Dopethrone/Tribunal Concert Video Showcase!!

We haven't had a post 100% devoted to Sault Ontario since Wednesday, and it feels like longer given how many posts we've already has this month, so let's continue clearing out the backlog with a post dedicated to videos from a recent concert! In this case, this is one of the three recent SMS-leaning concerts attended by prolific YouTube user Christopher Paci that got backed up in recent weeks, as he was at Jay's Piston Broke Pub for the Dopethrone-headlined concert there on May 25th. While he only filmed seven videos at this Memorial Day concert, all four bands were filmed at least once, with the headlining Montreal "slutch metal" trio getting three videos on the evening. During their first local set in seven years, Chris filmed Dopethrone playing "Snort Dagger" and "Scum Fuck Blues" (featuring Tribunal guitarist Jessica Yang and Shit Liver frontman/promoter Josh Penno on guest vocals).

Embedded below is by far the longest of the three Dopethrone videos, which sees them playing their song "Dry Hitter". If you like your doom (er, "slutch") metal as slow and punishing as possible, you'll be glad to know that Dopethrone haven't lost a step in that regard since their 2019 date at The New A, and they hit all of the extreme notes while keeping things sludgy and low. Solid crowd too, so give Chris' Dopethrone videos a look!

Co-headlining in May was Vancouver gothic/doom metal quintet Tribunal in their local concert debut, and Chris filmed them playing their lengthy songs "A Wound Unhealing" and, as embedded below, "Incardine". Very distinct and eerie yet well layered and orchestral sound from Tribunal, who definitely looked like they left their mark on fans at the former Roosevelt Hotel in May, so give Chris' videos from their set a look above and below as well!

For the two local opening bands, Chris shot a video each, and one was of the one-off reunion of local grindcore trio Shit Liver in their first concert appearance since the Dopethrone show here in 2019. This was just a 15 minute bonus set and not a full reunion (Josh is busy leading The Golden Scoundrels nowadays), so Chris' video constitutes almost a third of this set. Two songs are played here, namely "Evacuation" from their 2018 album "Hitting The Fan" before an abbreviated cover of fellow local doom staples AlgomA's "Fell Down A Well", which Shit Liver covered on 2017's "Trading Faces" split. AlgomA's last show was also at the 2019 Dopethrone gig, so this was a cool nod to Boyd, Kevin, and Jamie in absentia! It is odd to see Josh playing these songs with short hair, but it must have been cathartic for him, Mike, and Matt to revisit their blistering 2010s chaos one more time, and fans definitely ate it up, so give this video a watch for yourselves below!

Finally, the opening band here was a band that Shit Liver know very well in and out of this Korah Road nightclub, as relaunched and renamed local death metal quartet Eden Plague (the former Bear Hunters) played their first show under the new name on this night! Chris filmed them playing most of "Bloodthirst", though unfortunately, he didn't film the minute-long instrumental intro. While not one of the new Eden Plague originals, there is something fitting about seeing Nik, Mitch, Justin, and Johnny on The Rosie's stage, with that infamous pole, playing an early Bear Hunters staple once again all these years later, so give this brutal performance a watch below!

There's more to look at from Chris' channel as of late, but how soon will we have more of his recent hard rock/metal concert videos? Hopefully we'll know more soon, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS this week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Soundcheck) & Sault Ontario Weekend Concert Previews!!

For our last post of April 2026, let's look at most of this weekend's hard rock concert previews! Due to the amount (though we have seen busier weekends), I'll hold our preview of Saturday night's Bimbo-headlined concert in Sault Michigan for tomorrow's news post. Now, here's what you should know in Sault Ontario this weekend in a hard rock/punk context, starting with SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!

Local classic/hard rock cover sister bands Soundcheck and Separate Wayz will join forces for another "epic crossover" weekend, this time at The Esquire Club TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, these shows were only announced via Separate Wayz' Facebook page on Tuesday, though note that the venue has not corroborated the bookings on social media. Marking their first joint appearance together since rocking Beck's Bar a month ago, TOMORROW & SATURDAY'S shows will be Soundcheck's first at this Second Line West staple since they played there in February, albeit with no crossover, as Separate Ways singer Nicole Thibodeau was ill that weekend (the shows were originally planned for solely Separate Wayz, but Travis bailed them out on short notice for Soundcheck gigs instead). Of course, remember that the two bands have a 75% identical lineup, just swap Travis for Nicole.

Good to see Terry, Jim, Johnny, and both singers together again for what should be a stacked pair of classic and hard rock shows, so keep both in mind TOMORROW & SATURDAY! Both are 9:30 PM affairs at 9:30 PM with no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Soundcheck live!

Next up, here's some shows that did have advance notice before Tuesday, starting with a rare punk concert at The Speak Easy at Algoma University, where Flint, Michigan-based ska punk band The Write-Ups will make their local concert debut TOMORROW NIGHT! A spiritual successor to the Quit It! concert at the same venue last fall (if with much better promotion), The Write-Ups have the ska bonafides (including a horn section) and socially charged lyrics to go along with a fun and bouncy brand of punk rock that subgenre fans should easily take to tomorrow, so welcome them north of the border in style! Fittingly, newer local ska punk trio A.S.D.P. will be the local openers in their debut at Algoma University's campus pub, and expect their own original cuts to set the mood right! This is the newest promoted concert from A.S.D.P. frontman Mikhal Muto's agency Underground Events SSM.

This stop on The Write-Ups' "Up North Weekender" is an all ages concert (yes, The Speak Easy is licensed), doors open at 7:00 PM, and admission is $15 for general attendees and $10 for current Algoma University students with valid student ID. If you love ska punk, you don't want to miss out on this one, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here are The Write-Ups live late last year!

Also this weekend, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Quite Frankly will return to Beck's Bar for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Fresh off of their debut at Gateway Casino last week, this will be Linsaey, Frank, Harley, and Joe's first stop at the Goulais Avenue nightclub of 2026, having played one of their first post-reunion gigs there in November. The band promises "another night of great energy & your favourite hits", and who am I to doubt that kind of claim? Their blend of accessible but often heavy covers can be seen at the former Vibe Lounge tomorrow at 9:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge. In the increasingly frequent cases where Beck's hosts a band on Fridays rather than a DJ, they don't double up a band on both nights, so Saturday night's band there are classic rock trio The Sidekicks. Visit the above links for more on tomorrow's concert, and here's Quite Frankly live!

Finally for this preview post, prolific local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will return to Misty's Fifties for his second matinee concert there of the spring on SATURDAY! After ending his 2+ month break from concerts at this Second Line West pub in mid-April, this will be the first of three May matinee concerts at Misty's for Tym, so if you're up for a few hours of unplugged rock covers from this veteran talent, then head west on Saturday! Tym will be back every other week for the rest of the month, and we await a public announcement of his schedule at Misty's (and elsewhere) for the summer and beyond. This Saturday matinee concert goes down at 4:00 PM with a presumed 19+ age limit and no announced cover charge. It's great to see Tym back on a more normal schedule after his finger healed up, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here he is live! 

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Write-Ups), Mammoth Concert Updates, And More!!

For this Tuesday night post, we're mostly looking at Sault Michigan updates, including a new video interview and updates relating to a big upcoming concert and some more assorted notes, but we'll start in Sault Ontario with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this spring!

Ska punk fans will want to circle Friday, May 1st on your calendars, as Flint, Michigan ska-punk band The Write-Ups will make their local concert debut that night at The Speak Easy at Algoma University! Not the first time that we've seen an touring punk band from the USA cross the border for a show here (promoter Mikhal Muto brought a handful of Michigan folk punk bands here last year), but The Write-Ups deliver a suitably bouncy brand of ska punk fuelled with politicially charged and social cause-driven lyrics, and (as you'd hope) a horn section, so they should whet the appetites of subgenre fans! Fittingly, the local openers are newer ska punk trio A.S.D.P. (who Mikhal is the frontman of), and while they don't play live super regularly, expect some fun cuts from their debut EP "Atom Bombs & Lemonade" to kick things off! This is the first concert to cross our radar at The Speak Easy since another touring political punk band (Quit It!) played there in October.

Put on by Mikhal's new agency Underground Events SSM, this will be an all ages concert with doors opening at 7:00 PM, and admission will be $15 at the door or $10 for current Algoma University students with valid student ID (I have not seen any reference to advance tickets being sold online or in person). This should be a fun way to kick off the merry merry month of May, so visit the above links for more details on this concert!

Next up, here's some cool promotion for this Saturday's Mammoth concert at The Dreammakers Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino that I wanted to address without clogging up our next round of weekend concert previews. As some of you may have heard live, Rock 101's Scott Cook interviewed frontman Wolfgang Van Halen on air on his weekday morning drive show Scott Cook In The Morning on March 6th! This is far from a unique occasion, but it's rare when The Sault's Rock Station posts interviews to check out on demand on social media, so kudos to Scott for conducting this and uploading it to Rock 101's Facebook page. The 11+ minute Zoom interview features Scott asking Wolf about how Mammoth's current tour is going, seeing him live out of town with both Mammoth and Van Halen, his family ties (including his uncle in Charlevoix), his uncle Alex Van Halen's current album plans...

...how he handles recording everything on Mammoth albums vs. playing the songs live with a band, their recent Billboard rock chart success, the inspirations of his song lyrics, and what to expect at the concert on Saturday, plus some more casual conversation. Pretty good interview with loose and friendly banter, and Wolfgang came off well here, so this is good hype for the big show in four days' time! Give it a watch below, especially if you missed the live airing of the interview on 101.3 FM!

I did want to note before we move on that promoters Allstar Promotions briefly had a post on Facebook last week indicating that this may be their final major show at The Dreammakers Theatre due to the costs of putting these shows on, coupled with how ticket sales had been going, but when I went back to their Facebook page to source from it, I couldn't find the post. I assume they took it down, but whether they're reassessing what was said (if not just the tone of it), I don't know. Putting on concerts of this scale isn't cheap, and for modern hard rock, Allstar Promotions are by far the biggest facilitator for bringing said bands here, so regardless of if they plan to put on shows beyond Mammoth or not, I do thank Dave & crew for all they have done over the past decade & a half! If you are curious, center section seats for Saturday night's concert are sold out, but there are still left/right section seats available from the sixth-tenth row ($54.50) and in further rows ($44.50) at this link, in person, or at 1-800-KEWADIN. Stay tuned for our full preview in a few days!

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:

 

• I have regrettably removed the recently disbanded Double Down from our inactive Sault Ontario band links due to the recent deletion of both of their Facebook pages, which were their only online pages. It's never ideal when bands take down their pages after breaking up, as it pulls any official public content and media there offline for everyone, but alas, what can I do? I can only hope that the classic/hard rock cover band's breakup was more amicable than the sudden nature and social media exodus may indicate, and that we see everyone in new bands in due course!
• If you noticed that defunct Sault Michigan hard rock quintet Double Jack (better known as Exit 808) are listed on Kewadin Casino's entertainment page as playing at The Northern Pines Lounge in St. Ignace on April 3rd & 4th, that is assuredly an old booking from before their early 2024 name change, and not even the first time that the St. Ignace Kewadin listed a "Double Jack" booking there after their breakup, as they previously did so in December too. This is good proof that some venues can and do book bands for lengthy periods in advance, but hopefully Kewadin gets an active band to fill in over the Easter long weekend!
• Local hard rock cover band Unfortunate Sun teased in their new cover photo on their Facebook page that they may be dropping "Sun" from their band name, and while most of the comments were jokey, this would be a way to signal a fresh start following singer Skip Parish's departure from the band earlier this month. Unfortunate (Sun?) haven't made a formal statement otherwise, but their lineup listed there now credits Jody, Brett, and Jason as all providing vocals. Time will tell if they're all indeed splitting those duties going forward or not, but we'll keep you posted!

 

That's all for today, but stay tuned for news, features, and previews ahead! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Quit It!), Upcoming Album Teasers, And New Videos!!

 Here's a new news post for this Sunday morning, which includes some varied new videos, upcoming album details on both sides of the border, and leading off, a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT that completely slipped me by until now, so here's what you should know!

Calgary "socio-political anthemic punk" band Quit It! will make their local concert debut TONIGHT at The Speak Easy at Algoma University! I profusely apologize for the short notice, I only heard about this show this morning via this SooToday article which went live on October 9th, though the Facebook event page went live late last month. I'm assuming this fell through the cracks because the SooToday article was "sponsored content", let alone that TONIGHT's show appears to have no local openers (the poster saying "bands" acknowledged), but remember that The Speak Easy only infrequently hosts SMS-amenable bands, with this being the first such punk/hard rock event since Mean Bikini played there in 2023. Touring in support of their new album "Through The Debris", Quit It! have an explosive and politically charged sound that left-leaning punk fans will appreciate, and their DIY approach and clear talents and energy will definitely lend themselves well to drawing a good response from fans at Algoma University TONIGHT!

If there is an opening band, they are uncredited in public press. A 7:00 PM start time is in effect for TONIGHT'S concert, which has admission at the door of $15 for general audiences and $10 for Algoma students with valid student ID. As best as I can tell, this is an all ages event. Being on a work/school night for most may not be ideal, but Quit It! are worth checking out for sure, and if this goes well, it might not be two years before The Speak Easy brings another touring punk band here! Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Quit It! live last month!

Next up, here's the latest from local metal trio The BAG, who had been radio silent for the past three months, so what have they been up to? Well, on Thursday, they revealed on their new Facebook page that they have finished mixing and mastering their debut album! To my recollection, they hadn't even announced that they were entering the studio (despite having multiple originals in their live sets), so this is a welcome surprise! I was worried that Spencer joining the Sault Side Squad was a bad omen for The BAG's future, but no cause for alarm there! The album will be named "Sacculus", which is a sensory cell in the inner ear and some some insects' antenna, and the painted cover artwork by Elly Grawbarger depicts a battle between a cthulhu and a lava monster (possibly a cherufe?) near a volcano, with the band rocking out at the foot of it. Further details on the track listing, release formats, and more lie ahead, but check out more updates from The BAG above!

Also, let's start playing catch up on what new Sault Michigan hard rock trio Crush have been up to beyond what we have covered of theirs on the site already! Since launching, this band has picked up both the original music responsibilities and the jokey/parody social media promotion angle that Alex, Josh, and Isaac's other/old band Tarnished have largely shelved since they shifted to a covers-only focus last summer, and that is very clear if you follow Crush's Facebook page. On August 6th, they shared this video of the guys going to Dunham's Sports at the Cascade Crossings strip mall, where guitarist Josh Fair bought his first gun, followed by the guys taking it to a field to do some practice shooting. The visual content here isn't really SMS-relevant beyond who's starring, but there is humour to be had! And remember, this is Michigan, everything with the rifle was done legally and safely. However, the music will be of note regardless!

Added in post are demos of Crush's original songs "No Way", "Intoxicated", and "Too Close", and the end-of-video caption notes that they have an "album coming soon". I had my suspicions watching this video that they were in studio in some form, so it's nice to get some public clarification, and it will be interesting to hear how things are coming along! Give Crush's day of gun fun (and the new demos, albeit as background music) a look below!

Finally, here's a new video from Sault Ontario classic rock cover duo Frankly Speaking's concert at Beck's Bar on Wednesday! This special mid-week show was one of their "Rock On To The Sound Of Change" events that generally isn't billed to the Frankly Speaking name (rather "Frank & Frank" or "Frankeeproductions"), and in this format, they pay homage to rock classics in a historical context and how those songs/bands inspired social change. Generally, the Franks don't lean heavier as far as the SMS goes but they certainly have hard rock covers in their back pocket that we have featured here in prior posts. This video was shared to 705Live Sound Co.'s Facebook page from singer/guitarist Frank Gioia's personal Facebook page, and it features him and keyboardist Frank Greco covering the opening ballad verses of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", with a silent video of Queen playing behind them.

What we get here looks and sounds good, even with the hyper-narrow widescreen orientation, and it is interesting seeing a themed special concert set like this from a local band that gets treated as a bigger deal! Some readers may recall "Rock On To The Sound Of Change" being performed at Rotaryfest Stage 1 last year, albeit without a video screen. Give Frankly Speaking's partial Queen cover a watch below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

Bone Yard 225 Concert Previews, Northern Vibe Festival Lineup Updates, And More!!

This weekend's slate of hard rock concert previews is very quiet, possibly a calm after the storm (so to speak) following the Civic Holiday weekend. I had only seen publically advertised hard rock shows from two acts so far, and one has quietly been cancelled, as Tym Morrison is not playing at Beck's Bar tomorrow afternoon despite still advertising the matinee show on his own Facebook event page. Rather, former Soundcheck singer/guitarist Cameron Oliver has the honours as he continues his local farewell run before his teased move to Nashville. Keep that in mind for country fans, and while I don't know what happened with Tym's show there, he is scheduled to return to Beck's on September 28th, and he will be live again next week!

As such, here's this weekend's only known hard rock previews, as southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 have a split weekend with two very different shows, starting with their one-night-only return to Reggie's Place TONIGHT! After spending most of July on the road or at festivals, this will be their first show at the venerable Queen Street East nightclub since late June, and hopefully Greg, Alex, and Warren keep the good vibes going with this latest "sermon"! If you want to enjoy their southern fried rock covers (and three originals) indoors this weekend, this is your sole chance, as their concert on SATURDAY NIGHT is very different, namely their role as headliners of Algoma Tree Services' community meet & greet for a second straight year! After replacing Soundcheck as this event's featured act last year, your local 225 are back at the company's Goulais River headquarters on Saturday for this publically attendable event.

This annual event will feature a charity barbecue as well as a bonfire, a meet & greet with Algoma Tree Services staff, and family activities, so there will be a lot to take in! Like last year, classic rock veterans Angry Joe & The Growlers (who have been playing this event longer than Bone Yard) will open the proceedings at 1:30 PM before "the dirty three" headline at 7:00 PM. This is a free event at 1313 Haviland Shores Drive, and 9&10 News is currently calling for weather ranging from 25-29° tomorrow, with mostly cloudy skies. However, be advised that there is a 30% chance of rain during Bone Yard 225's scheduled 7:00-11:30 PM timeslot, so keep tabs on your preferred weather forecast for updates. Tonight's Reggie's show is at 9:30 PM with no cover charge and a 19+ age limit, and if you're curious, country music veteran Leslie Cook will be playing at Reggie's tomorrow night.

Visit the above links for more on both Bone Yard shows this weekend, and for a preview, here's a new video from their Kirkland Lake show to close last month's Stéphane Léveillé Memorial Poker Run there! Live-streamed by attendee Marcy Catherine (so you have until Wednesday to see it unless she converts it to a regular video) and shared to their Facebook page, this features the guys covering Golden Earring's "Radar Love" at their Royal Canadian Legion hall, and true to form for their live renditions, the 9:49 length is apt! Sadly, this video is vertical (let alone a now-time limited livestream), but Greg and crew are in fine rocking form in this rare stop at his hometown, and fans were definitely into it, so check everything out below!

Next up, here's some lineup clarifications for the Northern Vibe Festival's Forest Stage over the August 23rd weekend in nearby Ophir! First, regarding debuting local alternative/punk quartet Spun Out, I can confirm that their guitarist is Joe Skouris, a relative newcomer to local bands. Thanks to bassist Ryan Disano (an alum of Caveman Morrison like frontman Dean Duguay is) for confirming his identity with me earlier this week! As for the drummer, as best as I can tell, it's Disciples Of Rock/Stoned To Deaf alum Jamie Labreche behind the kit. Joe's an unknown yet, but this should be a solidly talented band, so keep them in mind in two weeks! The advertised Josh Norling Psycho Jazz Infusion have been renamed to The Josh Norling Quartet, with this promotional image from the festival's Facebook page confirming that they play jazz and standards, while downplaying the prior psycho branding. With they & SoundSxvad both getting fresh confirmations of their festival involvement this week, who is left?

Of the bands from April's tentative lineup, Northern Vibe organizers still have not plugged touring bands Hellrager and Don't Tell Sarah and locals Rob Speers, The CSWS Crew, and "Benny's Acoustic Thing" anew, so if Spun Out have replaced one of the five, we'll likely learn in due course based on who isn't freshly promoted with a new promotional picture or shared link (this is how the festival lineup was officially confirmed last year too, if not the days and timeslots until that week). Stay tuned for more when it rolls in!

Finally, here's a new jam session video from Sault Michigan hard rock/punk trio About:Blank's Facebook page in May! Apologies for the delay in this making the site, especially as it features the guys working on a new original song named "Why". This video isn't the easiest thing to watch for two reasons: non-ideal band member placement (we're staring behind Parker for most of it, who is completely obscuring Kade from view), and the baffling decision to upload this horizontal video into vertical letterboxed dimensions, rendering it tiny. How do so many bands upload videos like that? However, About:Blank sound good here, and Parker lets off some impressive screams late in this 72 second sampler, which kinda sounds grungier than I'm used to them sounding from prior videos. We still have (at least) two live concert videos of theirs to share in upcoming posts, but check out their "Why" jam for yourselves below!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Bone Yard 225) & A Locally Relevant Cover Song!!

Today's post covers a bunch of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS from a prominent local band as they book up their remaining dates for the summer, while a cover of local note ends things. Here's what you should know!

While local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 aren't playing at Rotaryfest again this year, they're staying busy with new show announcements for next month, so where can you see Greg, Alex, and Warren in August? All of these shows were announced on the band's website's calendar, and follow two private gigs and two tour dates, one being at Thessalon's Community Days on August 1st and the other actually already having taken place, that being the Motorcycle Poker Run in Kirkland Lake (a whopping 7 hours northeast of the Soo) this past Saturday. Props to them for supporting the cause and making that far of a drive! Frontman Greg Simpson used to live in Kirkland Lake, and he even did a radio interview with CJKL 101.5 on their morning drive show the previous day too. In terms of the new concerts, Bone Yard's next local date will take place on Friday, August 8th when they rock Reggie's Place!

The guys will also headline there on August 29th & 30th for the Labour Day long weekend, so fans of this prominent downtown venue will like that your local 225 are returning there a few times next month! If you're wondering why Bone Yard aren't playing at Reggie's on Saturday the 9th, it's because they are returning as the headliners at this year's Algoma Tree Services community meet & greet/charity barbecue that night! Like last year, expect Bone Yard to rock out at 7:00 PM with classic rock veterans Angry Joe & The Growlers also returning as the lead-off band at 1:30 PM, and alongside the music and food, there will be family activities, a staff meet & greet, and a bonfire. Keep this public outdoor event in mind at 1424 Haviland Shores Drive in Goulais River next month! After another Thessalon road trip (a second straight gig at the Aubrey Falls Trading Post Pig Roast), they have two charity gigs lined up in late August.

On Thursday, August 21st, "the dirty three" will perform at the Cruisin’ To End MS motorcycle show at the newer A&W at 659 Great Northern Road, so hopefully the weather holds up for this outdoor fundraiser event for multiple sclerosis! Expect some vendors and refreshments along with MS Canada donations and promotions, plus the bike show, far from the first such event that Bone Yard 225 have been involved in at a local A&W. Lastly for their August calendar, Bone Yard will rock the returning Dragonfly Run motorcycle rally for the Algoma Regional Community Hospice on Sunday, August 24th, as it returns for its third year since rebranding from the Ride For ARCH and second at its current homebase at The Grand Gardens North. Bone Yard remain heavily involved in the Dragonfly Run's organization, and this special charity concert should also feature family activities, vendors, a silent auction, and games like last year, though keep tabs for updates.

No word yet on the full band schedule, but last year, Bone Yard played at 5:00 PM sandwiched between Mid Life Crysis and the recently-dormant The Haze, with bands beginning at 2:00 PM. Only the Reggie's shows next month are 19+ with 9:30 PM start times. The Algoma Tree Services event begins at 1:30 with Bone Yard at 7:00 PM, and the A&W sets begin at 6:00 PM. Visit the above links for more on Bone Yard 225's end-of-summer schedule as their hard rocking "sermons" continue march onward!

We'll close this post with a nod to tomorrow night's cancelled Headstones show at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion, as I was saving a cover of theirs with a local relevance for our preview of the event. Alas, I was writing up the preview when I found out that the concert was off! In 2019, the Kingston punk/alternative veterans recorded a cover of Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" as a non-album single. Of course, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sunk in Whitefish Bay in 1975, just 15 miles from the Soo, and the ship's loss remains a vivid memory for many in the Twin Saults and area almost 50 years later. While Hugh Dillon and crew aren't local, their website's page on the cover notes that they found the original song "profoundly meaningful", and it got strong feedback from fans when it was played at VIP soundchecks. For the single release, they even shot an official music video for the cover, so what should you know there?

In the video, Headstones members are seen walking across ice covered waters while footage of ships, shorelines, and the wreck itself are seen in between, eventually transitioning to the band performing outside at nighttime. The cover is very Headstonesy and would fit in well with their original radio hits, and drives around at a steady clip that rocks up the song but doesn't distract from the somber tone. The harmonica comes in at a good time too! Whether The Headstones would have covered the song here tomorrow, I don't know (Setlist.fm last logs them playing it in a regular set in 2023), but the local relevance is noted regardless. Check out The Headstones' Gordon Lightfoot cover below!

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

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: AlgomA

It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, as we again check out a local metal, hard rock, or punk act from the past in order to profile their run and activity for modern readers! This month's randomly selected band is one of the most prominent metal bands to come out of the Algoma District in the 2010s, so here's what you should know on them!

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AlgomA

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Genre: Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal

Lineup: (The stage names were primarily used in social media postings in 2013-2014, and were dropped outright by 2015)

"Marty Chase" Kevin Campbell (BeeFMouTH), vocals/bass
"Darby Wigwaus" Boyd Rendell (Molten Imp), vocals/guitar
"Geezer D'Artagnan" Jamie Vincent (Fuller), drums

Audio/Video: AlgomA released four albums on physical media in a three year span in the mid-2010s, though only their debut (October 2014's "Reclaimed By The Forest") saw a CD release. In April 2016, AlgomA released a split with Saskatchewan stoner quintet Chronobot on vinyl records, and they put out another vinyl split in January 2017, this time a single with Finnish doom metal band Hooded Menace. Their final release in September 2017 was one more split named "Trading Faces", this time physically exclusive to cassette tapes, featuring them & local grindcore trio Shit Liver covering various punk and metal songs, including a song of each other's. Note that AlgomA's studio release catalogue comprises of just 12 songs, but the average length of each song is 6+ minutes! While there are some fan shot videos out there from live concerts on YouTube and Facebook, the band's YouTube channel and Boyd's video production company 62nd Chamber Media's channel are the best sources for AlgomA videos nowadays. Here's a full AlgomA concert set at the former Oddfellows Hall in 2014!

Info/Analysis: Publically launching in November 2012 as much-belated successors to Boyd & Kevin's old band BeeFMoutH, AlgomA debuted at 180 Projects on Gore Street in March 2013. While not as prolific as other local bands for amount of concerts (never playing more than five public local gigs per year), AlgomA made their mark opening for familiar touring bands like The Golers, Biipiigwan, Fuck The Facts, and Beaver Slap during their run, often under their own agencies Oh, Right Arm! Promotions and Six. Two. Oh., while also mounting multiple mid-2010s Ontario tours, a Quebec tour in December 2016, and a European tour in the spring of 2017. Partially thanks to their label affiliation with Malaysia's Deadbeat Media, their discography was well covered & reviewed by international metal websites and zines. AlgomA were also known for their series of 2014 private gigs at "Das Bunker", among other varied regional locales.

After taking a 19 month hiatus from live concerts, AlgomA played their final show in May 2019 when they opened for Dopethrone at The New American Pub (their last of seven gigs there). Sporadic social media updates ceased that fall, and the band never re-emerged after the pandemic lockdowns. Bringing local doom metal to heights only otherwise seen via Woods of Ypres, AlgomA's slow and punishing brand of original sludge was a captivating listen, it sometimes cryptically presented, and while Kevin took on more of the vocal load than in the BeeFMouTH days, fans of that band could drop right in after a decade with ease! AlgomA carved a deep local niche in their run, and here's hoping they come back if the time is right!

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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! Our next feature in this series will take us a few years prior to local grunge/psychedlic trio SBD, so look for our next randomly selected profile in this series on or around August 10th! That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: MOLTEN_IMP's Channel

Due to personal commitments, the lengthy album review from last month, and inclement weather, I wasn't able to get the YouTube Channel Profile pegged for November 2024 up until December 1st. My apologies for that, and hopefully December is not as hectic! For sake of intended scheduling, this post is backdated to yesterday (November 30th), but it didn't go live until that month had just passed. This monthly* feature post looks at 1-3 randomly selected YouTube channels whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk artists/concerts, and we've got a single band channel to look at today, so here's what you should know on it!

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MOLTEN_IMP's Channel (http://youtube.com/@molten_imp)

Owner: Molten Imp frontman and former AlgomA/BeeFMoutH singer/guitarist Boyd Rendell, a.k.a. Darby Wigwaus and Lord Unterbiss Von Wigwaus

Channel Timeline: Launched on July 19th, 2006; Videos posted from May 2007 through November 2023

Channel Summary: Originally a personal use channel, Boyd converted it into the official channel for his industrial metal solo project Molten Imp in 2022, and posted seven videos featuring their studio recordings there in the ensuing year, as well as a full concert video from his 2010s doom/sludge metal band AlgomA, and more recently, two electronic instrumental videos that aren't directly tied to the Molten Imp name.

Why You Should Watch: This channel will primarily be of interest for Molten Imp fans, let alone industrial music fans, as Boyd puts out some interesting stuff that deserves an audience, especially with how relatively unique industrial metal & noise rock is in the Soo! The AlgomA concert video will obviously interest fans of that late lamented local band, but there are more plentiful public sources of their videos out there. Note that Boyd hasn't posted videos here in over a year, correlating with the project's slowdown in activity on social media, but you can hear Molten Imp on Bandcamp and Soundcloud, and they also have a Patreon page.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

dark organ music: The most popular video on Molten Imp's channel is also the only surviving one that predates the project's inception. Since 2007, over 66,000 people have watched this video of Boyd playing a slightly ominous organ piece, though some commenters compared it to music from the Animal Crossing video games, so judge that as needed. An uncredited guest is playing some light accordion alongside him here. Not bad for what it is, and it could have been fleshed out in a full band performance!

AlgomA live @ Odd Fellows Hall, April 19th 2014: While only uploaded to the channel two years ago, this video of AlgomA's full 42 minute set at Dank Fest at the former Oddfellows Hall in April 2014 predates his work with Molten Imp. Also featuring singer/bassist Kevin Campbell and No Funeral/Bad Back alum Jamie Vincent on drums, this was AlgomA's debut at the Dennis Street venue, where they played their originals "Extinct Volcanoes", "Bedsores", "Electric Fence", "Phthisis", "Go On, Git!", and "Tertiary Syphillis". Despite a slight left tilt and overly red stage lighting, this captures a brutal and punishing set of doom metal one of the higher profile local original metal bands of the 2010s, and the fans were definitely into it! Read my full review of Dank Fest (which had ten other bands) at this link.

Kick Rocks (live in basement): Most of Molten Imp's own videos are just YouTube streaming copies of their original songs from their early digital singles, which can be streamed/bought together in the compilation album "Bloom Closing" on Bandcamp. For sake of variety, let's feature the sole Molten Imp upload not tied to those releases, namely a 6+ minute audio recording of Boyd "working out the kinks in the home studio". As a raw instrumental sampler of what Molten Imp are capable of in terms of industrial and noise soundscapes and programming, it's very effective, and it'd be interesting to see him take this to the concert stage if possible!

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I hope you guys liked this last month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will end 2024 on or around Boxing Day when we look at one more randomly selected channel, namely St. Ignace, Michigan metalcore band Heavy Lies The Crown's YouTube Music channel, featuring their studio output so far! Stay tuned for that over the holidays, and for more news and notes this month! Thanks everyone!

Blood Opera Concert Preview, Crooked Music's Closure, And More News & Notes!!

Today's post wraps up this weekend's concert previews, explores the surprise closure of a local music store, looks at a new hard rock cover from last year, and covers some assorted recent updates, so here's what you should know on this Friday evening!

Here's the remaining hard rock concert preview for this weekend, as Toronto "dead metal/zombie glam" band Blood Opera will return to the Soo TOMORROW NIGHT when they rock Soo Blaster! For the record, this show was quietly relocated from The Queen Of Hearts Club above Shooters to Soo Blaster last month for publically unannounced reasons. Blood Opera first rocked Sault Ste. Marie in May in the afterparty to the Steel City CollectorCon, and this is basically a sequel to that event in every way, as Blood Opera are headlining the afterparty for the related Steel City NerdCon, which goes down tomorrow at the Quattro Hotel on Great Northern Road (click here for full details on the convention proper). Blood Opera's theatrical, horror movie-inspired, and very violent stage show will play very well with attendees once again, even better than in May given that this is the Halloween season!

Local hard rock quintet HeadFirst will be the local openers this time out, which will be huge for them, and if you can't make it tomorrow, they'll be rocking Reggie's tonight! Despite the gory spectacle ahead, this is an all ages event with a 9:00 PM start time, and admission is $20 online at this link or at the NerdCon proper. It'd be foolish of me to try to hype up the stage show that Blood Opera put on, so I highly recommend checking them out online if you missed the CollectorCon afterparty, and this should be a fun spectacle to cap off a busy NerdCon with! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Blood Opera live!

Next up, here's some sad news out of Sault Michigan, as local music store Crooked Music is closing at the end of the month. Owner/local musician Zac Crook made the announcement on their Facebook page on Wednesday, noting that "the benefits no longer outweigh the risks" towards keeping the store open. The costs of being a small business owner in this economy and the availability of inventory were cited as primary concerns, but Zac did thank everyone for their support and encouraged everyone to support other mom & pop businesses and locally owned music stores. For the next two weeks, all remaining store items and fixtures are on sale for 50% off during regular hours. Zac and his wife Christy had bought the former Grooves Music from Gary Hatch in 2017, moving it from 540 Ashmun Street directly across the road to 539 Ashmun in 2019, and they even expanded their repertoire to include clothing, used albums, and books.

Crooked Music serves an important purpose to musicians in the EUP, and it'll be that much harder for musicians to get equipment and lessons now (if you can't come to Sault Ontario, I think the nearest equitable stores are over an hour away). Alas, economics are a concern for many entrepreneurs and business owners, but kudos to the Crooks for keeping the store active for over seven years, and weathering the pandemic in the middle! Visit Crooked Music while you still can at 539 Ashmun Street near the Soo Theater, and our best wishes are with Zac, Christy, and family!

Let's head back to Sault Ontario for a new hard rock cover from local acoustic classic rock/country singer/guitarist Jeremy Logan Newman's Facebook page! We've mentioned Jeremy on here a few times, notably when he opened for Fort Creek at one of their original run concerts, but most of his public media doesn't point to SMS-amenable material. This is an exception, of him and veteran local guitarist/Soo's Got Talent judge Darren Robertson (who perform duo sets under the name Fog Brain) covering Ozzy Osbourne's "Mama, I'm Coming Home" at The Water Tower Pub in August of last year.  The harsh and over-exposed blue lighting is far from ideal, let alone the vertical camera angle (at least both musicians are in frame), but this is an effective rendition that lets Jeremy apply his voice in a unique way, with a tone you may not expect for this classic Ozzy ballad. 

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

 

• Dormant local concert promotion agency Live705 have changed their name to Algoma Underground, as per their Facebook page on September 22nd. The change was made to avoid confusion with Mike Blair's 705Live Sound Co., who I believe launched after the members of A Dire Setback started promoting as Live705, but 705Live are far more active nowadays providing sound at local concert events. Obvious AI logo for Algoma Underground aside, hopefully the rebranding is a good sign that they plan on resuming work as promoters next year!
  
• If you were curious what the etymology of new local death metal band Bardo's name was, they have clarified it on their Facebook page. The name refers to a Buddhist belief in a transitional intermediate state between death and rebirth, which is definitely a deep concept, and it'll be interesting to see what slants the Them successors' original songs so far will take in that regard! Follow Bardo above for continuing updates!
• Local southern hard rock band Fort Creek have filmed their first music video for their upcoming single "One For The Road", as per their Facebook page! Golden Scoundrels/ex-Shit Liver frontman Josh Penno filmed the video via his company Spacebag Productions, and it was shot at Jay's Piston Broke Pub, with a black & white teaser image from the shoot also posted on Facebook featuring singer Justin Grayson sitting at the bar. Good sign towards Fort Creek's return to full activity, so visit the above links vor more details on the song and video ahead!
  

 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!