Kicking off our busiest week of the year is an all-Sault Michigan news post, including an inactive band note, new videos, and more, but leading off, here's a big LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for this fall!
San Francisco hair metal/hard rock quintet Night Ranger will return to Sault Michigan for a headlining concert on Friday, October 3rd at The Dreammakers Theater at the local Kewadin Casino! Hair Scare diehards and 1980s rock fans will have last seen Night Ranger way back in September 2013, and in the 12 years since, they have released three new albums and replaced guitarist Joel Hoekstra with Keri Kelli. Of course, their classic hit singles like "Sister Christian", "Don't Tell Me You Love Me", and "Sentimental Street" remain staples of their setlist, and here's hoping they deliver another entertaining night of rock in three months! Your openers are Santa Monica glam rock duo Nelson (best known for their hits "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection" & "After The Rain") in their apparent local debut, but their set in October will be unplugged, so keep that angle in mind in terms of how their classic material will sound this fall!
And yes, don't forget that the Nelson twins are the sons of Ricky Nelson and the grandsons of Ozzie & Harriet Nelson (quite a lineage!). Presented by Rock 101, this all ages concert has an 8:00 PM start time, and admission will start at $60 (much higher than in 2013, but there's been 12 years of inflation since). Public tickets go on sale on Friday, so click here for details on that end, including on VIP packages and meet & greets. Ticket offers will also be made on air on Rock 101 for early birds tuning in, and you can also get tickets from Friday onward at 1-800-KEWADIN or at the in-person box office. This should be another retro rock blast for you hair metal lovers, so visit the above links for more details on this huge show!
Next up, it's been way too long since I've talked about local hard rock cover band Exit 808 on here, so what have they been up to in the past few weeks? Well, before some of that, the band shared a "Reel" on on their Facebook page on June 9th from their set at Drewpalooza 2 in Republic in June of last year (their debut gig with co-vocalist Dillion Semasky). Shot by attendee Courtney Johnson, the video sees everyone (sans Amy and plus a guest backing vocalist) covering Pantera's "Walk" with strong enthusiasm and intensity! Of course, "Reels" are vertical, unembeddable, and unplayable in background tabs, so click here to give it a watch! Exit 808's next proper concert took place at the Walloon Junction Bar & Grill in Walloon Lake on June 14th, which saw the return of Blaze Beairl on bass after he missed their last few gigs dating back to the spring. However, guitarist Alex Zimmerman was on vacation (hopefully that went well!), so who filled in for him?
None other than Project 906 guitarist Joe Jenkins, so kudos to him for making the 2 hour drive for this gig! Former guitarist Nathan Webber also made the trip to fill in on second guitar, while members of Elmira hard rock band Driving Dawn (who played with Exit 808 at the Musicians Unite fundraiser in March) joined in as guests on a few songs here. Two videos were uploaded from the Walloon Lake concert, including this vertical clip of the guys covering the end of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" (look at Joe's guitar solo!), but embedded below is a horizontal video of Exit 808 covering Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name" with Driving Dawn's Danny Grim on guest vocals alongside Dillion (Amy doesn't sing in either clip). While this is by far Rage's most overplayed single, Exit 808 and guests do a good job with this cover, and the rustic cabin motif adds an extra something!
Good stuff from this talented (if well travelled) local band, and if you were wondering why we didn't cover their Merchants Bar show in the Soo yesterday, it's because it was cancelled due to Dillion and Alex having schedule conflicts relating to their day jobs, as per Exit 808's Facebook page on Wednesday. Disappointing for fans (if productive the other way), but unless a new booking is made, their next truly local dates will be at the St. Ignace Kewadin at the start of August, so look for everyone then! Give these new Exit 808 videos a watch above & below, and stay tuned for more!
Finally for today's all-E.U.P. post, we have a band to surprisingly remove from our active band links, namely local hard rock quartet Dirty Musky. A reason for their apparent demise wasn't publically announced, but their Facebook (and only known online) page was quietly deleted at some point in recent months, which is historically a poor sign for a local band's status. Aside from that, drummer Jamie Costner recently joined The Nameless, who have been playing live more regularly as of late anyway. Publically active for just under two years, Dirty Musky united Jamie with Clownsack and 415E alumni into a talented four-piece with lots of entertaining and sometimes unexpected covers dating back to their debut(?) at the Government Bay Barge Bash in 2023. We had last heard of Dirty Musky publically at the Musicians Unite benefit at Bird's Eye Outfitters in March. Hopefully nothing too serious happened, and that we hear more from Dave, Fran, and Brett soon!
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