LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tarnished) & More Concert Previews, Including Our Lady Peace!!

As promised, let's cap off this weekend's hard rock concert previews in today's post (later than I'd have liked due to personal commitments and shovelling), and it mostly covers shows taking place tomorrow and on Sunday, including the big one and its new local openers, and some new videos. First, we'll lead off with LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for next month, so here's what you should know!

Sault Michigan hard rock/classic metal band Tarnished will return to The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino on Friday, March 7th & Saturday, March 8th! Announced yesterday via their Facebook event page, these appear to be fill-in/replacement bookings, as The American Band were originally advertised for next weekend on Kewadin's entertainment page. A reason for their withdrawal hasn't been announced to my knowledge, but kudos to Tarnished for stepping in with their hard rock attack! Of course, Tarnished were scheduled to play at The Rapids Lounge in the Soo this past weekend before the shows were cancelled due to the ransomware attack-prompted closure of all Kewadin branches, but that has been sufficiently resolved, and the St. Ignace Kewadin re-opens today (no word yet on the Soo Kewadin makeup dates). Click here for more details on the casinos' re-opening plans.

The event page also confirms that Rhythm & Brews' Chris Leask and Ron Suchey will join Alex and Josh next weekend, as they have at all non-battle gigs since the summer (if they have joined permanently, no one has 100% said publically on social media). Next month's Tarnished shows have 21+ age limits, 9:00 PM start times, and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, and stay tuned for more from the E.U.P. soon!

Next up, let's resume this weekend's hard rock concert previews by heading north to Sault Ontario, where local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 will return to Reggie's Place for concerts TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! No strangers whatsoever to Reggie's over this winter season, these will be Greg, Alex, and Warren's first shows at this Queen Street East staple in two weeks. Despite today's winter storm, band members' personal Facebook pages have promised that the show (or as they've taken to calling them lately, "sermon" or "gospel") will go on as scheduled, but of course, be safe on the roads if you're coming out, as snow is expected until after midnight tonight (or come tomorrow). Tonight and tomorrow's shows are 19+ affairs at 9:30 PM with no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, we have two new videos of "the dirty three" to check out!

Wednesday's vertical video captures "studio shenanigans" of the guys having fun, seemingly while recording a new original song, though they have yet to confirm that elsewhere online. If true, fans should be excited, and you even see a lyric sheet at the end! Embedded below is a brand new video of the guys playing their newest original "Fuck!" at Soo Blaster this past Saturday, and it's a really nice quality horizontal video that shows off the stage setup as they played a larger venue than normal for them! Fun and lively (if lyrically colourful) performance, so check it out below!

Elsewhere downtown TOMORROW NIGHT (not tonight due to Friday DJ nights) is the return of local hard rock quintet HeadFirst to Shooters Downstairs Lounge! This is the first in an (at least) three show engagement for HeadFirst that will see them not just playing their lively and varied hard rock covers and originals, but also being the namesake for exclusive cocktails, shots, and food items that will only be on sale during these concerts (also on March 15th and April 12th). Buying an official band t-shirt will also net you a $5 drink voucher, so there's lots of perks for fans to come out tomorrow! The guys have also teased possibly playing new originals from their "next project", so keep that in mind as the night progresses. Tomorrow's show takes place on Dennis Street at 9:30 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's HeadFirst live!

Finally, here's the main event of the weekend in Sault Ontario, as Juno Award-winning Toronto alt-hard rock quartet Our Lady Peace will play their first local concert in twenty-seven years on SUNDAY NIGHT at GFL Memorial Gardens! With Canadian rock radio hits like "Clumsy", "Somewhere Out There", and "Sound The Alarm" dotting their lengthy career, this show (their first in the region since River Rave '98 in Richards Landing) has been highly anticipated for months, and hopefully Our Lady Peace deliver an excellent night full of classics and newer cuts after all this time! Note that this will also be drummer Jason Pierce's first local concert in a decade, after serving as Treble Charger's touring drummer from 2012-2015. Georgia alternative rock veterans Collective Soul will open in their local debut, and Rock 101 listeners will be very familiar with their litany of radio hits like "Gel", "Heavy", and "The World I Know". Not the heaviest band going, but Collective Soul get a solid response from attendees at the arena on Sunday!

In a late confirmation this morning, local indie punk quintet The Northwest have been added as local openers on SUNDAY, a'la 2022's Marianas Trench show at the Gardens! For one reason or another, The Northwest have been on a concert hiatus since the summer of 2023, so it is great to see them back, let alone at such a huge event! Presented by Rock 101 (this show was announced prior to The Fox's launch), this all ages & 7:00 PM concert is officially SOLD OUT, but check in online at this link or at the box office if you're curious about anything opening up late. O.L.P.'s long awaited return will be one of the shows of the year, so visit the above links for more on Sunday's festivities, and here's Raine & crew live!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Project 906 & Double Down) And Weekend Concert Previews!!

You know the spring is almost upon us when concert schedules are picking up, and not only are there enough hard rock-leaning concerts to warrant splitting this weekend's concert previews into two posts, there's major headlining shows on both sides of the border this weekend! As such, we'll look at Sunday's Our Lady Peace show, Saturday's HeadFirst concert, and this weekend's Bone Yard 225 shows (and more) on the site tomorrow. so they are coming soon! Now, here's what you should know to start the weekend, including a pair of SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down will rock The Water Tower Pub for one night only on SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was quietly announced on the band's Facebook page on February 12th, which completely slipped us by at the time (the venue has yet to confirm their March concert schedule online). SATURDAY'S concert will be Double Down's first since their late January weekend at Jay's Piston Broke Pub, and their first stop at The Water Tower Pub since January 10th, so it's been a relative while to see the Syrettes, Brad, and Ric rock out on a local stage. Hopefully their Cancon-laden night of hard rocking covers goes over swimmingly at this central nightclub on SATURDAY, and that the storm warnings are long over prior! This is a one-nighter due to tomorrow's previously announced Generations show, which will be previewed at post's end.

Double Down take the stage on SATURDAY NIGHT at 8:00 PM, this is a 19+ event, and there are no announced over charges. After taking all of February 2025 off, hopefully the guys are ready to rock once again, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's a brief new video of Double Down live at Jay's in January, and I mean brief! This 9 seconds-long (and vertical) clips sees the guys covering Prince & The Revolution's "Purple Rain" with Joel & Beej making the most of the floor during one of the Brad Stephen-sung choruses. Fun little clip while it lasts, though I would like to hear the full song! Still, check it out below!

Next up, let's head across to Sault Michigan and the E.U.P., as local blues/hard rock quartet Project 906 will return to The Strongs Tavern in nearby Eckerman on SATURDAY NIGHT as well! Again, apologies for the short notice, but it definitely is short notice here, as both the band and venue only announced this gig via their respective Facebook pages this afternoon. Like with Double Down above, SATURDAY'S show will be Project 906's first since late January, when they rocked The Strongs Tavern on January 26th. Exactly five weeks later, fans can welcome Billy, Dustin, Joe, and Jason (and Brian?) back for another night of hard rocking cover action, so consider the hour's drive west on SATURDAY if you're up for it! Yes, I am well aware of the fundraiser concert that 906 are taking part in next month, we will have more on that on the site this weekend, so stay tuned for full details shortly!

Project 906's second show of 2025 goes down on SATURDAY takes place at 8:00 PM with a 21+ age limit and no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details on this late notice concert, and for a preview, here's Project 906 live and in concert last year!

We'll stay in Michigan for a big previously announced concert, as Sacramento glam metal/hard rock quintet Tesla will make their long awaited return to the Soo TOMORROW NIGHT at The Dreammaker's Theater at the local Kewadin Casino! Just to get this out of the way now, Kewadin Casinos have begun re-opening following the ransomware attack two+ weeks ago, with the Soo branch re-opening yesterday (St. Ignace's re-opens tomorrow, the rest will next week, source here), and they have confirmed that the Tesla show is still 100% on, so they re-opened just in time! This will be Tesla's (at least) fifth local concert appearance, but first since 2013, so if you've missed Tesla's rock radio hits like "Love Song", "The Way It Is", and "Mama's Fool" in the past 12 years, you'll wanna make your way to the Soo Kewadin for all of the action! This opener-less & all ages show is presented by Rock 101.

All center section seats are sold out for tomorrow's concert, but there are limited seats still on sale in the left & right sections in rows H-J ($85) and K-Q ($75) and in the standing room only area ($65), so click here, visit the in-person box office, or call 1-800-KEWADIN to get hooked up unless you want to chance availability at the door. If you're a loyal Hair Scare listener, you won't want to miss Tesla's local return tomorrow night, and they still sound good, so visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Tesla live at The Dreammakers Theater back in 2010!

Finally for this preview post, we'll return back to Sault Ontario, where local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will cap off February 2025 when they rock the aforementioned Water Tower Pub TOMORROW NIGHT! Remember, The Water Tower Pub traditionally hosts different nightly bands, and doesn't book bands on consecutive nights as a rule, with Double Down playing there on SATURDAY NIGHT as noted at the top. Fans last saw Generations at Jay's two weeks ago, but tomorrow's show will be their first on Great Northern Road since early last month. This one-nighter should be a fine way to enjoy Generations' old school and hard rocking covers, weather permitting, so keep things in mind if you want something to do tomorrow night! Valerie, the Tonys, and Pierre hit the stage at 8:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover. See above for more details, and here's Generations live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for our Our Lady Peace, Bone Yard 225, and HeadFirst previews (and more) next!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: CrazyCarLover1990's Channel

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile, as we again feature a randomly selected YouTube channel whose uploads are at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk artists/concerts, in order to encourage views and subscriptions! This month's choice takes us to the early touring days of a high profile local punk band, so here's what you should know!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

CrazyCarLover1990's Channel (http://www.youtube.com/@CrazyCarLover1990)

Owner: YouTube user CrazyCarLover1990, exact identity unclear, but they likely live in the Ottawa region

Channel Timeline: Launched on October 19th, 2009; Videos uploaded from October 2010 through January 2013

Channel Summary: Thirteen of this channel's 23 videos come from four different concerts played by inactive local Celtic punk quartet Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide in southeastern Ontario back in 2010 and 2011. Other content on the channel include five videos from a Cesar Millan live show in 2010, a singer/guitarist named Alex at a possibly unrelated event, and the channel's four newest videos, which are not musically focused and do not have a common thread beyond who uploaded them.

Why You Should Watch: Fans of early Rising Tide material and concerts will definitely be curious to check out these videos, especially as Dustin & crew were still relatively new in their run at this point, and while they didn't reinvent the wheel too much as the 2010s progressed, these are a fun look at their early run, even if all concert videos here were shot vertically! The Cesar Millan videos may interest Dog Whisperer fans, Alex is a good singer, and the other videos on offer will have individual appeal at best, most notably this racing lap video. Note that multiple newer Tide videos from here and afar can be found elsewhere on YouTube and Facebook, and that this channel hasn't been visibly updated in over a decade.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Dustin jones: The first five videos here come from The Rising Tide's show at D'Arcy McGee's in Ottawa circa early-mid 2010, when they featured Dustin Jones (vocals/guitar) alongside fiddle player Sheldon Jaaskelainen and his brother, stand-up bassist Marshall Jaaskelainen, with ex-Redefined/future My Son The Hurricane drummer Danno O'Shea behind the kit (note that the debut EP that they were touring in support of did not have drums at all). CrazyCarLover filmed them playing "Molly Malloy", "Summer Honey", and "Tick Tick Tock", plus Sheldon's solo vocal/guitar rendition of the Old Crow Medicine Show's "Wagon Wheel". Featured here is their eponymous "Rising Tide", as preceded by their traditional intro of the allegro movement from Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525". Vertical dimensions aside (with the camera sometimes flipped sideways), everyone performs well on these early numbers, and Ottawa fans took to their Celtic punk hybrid well!

Dustin Jones and the Rising Tide - Sheldon singing rock me: The Rising Tide's second D'Arcy McGee's show filmed here was in September 2010, which featured songs from their then-upcoming 2011 CD "Whiskey Will Be Our Sun". In upload order, CrazyCarLover filmed them playing "Half My Life", & "Until We Drop", and covering Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" & Tom Waits' "Cold Water", but this time, we'll embed their Sheldon-led cover of "Wagon Wheel" (erroneously labelled as "Rock Me") as it is this channel's most popular video, with over 1,500 views as of this writing. Not the most punk cover choice out there, but Sheldon has a good handle on this modern country staple, and everyone seemed to know it! The final video from D'Arcy McGee's on this channel saw The Tide playing their Sheldon-led original song "Brass Knuckles" at the venue's New Year's party that December.

Dustin Jones And The Rising Tide: CrazyCarLover definitely also loved The Rising Tide, as they filmed Dustin & crew one more time at the Tir Nan Og Irish Pub in Kingston (2 hours south of Ottawa) circa June 2011. Now featuring Dustin's Inner City Surfers/Bookclub bandmate Mikey Hawdon on drums, the guys are seen here covering Hank Williams III's "Smoke & Wine" with Sheldon on lead vocals, a video that was uploaded twice with slightly varying titles for some reason. A rollicking hellbilly cover that puts everyone on their toes, this is a nice change of pace from The Tide's usual M.O., if not zoomed in especially close. Hopefully we hear more from The Rising Tide down the road when the time is right!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! As decreed by random selection, we'll actually be returning to the well of "auto-generated YouTube Music channels for Mikhal Muto bands" next, as we'll be looking at Vanity First's YouTube Music channel next month, two months after profiling Agnosticism's similar channel. Look for that on or around March 26th, and for this weekend's concert previews starting later today! Thanks everyone!

The Realignment Project - "Afterthought" EP Review!!

It's now time for our 188th monthly CD review at The Sault Metal Scene, and after a two month spell of archival reviews, we have the first new local metal release of 2025 to look at this month, namely new local industrial solo act The Realignment Project's debut EP "Afterthought"! Independently released to their Bandcamp page on January 29th, this EP is the first output from The Realignment Project, led by former Dirty Virgin drummer and Riverin frontman Matt Hicks, who is the only credited performer here. Readers around the local scene in the early 2010s will recall that Riverin were also an industrial metal band, so if you wanted to hear more from them, you may want to pay extra attention to The Realignment Project's EP! "Afterthought" is on sale on a "name your price" model, so while you can download it for free on Bandcamp, consider paying something to support Matt's work!

With six songs running for about 22 minutes, let's begin this review with the opening song, "Broken Machine"! This song alternates between Matt serving as a carnival barker/ringmaster of sorts, if for a very dark circus, with angry shouted choruses about how we can't stop/fix the title machine. The industrial and electronic influences are well applied, but it's definitely a hard rocker underneath, and it has a cool sound to it with good percussion. I would like more varied lyrics, but it's a good starter for The Realignment Project! Next up is "Finger On The Trigger", which earns its metal points from Matt's vocals, not the music, which is purely electronic, and very repetitive and plonky (especially the ending). The aggressive and pointed vocals do help push things along, but I'd have inserted them over something heavier.

Third is "Mother", which seems to be from the point of view of missing one's late mother (having lost my mother in 2020, I completely sympathize with Matt here). For as relatable as the lyrics are, they are a slightly awkward fit in an industrial song, let alone with Matt's singing voice not really being suited for a mournful lament like this. It's well composed as an instrumental piece, but the lyrics and singing don't really fit inside for me despite the sincere intentions behind this song. Your mileage may vary! Then we have "Incomplete", which opens with a distorted bass line that drives things even as more instruments and industrial effects come into play. Lyrically about being incomplete to conform with societal expectations, this song does return to form in terms of its darker overtones, if with a somewhat 16-bit synth sound (if that's fair), but it's more ominous than heavy. I do like the contrast of how laid back the structure is compared to the instrumentation!

A little over-long, but it's the best song since the opener on "Afterthought"! The penultimate (and longest) song on the EP is "Something Strange",  which seems to be about a personal crisis and trying to escape it at all costs. The heaviest song on offer since "Broken Machine", this alternates spare industrial verses with more aggressive and in-your-face choruses, with layered gang vocal effects therein. The verses are dancing on the line of rap at points, and I'd have had more instrumental involvement to liven them up, but it's got more going for it as a complete composition for metal fans! The Realignment Project close their debut EP with its shortest song, "Synthetic", which is another song that comes closer to rap than metal thanks to the techno beat, but he does yell the choruses, and the verses are delivered in an eerie whisper. It's not badly done for what it is, and while I like heavier stuff than this, Matt shows his musical variety well to close!

So, what are my final thoughts on The Realignment Project's first EP? Inconsistent for what I like musically, but there's enough here for industrial and rock fans to get something out of it! To compare how things have evolved since Matt's prior industrial metal project Riverin sounded in their heyday, I did check out their songs on Reverbnation anew, and T.R.P. definitely feel like a fuller realization of what Matt was going for a decade+ ago in both musical performance and production quality. Vocally, Matt does have limitations, but I was reminded of Henry Rollins more than once, which is not an insult whatsoever! The industrial side of things is way more prevalent than the rock side, with only "Broken Machine" and "Something Strange" having heavy passages, but Matt does yell on additional songs. Molten Imp aside, industrial music isn't too common locally, and what we get here is strongly composed and performed!

Of course, I'd liked to have heard more rock-integrated music for longer, but beyond that, I don't think "Mother" worked that well despite its strong lyrical theme, and some songs could be a little long and/or repetitive as they went along, but there's a nice variety here, and it's good to see Matt back with a new project, let alone one where he can finally pull off things that Riverin didn't! Buy or stream "Afterthought" at the above links, and I hope you guys liked this month's CD review! Barring a new album release ahead (check our next "Where Are The New Albums?" post on Sunday for candidates), we'll return to the archives for the March 2025 review if there's nothing new to report. Preference will be with artists who play live next month, but it will not be of a Sykotyk Rampage or Agnosticism album due to our six month anti-bias buffer period between reviews of albums from the same project.

Look for next month's review... next month, and for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next, with weekend concert previews following on Thursday, and more news/notes soon also! Thanks everyone!

New Album Updates From Spades GT & Fuller!!

Before we begin this post, I wanted to apologize for missing local acoustic classic/hard rock duo Dodge This' concert at The Dive Gastro Pub last night. The show was only announced early yesterday on the venue's Facebook page (the band did not corroborate the booking on theirs), but it is worth noting that they were the apparent replacement act last night, as Frankly Speaking were advertised on The Dive's February concert calendar. A reason for the Franks' withdrawal wasn't announced, but hopefully all is well, and that Dodge This had a great show yesterday! We'd have absolutely covered it on here had there even been a couple days' notice, but apologies again!

Today's post focuses on two upcoming albums from some familiar faces, and let's start with the long-teased new album from reunited midwest emo/punk band Fuller! Over a year after their well received reunion concert at LopLops Lounge in December 2023, the guys are making further moves towards their sophomore effort, 23 years after putting out their self-titled EP (which infamously had no titles on its six songs). Earlier today, an official Facebook page for the band was launched, finally enabling us to re-add Fuller to our active band links (we no longer list the degraded husk of MySpace pages, and while Fuller are on Instagram, that platform is too limiting for band pages). The new page doesn't have much to say, but it does confirm that their new album will simply be named "II", and it will go on sale in "early 2025". Greg Dawson mixed the songs at BWC Studios.

Jamie, Mark, and David were recording at Unsalted Audio with producer Dustin Goodall last year, and bassist Mark Rand uploaded the first single from "Fuller II" onto the band's new YouTube channel yesterday, namely "And I End". This is definitely a song played during Mark's original tenure in Fuller in the early-mid 2000s, and to my understanding, the album will mostly (if not entirely) be comprised of Mark-era songs that never came out on CD. This should be well worth a listen for emo and punk fans whether you were around for Fuller's heyday or not (let alone Buckle's), and while I won't comment on "And I End" yet pending our CD review, give it a listen below!

Next up, let's re-enter the world of local/Barrie crossover thrash band Spades GT, who have been hard at work on their new album recently, so what's new to report from the past month? On January 31st, they revealed on their Facebook page that they were "wrapping up demos for the new album this weekend", with a brief clip of Dave Galante's video of them at Walterstock attached. I won't embed it here, as the full & not-vertically pillarboxed video was featured in our Spades post from two weeks ago. The guys finished pre-production on the eight-track album as of February 2nd, with this photo of the band's current four members attached to said Facebook post. One week later, they noted that they are looking for promoters, bands, shows, and PR to help promote the band/album upon release, and for bookings in areas that they haven't played in yet, so contact spadesgtmusic@yahoo.com if you're interested in talking to them or getting details! With all of that said, how about the recording sessions proper?

Like on 2023's "Sewer City Radio", the former Jack Spades are recording this album with producer Kyle Marchant at Room 21 in Toronto, and the sessions began on Monday with drummer Tyler Reiner tracking material first. You can see 34 seconds of him drumming in studio in this video, and while things sound good so far, it's obviously way too soon to comment on the song proper. On Tuesday, they recorded bass parts for the album, though they have yet to find a permanent bassist to replace the departed James Roy Daley. At least in their 71 seconds-long teaser video from that day's sessions, guitarist Daniel Horton is seen on camera playing bass, but it remains to be seen if he will be covering that instrument on the whole album (fellow guitarist Matthew Voros can play bass too, and they've largely gotten by with guest bassists in concerts since last summer). Both Dan and Matt were in the studio on Wednesday & Thursday to record guitar for the album, and a video was shot then too!

For some reason, that day's teaser video was uploaded A. as a "Reel", and B. with both letterboxing and pillarboxing, so despite being vertical from the start, it's tiny in the "Reel" frame. How did that happen? Watch the screen closely for the best effect, but it focuses on Daniel tracking for the album alongside ex-guitarist Jay Sarrazin, who played on two songs on "Sewer City Radio" and appears to be back as a guest performer for this album. They hadn't teased his involvement at all on social media beforehand, so it's good to see Jay working with Spades again! For day 5 on Friday, the sessions featured singer J.D. Pearce at Room 21, and that teaser clip is another "Reel", but this time, a horizontal video forcibly pillarboxed into the vertical dimensions. I'd complain, but it's much bigger than the guitar one! This focuses on a brand new Spades song, possibly named "United" or "We Are United".

While sounding fairly complete, I won't comment on the song yet pending our eventual album review, but Spades fans will definitely want to watch that "Reel" to see how things are progressing! Yesterday's sessions were focused around guest appearances and gang vocals, but at press time, the band has yet to post anything about what went down at Room 21 then. We'll let you know when further updates come out on the album sessions, but give Daniel's bass tracking video a watch below!

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

Weekend Concert Previews, Concert Cancellations, And New Videos!!

Before we begin this weekend's concert previews, just a heads up that local metal/hard rock band Tarnished's planned shows at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino tomorrow and on Saturday have been cancelled due to the ongoing closure of all Kewadin branches following the ransomware attack earlier this month. The attack affected phones and computer systems at all branches, and their on-site lounges remain closed as of this writing, so any concerts there are off, including Boyne City classic rock band Derailed's planned St. Ignace Kewadin dates this weekend. In their Facebook post confirming the cancellations, Tarnished said that "we will have a rescheduled weekend", but unlike Oz last week, they have not announced the dates yet. We'll keep you posted when we hear more! In terms of hard rock-leaning events, eyes should be on the Tesla concert at The Dreammakers Theatre in Sault Ste. Marie next Friday.

Obviously, having all five Kewadin Casino locations closed is far from ideal, and they'd prefer to be open sooner rather than later, as they're not making money with no casino, bars, or events available on site, but ransomware attacks are serious. When they're ready to re-open, we'll let you know, and while I've seen and heard nothing to suggest that the Tesla show is in danger yet, follow Kewadin Casinos' social media accounts for further details on their eventual re-opening and concert schedules!

Now, let's dive into known hard rock concerts taking place this relatively quiet concert weekend, and we'll stay in Michigan to start, as local hard rock cover quartet Unfortunate Sun will return to Huck's Pub & Grill in nearby Rudyard for the first time in 2025 on SATURDAY NIGHT! Three months removed from headlining a "hunter's widow party" there, and two weeks after their I-500 weekend gigs at The Merch, Saturday's concert from "your favourite rockin' band" should be a good opportunity to enjoy some hard rocking covers from this talented veteran group, even if your face doesn't quite melt as much as Major Toht's did! This one-nighter goes down on Saturday at 8:00 PM, you must be 21 or older to attend, and there is no announced cover charge (though take advantage of the cake offer at the bottom of the poster at your own discretion). Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Unfortunate Sun live!

Lastly for known hard rock concerts this weekend, Sault Ontario southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 will take the stage for one night only at Soo Blaster THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! As a handful of other heavier cover-leaning bands have done in the past few years, Bone Yard are getting the solo spotlight at Soo Blaster as their momentum increases, and it'll be good to see the guys rocking the large stage there with their hard hitting covers and their slowly growing repertoire of original music! No word on if their "Bone Yard shot" will be on tap, but merchandise should be on sale, and note that local internet radio station The Borderline (where your local 225 appeared for an interview last month) are this show's advertised sponsors. No, Bone Yard aren't booked elsewhere tomorrow night. Saturday's concert has a 9:00 PM start time, no announced cover charge, and a 19+ age limit. Visit the above links for more details, and here's the 225 live!

Finally, let's look at some new live videos from a band not playing live this weekend, namely local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations! Over the Valentine's/Family Day long weekend, they rocked Jay's Piston Broke Pub, and attendee Josie Vella was there on either the 14th or 15th to film two videos posted onto the band's Facebook group on Sunday. One sees Generations covering Alannah Myles' "Black Velvet" with frontwoman Valerie Powley on lead vocals, but embedded below is their cover of David Wilcox's "Do The Bearcat" with bassist Pierre Anthony singing lead. Unfortunately, both videos were shot vertically, and neither exceeds 1:40 in length, but Josie got some good close vantage points of Generations in action, and they have a predictably strong grasp on both of these classic covers! Give them a watch above and below, and don't miss Generations at The Water Tower Pub next week!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (HeadFirst), A New Local Metal Project, And More!!

Here's a new news post for you guys on this Wednesday evening, and it includes a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for the spring, our first look at a new local band, and leading off, an even newer band to check out (with EP!), so with all of that said, here's what you should know!

We have a new solo project to add to our Sault Ontario band links, namely The Realignment Project! This marks the return to original local music of former Dirty Virgin drummer and Riverin frontman Matt Hicks, who we last covered on the SMS in an active band when Riverin posted their last updates in 2014. The Realignment Project hew much closer to Riverin than Matt's better known glam metal band, as they are an industrial metal act. Historically, that's something we never had much of locally, so they immediately stand out from that alone! Matt launched an Instagram page for T.R.P. last month, which has teaser images, AI art, and some short videos, many of which promoting the fact that they released their debut EP "Afterthought" on January 29th! You can buy it on Bandcamp on a "name your price" model, and they also now have a YouTube channel featuring lyric videos for four of the EP's six songs, only omitting "Finger On The Trigger" and "Synthetic".

As this is a brand new album on sale, this will be this month's CD review at the SMS, ending our two month spell of archive album reviews, so while I won't give thoughts on The Realignment Project's music yet, check back in the next week or so. That said, it's great to see Matt back working on new music, and if you were following Riverin in their heyday, you'll definitely want to check out The Realignment Project to hear similar and more fully realized material, so do so at the above links, and here's the lyric video for the EP's opening song "Broken Machine"!

Next up, here's that LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, as local hard rock quintet HeadFirst have announced a mini-residency of sorts at Shooters Downstairs Lounge that will see them rock the Dennis Street nightclub for three+ upcoming Saturday night gigs! We already knew about their planned shows on March 1st and April 12th via Shooters' own advertising, but the new date will be on Saturday, March 15th, though no word on if it will have any St. Patrick's Day tie-ins. However, these three concerts will be themed across the board, as Shooters will be offering official HeadFirst-branded cocktails, shots, and food items that will only be on sale during these concerts, so click here and here for details on each drink. Fun idea, especially as this is beyond just one themed shot, so keep all of this in mind if you're hungry or thirsty when seeing HeadFirst at Shooters! Red, Raine, Liam, Claire, and Anthony allegedly have "more dates to come" at Shooters, so keep tabs with the band on social media for more concert details as they roll in.

Also, if you buy an official HeadFirst t-shirt, you'll also get a $5-off voucher for one of the drinks, which is a good bonus! In terms of their actual sets, the band will "occasionally be playing a few songs for our next project", with more details coming soon. By "project", are they just making their next CD/EP/album sound more mysterious, or is it something more/beyond just a new album? We'll keep you posted! All three Shooters shows so far have 9:30 PM start times, 19+ age limits, and no announced cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, but we're not quite done with the raw|lust|hot rockband, as they have been named as one of the local openers for the previously announced Selias concert as Soo Blaster on Friday, March 14th! This is via the official Facebook event page, which also confirms that local alt-punk trio A Dire Setback will open as well in their first gig of 2025. At least one more opening act is to be announced, we'll let you know when they are.

Note that Selias' local debut at the same venue in September featured seven opening bands, six being local. Tickets surprisingly aren't on sale for this show yet, but last fall's Selias concert ran for $15. So far, it does seem like next month's concert has more of a varied genre spread (neither A.D.S. nor HeadFirst are full "metal" bands), but with less than a month to go before showtime, hopefully Heavy North Entertainment gets everything in place for a great night of hard hitting music at Soo Blaster! See above for more on this event and HeadFirst's new Shooters dates!

Finally, let's cross the border to look at the first public videos of new Sault Michigan punk trio About:Blank! This union of Tarnished, Lift The Broken, and Midnight Logic alumni debuted at Serious Business' multi-band concert at Pickles Bar & Grill in Brimley on February 8th, and a bunch of photos from their set can be seen on their Facebook page, confirming that Parker Talentino is their vocalist and bassist. Two videos from that night can be seen on Facebook, both seeing About:Blank playing original songs, one being "Hearse". Despite being shot with the same camera and horizontal orientation, "Hearse" was crammed into a vertical portrait orientation with horrendous pillarboxing, and it was uploaded second (how did that happen?). As such, I've embedded the other song "Fix" below, but it is a lighter and more laid back punk number with a swinging vibe to it. "Hearse" is faster and more all-out, and has pseudo-rap vocals, no less!

It's just two songs so far, but About:Blank seem to be starting off promisingly, and the talent is definitely there! I will say that Parker's clean singing voice is better suited to "Fix", but I'll have to hear more to really judge how he fits in singing on electric material. Check out About:Blank's live debut below, and stay tuned for more from them soon!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more weekend concert preiews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Headrush & Tym Morrison), Plus Fuller Updates!!

I hope everyone is having a good Family and/or President's Day! For this cold Monday morning, we have LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for Sault Ontario in the coming months, as well as big news from a reunited band's upcoming plans, so here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison has announced a run of bimonthly matinee concerts at Misty's Fifties via his most recent Facebook event page for shows there! He just added dates to it, including a reported return to the Second Line West bar/restaurant this past Saturday. I profusely apologize for missing that date, but when he just added it to an existing event page, there won't have been the same alert that the show was happening at all. Hopefully there was a strong turnout for his unplugged hard and classic rock covers on Saturday! That show aside, Tym has six matinee gigs ahead at Misty's, all on Saturdays, including shows on March 8th & 22nd, April 5th & 26th, and May 10th & 31st, none of which fall on Canadian holiday weekends. Not a rigid schedule pattern here (shows are 2-3 weeks apart), but it is good to see Tym playing more frequently in the coming months!

All six of Tym's upcoming Misty's shows (as well as this past Saturday's, apologies again) are 4:00 PM matinees with likely 19+ age limits and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, and hopefully we hear more from Tym's covers here and elsewhere as 2025 continues!

Next up, here's a special memorial concert taking place at Soo Blaster on Friday, June 27th, as local classic/hard rock cover quintet Headrush will topline Socch-Fest! This is a celebration of life event for Mark Gigliotti-Socchia, who died last month at just 51 years of age. While not a musician, you may recognize Mark as a chef, film industry lighting worker, and bartender, and you can read his obituary at this link. I normally have reservations about plugging events this personal in nature, but the Facebook event page is public, and organizers are hoping to make this "the party of the summer and a night to remember" that will hopefully be a reunion for many of the "1990s Soo crowd". As such, this will likely be Headrush's Soo Blaster debut. Socch-Fest has an 8:00 PM start time, I assume it will be 19+, and organizers have not announced a cover charge or ticket price. Visit the Facebook event page for more details, and R.I.P. Mark!

Finally, let's talk about inactive(?) local emo/punk band Fuller, who famously reunited for a headlining concert at LopLops Lounge in December 2023. There were teasers at the time that they wanted to record their Mark-era originals in studio, but little was said publically, not helped by Fuller only existing on social media in 2023-beyond via their Instagram page (I don't use Instagram for band links on the SMS due to its limitations for band profiles, even though a handful of current local bands only have Instagram). That said, Instagram does have three new-to-us videos that Fuller fans will want to check out! The newest one from last week has bassist Mark Rand revealing that they have indeed completely recorded an album that has also been mixed and is currently being mastered. The album will be released "as soon as possible", and Mark was gauging whether fans would be interested in physical copies being produced.

Regardless, the Fuller album will be available on digital platforms "really soon", and Mark hinted that there may be a release party concert to go alongside it. This all lines up with what frontman Jamie Vincent revealed in his Afterparty live-stream last month, which is encouraging for Fuller and midwest emo fans! A year+ prior, Fuller's Instagram page also uploaded this video of drummer David Peredun tracking drums for one of the album's planned eight songs, and while we only hear drums, it does sound promising, which isn't a surprise given David's skill level! Embedded below is the other new-ish video that I hadn't mentioned on the SMS, and it features Fuller playing an instrumental section with very strong energy at the LopLops reunion gig a year+ ago. This is not from Jimmy Polnick's live-stream (which was framed vertically and not shot this close), so kudos to whoever filmed this high-quality clip!

It's not that long and has no vocals, and it's a horitzontal landscape video forcibly shrunk down and pillarboxed into vertical dimensions (why do it like that?) but it's a tantalizing glimpse of what Fuller brought to the table after a two decade absence, so give it a watch below, and stay tuned for more!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fuller (@fuller.ssm)

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