Our Extended Preview Of Toystock XII!!

Today's post is solely devoted to our extended preview of the twelfth annual Toystock, which goes down TOMORROW at The Grand Gardens North! Held annually since 2012 (the 2020-2021 pandemic hiatus aside), this special holiday concert event sees ten bands in ten hours donating their time to support Christmas Cheer, and as usual, donating for the cause is how you enter! Admission is via donating new toys, gently used puzzles, games, and/or books, new gift cards, mitts, scarves, hats, grooming items, or cash (nothing was said this year about non-perishable food). While The Grand Gardens is licensed and the bar will be open, Toystock is absolutely an all ages & family friendly event, and activites like face painting, arts & crafts, temporary tattoos, a play zone, and Christmas ornament decoration will be available along with the live music, and Santa Claus himself will stop by at 3:00 & 6:00 PM tomorrow, so I hope everyone has been good!

Yes, the Stuff-A-Bus will be on site once again. Visit the official website for complete non-musical details! Now, which ten bands will fill Toystock XII's ten hours? As usual, southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 (fronted by promoter Greg Simpson) will headline at 9:00 PM in their record eleventh appearance at the event, and all kudos to them and their colleagues for putting on this wonderful event once again! After playing the past two years in indie rock quartet Skinbox/The Haze, Steve Edwards & Brad Irwin have snagged the 8:00 PM co-headlining slot tomorrow for their new successor band The Reeves, where they are now joined by Long Shot alumni Adam Dawe & Jeremy Ganuelas. Time will tell how The Reeves sound compared to members' prior bands, but you can be the first to find out tomorrow at The Grand Gardens! At 7:00 PM, attendees can check out Mike Haggith & The Big Finish Band on what wil be a big day for them!

Playing their second Toystock together and their first local gig since they rocked the Downtown Plaza in September, tomorrow will also be the release date of the alt-hard rock band's brand new live album "Under A Moonlit Sky", which was recorded that night. Mike and crew are donating proceeds from purchases and streams of the album to Christmas Cheer, which is a fantastic idea and well timed, so consider helping out whether you're at Toystock or not! Some of Mike's bandmates will play the prior set, as guitarist/backing vocalist Elly McWatters will front her country cover band The Drifters at 6:00 PM. Local country cover veterans Out & Out Country (featuring former Bone Yard drummer Ric Datson) will take the stage at 5:00 PM, and it is neat seeing Ric back at Toystock after three years away! Also debuting at Toystock tomorrow are indie rock quartet Jupiter Marvelous at 4:00 PM.

Notably, this will be Jupiter Marvelous' first show after the departure of guitarist Jacob Quarrell (formerly of Mike Haggith's band and Bad Chug), whose farewell gig with them is actually tonight at Northern Superior Brewing Co.'s Taproom. Best of luck to Jake in his next endeavours! Hard rock quintet and 2023 Toystock performers HeadF1rst will rock the Great Northern Road events hall at 3:00 PM, as preceded by cover rock quartet Separate Wayz (featuring singer Nicole Thibodeau alongside Soundcheck and Obsession alumni) in their Toystock debut at 2:00 PM. Debuting local blues/classic rock band Sunday & The Broken Hearts (replacing Redundant) will rock Toystock at 1:00 PM, and while not a lot is known about them yet, hopefully Jason Gasparetto & crew deliver a solid cover set for fans in the afternoon! Your openers tomorrow are online page-less blues rock quartet The Associates at 12:00 PM.

The Associates are back from 2024 and are this year's annual music school/store representatives, with Bone Yard bassist Warren Reville bookending tomorrow's band schedule as such. Musically, there's a lot to like this year, including six Toystock newcomer acts and a nice array of sounds for all tastes, so hopefully there's a great turnout with lots of quality Christmas Cheer donations! There's many needy families that will be extremely appreciative. Visit the above links for complete details on Toystock XII, here's Bone Yard 225 live, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Hells Bells & Tym Morrison), More Concert Previews, And Recent Updates!!

Tonight's post wraps up this weekend's hard rock concert previews, with the major exception of Toystock, which gets an extended look on the SMS tomorrow! For now, we also have some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (one on SHORT NOTICE), plus recent updates, so here's what you should know! 

Joining his previously announced Fraternal Order Of Eagles Club concert TOMORROW NIGHT, local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will also rock Misty's Fifties TOMORROW with a matinee gig prior! Apologies for the short notice, I had held off on adding Tym's end-of-year gigs to our listings when there weren't any other concerts of note to add to our listings, but I forgot to add them before tomorow's was short notice. In terms of Tym's lengthy relationship with Misty's, fans will be able to catch the former Caveman Morrison frontman at the Second Line West nightclub TOMORROW and then thrice next month (December 6th, 20th, and 27th), all also Saturday matinees. Busy end of year for Tym, so don't miss out on his final four Misty's gigs this year, not to mention tomorrow night's Eagles Club show, as he plays his final double header of 2025, so he'll be heading to Steelton after things wrap up at Misty's.

Tym ends 2025 back at The Eagles Club on New Year's Eve, for the record. TOMORROW'S and next month's Misty's shows are all 4:00 PM events, tomorrow night's show at Aerie #3991 is at 8:00 PM, the Misty's gigs are likely 19+, and none have an announced cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event pages linked here for more on Tym's year-end acoustic hard rock cover shows at both venues, and here he is live!

Next up, Barrie-based AC/DC tribute band Hells Bells will return to Sault Ste. Marie on Friday, April 10th at The Sault Community Theatre Centre! One of a handful of different AC/DC tribute bands to play here over the years, local fans will have last seen them as original AC/DC frontman Dave Evans' backing band in May 2019 at The Rockstar Bar, where they also played an opening set on their own accord, but they last played a full headlining date of their own here in 2015. Definitely moving up in the world to book the former Kiwanis Theater, and it will be interesting to see how big of a crowd packs White Pines for their brand of high voltage rock n' roll in the spring! This show has a 7:30 PM start time, it is definitely all ages, and tickets are now on sale for a flat $45.20 at this link, with all rows having seats available at press time. Visit the above links for more on Hells Bells' return next year!

Also, let's resume this weekend's hard rock concert previews by heading to Soo Blaster, where local party metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty will once again be the rock outliers on an otherwise all-hip hop concert TOMORROW, this time headlined by Guelph rapper Robbie G! This is effectively the sequel to Robbie G's shows here in April and in 2023 that The A.A. also opened for, not to mention the Tech N9ne, Madchild, and Afroman shows where Robbie and the band's paths also crossed. Clearly, these rap bookings for The Apocalypse Afterparty are going well, and hopefully they carve out another solid niche and make some more cross-genre fans tomorrow night with the double bass attack! Paul, Amanda, and Mikhal remain unacknowledged on the Facebook event page despite ample social media promotion on personal accounts (clearly they are the "& more"), but former As It Stands/Sault Side Squad frontman Justin "Nadj" Pregent is hosting.

Also performing tomorrow are Southern Ontario rappers M For The Movement with Capital "A" Plus and Lumberjack Pat, local MC Bold Noize, unspecified rappers from No Filter Records, and KG Tha SunGod. This is an all ages concert taking place tomorrow at 8:00 PM, and base tickets are $20 at this link or at the door, with VIP packages also available. If you like rap, there will be a lot of strong MCs here dropping rhymes, with a bit of a rock chaser from The Apocalypse Afterparty, so visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's the band live!

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

 

• Sault Michigan hard rock trio (and Tarnished's all-original side project) Crush's most recent concert was out of town, as they opened for Tribe989 at Benet's Benefit Ride at the Bluegill Festival Pavilion in St. Helen (2 hours south of here) on November 8th. Not a lot was said about it on social media from what I found, but hopefully Crush and crew had a great show for the cause! 
• In a post on their Facebook page on Wednesday, The Algonquin Hotel's upstairs nightclub The Rockstar Bar revealed that they're looking for a DJ to work weekends there, and to send contact information if you're interested. Comments inquiring if the 864 Queen Street East venue was re-opening were not denied, so could we be seeing The Rockstar Bar opening to normal service for the first time since the summer of 2022? They spent the past 3+ years only hosting occasional private and ticketed events, as Silent 9 know well. This is encouraging news for sure, so we'll have to see what The Rockstar Bar has in store for 2026!
• I have replaced the link for 2012-2018 local hard rock quintet Skeyes of Seven from their (sadly) now deleted Facebook page to their still-up Bandmix page. Successors to the late 2000s hard rock band Sense of Truth, Skeyes of Seven had a lot of promise and solid original material, but only played five sporadic concerts. Don't miss Cory in Bullet Train or Alain & Johnny in Half Past nowadays though!

 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for our Toystock preview on the site next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Quite Frankly & Dos Amigos) And Weekend Concert Previews!!

For this final concert weekend of the month, and arguably the true start of the Christmas season, we have too many hard rock shows for one post once again, and that's not even counting Toystock on Sunday! That will obviously get an extended preview soon, but we'll also hold Saturday's Robbie G/Apocalypse Afterparty and Tym Morrison shows for tomorrow's post. Now, here's what you should know re: bands playing tomorrow in some description, plus SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!

Local acoustic punk duo Dos Amigos will return to the stage TOMORROW NIGHT at The Whisky Barrel! Apologies for the short notice, the venue first announced this show via their Facebook page on Sunday, and Dos Amigos haven't updated their Facebook page in over three months. While their lack of public social media updates this fall doesn't mean they haven't played shows that just slipped past our radar, this will be Mikey & Dustin's first publically promoted concert as this project since late August, when they opened for The Golden Scoundrels at the same venue. If you like the idea of unplugged punk covers from the former Inner City Surfers and Rising Tide bandmates, then come down to Gore Street and beat the weather while enjoying some tunes! This is a 19+ show with no cover and an 8:00 PM start time. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Dos Amigos live!

Next up, reunited local classic/hard rock cover band Quite Frankly will finally play their first show since their reunion earlier this year on SATURDAY NIGHT at Beck's Bar! Again, apologies for the short notice, this concert was only announced via Beck's Facebook page on Tuesday when they made their weekly announcement of that week's entertainment lineup. As you may recall, Quite Frankly (a prominent if short lived local presence from 2009-2010) announced their surprise reunion in July, with guitarist Frank LaTassa, bassist Harley Syrette, and guitarist-turned-drummer Joe DelBasso now joined by singer Haley Alopaeus. While they have played at least one private gig since coming back, this will be your first chance to see Quite Frankly 2.0 on a public stage, following their cancellation of a Bruce Mines gig last month due to an unspecified band member illness. It will be interesting to see how Quite Frankly go over in their grand return after 15 years!

For reference, the SATURDAY matinee performer this week is acoustic singer/guitarist Nigel Cormier (also in his Beck's debut), but as always, he isn't "opening" for Quite Frankly. Nigel has his own full timeslot from 3:00-7:00 PM, ending 2 hours prior to the band's start time of 9:00 PM. Expect a 19+ age limit and no cover charge as usual. See above for more on Quite Frankly's return on SATURDAY, and here they are at a private event post-reunion!

Now let's move to shows that did have advance notice, starting with fellow local classic/hard rock cover quintet Headrush, who will return to The Esquire Club for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! This weekend's shows come just over a month after the Johns, Wes, Gino, and Frank's most recent gigs at the same venue, though they did play at least one private gig (a stag & doe) in the interim. According to the official Facebook event page, Headrush have "new tunes on the roster (that are) guaranteed to keep you dancing", so if you want to see what's new in their sets, and if you will indeed keep dancing throughout, head to this west end favourite this weekend! As usual for bands at The Esquire Club, tomorrow and Saturday's shows are at 9:30 PM with 19+ age limits and no cover charges. See above for more details, and for a preview, here's Headrush live!

Finally for this preview post, let's head to Sault Michigan, where Traverse City metal trio Scarkazm will return to The Rapids Lounge at the local Kewadin Casino TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! With Thanksgiving in the rear view mirror, these will surprisingly be Scarkazm's first shows in Sault Ste. Marie since April, partially aided by the band taking the summer off from gigs in any locale. It's always good to see Adam, Dave, and Jeff delivering their hard hitting original and cover attack north of the Mackinac Bridge, and hopefully there's a great turnout both nights to send out November 2025 on a high note! As usual for Kewadin Casino lounge bookings, tomorrow & Saturday's shows are at 9:00 PM with 21+ age limits and no cover charges, and if you can't make it, they'll return to the St. Ignace Kewadin the weekend before Christmas. Visit the official Facebook event pages linked here for more details, and here's Scarkazm live!

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

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Joe Bedlam

For our last monthly feature post of the month, our newest YouTube Channel Profile is here, and it again features a spotlight of a randomly selected YouTube channel whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk artists/concerts! This month's selection is an official channel for a late lamented band who accomplished a lot and put out some really solid music in their heyday, so here's what you should know!

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Joe Bedlam (http://youtube.com/videosofbedlam)

Owner: A member or representative of 2008-2015 local hard rock quartet Garden of Bedlam, exact identity unclear (though note that no band member was named Joe) 

Channel Timeline: Launched on September 12th, 2010; Videos uploaded from July 2012 through January 2013

Channel Summary: An official YouTube channel for Garden of Bedlam from a six month stretch of the latter half of their active run (succeeding this earlier channel), fans can watch two live performance videos, a rehearsal clip, and a slideshow set to one of their studio tracks here.

Why You Should Watch: While not the largest source of Garden of Bedlam content on YouTube, this channel does feature some good content from shortly before their activity began winding down in the mid-2010s, and fans of theirs should take to the content on offer! I mean, as of this writing, they haven't played live in over a decade, which is hard enough to believe! 

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Garden Of Bedlam - Your Disgrace (live July 21, 2012): The first two uploads here come from Garden of Bedlam's headlining set at Rotaryfest's Second Stage in July 2012, in its penultimate year on a closed off section of Queen Street East before its 2014 hiatus and relocation to Clergue Park. As usual, the band is represented here by ex-Barfly/Changing Lanes frontman Erik "Buzz" Boissineau, guitarist Josh Belleau, bassist Evan Belleau, and future Wyld Stallyns/Even Flow drummer Derek Turner. The guys were filmed here playing two cuts from their 2011 album "Everything Will Die", including the title track and (featured here) "Your Disgrace". Camera work is a little shaky, but the performances are sound, and I miss hearing Buzz's powerful melodic vocals on stage! The Queen Street locale was more unique visually too than how Stage 2 looks now, but your mileage may vary.

 

Garden Of Bedlam - Everything Will Die (drum can rehersal): To help promote their Rad Zone birthday concert on Devil's Night 2012 at The Rockstar Bar, this channel uploaded a rehearsal video of Garden of Bedlam jamming "Everything Will Die" focusing on Derek. Interestingly, this isn't your typical "drum cam" video, as someone (Joe?) was actively filming Derek while holding the camera, not relying on a tripod or stationary placement, so it's quite jittery. The focus on Derek does let us see how solid of a drummer he is (I'm glad that he still performs live in different projects), though you only see part of Josh in frame for the rest of the band. The fan who shows up 30 seconds in sure got a good view of everything!

Garden of Bedlam Around the Bend: The final and most popular "video of bedlam" here is a slideshow set to their ballad "Around The Bend" (also from "Everything Will Die"), featuring ample photos of or related to the band's 2008-2012 activity, including live performance shots, promotional photos, band logos, and album covers. I do like my Garden of Bedlam heavier than this, but the song shows off Buzz's soft pure singing voice really well, and the slideshow gives a nice glimpse at the majority of their run together!

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around Boxing Day for one more installment in 2025, and next month, we'll be looking at multiple channels, as the first randomly selected channel only has one video period, so I picked one more channel that had only two distinct SMS-relevant video to fill things out with. As such, we're ending the year with YouTube users kekeitba (featuring a Woods of Ypres song upload) and ChrisHubbard415E (featuring two solo guitar performance videos). Stay tuned for those then, and for weekend concert previews on the SMS next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tarnished), The Unfortunate Sun Concert Preview, And More Recent Updates!!

Here's a new news post to check out on this wet Tuesday night, which is half devoted to Sault Ontario and half to Sault Michigan. We'll start south of the border as our Yooper readers gear up for Thanksgiving, so here's a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT and a related mid-week preview, before we finish things up north!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Tarnished will rock The Merchants Bar TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the band only announced this gig on their Facebook page earlier today, and as usual, The Merch don't advertise bands playing there on their own Facebook page. For Canadian reference, the Wednesday night booking is because Thursday is the American Thanksgiving, so most people will have the day off, and thusly can stay out late and go to the bar without impairing work or school (hence why some call tomorrow "Drinksgiving"). Tarnished have taken most of the past month off, so if you've missed Alex, Josh, Chris, and Ron's brand of hard rocking covers on a local stage, consider a mid-week jaunt to The Merch for their Thanksgiving pregame action TOMORROW! This is a 21+ event at 9:00 PM with no cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Tarnished live last year!

Next up, hard rock fans in the E.U.P. have one more opportunity to partake in a "Drinksgiving" concert TOMORROW NIGHT, but in this case, it had advance notice, as local hard rock quartet Unfortunate Sun will set up shop tomorrow at The Islander Bar in Hessel! This is a reprise of their Thanksgiving Eve concert last year (also the last time that the Fake Chow successors played at The Islander Bar), with the venue calling it a Drinksgiving Party again, but the band are calling this year's event a "pre-stuffed party". Of course, you can get stuffed early if you want, but we know how Thanksgiving tends to go! Unfortunate Sun's lively and fan-friendly mix of hard rocking covers should draw another solid audience, so come rock out before you settle in for the parade, the Lions game, turkey, and more on Thursday! All of the action begins at 8:00 PM with a 21+ age limit and no cover. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Unfortunate Sun live! 

Also, I have sadly moved Sault Ontario/Toronto punk supergroup project Mikey & His Uke to our inactive band links. Guitarist/ukelelist Mikey Hawdon hasn't posted any updates relating to him and his uke since posting the finale of his 30th anniversary series of covers of Green Day's "Dookie" (the album's closing songs "F.O.D." & "All By Myself") one year ago today, though commitments to his family and local bands BookcluB & Dos Amigos shouldn't be overlooked. Originally launched during the spring 2020 pandemic lockdown as a series of loose solo ukelele "quarantunes" for social media, Mikey's covers quickly caught steam and eventually attracted guest musicians of an increasing scale, and these soon took on their final form as remotely filmed full band covers, with Mikey starting each on ukelele before dropping the pretense and rocking out on guitar. Mikey moved back to Sault Ste. Marie in June 2022, and based the project locally from that point.

There were no inklings last fall that the "Dookie" series was Mikey & His Uke's grand farewell, but if it was, he sure went out with a bang! Truly transcending his home base, the YouTube channel has over 42,000 subscribers, with 10 songs getting 200,000+ views, including the cover of The Ramones' "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg" exceeding 930,000. These were always fun covers with cool names to recognize and discover from afar, so definitely check out Mikey & His Uke's litany of all-star covers above, and hopefully he picks up his uke again in the future!

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

 

• In a programming note for 104.3 The Fox, 2:00-6:00 PM weekday & 12-6:00 PM Saturday DJ Dan Koo has not been on air since (at the earliest) August 15th, with Rogers Radio regional content director and 101.9 The Fox (North Bay) DJ Mitch Belanger replacing him ever since. Assuming that Dan has left The Fox/Rogers, a reason for his departure was not announced (unless it was only on air), but hopefully this isn't a sign of consolidating operations from afar, as Dan was the only fully local on-air personality dating back to final years of Country 104.3. Note that Dan is still credited in his timeslot in the schedule on The Fox's website, albeit without a picture.
• If you follow the Up & Down Lounge on Facebook, you may have seen this vertical video from the 24 Second Line West bar & golf simulator lounge on Sunday, which features a very brief clip of classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9 playing there. We didn't miss a concert of theirs (the Up & Down Lounge rarely hosts public concerts), as this was definitely a private holiday party, and the video seems mostly intended to promote that you can book private events there. Silent 9's clip is muted out in favour of a seasonal Drake/Wham mashup anyway. It looks like a lot of fun was had!
• Convergence frontman Stephen Gagnon-Ruscio finished in second place in last month's sixth annual The Soo's Got Talent! We didn't cover this year's due to it being all-karaoke (let alone that there was no house band for the finalists like the last few years), but congratulations to Stephen, who has a really strong voice that goes beyond his recent metal work! This year's winner was David Ikechukwu (a.k.a. Bobbie Lex), making him just the second male champion of T.S.G.T., while perennial finalist Demoy MacSamuels finished in third place, and Shae Levi (the only female finalist this year) finished in fourth. Congratulations to all six finalists!

 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Bone Yard 225), Related News, And Toystock Lineup Updates!!

Before we get into this post, I wanted to profusely apologize for forgetting to preview Hornepayne classic/hard rock quartet Damage Case's concert at Soo Blaster on Saturday night in this weekend's concert previews. How that slipped me by, especially given the homecoming of bassist Will Tholberg, I'll never know, but note that 705Live Sound Co.'s Facebook post about the show from yesterday morning erroneously implies that the show was last night (it was 100% one night only on Saturday). Hopefully Will and crew had a great show, and that they come back our way in the near future! 

Local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 will end 2025 by headlining the New Year's Eve party on Wednesday, December 31st at The Moose Lodge at 543 Trunk Road! Definitely an unexpected locale for "the dirty three", but The Moose Lodge has sporadically come up as a concert host for SMS purposes, most recently when Soundcheck played for Terry Eaton's Great Northern Opry induction in June 2023, and prior to that, in 2015. Curiously, Bone Yard have yet to publicize their involvement in this event on their own social media, but this is Toystock week, so they are definitely pre-occupied getting that rolling (more on that in a bit). This is a proper ticketed 19+ New Year's bash, complete with a cash bar, dinner, and more seasonal frivolities, so definitely keep tabs with the lodge for full details on how to ring in 2026 in style! As such, tickets run for $50 and you can buy them at the lodge or by contacting lodge535@shaw.ca.

Bone Yard proper take the stage at 9:00 PM, but doors open at 6:00 PM with dinner at 7:00 PM. This should be a fun event with all of the year-end frills you'd hope for (especially at that cost), so visit the above links for more on Bone Yard 225's last concert of the year! While we're on the subject, let's touch on some other recent Bone Yard updates while they've been taking a pre-Toystock break from the stage! As you may recall, a flash mob of over a dozen women dressed like Helen Roper from Three's Company showed up when the guys headlined at Reggie's Place last November, and the gang of Mrs. Ropers made their way to their Esquire Club show on November 8th! Your photo proof is on the left, courtesy of their Facebook page. What the end game of the Mrs. Ropers is, who's to say, but it's fun for classic sitcom fans! Two days later, they announced that their single "Fuck!" has been re-released on major streaming services with a new name.

Whether it will retain this name on their forthcoming CD, I don't know, but on Spotify and such, it's now called "The F Word", possibly in response to the title getting flagged for its blatant expletive. Nothing else has changed, but keep the new name in mind! A Facebook video that same day shows Greg Simpson playing a.... unique pair of drums, while this vertical video from five days later teases that they were "back at it", and based on the B.T.O. song as backing music, "takin' care of business". implying that they were recording in studio again. Later that day, guitarist Alex D'Ettore and bassist Warren Reville starred in this video where they teased that they "re-did something" while Greg was hunting, but they didn't want to send it yet because Greg was asleep at the time. I assume this relates to their album, but I'm sure we will see what they meant in due course!

Most other updates weren't directly related to new band activity, though embedded below is a video shot the night that the Mrs. Ropers brigade crashed their Reggie's show last year, and it features Greg and Alex trying out hula hoops at 2:00 AM after the show ended. Fun palate cleanser for sure, so give it a watch below, and stay tuned for more from your local 225!

We'll close today's post with clarifications (if not 100% ones) on the two mystery bands playing at the twelfth annual Christmas Cheer benefit concert Toystock at The Grand Gardens North on Sunday! On Thursday, organizers began sharing info on their Facebook page on "the 10 bands of Toystock" in scheduled performance order, which meant that Saturday's post was about the debuting Sunday & The Broken Hearts (the late replacements for Redundant). Toystock proper haven't said anything about band lineups yet, but the band is reportedly an "old-school rock & blues outfit" that plays "smoke-drenched blues, soul-soaked 70's R&B, and rock & roll" with "the spirit of the vinyl era". Shares of the post imply that Eight Seventies/Dark Eyed Junko singer/guitarist Jason Gasparetto will be leading this group, but we await fuller details. Likely not hard rock-leaning, but there should be lots of talent here! Now, how about The Reeves?

They won't get their "10 bands of Toystock" write-up until Friday, but personal Facebook postings suggest that The Reeves are successors to 2023-2024 Toystock performers The Haze (f.k.a. Skinbox), with singer/guitarists Steve Edwards (ex-Pixo Control) & Brad Irwin (ex-Gnaeus) now joined by bassist Adam Dawe and drummer Jeremy Ganuelas, who were the rhythm section of mid-2010s hard rock quartet Long Shot. The Haze were an indie/alternative rock band, so will The Reeves lean to that, or members' heavier past band work? We'll know more soon! Stay tuned for more on Toystock in our preview this weekend, and for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

Spades GT Updates & Concert Recap Videos From Last Month!!

Let's tackle some more fall happenings from local/Barrie crossover thrash quintet Spades GT on the site today, so what's new to report since we last left off with their timeline in early October? Their next concert took place on Sunday, October 19th when they opened for British hardcore punk legends The Exploited, as they did previously in September 2024, though this time, they invaded The Rockpile rather than Lee's Palace. Very cool to see them tabbed to open for The Exploited once again, and J.D. & Dan's old local bandmate Blair Burch (Broken, Project 421, et al.) was in attendance for this concert, snapping some great quality photos that you can check out at this link! Attendee Miles George got a pile of quality photos himself that you can check out here, but his are all in black & white. Note that The Fast Life's Andrew Moorehouse is seen in some photos here, implying that he guested on "XS" and/or "Wrecked". The band's requisite vertical recap video went live on their Facebook page three days later, so what can you see in this one?

Primarily filmed by guitarist Daniel Horton once again, this features the band leaving for and arriving at the concert, the rainy tailgate party, the guys giving a fan autographs on a unique body part, bassist Sean MacNab's late arrival after an appointment, cameos by Blair and his son Cory, as well as former Spades guitarist Jay Sarrazin, and soundcheck and setup for their set. We do see the guys playing the start of "Red" at the 3:45 mark, but alas, only for about 30 seconds. Things end with post-set mingling outside and at their merch table, with some very brief footage of The Exploited's set. Dan said that they "crushed it", and from what little we see, I can't argue, so give this entertaining recap video a watch below!

A busy weekend for the former Jack Spades lie ahead, starting on Saturday, October 25th, when they were slated to play a rare matinee set at Headbang For Paws, a benefit concert for the Comfie Cat Shelter in Orillia, but the shelter revealed on their Facebook page on the 15th that it was cancelled "due to circumstances beyond our control". Very disappointing, especially given the cause behind it, but hopefully we see Spades in Orillia in due course! The band never confirmed the cancellation on Facebook themselves, but they did have a busy month, and now they didn't have to cram two shows into one day. The guys still rocked out that night, as they and their friends in G.F.U. joined Daniel's other band (Barrie punk quartet The Fast Life) at C.W. Coop's in their current homebase, which also served as a belated birthday bash for drummer Tyler Reiner. The recap video was uploaded 10 days later, so what's on offer here?

It features the continuation of G.F.U.'s singer's mayoral campaign, Sean's comically short leash in terms of his standing with the band (good thing he made it for this show!), previews of their new t-shirts and toques on sale, and Daniel setting up for his set with The Fast Life (it seems like Tyler filled in with them here) and later changing a broken guitar string. Two very brief clips of Spades' set can be seen at 3:21 (one shot from outside the venue behind a window, even), but quality and vertical framing aside, these only run for about 12 seconds. Dan called this "a good warm-up gig" for what was to come the next day, and you can see for yourselves at this link! Unfortunately, Facebook content matched the backing music added in post-production here ("Filthy Lie" from the new album "United"), so unlike the Rockpile recap video, I can't embed this one on the SMS. After rocking Barrie, the guys packed their gear for the 6 hour drive to Montreal!

Specifically, the guys rocked The Piranha Bar on Sunday the 26th, where they opened for The Exploited once again in their Quebec debut. Possibly because it was a bigger/more unique concert, the recap video for this one went up a day earlier than the Barrie one, though regardless, this too was hit with a Facebook content match (this time for using "Cenobites" from 2023's "Sewer City Radio" as backing music), so it is also unembeddable on external sites like this. The first 1:45 of the video focuses on the trip to the venue, including a stop at a Long & McQuade for strings. When the guys arrived in Montreal, we get some footage of the buildings near the venue, Tyler giving thanks and hype for the opportunity, and some setup clips inside The Piranha Bar, with another all-too-brief raw clip of Spades GT playing across multiple cameras at 2:45, running for just 20 seconds. Afterwards, we see the guys packing up for the drive back to Ontario.

Tyler thanked everyone again and promises to return to Montreal in 2026, and Daniel said that they "kicked ass". I can't disagree from what little we got of their set, but it looks like a great experience, so check everything out at this link or above! We are now caught up on Spades GT's October concerts and official content from last month, and when we next cover them, it'll start with their Toronto gig on November 7th. Stay tuned for that and more on the site soon! Thanks everyone, raise 'em up, and cause a scene!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Cory Murchison), The Tym Morrison Concert Preview, And Mike Haggith Updates!!

As promised, this latest SMS post features our preview of one more hard rock concert this weekend, but filling things out, we have a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for the end of the year and a big new live album release coming out later this month, so here's what you should know!

Bullet Train/ex-Skeyes of Seven frontman Cory Murchison will return to the concert stage with an acoustic hard rock set on Saturday, December 27th when he opens for the reunited Odd Man Out at The Water Tower Pub! Cory has sporadically played unplugged gigs over the years when not working on his full bands (no word on when Bullet Train will resurface), and this will be a reprise of when he opened for Odd Man Out at the same venue back in July 2018. Good to see Cory back out there, and his solo sets definitely lean to what he plays in his bands (just acoustic), so keep his set in mind! Of course, Odd Man Out (featuring Cory's old Sense of Truth bandmate Steve Myers) are a very popular but increasingly scarcely seen jam rock band whose reunion next month was presumably aided by it being the holiday season. Not a hard rock act, but their live show speaks for itself, and they have loads of talent!

Note as well that this will be Odd Man Out's first public concert since releasing their new album "Quadranium" last summer, so could you call this the de facto release party?  While a bigger deal than your usual Water Tower Pub concert, this one seems to be standard fare for the venue in terms of attendance, including no cover, a 19+ age limit, and an 8:00 PM start time. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Next up, let's wrap up this weekend's hard rock concert previews, as prolific local classic/hard rock musician Tym Morrison will return to Beck's Bar as their matinee performer on SUNDAY! This show comes eight days after he was replaced by Silver Strings as the Saturday matinee act there last week (despite Tym never confirming that he wasn't playing on the Beck's shows' Facebook event page), but it's good to see that things are A-OK between Tym and Beck's, and hopefully this matinee gig has lots of entertaining classic and hard rock favourites for fans in the west end! His first show at Beck's in three weeks (with three more matinees scheduled in December), Sunday's concert has a 19+ age limit, no cover charge, and a 3:00 PM start time. Visit the above links for more on Sunday's action, and for a preview, here's Tym live!

Finally, here's the latest from local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith, so what has he been up to in recent weeks? While he and The Big Finish Band did not return for The Soo's Got Talent finals again this year (another reason why we didn't cover this installment, beyond the all-karaoke setup), and his planned debut concert appearance in his current Barrie homebase was postponed (click here for details), he hasn't been idle, as he has a live album coming out! Mike has toyed with releasing solo live albums in the past (most recently 2018's "From The Nickel Stage"), but this one is a full band effort, coming out on Sunday, November 30th. The album will be named "Under A Moonlit Sky", and will comprise of their complete set at the Downtown Plaza on September 25th. Mike called it "the concert of our lives", which is high praise when it was a late replacement for a cancelled battle of the bands!

You can pre-order the album (which will have 19 tracks) on Bandcamp at this link, where you can also check out three songs as pre-release teasers, and you can pre-save it via major streaming services on DistroKid at this link. Based on the track listing, it differs from the actual setlist in that it includes an unlisted encore song ("75"), as well as four tracks not listed there: "Guitar Adlib", the album's title track, "Moving West", and "The Power Of Community". The former is self-explanatory, but the other three correspond with scheduled breaks in the set for Mike to talk to the audience, so I don't believe we're looking at brand new songs of his. We'll know for sure in just over a week! To support Christmas Cheer (beyond Mike & crew's set at Toystock, also on November 30th), they'll be pledging cash donations to Christmas Cheer based on Spotify streams and Bandcamp purchases of "Under A Moonlit Sky".

Mike also plans to pledge money based on streams of the full concert video when it goes live on YouTube next month, so we'll keep you posted on that when it's uploaded. Is "Under A Moonlit Sky" in line for a review on the SMS? We have caught up on all of his studio albums released since he first relocated to the Soo, so unless I dipped into his early Windsor era back catalogue or he releases a new studio album first, this has priority. For local relevance and Mike's own musical evolution, I think he would greatly prefer that I reviewed "Under A Moonlit Sky" rather than "Hotel For Transients" anyway! Look for this review in April 2026 given our ongoing backlog, and for more news and notes on the site next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (The Guilty Party) & Most Of This Weekend's Hard Rock Concert Previews!!

Another weekend is upon us, arguably the start of the Christmas season for many given Moonlight Magic tonight and the Santa Claus Parade on Saturday, so here's our look at most of the hard rock shows taking place in the Sault Ste. Marie area this weekend! Sunday's Tym Morrison matinee at Beck's will be previewed in our next news post. Let's lead things off with SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS in the west end!

New local classic/hard rock cover trio The Guilty Party will set up shop TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT at Jay's Piston Broke Pub! Apologies for the short notice, the band only announced these shows via their Facebook event page on Friday. Since debuting as a live band in September, the Separate Wayz side project have one weekend a month at Jay's in the latter half of each month, so TOMORROW & SATURDAY's show establishes a pattern that time will tell if we see continued in the last two weeks of the year. In any event, these are The Guilty Party's first shows since their pre-Halloween weekend gigs in October (also at the former Reggie's West), and hopefully there's a strong turnout for Brent, Terry, and Jim's selection of rocking covers! Everything goes down TOMORROW & SATURDAY at 9:30 PM with 19+ age limits and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details!

For a preview, here's a new video of them live, as shared to their Facebook page on November 5th! This was shot by attendee Audrey Marshall, and captures The Guilty Party covering Seether's "Rise Above This", The Stone Temple Pilots' "Interstate Love Song" and Collective Soul's "Gel". Singer/drummer Brent Royer handles lead vocals on all except "Rise Above This", which guitarist Terry Eaton sings lead on. Whether you're familiar with members' prior bands or not, these are soundly performed covers with good enthusiasm, and Audrey captures some good angles (and shot this horizontally!), so check them out below in advance of The Guilty Party's Jay's return TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT!

Next up, we'll head to The Water Tower Pub, where local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down will set up shop TOMORROW NIGHT! Last seen at the Great Northern Road nightclub two months ago, this continues their relatively busy fall slate with what should be another fun evening of hard rocking and Canadian content-laden cover action, so don't miss the Syrette cousins and Ric back at it tomorrow! Bassist Dan Beaupre will again miss tomorrow's concert (hopefully he gets well soon!), but as their regular guest bassist Lori Reinholtz is playing with Mid Life Crysis at The Esquire Club this weekend, they will have someone else helping out tomorrow. Double Down confirmed on their Facebook page that "our fill-in for our fill-in bass player" is male, but have yet to confirm his identity (note that their only other fill-in bassist this fall was Alex White, who played a weekend at Jay's in September).

The Water Tower Pub does not host the same band on Fridays and Saturdays of a given weekend, so Saturday's band there will be pop rock cover veterans Encore, as per the venue's November concert calendar. Tomorrow's one-nighter has an 8:00 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no cover charge. Visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's Double Down live!

Next up, we'll head to Beck's Bar, where they'll host a rare (but increasingly not so rare) Friday night concert TOMORROW, where former Haggith/Project 421 frontman Curtis McKenzie will open for local Pink Floyd tribute band Dark Side Of The Soo! Curt hasn't been too active this fall, but a high profile opening slot will get his name out there with a heavier start to the proceedings (if still unplugged), so whether you're a Floyd fan or not, Curtis will get things off on the right foot! Dark Side Of The Soo are the sporadically seen tribute band led by members of pop rock cover band Bourbon Blue, and if you've caught them live before, you'll know that Jules and company do a solid job paying homage to the progressive rock titans, so keep their return in mind tomorrow! If you're curious, Saturday's nightcap at Beck's will be headlined by party rock cover band The Barbarians (featuring Elements and Handsome Sandwich alumni).

Meanwhile, Sylo frontman Eli Russell will make another return home from college as the 3:00 PM matinee act that day, so if you like his unplugged indie rock originals, keep that in mind! Tomorrow's concert has no cover charge an 8:00 PM start time, and a 19+ age limit. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Curtis live!

We'll close today's preview post in the E.U.P., where fans can check out hard rock cover quartet Unfortunate Sun live at Huck's Pub & Grill in Rudyard for one night only on SATURDAY NIGHT! Last seen at The Merch on Halloween, this will be the Fake Chow successors' first concert in Rudyard in four months, and as you can see via this show's poster, they're definitely aiming this one towards deer hunters (firearm season in Michigan began on Saturday). This should be a fun night of rocking covers at the former Joe's Bar, so consider a trip to Rudyard (40 minutes southwest of the Soo) for all of the action if you're not in the area already! Huck's does not typically book bands on Fridays, so this is a one-nighter. "Your favourite rockin' band" will take the stage on Saturday at 8:00 PM, this is a 21+ event as usual, and there is no announced cover charge, and if you can't make it, they'll be back at The Islander Bar in Hessel on Wednesday.

We'll preview that concert closer to, but the mid-week timing is due to the American Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. Visit the above links for more on Unfortunate Sun's Rudyard return on Saturday, and here they are live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for the Tym Morrison preview and more on the site next! Thanks everyone!