LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Hard Rock Revue), Fort Creek Updates, And Much More!!

Here's another packed news post to check out on this Tuesday evening, and here, we have some recent assorted updates, a look at a unique concert from earlier this month, and big lineup changes from a local hard rock band, but let's lead off with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!

The day before the Punk Rock Fiesta goes down in October, The Rockstar Bar will signal their return to hosting regular public concerts on Friday, October 2nd when they host the one-off Hard Rock Review! This is a supergroup of veteran local rock musicians led by Dodge This singer/guitarist Jason Taillefer in his first local concert appearance with a plugged-in hard rock band since Phatstick broke up in 2012, so that alone will be a pull for many. Other 1990s local rock veterans will join him here, including guitarist Jeff See, bassist Robert Iacoboni (later seen in Master Steven and the Taiwanese Pink Floyd tribute band In The Flesh), and former Gsis Murphy/Fort Creek drummer Anthony Fabiano, so local rock fans who were around then should be quite interested! As well, they will have a guest singer for six songs, namely Dallas Crockett, a friend of Rob's who sings for the Kelowna-based AC/DC tribute band High Voltage.

Dallas isn't local, but it will be interesting to hear how he does on six AC/DC classics during his planned guest spot in October! Hard Rock Review (isn't "Revue" more accurate in this context?) are advertised to play a 1980s-leaning hard rock set on October 2nd, including acts like The Scorpions, Judas Priest, Journey, The Cult, and even "a couple of one-hit-wonders". Doors open at 8:00 PM for this 19+ concert, and an admission fee or potential ticket sales are not known yet. The first weekend of October is shaping up to be huge for fans of hard rock and punk of the past, and an ideal way to kick off The Rockstar Bar's full relaunch as a proper concert venue, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Next up, we have some big lineup news from local southern hard rock band Fort Creek, who announced two new additions to their ranks via their Facebook page on Sunday! First, they have enlisted Half Past bassist Arthur Lacasse to replace the long-since departed Robin "Bones" Lee. Art is a good fit based on his musical background, though does him joining Fort Creek mean anything negative for Half Past's status? That band has yet to play live this year following drummer Johnny Amendola's departure and move to Soundcheck/Separate Wayz, but we'll let you know if anything is clarified from their camp! Meanwhile, in a surprise, Fort Creek have also brought in former Stillbroke/Borderline Divine alum Sam DeDominicis as their new drummer, replacing Phil Greco. A reason for Phil's departure was not announced, though if you recall Bones and Anthony's quiet departures in 2023, this won't be shocking.

Fort Creek were recording their long-awaited debut album at Phil's own Jettison Studios though, so does this signal anything bad re: the album sessions, or will he still work with the band behind the scenes? Again, we'll let you know! We last heard from Sam when Borderline Divine teased a reunion in 2016 that never got off the ground (the former Stillbroke last played live in 2012), so it's been a while regardless, but it's great to see him in a new local band after all these years, let alone Justin, Shane, and Bill having a full lineup again after almost three years! Stay tuned for more from Fort Creek in live and studio contexts hopefully soon!

Now to the oldest topic in our backlog that we hadn't yet covered in an SMS post, namely fallout from this year's Government Bay Barge Bash in Cedarville, Michigan! As you may recall, three bands play this annual Les Cheneaux Islands summer concert on a floating barge in Government Bay, with swimming and boating to the event and the stage encouraged among the revelry, and for the rain-delayed event on August 2nd, their official Facebook page did get two videos highlighting what went down four Sundays ago. One features quickly cut clips from the Barge Bash, including very brief looks at The Mark Bowen Band's set. Alas, this video is both vertical and 14 seconds long, but it is an effective teaser! The longer of the two captures Cedarville classic rock veterans Shipheads On Shore covering (as best as I can tell) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Running Down A Dream" for 51 seconds.

Shared from attendee William Maloney's personal Facebook page, he panned the camera around in a circle, and you can see that the barge isn't that far from shore, so you can walk around in the water (just don't slip!). The aesthetics alone make this video worth a watch, as you don't often get concerts where boats are parked so close to the stage, let alone the wide forest sightlines, so if you don't mind getting a little wet, this deserves more attention as a summer destination concert. Sadly, no public videos of Project 906's headlining set that I am aware of, but see above for more from this year's Barge Bash, and here's to another big one next year!

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

 

• Local hard rock cover trio Nate's Chow have added a new gig to their calendar, but it will be on the road this Saturday at the Jerk-N Depot in Alanson, which is 90 minutes south of here (give or take Mackinac Bridge traffic) and 20 minutes northeast of Petoskey. According to the band's AI-generated poster, this is a "last minute add on show" due to a previously scheduled band cancelling. This will now be just the second gig since the former Unfortunate Sun rebranded as Nate's Chow, and while anything in the Lower Peninsula is out of our coverage range, hopefully things go well on Saturday night!
• While we await confirmation of who their new bassist is, Sault Ontario classic/hard rock cover quartet Separate Wayz shared videos of their "epic crossover" gig in Chapleau with their sister band Soundcheck via this batch post on their Facebook page last week! Unfortunately, both videos are 7 seconds long and do not have audio whatsoever, but from what we can see, it looks like a lot of fun was had by the bands and fans alike at the Gold Rush Nationals, and stay tuned for more from both bands!
• Former Spades GT bandmates J.D. Pearce, Matthew "Fang" Voros, and Sean "Skull" MacNab will reunite for the first time since their abrupt dissolution in December this Thursday at The Queens Nightclub in Barrie, when they play a one-off Misfits tribute set as Fiend Club! This show is an all-tribute band affair featuring six bands, mostly punk and emo ones, plus the amusingly named headliners Rage Against The Poutine. Matthew and Sean have remained active this year in their psychobilly band The House of Haunt, and it is good to see J.D. (a.k.a. Johnny Pints) back on stage again with them, but could this lead to more in some fashion?

 

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Bone Yard 225, Even Flow, And Tym Morrison), An Inactive Band Note, And More!!

Today's post is mostly focused on LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the fall, and there's some interesting shows ahead to look at here, but we also have a band newly moved to our inactive links and a preview of one more mid-week concert for August 2026, so here's what you should know!

Local acoustic classic/hard rock solo musician Tym Morrison will return to The Mike Case Memorial Stage outside of The Trading Post on WEDNESDAY, and in the likely final gigs for him there for the season, he will be back there on September 2nd and 9th as well! I try to go month-by-month for Tym's weekly runs at local venues, hence why I put off the September dates until now. While the September cutoff has varied in the past (and could be added to), ending his annual summer arrangement at the Great Northern Road outdoor stage just after Labour Day makes sense, especially with temperatures starting to drop. Hopefully Tym's unplugged rock covers get a strong reception from assembled fans at The Trading Post on Wednesday and next month! As recently usual, Wednesday's and the last two shows run from 6:30 PM-8:30 PM with no age limits or cover charges.

At press time, 9&10 News is calling for thunderstorms on Wednesday, but this is going up before we'd be in range for an hourly forecast, so I recommend keeping tabs on your preferred local weather source for updates, let alone with Tym on social media. While his Mike Case Stage shows this year have generally avoided bad weather, he has cancelled shows there before due to the elements. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Tym live!

Next up, local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 have been booked for a special Wednesday night concert of their own, this time on September 9th at Beck's Bar, but they won't be alone. For this one-off gig (named "Midweek Mayhem"), they'll welcome Stones & Crows/Jackleg Band guitarist Spencer Pine as a guest for their sets! In a sense, this will be a reversion to their original form factor, as Bone Yard had two guitarists before frontman Greg Simpson permanently moved to drums in 2022, though remember that they evolved from country covers into the heavier rock band that Boneheads know and love today by the late 2010s. In her update video on the bar's Facebook page, Beck's owner Becky Sawyer took credit for the idea for this gig, as she "fell in love" with Spencer's playing when Stones & Crows debuted there, and she expressed an interest in getting him and Bone Yard guitarist Alex D'Ettore together for a show where both would play on stage at once.

Emphasis is on this being an "old fashioned jam night" with more of a freeform setlist, but regardless, this will be a unique pull for many! Who knows if it would be repeated if it goes well, but remember that Spencer (also of Jupiter Marvelous and the internet radio network Tomahawk 141) has a lot of irons in the fire. Perhaps in deference to the school/work night scheduling, Midweek Mayhem has an 8:00-11:00 PM runtime, and it will be a 19+ event with no cover as usual. Head to the official Facebook event page for more on this intriguing collaborative concert next month! 

In one more new show announcement, we have our first confirmed Halloween concert for 2026, as local Pearl Jam tribute band Even Flow will open for local Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute Mellowship Slinky on Saturday, October 31st at Blaster Powerhouse! This year, we are lucky enough to have Halloween on a Saturday, which will be huge, and it will mark the one year anniversary of Even Flow's debut, when they headlined an October 31st, 2025 show at the aforementioned Beck's Bar. They're not seen live as frequently as Mellowship Slinky (led by Reeves frontman Brad Irwin), but the talent is most definitely there, so fans of 1990s rock of two different flavours will enjoy this double whammy of local tribute bands! The grunge and funk rock action goes down at 9:00 PM with no age limit. Tickets are on sale at this link and through the bands for $20, and the price will jump to $25 at door.

This may seem steep for a show featuring two local cover bands, but remember that it is Halloween night, the show is being branded as a Halloween party (so expect seasonal frills for the occasion), and while oddly not stated in text on the Facebook event page, I would assume that costumes are heavily encouraged. There will be competition ahead for your Halloween concert plans, but visit the above links for more details on Mellowship Slinky & Even Flow at the former Soo Blaster!

Finally for today, I have moved local hard rock quartet Sylo to our inactive band links. The band has not issued a public update since they headlined at Beck's Bar on August 20th of last year, with frontman Elijah Russell transitioning to work on his country/indie rock band Eli Russell & The River Fools in recent months, not to mention solo acoustic gigs that hewed closer musically to that band. Launched in 2021 under the name Raincourt (after original guitarist Raine Rancourt), and comprised of then-White Pines Collegiate students/Pine Tones members, the band was seen often at school events and at 2022's Go Skate Day, and even released two studio originals on major streaming services, before Raine left and the group quietly rebranded as Sylo. Sporadic activity followed until they fully relaunched in February 2024, playing at scattered local gigs as both headliners and openers until Eli headed off to university for a year that fall.

Sylo reunited last May for a handful of summer shows, including the aborted Ripcordz concert at The Distraction. Their social media presence was never very active (even as Raincourt), which didn't help their exposure locally, but what I heard of them under either name pointed to a talented group with an indie rock flourish on their harder rocking material, and given their ages, the sky was the limit had they stuck around. Still unsure where they got the Sylo name from though. Best of luck to Eli with The River Fools and Raine with Riverside Stasis, and hopefully we hear more from the Owens, Alder, and Jakob down the line! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the SMS this week! Thanks everyone!

Rotaryfest 2026 Fallout (Part 4), Plus More From Soo Lens!!

Today's post finally sees us put our recent coverage of an annual summer concert festival to bed (famous last words), with a chaser of photos from a photography company who wasn't just present for this event in 2026. Here's what you should know on this Sunday afternoon!

Let's wrap up our Rotaryfest fallout coverage today, after only a month+ after the Sault's summer festival ended for 2026! When we left off this past Monday, we only had three Stage 2 bands left to acknowledge public videos from, but alas, I don't believe external videos from Eden Plague's set were uploaded by the band (not counting Johnny's update video during Brendan Hodgson's set) nor other attendees with public channels or pages. Stay tuned for more from the former Bear Hunters in the fall! Moving to the co-headliners, indie/country rock quartet Eli Russell & The River Fools did post a highlight video from their set to their Facebook page, as filmed by former Chunks of Manh/Soo Fighters bassist Max Ambeault. The video quality here is really nice, which makes the vertical orientation, short runtime, and lack of raw audio just as disappointing. What we get is solid with some nice views of the crowd though!

Still, I can only imagine what all Max shot for raw footage at Clergue Park last month, but click here to see Eli & crew in action regardless, if for 35 seconds! We'll finally close our Rotaryfest Stage 2 fallout by looking at this year's headliners, namely death metal trio Pillory, who drummer Bret Shuttleworth captured the entire set of via a stationary camera mounted beside 705Live Sound Co.'s tent, with the full video then being uploaded to his YouTube channel. In their last concert before a teased break to write for their next album, this 37 minutes-long set features Bret, Robert, and Devon playing their usual "End Of Small Sanctuary" intro track before diving into "Specimen Of Egotism", "Abhorred Apprehension", "The Curse Of Eternal Sickness", "The Angst Of Existence", "The Passing", their newest song "No Beyond", "A Drop Of Shame In An Ocean Of Guilt", and "The Stalker", before closing with a cover of Death's "Pull The Plug".

The resolution isn't super high, but everything sounds nice and brutal with a solid crowd turnout near the front of the stage, and it's still something of a trip to hear death metal on the Second Stage! Note the colour changing Pillory logo in the top left, but it's not in an intrusive place. Also, don't be too picky about the slightly crooked camera angle, remember that the tripod was mounted on the lawn. Give Pillory's entire headlining set a watch below!

Finally(?) from Rotaryfest, Bret just uploaded one more video from Pillory's set to his channel, featuring an attendee's footage of them playing "No Beyond" and "A Drop Of Shame In An Ocean Of Guilt", albeit with dead air removed in between. Note that Bret said in the description that this video was of "us debuting our two newest songs", even though "A Drop Of..." has been played live multiple times before last month. The video quality is much crisper, aided by the filmer being close to the stage, but the audio is definitely more muffled, so keep that in mind. Not a bad video of their recent material regardless, so give it a watch below!

To end things, we'll close today with a page that we alluded to in this past Monday's Rotaryfest post, namely local photography company Soo Lens, who snapped photos of Zed's headlining set on Stage 1 last month, but they actually debuted at Rotaryfest last year. Across photos and highlight videos (with dubbed audio in post in all cases) on their Facebook page, you can see their photos from Billy & Elton: The Legends, Bourbon Blue, and Who Made Who's 2025 Stage 1 sets, a number of performers at last year's Northern Vibe Festival (including HeadFirst on the Friday, multiple local bands on the salvaged replacement stage on Saturday after the storm, and a Roost River Stage DJ), September 2025's My Son The Hurricane concert, Mike Haggith's "Under A Moonlit Sky" concert at The Downtown Plaza, Afrofest at Soo Blaster, Silent 9 at Bon Soo's opening ceremonies, and Stones & Crows at Beck's Bar in June.

Soo Lens' photography is excellent and captures some great (if largely vertical) shots from the above concert events, which are the bulk of their content so far. Highlighting them in videos is a novel way to increase exposure beyond just individual photo albums, but remember, Soo Lens' videos are mostly slideshows with dubbed over audio rather than raw concert audio. A common opening lets us see their owner's arm outstretched pointing the camera at the stage, which still leaves me wondering what kind of videos they're filming with the second camera, and if there's anything there worth sharing. See above for more from Soo Lens, look for them at future local concerts, and here's their "Under A Moonlit Sky" video!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for a new news post on the SMS tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Aneurysm), Another Brimley Battle Of The Bands Video, And More!!

Our backlog is almost cleaned out, so to continue towards that goal, here's another news post to check out tonight, including one more video from a battle of the bands last year, some assorted shorter updates, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month, so here's what you should know!

It's been two & a half weeks of putting this show off amidst our severe backlog, but its number has finally been called, as Winnipeg-based Nirvana tribute band Aneurysm will make their local debut on Wednesday, September 23rd at Beck's Bar! The first Nirvana tribute in the Soo since The Pixo Control's one-off turn as Like A Pisces over a decade ago, this show actually has more in common with the Rush tribute concert at Reggie's in July 2022, in that the tribute band is the sister group for a touring original band who will be playing the opening set as themselves. In this case, the band is Winnipeg "nu grunge punk n' roll" quartet The Bloodshots, who alone would be an intriguing headliner here with their up-tempo melodic, yet in your face original sound that blurs genre lines, but they do Nirvana justice in available media, so fans of grunge and alt-rock should have a blast, work/school night scheduling acknowledged!

This concert will have a 9:00 PM start time in "Saulte Ste. Marie", it is 19+, and it will have a $10 cover charge (as best as I can tell, there won't be advance ticket sales). If you can swing a Wednesday nighter in late September, this should deliver the goods for Nirvana fans, let alone The Bloodshots' own entertaining originals, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details on all of next month's action!

Next up, I wanted to wrap up our look at Dafter, Michigan singer/guitarist Molly Escherich's videos from her sets at the Superior Whitefish Festival in Brimley, as we haven't talked about her "Music In The Park" acoustic set last year! Molly's solo unplugged sets don't lean as heavy as what she plays in bands (perhaps understandably), but she does throw in some hard rock covers in unplugged settings. Before she and The Other Guys played an abbreviated 10 minute long set in that evening's battle of the bands, Molly played a more standard 40 minute set in the afternoon, which was prefaced by the announcement by her mother Tiffany that she had won a major scholarship award for middle/high school music students, allowing her to afford the tuition at the Interlochen Academy For The Arts. She begins her second year there next month, and of course, belated congratulations to Molly on her success as she furthers her musical career and education downstate!

The actual set begins 5+ minutes in with covers of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band's "Still The Same", Radiohead's "Creep", and Eddie Rabbitt's "Drivin' My Life Away", before playing her own original song "Will This Last Forever". After tackling Cat Stevens' "The First Cut Is The Deepest" (perhaps the Sheryl Crow version?), Molly next plays her own original "Cheap Cologne" (which she played with The Other Guys in the battle later on), before finishing out with covers of Zach Bryan's "Something In The Orange", The Doobie Brothers' "Listen To The Music", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain", and Coldplay's "Yellow". If you're curious, all songs here except the four from "Creep" to "The First Cut..." were played in Molly's Music In The Park set this year. Also, only five songs here were clipped out as indivdual YouTube uploads, so use the links above to see everything.

I'm thinking that the other six didn't get singular uploads to minimize on banter with people off-stage and/or false starts/minor flubs, but for a then-13 year old who had just received extremely exciting news about her further education in music, I'm not inclined to be judgy. Molly performed well here, and covered a lot of musical ground in this set, so give her full 2025 acoustic Superior Whitefish Festival set a watch below!

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

 

• A bonus 16th act has been added to the Northern Vibe Festival's Forest Stage lineup this weekend, namely Darius McRae, a teenage acoustic singer/guitarist who you may recognize from local theatrical productions and from performing in Superior Heights Collegiate's student rock band Steel Rock at Rotaryfest Stage 1 in 2024 & 2025. How will he sound on his own? Be in Ophir this coming weekend to find out! The full two day schedule has been released, but as it's now short notice for us (as usual for this event), stay tuned for our extended Northern Vibe preview next week!
• In yet another example of a local band posting a Facebook "Story" that I can't embed or link to here, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Quite Frankly shared a brief vertical video of them covering The Arrows' "I Love Rock N' Roll" (well, the Joan Jett version) at last week's Outspoken Brewing concert. Actually, the show took place outdoors beside Outspoken, which is honestly for the best, as the space for concerts inside is very small, hence why you more hear of acoustic solo artists and DJs there. Hopefully the concert went well for the band and fans, even if I truly don't like the idea of "Stories"!
• Underground Events SSM posted a "Things To Do In The Soo" events listing on their Facebook page on August 15th featuring upcoming concerts from them and other promoters, even ones that haven't been formally unveiled yet. Of note, the second SOOpfest fundraiser will indeed be on September 19th (bands and location to be announced), and there will be a "mixed bill" Thanksgiving weekend concert on October 9th followed by a "metal show" on October 30th. If they're listing them without info, the latter two must be from Underground Events SSM too, so stay tuned for details on both!

 

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Generations & Greg Simpson) And New Videos!!

Today's post is half devoted to wrapping up our look at a local musician's recent original music output, but first, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, one on SHORT NOTICE!

Despite the cancellation of his planned Beck's Bar matinee gig tomorrow, you can still see Bone Yard 225 frontman Greg "The Ranting Rockstar" Simpson live this weekend, as he will be rocking The Dive Gastro Pub with a solo acoustic concert TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, Greg only announced this gig via his personal Facebook page earlier this evening, and at press time, The Dive has not corroborated this booking. As per Greg's post about the "uncorked" concert TOMORROW, this concert will be indoors in "the naughty corner" rather than on the patio, but regardless, if you like Bone Yard's acoustic concerts and enjoyed Greg's past solo dates (at The Dive or otherwise), keep TOMORROW'S concert in mind for some more entertsaining southern and hard rock covers! The Ranting Rockstar takes the stage at the former Low & Slow TOMORROW at 9:30 PM with a 19+ age limit and no announced cover charge. See above for more details, and here's Greg live earlier this month!

Next up, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will return to Gateway Casino for one night only (as usual there) on Saturday, September 12th! Drummer Tony Santoro newly announced this show on their Facebook group on Monday, and it marks their first show at the downtown casino since early August. Generations have been taking a few weeks off from the stage this month, aside from some fill-in gigs by Pierre and Tony, so if you've missed their, Valerie, and Joe's tried and tested batch of old school covers, go check them out next month (and this fall!) We already knew about their Reggie's Place gigs next weekend, so look for more in next week's round of weekend concert previews. The Gateway Casino show in three weeks is at 8:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge. See above for more details, and look for more from Generations on the SMS next week!

Finally for this post, let's conclude our look at Tym Morrison's recent original solo music from his YouTube channel! Six songs (with videos) were left to look at after our all-Tym post, and in this case,  all six songs/videos here reference socio-political issues and opinions that may be seen as divisive, so I won't comment on the bulk of the lyrics or views here (this isn't that kind of site). Also, remember that Tym uses some AI-generated imagery in his videos, but he wrote and sang every part of the actual songs, give or take some spoken word sections from included videos. All uploaded 2-3 weeks ago, the oldest of the six videos is for "The Harvest", referencing the joyous harvests as seen in the Bible, but the video imagery gets heavier than the song, let's say. Musically, it showcases his guitar skills well, but it's deceptively laid back and mid-tempo. Next is "Save The World", which is about his view on vaccines, and that's all I'll say there.

The song itself is livelier and a little heavier with fuller guitar riffs but it can be a tad repetitive structurally. Lyrically, the next song ("The Right Side Of History") is very much on the same track for its messaging and video content. Musically, it is the heaviest of the three songs yet with strong guitar soloing and energetic, melodic singing, so fans of his older metal material will enjoy the instrumental aspect! "Declassified" focuses on Tym's take on political corruption and declassifying government documents, and this song has an Iced Earth vibe to it at points (if that's fair) with well programmed percussion and good melodies. "The Calm Before The Storm", is about child trafficking, and it goes from there. In terms of the music, it's an intense 1980s-inspired metal song that old Hollow and Carbon Black fans will like on that basis.

The last of the six songs is "COVID-19", and you can guess what that song is about from the title. Tym's vocals come off a little like early-1990s Dave Mustaine with how he approaches the verses here, and while not his fastest or most freewheeling original, it gets the job done as a composition. Tym's songwriting and vocal abilities are definitely present across these songs, but all deal with political, social, or public health content that I really don't want to get into here, so just keep that in mind whether you'd be inclined to agree with the viewpoints or not. Give them a listen/watch above if you want, and that's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS this weekend as our backlog shrinks down! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Stones & Crows), Weekend Concert Previews, And More!!

Before we begin our second weekend concert preview post, just a heads up that Beck's Bar briefly advertised Bone Yard 225 frontman Greg "The Ranting Rockstar" Simpson as playing their Sunday matinee timeslot this weekend, but he has quietly dropped out for unannounced reasons, and was replaced by Whiskey Hippy. Greg will be back, with and without your local 225, but hopefully nothing too serious happened with him and/or the venue! Now, here's what you should know for the rest of this weekend's hard rock concert previews, starting with a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!

New local hard/blues rock quartet Stones & Crows will return to Beck's Bar for one night only on SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the band first announced the show on their Facebook page on July 24th, then said it was cancelled due to "scheduling reasons" a day later, only to re-confirm it on the same day this past Friday. As such, disregard their newest black & white promotional video claiming this show as a "last minute announcement", as we have known about if for almost four weeks in fits and starts! This will be the first concert from the Electric Church successors since they rocked Rotaryfest Stage 2 last month, and their first at Beck's since July 3rd, and hopefully the guys deliver a fun evening of originals and covers, as fans have came to expect so far this year! Bukky, Nikki, and Tony take the stage at 9:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge as usual.

Fresh off of playing with The Big Finish Band at tonight's Downtown Street Party, Drifters frontwoman and karaoke host Elly McWatters will play a solo country rock set as the 3:00 PM matinee performer on SATURDAY, but as usual, she isn't "opening" for Stones & Crows. See above for more details, and for a preview, here's a new video of Stones & Crows from their Facebook page last month! This video features the guys playing four 10 second snippets of live covers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rolling Stones songs among them, and while I'd far prefer full songs (let alone in colour, and not heavily letterboxed), it does give a reasonable preview of songs you might hear on SATURDAY NIGHT, so give it a watch for yourselves below!

Next up, let's head south to Michigan for some E.U.P. shows (all of which had advance notice), starting with Traverse City classic metal trio Peril's second and final headlining gig for 2026 at American Legion Park in St. Ignace TOMORROW NIGHT! Just over two weeks removed from their rare Thursday gig in our neck of the woods for St. Ignace's Music By The Bay concert series, Jeff, Howard, and Brooks will rock the park one more time before things wrap up next month, though the series runs daily until Labour Day. With future shows at the Soo Kewadin in flux (more on that in a second), time will tell when we next see Peril north of the Mackinac Bridge after tomorrow, so don't bypass this concert if you like old school metal and hard rock covers, and will be in the region! Music By The Bay shows are all at 7:00 PM with 90 minute run times, they're definitely all ages, and have no cover charge. 

9&10 News is calling for cloudy skies tomorrow with a 30% chance of rain in the 8:00 PM hour, so while the rain and lightning is expected to peak overnight, consider some rain provisions if you're coming to American Legion Park (the stage has a roof for the bands' sake, at least). Temperatures are expected to be in the 69-71° (21-22° Celsius) range. Visit the above links for more on Peril's outdoor St. Ignace show, and here they are live!

Also this weekend, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Tarnished will play The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino for the final times TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Don't worry, Tarnished are alive and well, but they said on their Facebook page on Tuesday that The Rapids Lounge "is being remodeled this fall". You may recall that Kewadin had announced a series of renovations at their five casinos in this press release, which did confirm a planned new sports bar for the Soo branch, The press release says that construction of the sports bar (with virtual game bays!) will begin in "summer 2027", with the demolition of the casino's original East Wing structure beginning this fall also, so that may explain an extended closure from live concerts before the replacement lounge actually gets built. Kewadin's entertainment page lists bands at The Rapids Lounge through the end of September, but time will tell if they happen as scheduled.

That doesn't necessarily portend the real timeline for the end of The Rapids Lounge, as St. Ignace's Northern Pines Lounge also only goes that far for their own scheduled bands at press time. We'll keep you posted when more is known about Kewadin's new sports bar, but when you compare The Rapids Lounge to The Northern Pines Lounge, it never looked as detailed and modern, so this should be good in the long term. Don't miss Tarnished two last times there tomorrow & Saturday! Their hard rocking and old school covers are up at 9:00 PM with 21+ age limits and no cover. See above for more details, and for a preview, here's Tarnished live!

Finally for this weekend's known hard rock concert previews, we'll head to Three One Three On Ashmun, as local hardcore punk trio Viscera will be headliining there on SATURDAY NIGHT! Interesting timing in the sense that the Yooper Frankenstein premiere at LSSU is also on Saturday (frontman "Blind" Bob Quinn worked on the soundtrack for the film), but hopefully both events have a good crowd, and that Viscera devastate local fans with their hard rocking and socially charged sound once again! Continuing their recent positive relationships with musicians from the Western U.P., Marquette indie rock/power pop band Addicus will make their local debut on Saturday, and while not as heavy as Viscera can get, this female fronted group should make some fans out east with their well written and upbeat original material! The other opener is a project named Needhealer, so who are they?

As best as I can tell, Needhealer is a new DIY lo-fi project led by former Pick-Me-Ups bassist Trevor Yake, who primarily sings and plays keyboard here. You can hear his debut synthwave "EP" on Soundcloud, and it'll be interesting to hear how this translates at the former Back Door! Regardless, this is shaping up to be an intriguing genre mix. Presented by Viscera's own Soo Tang Records, this show goes down on Saturday at 7:00 PM, it is an 18+ event, and admission is $10 in advance through Viscera members or $15 at the door. Visit the above links for more on this explosive night of original music, and for a preview, here's the headliners live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for a new news post on the site next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Soundcheck & Dos Amigos), A Concert Cancellation, And Related Updates!!

Before we get into this weekend's concert previews, just a heads up that tonight's Angelmaker-headlined concert at Blaster Powerhouse has been cancelled. Local promoters Heavy North Entertainment finally confirmed on Tuesday that it wasn't taking place, though Angelmaker quietly dropped the show from their tour routing at some point between July 15th and 31st, and H.N.E. hadn't promoted it on social media since July 8th. As well, tickets never went on sale for the local date, and the search for local opening bands had no public follow-through. A reason for the cancellation wasn't announced, but note that Heavy North Entertainment haven't hosted a concert since late last year, though company head Tyler St. Amour has played occasional solo concerts in recent months. It is worth noting that North Carolina deathcore band Larcenia Roe were tapped to replace Disfiguring The Goddess on tour, which was quietly confirmed in the local advertising. 

The cancellation is very unfortunate, especially as local promotion was hyping this as "the ultimate metal concert", but the lack of postings about the show for over a month was a tell that something was up, and even with no tickets to refund, Heavy North should have announced the cancellation well sooner than they did. Hopefully nothing too serious happened with Tyler or the bands, and that Angelmaker, Ingested, and Larcenia Roe try again here down the road, as deathcore fans were interested in coming out!

This post otherwise dives into the first half of this weekend's concert previews, and we'll look at this weekend's Stones & Crows, Peril, Tarnished, and Viscera shows in our next preview post due to this being a busier stretch. Today's all involve LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, mostly SHORT NOTICE ones, and we'll start at Northern Superior Brewing Co., where local acoustic punk cover duo Dos Amigos will play at their on-site Tap Room TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the band only confirmed this show via their Instagram-only schedule poster last week, and Northern Superior have not corroborated this booking on their own social media at press time. No major frills or tie-ins that I am aware of TOMORROW, but fresh off of their Canopy gig with BookcluB at the Downtown Street Party tonight, hopefully Mikey & Dustin deliver some solid unplugged punk favourites in the Tap Room!

Note that I am well aware that Northern Superior are teasing the return of Wolf Fest at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion on Saturday, September 12th, complete with a promotional video featuring Trish Rainone in character as Jan from Jan's Not Movin!, but we await an official announcement of the lineup and other events in three weeks. TOMORROW'S Dos Amigos concert is at 8:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge, and if you can't make it, they have three shows in three days next week. See above for more details, and here's Dustin & Mikey live at The Tap Room!

Finally, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will rock Jay's Piston Broke Pub TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT, and they'll also return to The Water Tower Pub on Friday, August 28th! Again, apologies for the short notice on TOMORROW & SATURDAY'S concerts, they were first announced via this AI-generated events calendar for this week on Jay's Facebook page (Soundcheck have not posted on their own Facebook page since early May). While ostensibly a normal weekend now that the guys are back from their Chapleau road trip, this weekend's shows come fresh off of the news that they are parting ways with bassist Jim Michaud (a.k.a. "Jimmy Sweetz"). The news was revealed on their sister band Separate Wayz' Facebook page on Tuesday, where their singer Nicole Thibodeau confirmed that Jim is amicably retiring from both groups, and "band line up announcements for both bands (are) coming soon". 

Best known for his near two-decade run as Obsession's bassist, Jim replaced Paul Belair in Soundcheck at the beginning of 2023, and he had been a constant presence in Terry Eaton's plugged in cover rock bands ever since, including Separate Wayz and the short-lived Guilty Party. What's unclear is who is playing bass at Jay's TOMORROW & SATURDAY... is Jim hanging on short term? Will they debut the new bassist this weekend? Will there be a temporary fill-in, or even no bassist? Regardless, hopefully Jim enjoys time away from the live grind, and if he is definitely retiring from bands, he will be missed! For the record, next week's Water Tower Pub show was announced via that venue's August concert calendar, and it is a one-nighter as usual there (Bone Yard 225 go "uncorked" there next Saturday). These are all branded as Soundcheck-only gigs and not "epic crossovers", but of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that Nicole won't pop in.

Terry, Travis, Johnny, and ?????'s Jay's Piston Broke Pub shows are at 9:30 PM, next Friday's Water Tower Pub concert is at 8:00 PM, and all are 19+ with no cover (though I somehow doubt that Soundcheck all wear fedoras and look alike nowadays, based on Jay's AI poster). Visit the above links for more on all three new Soundcheck dates (TOMORROW & SATURDAY included), best of luck to Jim in the future, and here's Soundcheck live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for the rest of this weekend's hard rock concert previews either tonight or early tomorrow! Thanks everyone!