Here's another new post on this Saturday morning, which is mostly devoted to recent concert videos from a major concert last month, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this month!
Winnipeg punk quartet Shit Happens will make their local concert debut on Monday, March 25th when they headline at The Distraction!
While not the first touring act booked at the East Street
barbershop-turned-concert venue, I believe Shit Happens (not to be
confused with the Soo's own Shit Liver) are the first full metal or punk
band from out of town to play there, as opposed to a solo project, so
this will be neat! Shit Happens are touring Eastern Canada and a select
few U.S. cities this month, with the local show being the final date
before they head back to Manitoba. Expect an upbeat and in your face
brand of punk originals from this female fronted group two weeks from
Monday! Local support will come by way of metal trio The BAG
in their Distraction debut and second show of 2024, and while not a
clean genre match to Shit Happens, the energy should be hopping for
their hard hitting originals and covers later this month!
Despite
the touring headline band, this show is standard for protocol with The
Distraction's all-local events, including no age limit, a 7:00 PM start
time, and a "$5 or pay what you can" entry model. While an early night
with no 19+ limit hanging overhead, the Monday scheduling and relative
short notice may give some pause, but if you like explosive modern punk
rock, don't miss out on the action on the 25th! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details on this concert!
Next up, we finally have some videos to feature from last month's Saint Asonia concert at The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino! After a near two week delay, prolific local concert filmer Christopher Paci uploaded videos from the show to his excellent YouTube channel, and he spoiled us this time, filming eighteenvideos across the three bands that night! Half of his videos come from the headliners, with Chris filming multiple originals and covers from the Toronto hard rock quartet. In terms of covers, you can see Saint Asonia covering frontman Adam Gontier's old band Three Days Grace's "Never Too Late", "I Hate Everything About You", and "Riot", while they also tackled Apocalyptica's "I Don't Care" (which Adam guested on originally). The rest of the filmed songs began with Saint Asonia, aside from their own recent cover of The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights".
The originals filmed here are "Better Place", "Wolf", "Let Me Live My Life", and as embedded below, their set opener "Above It All". Chris had a nice spot in the center section with good zoom usage and a relatively clear view of the stage (fans' heads in front of him acknowledged), and Saint Asonia sound great, with Adam's vocals crystal clear in the mix! I recall that he was more muffled when Three Days Grace came here last, but of course, arena acoustics could have been a factor. Check out Saint Asonia's local concert videos for yourselves above & below!
Finally, Maryland hard rock quartet Any Given Sin were filmed for three of Chris' videos, specifically their songs "Insidious", "The Way I Say Goodbye", and as embedded below, "House On Fire". Hopefully these guys continue on their upward trajectory, as their melodic and soaring originals seemed to play well with local attendees last month, and they definitely seem like a band we'll hear more from on the radio in the coming months! Check out Any Given Sin's local videos above & below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next! Thanks everyone!
As promised, let's round out this weekend's hard rock concert previews today via the two Sault Michigan/E.U.P. hard rock concerts that we didn't preview in yesterday's post! To round things out, I do have some new videos of a prominent local band, so here's what you should know!
We'll start with this weekend's main event for hard rock fans, as Toronto hard rock quartet Saint Asonia will make their first ever local concert appearance TOMORROW NIGHT at The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino! As well promoted on Rock 101 in recent months, Saint Asonia's debut will mark frontman Adam Gontier's first time on a local stage since he and his old band Three Days Grace last played here in 2009. Along with a few 3DG hits and select covers, look for Saint Asonia's own hard hitting originals like "Better Place", "The Hunted", and "Devastate" during what should be an explosive set! Note that Saint Asonia's usual guitarist (Staind's Mike Mushok) is not part of this tour. Also playing tomorrow is Kentucky southern hard rock band Black Stone Cherry, in their first local concert appearance since 2006 (when they opened for Staind, incidentally), so they've been a very long time coming!
With rock radio hits like "In My Blood", "Again", and "White Trash Millionaire" in the eighteen years since , familiarity with B.S.C. will be much greater for this set, so hopefully they get a really strong reaction for their southern tinged rock & roll! Maryland hard rock quartet Any Given Sin will open the proceedings with their high energy, Shinedown-reminiscent brand of original material, so don't be late for their set tomorrow! This is the first major concert of 2024 from Allstar Promotions, and you can see brief promotional videos on their Facebook page featuring both Adam Gontier and Black Stone Cherry guitarist Ben Wells hyping up the show/ticket availability, which are definitely welcomed to get the word out, especially as both pronounced Sault Ste. Marie correctly! Tomorrow's all ages concert has an 8:00 PM start time, and third row tickets are still on sale in the left & right sections!
Center section tickets are all sold out in the first thirteen rows. Tickets run for $39.50 in rows C-J (left and right sections) and row N (center section only), while anything else left costs just $29.50. Buy your tickets at this link, at 1-800-KEWADIN, or at the in-person box office. I hope this show does well, as I greatly prefer Saint Asonia to modern Three Days Grace, and Black Stone Cherry have multiple catchy songs of their own, so definitely consider heading to Kewadin Casino for all of tomorrow night's action! Visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's Saint Asonia live!
Lastly for known hard rock concerts in the Sault area this weekend, we'll take the 20 minute drive south to Kincheloe, where local classic metal/hard rock trio Tarnished will return to The Fraternal Order Of Orioles Nest TOMORROW NIGHT! This atypical venue brought in Tarnished for their New Year's Eve party last year, so clearly that went well for Alex, Parker, and Josh to get a call back for a standard concert less than two months later! Regardless of how normal the venue is for Tarnished fans, you can expect the same hard hitting and fan friendly covers and originals in Kincheloe tomorrow, so consider hitting the road for the Orioles Nest tomorrow for all of the action! This show takes place at Nest 311 (at 4916 West Curtis Street) at 8:00 PM, it has a 21+ age limit, and there is no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Tarnished live!
Finally for today, here's some new videos of local blues/hard rock quartet Project 906, but not how you may expect to see them. Fans may recall that, when drummer Jason VanLuven had to miss a few shows last summer due to conflicts with his other band Fake Chow, they enlisted Paradise Excuse alum Brian Duford to fill in behind the kit. Well, that wasn't it for Brian playing with Project 906, as he has guested with the band since on shows that Jason was there for, albeit with Brian playing hand drums instead! Three videos from recent 906 shows have been uploaded to his YouTube channel, all ostensibly intended to focus on his performances moreso than the whole band. This one (likely from their Brimley VFW concert in November) has Brian and Project 906 playing an extended instrumental for their soundcheck, while this vertical clip is of his drum solo at The Strongs Tavern in Eckerman this past Saturday.
The latter clip is shot from the crowd, but the other two are drum-cam videos, including the one embedded below, which is the only one of everyone playing a proper cover song. In this video, also from The Strongs Tavern on Saturday, Project 906 and Brian covered The Who's "Eminence Front", albeit extended with some more jamming in the middle. Rare to see a Kenney Jones-era Who song covered locally, so kudos there! The venue lighting can impair the view sometimes, but this is certainly a unique concert video, and everyone performs well, including Brian, and he does add a looser vibe to Project 906 shows from what I've seen! Give Brian's videos a watch above & below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new Sault Ontario-centric news post on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
Alright, let's finally start clearing out our backlog of topics and news from the last while (joys of the holidays), and we'll start with some unfinished business from a recent charity concert, some assorted updates, and leading off, a big LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for early next year!
Here's the big show announced earlier this week, as Toronto hard rock quartet Saint Asonia will make their local debut on Saturday, February 24th when they headline at The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino! Saint Asonia is the current band from former Three Days Grace frontman Adam Gontier and (when available) Staind guitarist Mike Mushok, and while they haven't had the continued rock radio success/airplay as modern 3DG have gotten, I personally greatly prefer Saint Asonia's originals like "Better Place" and "The Hunted". Adam does still tackle Three Days Grace songs live, and select other covers, so if you've missed that band since their last Sault Ontario date fourteen years ago, don't miss out! Kentucky-based southern hard rock band Black Stone Cherry will make their long awaited return to the Soo as openers, last seen at The Dreammakers Theater opening for Staind way back in 2006!
Since we last saw B.S.C. in town seventeen long years ago, they bettered their early Billboard rock chart success with songs like "White Trash Millionaire" and "In My Blood", and they're a very skilled group in their own right with a fun energy, so don't miss them either! Opening this show and tour are rising Maryland hard rock quartet Any Given Sin, whose technical and heavy brand of melodic hard rock will definitely set a good tone in a couple of months, so don't be late for their set! Promoted by Allstar Promotions in their 2024 debut and presented by Rock 101, tickets run for $29.50 (row 15 and back in the center section, row 11 and back in the left and right sections, and standing room only), $39.50 (closer seating), and $139.50 (first 8 rows in the center plus a full VIP package including priority access, show memorabilia, and a meet & greet with Saint Asonia.)
Tickets are on sale for this all ages & 8:00 PM concert at this link, at the in-person box office, or at 1-800-KEWADIN. This feels like such a throwback to the 2000s via the returns of Adam, Mike, and Black Stone Cherry a decade+ after last performing in Sault Ste. Marie, and I hope this show does well, especially given that we lucked into this being a Saturday nighter! I do highly recommend Saint Asonia to fans of old school Three Days Grace too, they deserve way more success on the charts. Visit the official Facebook event page for more on this big show early next year!
Next up, let's move north to Sault Ontario for some clarification on three bands that played at this year's tenth annual Toystock at The Grand Gardens on November 26th! First off, the debuting online page-less band Headrush was a new classic rock quintet featuring veteran local bassist John Amendola (Cherry Crush, Tripod the Dog, etc.) and singer John Anderson, though I couldn't immediately identify the other band members. A video is floating around on personal Facebook accounts of Headrush covering Foreigner's "Hot Blooded", and it sounds good, but it is incomplete. Give it a look if you're friends with anyone connected to the band! Earlier in the program, new local rock quartet Skinbox played at Toystock, and they have since revealed via promotion for their shows at Jay's this weekend that they play "90s/2000s alt rock",
with The Arctic Monkeys cited as a band that they cover. Not overly heavy on the surface, but their familiar lineup is definitely capable of it!
Lastly from Toystock's mystery/cryptic band array, new local rock band Kickstart is a new trio featuring ex-Suicide Kings guitarist Steven Flint alongside ex-Sneaky Pete bandmates Sean Berlinguette & Mike Oakley (I am unsure who sings here). If any of these three bands lean to what we cover on the SMS, it'd likely be Kickstart, but at press time, they don't have an online page that I am aware of. We'll let you know when/if anything else comes out, but hopefully these bands and the known commodites had a great time for Christmas Cheer on the 26th!
Finally for today, here's three shorter assorted news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:
In his newest post on his Facebook page on November 22nd, local hard rock solo musician Mike McCleary revealed that he is working on a soundtrack for a novel being written by a local author, which will be instrumental in line with his recent solo output. There's no timeline or details to spill yet, as Mike's keeping things close to his vest until he and the author are happy with the results, but he has wrote at least two songs for it. We'll keep you posted when more details come out, but this is certainly unique locally!
Local indie/punk quintet The Northwest were featured in the November 26th episode of The Music Jerks Radio Show on Canadian internet radio station Alt Rock Radio, where hosts Kristen Goetz & Nolan Jodes played one of their original songs along with ten other tracks. I don't believe that the episode is hearable on demand, but hopefully The Northwest made some new fans two weeks ago, and don't miss them at LopLops in two weeks!
Just to clarify more details on another new online page-less local band's identity, The Psychic Spies (who, as far as I know, share members with Skinbox) are indeed a Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute band, so inferring that based on "Psychic spies" being the first words sung in "Californication" was prescient. The Chili Peppers' career doesn't lean heavier anymore, but fans should take to The Psychic Spies, who are playing with Skinbox at Jay's Piston Broke Pub this weekend, so visit the Facebook event page for details!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site next! Thanks everyone!
