LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Room 206), Fort Creek Updates, And More!!

We'll take a break from 104.3 FM talk for now (don't worry, there's more to come) so we can look at some other recent news on this Monday night, including a few assorted shorter notes, a defunct local band's social media rebirth, and details on an upcoming video/single release. However, let's lead off with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for the spring!

Veteran local punk bands Room 206 and The Inner City Surfers will both reunite on Saturday, April 5th for a special concert at Soo Blaster! Almost a year & a half after the Surfers' last reunion show (a public stag & doe for Surfers drummer Mikey Hawdon's then-upcoming wedding) in November 2023, they'll return to the same venue for a similar purpose, as Room 206/Bookclub drummer Allan Watson is getting married to his partner Audrey, hence the occasion for a big reunion show like this. Any Surfers return is a big deal, but the long awaited return of Room 206 will be very notable for fans around for the local punk scene of the 1990s, and whether you checked out the 2021 re-release of their album "2 Innies & An Outie" or not, it will be neat hearing these songs live again! No word on what lineup of Room 206 is playing in April, but singer/guitarist Mike Yorke and Surfers bassist Brad "Example" Lacell were on said album alongside Allan, and Surfers guitarist Dave Bahun also played with them later.

Mikey & Allan's current alternative/punk cover sextet Bookclub will open the proceedings, returning from the November 2023 stag & doe concert, so don't be late for their varied covers! This is absolutely a public event, and tickets will go on sale "shortly" with prices running for $25 in advance or $30 at the door, exactly on par with the last Surfers reunion. Alongside this huge show announcement, Room 206 have launched a posthumous Facebook page, so we can thusly re-add them to our inactive band links! They were previously linked here via their also-posthumous MySpace page, but you know how degraded MySpace has gotten for surviving content. If we got 100% confirmation that they were reuniting beyond this gig, we'd move them to our active links, but this appears to be a one-off. The Facebook page primarily features archival content shared from Mikey's personal Facebook page, as he spearheaded the album's rerelease.

While videos there have mostly been featured on the SMS before, I would have embedded this one here if Facebook hadn't content matched the Room 206 song playing in the background off of Mikey's turntable. The video from December 2021 sees Mikey showing off what comes with the limited vinyl copies of "2 Innies & An Outie", and while the vinyl was limited to 206 copies (fittingly), you can hear it on major streaming services. For the first (only?) vinyl release from Mikey's boutique label Soolebrity Records, it came together really well, so check it out at this link, and visit the Facebook event page for more on the Room 206/Surfers reunion concert!

Next up, here's the latest from local southern hard rock band Fort Creek, who ended a month+ of social media silence last week when they revealed that they will finally release their first studio single and music video for "One For The Road" on Saturday at 8:00 PM! The song will also be available on, if you believe their Facebook post, "all streaming platforms", but we'll see how accurate that claim proves to be this weekend (nothing against Fort Creek, loads of bands say that). They'll also be launching their own website through Wix that night, and the "One For The Road" video will be up on YouTube and shared to Facebook as well. To promote the release, Sault Star reporter Maggie Kirk covered the band for this article on Friday, where it's confirmed that Fort Creek are still working on a full album with 10 songs that will be eventually recorded at Jettison Studios (as in, Red from HeadFirst?). What else is there to learn?

For one, I had no idea that singer Justin Grayson's actual last name is Dimma! I'd never seen him credited otherwise until this article, but I guess it's like with Pierre Vaillancourt usually going by Pierre Anthony in Generations. Justin talks there about working with his bandmates, why they chose the Fort Creek name, and their songwriting process, while also noting that they wanna finish up their studio work before returning to the stage (they haven't played live since their fall 2023 lineup changes). Solid press for Fort Creek as they begin this new year, so read more above, and stay tuned for the single release on Saturday!

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

• While we don't cover jam nights as full "concerts" on the SMS due to their in-built unpredictability, I'd be remiss if I didn't note that The Dive Gastro Pub hosted their own debut jam night tonight, and it was hosted by former Haggith frontman Curtis McKenzie, who frequently plays normal shows there! An array of instruments, including some electric ones, were on tap for musicians who wanted to jam with or without Curt. Hopefully this went well for all involved, and that The Dive tries it again soon!
• In their 2024 summary post on their Facebook page, local crossover thrash quartet Hails revealed that the song they recorded for the upcoming compilation CD "Punk Canada 4" will be a cover of Toronto punk legends The Almighty Trigger Happy's song "Meathook". That should come out nice and ferocious, so look for that and more modern punk covers when "Punk Canada 4" is released later this year!
• I have moved local hard rock solo musician Mike McCleary to our inactive band links. Mike's output had slowed down in 2023, and despite teasing more original instrumental material and a planned soundtrack for a local author's new novel, little came out before his last Facebook post on January 7th of last year, which was an archival video of him at a Bawating Collegiate concert performance in 2003. Hopefully we hear more from Mike in time, as he's a talented and honest musician who lays out his feelings and life well in his songs, and I was looking forward to his next projects!
  

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