definitely sounds rocked up! The other video is embedded below, as it runs for 38+ minutes! In order, Exit 808 covered The Cranberries' "Zombie", Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder & Lead", the Daughtry/Lzzy Hale version of Journey's "Separate Ways (World's Apart)", Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", and Eminem & Rihanna's "The Monster".

A cover of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" had begun when the audio cut out on Warren's live-stream at the 23:18 mark, though he kept filming for another 15 minutes. Amy sang lead on the first two songs (no Dillion on "Gunpowder & Lead" at all), Dillion handled Sabbath, and they split the other two. Note that frequent guest bassist Blaze Beairl filled in for Alex Zimmerman at first due to him being late to the very snowy gig, and he can be seen on "Long Way Down", but no guitarist is visible at all on the longer video (it also looks like Bob Libick returned as a guest fill-in bassist). The audio and video quality are patchy, but Exit 808 sound good on these diverse covers, so give everything a watch above & below!

Finally for today, here's three shorter assorted news items from the last while, and as usual for these short-form stories, these are in alphabetical order by artist or venue name:

 

• I should have caught this at the time, but Saturday night's Generations-headlined concert at Shooters Downstairs Lounge will see them replace HeadFirst as this weekend's entertainment. A reason for HeadFirst pulling out of the date was not publically announced, but something happened between October 15th (when they listed the date in their upcoming concert calendar) and November 13th (when Generations confirmed that they'd be playing there on the 7th). HeadFirst have been busy behind the scenes in recent months, but they are still scheduled to rock The Esquire Club next week, and stay tuned for our Generations preview in our weekend concert previews!
• Above Shooters, The Queen of Hearts Club announced in October that they have been re-purchased by The Grand Gardens and have re-branded and re-opened as The Grand Gardens Downtown. Deja vu for fans of The Grand Gardens, but Toystock aside, the original venue isn't known for regularly hosting concerts, so this could end the occasional ones that were booked upstairs in recent months. Best of luck with The Grand Gardens' return to Dennis Street!
• Local punk trio Redundant have parted ways with bassist Andrew MacDonald, as per his personal Facebook page last month. A reason for his departure was not publically announced, but hopefully nothing too serious happened! Andrew had played with Redundant since replacing James White in the band back in 2018, and he left prior to their Toystock set last month. Yes, they did find a replacement bassist, as seen in a personal Facebook video from Toystock, but I couldn't identify him, nor do I know if he's joined permanently. We'll let you know if we hear anything, but best of luck to Andrew and The Spaceship Opening!
  

 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews next! Thanks everyone!