LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Five Dollar Bribe), Info On This New Local Band, And More!!

Here's a post for your Saturday night reading that didn't start off being so centered around one topic, but one thing led to another, so before we look at a note on a likely inactive local band, we'll swing the other way with a new group and a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT concerning their first show next month, so here's what you should know about them so far!

New local hard rock quartet Five Dollar Bribe will make their public concert debut on Saturday, April 4th at Beck's Bar! Announced via this Facebook event page and plugged on local promoters Underground Events SSM's Facebook page, this event will actually be in the 3:00 PM Saturday matinee slot that Beck's usually reserves for acoustic acts, but I don't know if this is due to members' ages/inexperience or a sign that the former Vibe Lounge is trying out electric bands in the early timeframe. As best as I can tell, Five Dollar Bribe are made up of teenage musicians who I don't recognize from prior local bands, and their lineup includes singer/bassist Randy Lundigran, singer/guitarist Jayce Albury, guitarist Tyler Greely, and drummer Chase Chapman. They don't (yet?) have a Facebook page that I am aware of, but they do have pages on Instagram and TikTok!

Instagram is way too limiting for me to link to bands on there for the SMS, and TikTok is video-only, but I will absolutely add Five Dollar Bribe to our links if they get a more feature-rich band page or website! Described as "the greatest cover band ever" on Instagram, they have posted twelve videos to TikTok that were mostly cross-posted to Instagram, though some videos on the latter are muted for one reason or another. Covers so far include an acoustic rendition of Alice In Chains' "Nutshell" by Jayce, a partial cover of My Bloody Valentine's "When You Sleep" by Tyler, an outdoor acoustic two man cover of Title Fight's "Shed", and three full band performances. These include Title Fight's "Numb, But I Still Feel It", Hum's "Stars" (complete with helmets and masks for all), and The Stone Temple Pilots' "Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart". Randy sings on the latter two covers, with Jayce doing Title Fight.

The above poster points to acts from Ozzy Osbourne and Pink Floyd to System Of A Down and Weezer in their planned set, but let's be real here: What local bands (of any age) are covering Title Fight and Hum, let alone Dinosaur Jr.? Picking bands like that will give them a lot of attention locally alone, but they do show talent in their videos so far, and a sense of humour! They have also not been averse to comedic videos, including this "guess who the drummer is" challenge where you can see the whole band trying to drum, two very different attempts at playing Green Day's "Brain Stew", and a couple of other non-musical videos that lean into TikTok (and yes, most of these videos are vertical, but you know my gripes about that by now). I wanna see/hear more from them, especially fuller videos of heavier covers, but Five Dollar Bribe are off to a good start, and encouraging young talent locally is important!

Their debut over the Easter long weekend goes down on Saturday the 4th at 3:00 PM (no word yet as to who is playing the nightcap at Beck's) with a presumed 19+ age limit for general attendees and no announced cover charge.  See above for much more on Five Dollar Bribe in advance of their debut in two weeks, and as it's the only one of the three full-band videos on Instagram that isn't muted (I can't embed TikTok videos here, I have tried), here's their cover of "Numb, But I Still Feel It"!

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Finally for today, we have a band to move to our inactive band links (perhaps belatedly), namely Sault Michigan hard rock cover quartet Rhythm & Brews. While we're not technically at our one year threshold for a band's inactivity, that may be not be their own doing, as Kewadin Casino briefly listed this band as playing at The Rapids Lounge in Sault Ste. Marie over the May 17th weekend of last year on their entertainment page. The shows actually ended up going to classic/hard rock quartet Tarnished (who added Rhythm & Brews bandmates Chris Leask and Ron Suchey in 2024), so this is increasingly looking like either a mistake on the casino's end or Tarnished taking over scheduled Rhythm & Brews dates there. Rhythm & Brews had (more or less) succeeded guitarist Chris Hubbard's old cover rock band 415E in 2021, and reunited him with his old Nixxon Dixxon bandmate Brandon Carr on vocals.

While as averse to posting videos online as most of Chris H.'s prior bands were, Rhythm & Brews had been a fan favourite sight at regional venues from 2021-2024, often aided by amusing Photoshopped band pictures, though social media postings from the band ceased by October 2023. They had a very talented lineup, and hopefully we see Brandon and Chris H. in a new band down the road, but don't miss Chris L. & Ron in Tarnished, or ex-bassist Brett Blackwood in Unfortunate Sun! That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone!