A surprisingly busy weekend (perhaps the last really busy one for hard rock concerts before Halloween) is upon us, so we'll have to break up this weekend's previews into three posts! This one looks at SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS and/or concerts taking place later today, while our previews of this weekend's Fefe Dobson, Oz, Dorene/Mike Haggith, and Separate Wayz concerts will be in our next post, and Tym Morrison's Sunday matinee show will be in a news post following. Here's what you should know as we enter the weekend concert preview fray once again!
While we still don't know have the complete schedules and locations, we basically have to call it, as the third and final Downtown Street Party on Queen Street East (featuring Mike Haggith & The Big Finish Band) goes down TONIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, I was waiting to hear a firm public announcement from Mike or You Belong SSM as to whether they'd be performing on the Dennis Street Stage or the Gore Street Stage, but such an announcement was not made before yesterday. In any event, this will be the last Downtown Street Party from the City of Sault Ste. Marie for 2026, and will feature loads of family entertainment at the western end of Queen Street East (bus terminal to Ernie's), including food and drink vendors, games, Queen Street businesses open en route, an outdoor vendor market at Queen & Tancred, and much more, so click here for full non-musical details!
The "stages" at the this year's Downtown Street Parties have tended to have three acts apiece, but only five were announced last month, and without specifying the exact locations. Mike confirmed in a personal Facebook reply that he and The Big Finish Band will be headlining the Gore Street Stage at 9:00 PM, while Hustle Brothers frontman Jay Case did the same to confirm that the jazz cover quartet will be opening for Mike & crew at 8:00 PM. At press time, we do not know if all of the other three advertised acts (country solo musicians Brian Tremblay & Jeffrey Wright and Dustcovers frontman "Just" Tom Peer) will all be on the presumed Dennis Street Stage or not, but one would assume that one of them (or "and more!") will be the 7:00 PM opener at Queen & Gore, For what it's worth, Tom opened for Mike at last month's street party on The Canopy at Village Media, and Brian is signed to Mike's MorningStar Records, in case those are indicators.
Downtown Street Party #3 goes down from 6:30-11:00 PM TOMORROW, it is absolutely FREE & ALL AGES, and 9&10 News is calling for clear skies with temperatures ranging from 13-19°. This Downtown Street Party somewhat feels like an afterthought with the Vivid Art Fest, the Soo Greyhounds season opener block party, and more taking up similar outdoor events attention in the same timeframe, but these street parties are fun for families and music fans alike, and Mike and crew will have a solid way to prime the pump for their hour's road trip this weekend (more on that in our next preview post). Visit the above links for more on TOMORROW'S street party, and for a preview, here's Mike & The Big Finish Band live!
Next up, we'll head to Michigan, where local classic/hard rock cover quartet Tarnished have a busy weekend in St. Ignace during this weekend's Richard Crane Memorial Truck Show, which will see them play three shows in two days. We knew about two of the gigs already, but the first of them is a brand new confirmation, as the guys will rock The Little Bear East Arena & Community Center at 275 Marquette Street TOMORROW! Again, apologies for the short notice, Tarnished only confirmed this added gig on their Facebook page on Tuesday. Based on the St. Ignace city website, Tarnished will be among the "live music at (a) variety of downtown locations", and the schedule implies that musicians will be playing outdoors to go along with the truck show at multiple spots downtown. Hopefully things go well for the kinda-matinee TOMORROW before Alex, Josh, Chris, and Ron back their gear and take the two minute drive to The Driftwood Sports Bar at 590 North State Street TOMORROW NIGHT for their second concert of the evening!
Tarnished have played at The Driftwood before on similar weekends, so hopefully tomorrow night's previously announced gig is a hit! As for SATURDAY, the band already confirmed that they would return to Kingston Kitchen at 250 South State Street, so if the timing or Jamaican restaurant setting suit you better, keep the finale of their St. Ignace weekend in mind! TOMORROW'S Little Bear Arena show is at 5:00 PM and all ages, the Driftwood show afterwards is at 9:00 PM, Saturday's Kingston Kitchen show is at 8:00 PM, the latter two are 21+, and if outdoors TOMORROW from 5-8, 9&10 News is calling for mostly cloudy skies in the 60° (15° Celsius) range. See above for more details, and here's Tarnished live!
Finally for weekend concert preview post #1, this isn't all for Richard Crane Memorial Truck Show concert action this weekend at The Driftwood Sports Bar, as they'll play host to Manistique hard rock cover duo Fyrbird TONIGHT! Yes, tonight, it's at the end of the post because there's no short notice local gigs from them alongside it. While Fyrbird have dialed back on shows in our coverage range this year (shows in Gould City acknowledged), tonight's Driftwood gig will be Fyrbird's third this year, following shows this summer coinciding with the St. Ignace Car Show and Bronco The Mac. Hopefully this proves to be another entertaining night of live hard rock from Jamie and Rikk, with a packed house to boot! The Driftwood will host live DJs tomorrow, which has been common Friday procedure for their vehicle show weekends this year. Like with Tarnished on Saturday, tonight's Fyrbird show is at 9:00 PM, 21+, and has no cover.
It feels like 2026 has been ramped up in terms of concerts (genre irregardless) in St. Ignace to fully capitalize on car shows, but when your town gets a huge influx of tourists to both show off and see the vehicles, why not make the most of it? Tarnished and Fyrbird both deliver the hard rock goods in different ways, so consider seeing both TOMORROW and tonight as the truck show goes down! Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Fyrbird live at The Driftwood this summer!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for our Fefe Dobson, Oz, Dorene/Mike Haggith, and Separate Wayz previews next! Thanks everyone!
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