It's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile, as we again look at a past local metal, hard rock, or punk band, as randomly selected from our band links! This month's band was actually just covered in our YouTube Channel Profile in March, but I tried to make sure that things were sufficiently unique and different here to warrant a re-feature, especially as this is about the band at large, not just their YouTube presence. With that said, here's what you should know on them!
Aaron Desmoulin, vocals/guitar Jacob Quarrell (Sainte-Marie), guitar Kyle Dube (Lycanthro), bass Matt D'Ettore, drums
Audio/Video: The best place to watch Bad Chug videos is their YouTube channel, featuring a number of live performance videos from the summer of 2016 and some extra bonuses, though it was not used for their early 2020s relaunch in the Soo. A selection of mostly short videos from 2016 can also be seen on their Facebook page, while an original song named "Primal" was once posted to Bandcamp. Two videos of Bad Chug's sole local concert at Soo Blaster in October 2021 were filmed for Christopher Paci's YouTube channel, which you can watch here and below!
Info/Analysis:Bad Chug launched out of their original Ottawa homebase in May 2016, and quickly began working on studio material while also playing a well-filmed private jam room concert the following month. Live dates were minimal in their original run, but they did open for Nessie at Cafe Deckuf in Ottawa that July. After posting their single "Should Never Be" that November, the band quietly fell inactive by early 2017. Three years later, the band resurfaced, albeit after Aaron and Matt moved the band to Sault Ste. Marie, commencing with new teasers for studio material and being added as openers for Buckcherry's headlining concert at Soo Blaster in May 2020. Obviously, the pandemic lockdowns and provincial health mandates had other plans, but Bad Chug clung on as openers until the show finally took place in October 2021, with Kyle back on bass and local folk guitarist Jacob Quarrell joining as well.
Despite finally playing the Buckcherry concert as intended, no public updates of any kind followed for Bad Chug, and they are presumed to have disbanded for good by early 2022. While the audio of their local concert videos can be scratchy, and Aaron's vocals weren't the rangiest out there, Bad Chug had a strong and carefree hard rock sound that would have been easily well received in concert had they stuck around longer in Ottawa or here, and it'd be nice to hear more of what they recorded in studio during their runs! Hopefully everyone is still musically active in some form!
I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! Next month, we'll look at another randomly selected act from Sault Ontario, and for the first time in a year, it'll be of a solo project, namely experimental/death metal project Awokest! Look for that on or around July 10th, and for more news and notes on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!
It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile, as we once again look at a randomly selected YouTube channel whose content is at least half focused on local metal, hard rock, and/or punk artists and/or concerts! This one has a bit of an asterisk beside it, as this channel is for a band who hadn't moved operations to the Soo yet, but they eventually were based here, if not at the best time for live bands! Here's what you should know!
Owner:A member of 2016-2017 & 2020-2021 local/Ottawa hard rock band Bad Chug, exact identity unclear
Channel Timeline:Launched on June 3rd, 2016; Videos uploaded from the next day until November 29th of that year
Channel Summary:The official YouTube channel for Bad Chug during their original Ottawa-based run, it features a 20 minute live set, each song from it re-uploaded in separate videos, two other live performance clips, a "welcome to our channel" video, and in their last upload, a studio recording of their song "Should Never Be".
Why You Should Watch:Given that Bad Chug's February 2020 relaunch as a local project was severely limited by the pandemic and only saw them play one public concert (opening for Buckcherry at Soo Blaster in October 2021), this channel will be essential if you saw them there and wondered who Bad Chug were! Beyond that, they were not an untalented group and it would have been nice to see them accomplish more & longer both here and in Ottawa! A selection of unique videos can be seen on their Facebook page, but there or on YouTube, they have no videos from after 2016 (visit this link to see fan-shot video of Bad Chug at the Buckcherry concert here).
Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:
Welcome to the Bad Chug channel: Most local musicians don't bother with a "welcome to our channel" video for their channel's homepage, but Bad Chug did, albeit before becoming a local band. Here, their fans (or "Chuggernauts") get to meet singer/guitarist Aaron Desmoulin, bassist Kyle Dube, and drummer Matt D'Ettore, who hype up the band, promise upcoming shows/content, jam out (without live audio) and open/drink beer, which may have been implied by their name. Accidental(?) video mirroring aside, this was a good way to introduce Bad Chug to viewers!
Bad Chug Live Show: Six of Bad Chug's ten YouTube videos comprise of the same private house party concert from June 2nd, 2016 (considered their first show), where Aaron, Kyle, and Matt played five songs, all separately uploaded as their own videos after the fact. In order, the guys played their eponymous song, "Should Never Be", "Rockin' Hard Place", and "Primal", before covering Guns N' Roses' "Mr. Brownstone" alongside guest guitarist Kevin Hallarn (Aaron just sings here). They could have used a proper lead singer (shades of Late & Loud there), but their originals had a strong groove with a nice free-wheeling attitude, and it's easy to see how they would have turned heads had they not launched as a local concern on the cusp of a global pandemic! Click here for an alternate angle of their "Mr. Brownstone" cover from this night.
Bad Chug - Sex Doll Live: The only proper concert video (as in, at a public venue) on offer here comes from Bad Chug's show opening for fellow Ottawa hard rock band Nessie at Cafe Deckuf in July 2016. Also their channel's most watched video, it sees the guys playing their original song "Sex Doll" (named Veronika, incidentally), which has more of a funk rock influence. It probably uses Aaron's vocals the best out of all of their posted originals, and it's a solid track that would surely have been a live hightlight, but the video quality does the band no favours. The dark and inconsistent lighting is a constant, and the audio is a little rough compared to the 20 minute set, so it is a shame that this song wasn't seen in another upload! Click here for Bad Chug's Facebook video from Nessie's headlining set.
I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around April 26th for a two channel profile, as the first randomly selected channel (ran by ex-Swampgut guitarist Rob "Rodge MacGodge" MacDonald) only has nine audio recordings by Swampgut, and I'd only want to hand select two of them to feature without getting too repetitive given what it has. As such, I'll fill things out with a channel who only has three SMS-relevant videos, all from the same concert, namely YouTube user metalfu, who filmed at Kiss' 2007 Kewadin Casino concert! Look for those next month, and for more news news and notes on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!
Late post on this Friday night, as a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT has hit the desk, and it's at a venue that hard rock fans may not expect! To round things out, I have notes on three different local bands who I had to move to our inactive links this week, so here's what you should know!
Local funk/hard rock band The Wyld Stallyns will take the stage for one night only TOMORROW at... the Gateway Casino?! Apologies for the short notice, The Stallyns's Facebook page only acknowledged this event earlier today, but the casino's Facebook page first mentioned it on Wednesday. Readers who follow the complete weekend bar/cover band circuit will know that bands are not a foreign concept at the former OLG Casino at 30 Bay Street, but Gateway launched a Saturday night concert series there in July that hasn't tended to focus on heavier-leaning acts (the closest would be Bone Yard side project The Bearded Lounge, more on them soon). Good to see some new paths cross here, and hopefully The Wyld Stallyns make a strong impression on fans and gamblers alike TOMORROW NIGHT! Also, in The Stallyns' Facebook promotion for this event, they shared a picture including guest saxophonist Josh Norling.
One assumes that's a giveaway that he'll be present TOMORROW, and from what I've seen lately, he's been with The Stallyns more often than not. Whether he's finally joined them permanently, I can't say, as the band has never listed their current lineup in text on their Facebook page. TOMORROW'S concert has an 8:00 PM start time, no cover charge, and obviously, a 19+ age limit. Unlike at Kewadin, I don't believe the bands play in a separate lounge. See above for more on The Stallyns' diverse hard and classic rock cover attack TOMORROW at Gateway, and here they are live!
Next up, we have a trifecta of bands to move to our inactive band links due to a year's public inactivity, and alas, the first of them is local death metal band The Bear Hunters. While the guys have not publically confirmed anything, they have not showed any public signs of life since their set opening for Alien To The Ignorant at Mellow D's Underground one year ago today, and their only Facebook posting since 2020 was to plug Mitch & Johnny's current work in Handsome Sandwich. Beyond that, the guys have played live just three times since the end of 2017, pandemic acknowledged. Launched in 2010, The Bear Hunters became one of the biggest local extreme metal bands of the decade, which saw them release two studio albums, win the Battle For The Blood and make strong runs in multiple other battles of the bands, and open for acts like 3 Inches of Blood, Fuck The Facts, and Novembers Doom.
I sincerely hope The Bear Hunters are just hibernating and will resurface when the right time arises, as the Soo could use their ferocious brand of death metal again, but they sure left their mark in their heyday, and as someone who went to Bawating with three Bear Hunters alums, their evolution from D.O.T.H. to here was really cool to see. Best of luck to Nik, Mitch, Josh, Justin, Johnny, and Mike in whatever's next, R.I.P. Andres, and follow Handsome Sandwich, Exploring Detritus, and Chronic Demonic to see what members are up to musically nowadays!
Also, I have moved local punk trio Redundant
to our inactive band links. The band last issued a public update
relating to band activity one year ago on Wednesday when they opened for
Buckcherry at Soo Blaster, which is their only live concert set of any
kind in the past three years, and while they have posted on their Facebook page
thrice since, those have just been to pay tribute to deceased
musicians. Originally launched as Motion Carried in 2011, Redundant were
the spiritual successors to frontman Justin Langlois' 2000s punk band
The Scary Uncles, and also heavily featured Fitswitch alumni in their
lineups. Across their decade-long run, Redundant released their
self-titled EP in 2018, and were commonly seen on local stages
throughout the 2010s, opening for bands like The Cancer Bats, Kittie,
and The Rebel Spell, as well as select out of town dates (notably at the
Vans Warped Tour in Toronto).
Of course, pandemic-related
issues are acknowledged as to Redudnant's status in the early 2020s so
far, so hopefully they're not 100% finished, as their lively modern punk
sound and diverse covers were always a crowd pleaser, no matter who was
on bass! Best of luck to Justin, Andrew, Rick, Jamie, James, and Yannick in the
future no matter what!
Finally,
we're pulling a double for the other local opener at the Buckcherry
show last year, as I've also moved local/Ottawa hard rock quartet Bad Chug
to our inactive band links. Like Redundant, they have not issued any
public updates since the concert last year, not even posting on their Facebook page
since the pre-release promotion for it. Originally active in Ottawa in
2016, Bad Chug got off some decent momentum there with live dates and
original material, but they fell dormant until resurfacing in February
2020 once band members relocated here, albeit just before the pandemic
threw monkey wrenches into everyone's plans. Despite their large market
experience, Bad Chug activity in the Soo was limited to teasers, the
addition of local folk musician Jacob Quarrell to their lineup, and the
oft-delayed Buckcherry concert, though at least they held on to the
support slot despite all of the challenges.Debuting in a new
city in its biggest hard rock concert of 2021 (pandemic acknowledged)
should have been a great relaunching point for Bad Chug, and I did hear
good things from both their set and videos from the night, but alas,
there's been no tangible public updates in the year since. Hopefully we
hear more from Aaron, Jacob, Kyle, and Matt in the near future! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!
After a mild delay due to family commitments, here is this month's YouTube Channel Profile, as we're again spotlighting a YouTube channel (randomly selected as ever) whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk bands/concerts, in order to showcase the channel's uploads for current readers! Today's channel takes us back to the mid-2010s for one of the more familiar, if not that long lived, of the timely explosion of 1-2 man bands in Sault Ontario, with a cameo from a timely band reunion, so here's what you should know!
Channel Timeline:Launched on September 27th, 2011; Videos uploaded from May 2014 until August 2015
Channel Summary:Despite previously uploading seven videos of his hardcore/grunge duo Bad Back opening for Biipiigwan at The Moose Lodge on his sauvij channel in November 2013, Nathan opted to instead post future Bad Back videos on a separate personal YouTube channel that he created in 2011, which had no videos of its own beforehand. Nathan uploaded 19 videos to this channel, including eleven from live concerts (all but one featuring Bad Back), and seven from jam sessions. Nathan's only upload not related to a local band is a video of his dog. Why You Should Watch:This is a must watch channel if you liked and enjoyed Bad Back during their 2013-2015 local run, and you get a nice cross section of their minimalist punk & grunge originals throughout the different settings! The lone non-Bad Back concert video is also very notable given who's in it, while the video of Nathan's dog will appeal to dog lovers! Remember, this channel doesn't include 2013 content, which was put on Nathan's prior channel before he opted to focus on this one, but new videos continued for about as long as Bad Back was a going concern.
Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:
bad back uncut jam june 17 2014 official video: Nathan's first five uploads here are all jam session recordings from mid-2014, featuring him and singer/guitarist Jamie Vincent (also formerly of Fuller). Two are of them playing their own original songs "Girl, Do You Wanna?" & "Number One Hit Single", but the other three are all 50+ minute off-the-floor videos of them playing original songs and covers intermixed with amusing camaraderie, start-and-stop performances, and in-the-moment live mishaps. The channel's most viewed video of these is this jam from June 17th, 2014. It'd be a fool's errand to link to every single song attempted in the three longform videos, but Nathan loosely notes the songs and bands tackled, with some tantalizingly irreverent captions in between. Strong recording quality and enthusiasm across the board, these are a fun watch to see the guys letting loose (also, gotta love the band poster wall!)
bad back - two tongues at the new a july 15: Three different Bad Back shows were filmed for Nathan's second channel, including a private house party in their jam space via this 36 minute video, but the other two are from public events at downtown nightclubs. One was when they opened for The Archaics at The New American Pub in July 2014, where they were filmed covering NOFX's "Linoleum" and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "American Girl", as well as playing their originals "Shirt Tucker", "Drum My Way Home", and as featured here, "Two Tongues". Despite muffled vocals, Jamie & Nathan deliver strongly with nice audio quality on these hard hitting songs, but the overhead camera angle will not be for all tastes. It has grown on me, but be advised that none of Bad Back's videos on this channel go with a straight-ahead view from the floor.
Detroit Reunion Show December 23rd 2014: While two more jam session videos followed in 2015, Bad Back's last filmed public concert here was when they opened for the one-off reunion of local/Toronto hardcore punk quartet Detroit at The Algonquin Pub in December 2014. Six videos were shot for Nathan's channel that night, including four Bad Back originals & a cover of Hole's "Violet", but featured here is 5½ minutes of Detroit playing the last bit of "Blue Collar", "Lord, Beer Me Strength", "Fortress" (with Destroilet bassist Adam Larocque on guest vocals), and the beginning of "Shithouse Ratt". Remember, Detroit originals were very short, hence why so much was crammed in this one video. Featuring Slumshine/These Magnificent Tentacles frontman Brenton Ellis, ex-Maximum RNR guitarist Curtis Faux, Cross Dog bassist Mark Rand, and Inner City Surfers drummer Mikey Hawdon, this side-stage video captures another unique high angle, and they tore through their fast paced originals with ease! Note that the Bad Back videos from this event were shot on the opposite side.
I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, we're looking at multiple channels due to our first randomly selected channel only having one SMS-fitting video, As such, we'll be looking at the YouTube channels of Paul Stanghetta (featuring an Apocalypse Afterparty video) and NassieHysteria (featuring a dozen Treble Charger lyric videos). Look for all of this on or around September 26th, and for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!
Things have been quiet lately, but the SMS will be busier in the home-stretch of October 2021, and that starts with a new news post on this Sunday morning, including more new videos from a recent notable concert and leading off, a new album re-release, so here's what you should know!
As promised, defunct local power pop/hard rock trio The Din released the "deluxe edition" of their 2017 debut album "Give In To The Din" on multiple digital platforms yesterday, so what should you know about that? Early promotion for the re-release indicated that there would be 18 tracks, double the amount on the album in it's original form, and whether you expected this would comprise of an alternate version of each song or completely unreleased material, you'll be partially right on both fronts. Two of the nine songs are new in studio form, namely a demo version of the previously unreleased original "Differences" and a 98 second spoken word track named "Our Place In The Scene". The rest are pre-release variants of songs that did make the cut for the album, including an alternate version & instrumental mix of "Flux", first and instrumental mixes of "Potato (Should've Known Better)", a demo version of "Remember", ...
...a first mix of "In Search Of The Perfect Moment", and an instrumental mix of "75". You can stream all 18 songs, new & old, on Spotify and Bandcamp, while the album will run you $7.99 on Amazon or $10 on Bandcamp in mp3 format. Full links for it's streaming/download locations can be found on The Din's Distrokid page. I won't comment on the deluxe edition yet, as this will very likely be reviewed on the SMS this week, but give the whole album a listen/purchase above, and stay tuned for news on when The Din's teased live album "Technically Live" will come out, let alone frontman Mike Haggith's first live-streamed solo concert in over a year tonight on his Facebook page!
Next up, here's the rest of prolific local concert filmer Christopher Paci's videos from Tuesday night's Buckcherry concert at Soo Blaster! Chris started uploading these on Wednesday night, well after his first Bad Chug video was uploaded that morning, but too late for me to include in our last news post on Thursday, which was auto-posted at midnight and completed the previous day. Starting with the headliners, Chris filmed five videos of the Anaheim hard rock quintet playing their set-opener "54321", "Hellbound", "Rain's Falling", "Sorry", and as embedded below, the end of their cover of Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69", followed by their own song "Crazy Bitch", which was extended to over 10 minutes via frontman Josh Todd introducing the band, bantering with the crowd, and covering a bit of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" before the final chorus. This is all fairly common for this song live, FYI.
While I personally am not a Buckcherry fan, it's great to see them finally make up their May (and November) 2020 date here and tour Canada successfully without any visible illnesses throwing a spanner in the works! I'd have liked to have seen more masks on fans, especially given how packed the floor was for Buckcherry's set, but remember, vaccine passports were mandatory to enter Soo Blaster for this one. Audio has it's scratchier moments, but Chris had a good angle of Buckcherry, and they were on form compared to their Kewadin gigs from the 2010s, so check out all of their videos from Tuesday night above and below!
Chris also filmed three videos of opening local punk trio Redundant's first public concert set in over two years, including of them covering Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues", and an abbreviated 1:40 version of The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop", but embedded below is them playing their own original "What Will You Do". Nice to see Justin, Andrew, and Rick back on stage after far too long, and they seem happy and in their element on these strongly done tracks, though note that Chris was on the opposite side of the stage for their set. Give these a look above & below as well!
Finally, Chris had one more video of local/Ottawa hard rock quartet Bad Chug to upload that didn't go up at the same time as his prior song of theirs, so here it is! Also featuring Aaron on lead vocals, it's a slower number (but still heavy) compared to their first upload from Tuesday night, and appeared to feature Jacob using a talk box for backing vocals, which you don't see here too often! Like before, I couldn't make out enough words to tell if this was an original or a cover. Chris' vantage point of the stage was better here, so Aaron is much easier to make out, but this is at the expense of Kyle, who was at least very active! Give Bad Chug's second video a look below, and hopefully we hear more from them soon!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for our recap of the aforementioned Mike Haggith's revived live-stream concerts tomorrow, but remember that you can tune in tonight at 7:00 PM EST on his Facebook page to watch it live first if you are so inclined! Thanks everyone!
We're back with a new news post on the SMS on this Thursday morning, and it includes one more teaser for a concert tonight at a technically private venue (organizers want fans to come though, and this may be the push you need!), plus the first public videos from a recent major concert, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this month! Here's what you should know!
Revived Sault Michigan hard rock quartet 415E will return to The Hilltop Bar in nearby Sugar Island for a Devil's Night concert on Saturday, October 30th! This will be 415E's first publically advertised concert since playing at the same venue in February 2020, with guitarist Chris Hubbard publically working on his long-gestating solo project and his new band Rhythm & Brews in the interim. I'm not sure if 415E were just on hiatus during the pandemic or if Rhythm & Brews were functionally "replacing" them, but it's great to see 415E back, and with their pre-pandemic lineup intact! This includes singer Dave Menard, bassist Brett Blackwood (who played in Rhythm & Brews' debut gigs), and drummer Jason VanLuven joining Chris once again, as revealed in this 5 second "video" to promote the concert, though it's more of an animated poster than anything else, hence why it's not embedded here.
Hopefully 415E's hard rocking brand of covers get a strong reception from fans in Sugar Island next weekend, so don't miss out if you're able! Pre-pandemic Hilltop Bar events had 7:00 PM start times, there's no announced cover charge, and expect a 19+ age limit, and please respect & follow any social distancing and public health guidelines at the bar to ensure everyone's safety, especially over Halloween weekend. See above for more details!
Next up, and from what accounts I've heard online so far, last night's Buckcherry concert at Soo Blaster in Sault Ontario was a success, and a couple of public videos from it are now online to check out! One is a brief 15 second clip of the headlining Anaheim hard rock quintet playing their 2012 single "Gluttony", as shared by 705Live Sound Co.'s Facebook page yesterday afternoon. Not to be confused with dormant concert promoters Live705, 705Live provide sound at live events, and they were on hand in that regard last night, hence why their video is so far from the stage. Still, you can get a sense of the crowd numbers, and even with the vaccine passport mandate, it looks like a sizeable crowd came out! Fan heads do mostly block Buckcherry from view, but the overall quality is respectable despite the video's short length and lack of zoom. Give it a watch below, and we'll let you know if more videos surface!
The only other video I've found on a public source so far comes from new-ish local/Ottawa hard rock quartet Bad Chug's opening set, as filmed by prolific local concert filmer Christopher Paci for his YouTube channel, marking his first concert video upload since The Hair Scare Live in Sault Michigan in February 2020! We all know why it's taken this long for him to film anything else. No word yet on if Chris shot anything from Buckcherry or Redundant's sets (the Bad Chug video was uploaded early yesterday), but we'll let you know if anything else surfaces! The video gives us our first look at Bad Chug on a Sault Ste. Marie stage and with new second guitarist Jacob Quarrell (no comment on his attire), and on this song, it looks like guitarist Aaron Desmoulin is on lead vocals. Alas, the scratchy audio & steady cymbal hits don't help in my efforts to identify if this is a cover.
The song proper is an up-tempo hard rocker that has a little bit of a classic rock feel to it that almost reminds me of some horror punk. Not bad, but again, this isn't the clearest quality audio, so hopefully more footage of Bad Chug (at this show or otherwise) surfaces! Chris wasn't too far from the stage and he had a good vantage point of the proceedings, but Aaron is very hard to make out from the very bright stage lighting above him and his placement at the side of the stage. Give this Bad Chug video a look below, and we'll have more videos from this show when & if they goes public!
Finally for today, here's a trailer for tonight's Alien To The Ignorant concert at the private venue Mellow D's Underground, but this one isn't focused on the headliners, rather openers/venue hosts The Apocalypse Afterparty! Uploaded to their Facebook page on Sunday, this serves a double purpose, as while it promotes the concert (including finally giving away Mellow D's current address!), it also features 17 seconds of their to-be-released music video for their cover of Saul Williams' "List Of Demands (Reparations)". The video (shot by Spacebag Productions) shows the band playing in that very cramped room as we saw in prior teasers from the shoot, perhaps not a bathroom like I had guessed, but it is worth noting that The Apocalypse Afterparty appear to just be represented here by frontman Paul & drummer Amanda Stanghetta without a second bassist, which would 100% signal that Alice Rose has left the band.
A reason for her departure was not announced, but she had initially been absent on temporary basis as of December 2019, and The A.A. had enlisted uncredited bassists to fill in through last summer, but the video has the Stanghettas in full-on Death From Above 1979 mode as a two-person band. Hopefully all's well with Alice! The music video teaser is promising and shows Paul & Amanda getting an energetic, full sound out of this staple cover of theirs, and hopefully the full video is released soon! Give it a look below, and remember, the address for TONIGHT'S Alien To The Ignorant concert (also featuring the returning Bear Hunters) can be found within!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the site soon! Thanks everyone!
Today's post is devoted to previews of two notable mid-week hard rock/metal concerts in Sault Ontario, one well over a year in the making, and the other featuring a lot of intrigue for it's cryptic locale and touring headliner, with both also featuring local openers we haven't seen in a long time. Here's what you should know!
The biggest Sault Ontario hard rock concert of the pandemic era will finally take place TOMORROW when Anaheim, California hard rock quintet Buckcherry will make their fourth local appearance (and first in this half of the Twin Saults) when they headline at Soo Blaster! This concert was originally scheduled to take place way back on May 13th, 2020 before everything went topsy turvy in March of last year, forcing a postponement to November 11th, and then ultimately to tomorrow night, but barring an imminent COVID outbreak, this show is taking place! Buckcherry are definitely in Canada and they have been touring across country all month, so fingers crossed! Well known rock radio staples from hit songs like "Sorry", "Lit Up", and "Everything", Buckcherry are touring in support of their new CD "Hellbound", so expect lots of familiar songs and new cuts in their first local stop since 2019's outdoor Kewadin Casino gig with Pop Evil, and before that, headlining Dreammakers Theater shows in 2011 & 2012.
This will also be Buckcherry's first local appearance since Billy Rowe replaced Kevin Roentgen on lead guitar last year. Amazingly, the local support acts remain unchanged since last spring, and they will include punk trio Redundant in their first public concert set since they opened for The Cancer Bats at Soo Blaster in August 2019, as far as I can gather. Obviously, it's great to see Justin, Andrew, and Rick back on stage after over two years, so don't be late for their familiar punk attack! The other opening band is local/Ottawa hard rock band Bad Chug in their long-delayed local concert debut, but they were previously active in Ottawa dating back to 2016! In case you're unfamiliar, their lineup features guitarist Aaron Desmoulin, bassist Kyle Dube (who was quietly re-added to their lineup anew), and drummer Matt D'Ettore, plus local folk singer/guitarist Jacob Quarrell as their newest member.
I'm not 100% sure if Jacob will play the same roles in Bad Chug (they credit him as "bender"), but readers may be familiar with his acoustic solo sets, previously under the project name Shit Creek Survivor. Bad Chug's mid-2010s Ottawa material had a solid carefree hard rock base, and it will be very interesting to see how they do in 2021 with in a new city, so find out first tomorrow night! Promoted by the Ottawa-based Diamond Mine Agency in their first major local booking with heavier bands, tickets are still available for $39.99 + taxes and service fees on Eventbrite, so click here to get yours online in advance! I presume you can also pay at the door, and yes, tickets bought for Buckcherry's 2020 dates will be accepted tomorrow. Everything starts at 8:00 PM, and unfortunately, this is a 19+ event. And as recently usual, attendees must show vaccine passports at the door to get into Soo Blaster.
Given the size and anticipation for this show, it's more important than ever that attending fans please mask up, follow social distancing guidelines at Soo Blaster, and use common sense to keep everyone safe, and thusly ensure that we get more concerts like this in the short term. Admittedly, I'm not a Buckcherry fan, but it's great to see that at least one of the COVID-postponed concerts is finally taking place, and hopefully Josh and crew deliver a fun set of up-tempo rock hits for fans tomorrow night, complete with local openers we haven't seen on a public stage at all in the 2020s! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Buckcherry live in Sault Michigan in 2019!
Finally for today, here's a special preview of a technically private concert taking place THIS THURSDAY NIGHT, but organizers are treating this as a public event, just with the venue being given out on request if you want to come out. The show in question will see Saskatchewan post-hardcore trio Alien To The Ignorant make their first ever local concert appearance when they headline at local party metal band The Apocalypse Afterparty's re-opened and relocated private venue Mellow D's Underground! Alien To The Ignorant's brutal hardcore sound and none-too-serious approach to their promotion should serve them well to attract an audience on Thursday, so don't miss out if you can come out on a work/school night! Local death metal quartet The Bear Hunters will play their first concert set in over two years on Thursday, which will also be their first live appearance since releasing their album "The Dead Testament" last fall, so hopefully they shake off the rust with their brutality!
And yes, The Apocalypse Afterparty themselves will perform in a rare live appearance that isn't purely a private house party, so what musical shenanigans will the Stanghettas be up to with their up-tempo brand of music? Be at Mellow D's Underground, wherever it is, to find out! There is no advertised cover charge for this concert, which has a thankfully early start time of 6:00 PM, and inquire with The Apocalypse Afterparty and/or Paul & Amanda for the address in case they never publicize it. Vaccine passports must be presented upon entry, and please use common sense re: social distancing. Visit the above links for more details, stay tuned for more updates, and here here's Alien To The Ignorant live!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
Here's another news post to check out on this Friday morning, and it includes a new original song and the latest wave of coronavirus-related cancellations and postponements on the local hard rock concert calendar. Leading off though, here's a new (kind of) local band to take note of this year!
We have a new-ish band to add to our active Sault Ontario band links, and they are Bad Chug, a hard rock trio that originally launched back in... May 2016?! As best as I can tell, I missed out on this band upon their initial launch because they were originally based out of Ottawa, but since returning just last month, they have permanently moved back home, so we're not that out of the loop. Bad Chug were originally active in mid-late 2016, and they were surprisingly busy during that time, including playing a handful of live dates, posting eleven videos on their YouTube channel (including live concert & jam session clips), and even releasing their original "Primal" on Bandcamp, though that song (album?) has since been taken down. Over three years after falling inactive, Bad Chug resurfaced locally last month with plenty of new studio material teasers, plus revealing that they will be the second local openers for the Buckcherry concert at Soo Blaster (more on that in a bit.)
As noted above, Bad Chug were quietly named as the final opening band for the Buckcherry concert in Sault Ontario, which would be a huge platform for their local concert debut, but that'll have to wait 26 weeks, as promoters have postponed the show from Wednesday, May 13th to Wednesday, November 11th due to the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Very unfortunate, but given that the news isn't getting better in the near future, it was the safest move. Yes, already bought tickets will be accepted for the new date, but you can also get refunds at point of purchase, and visit the official Facebook event page for more details. While we're on the subject, the last two hard rock concert holdouts over the April 10th weekend have also been cancelled, namely the Sandman concert at The Canadian on the 10th (as per the band's Facebook page) and the Just Heart concert at The Rockstar Bar on the 11th, as per it's Facebook event page. Of course, if you bought tickets and want a refund in the short term, contact the venues online for details, especially as promoters have not indicated that they were postponed.
The last domino standing on the April hard rock/punk concert calendar is the First Jason show at The Canadian on April 26th, which has not (yet) been cancelled as of this writing, but stay tuned for updates on it's status, increasingly negative it may be. With concerts in May starting to be affected, the big ones to watch in May include Mike Haggith's CD release party and shows from touring headliners The Anti-Queens, Numbing, and Peril. As of this writing, all are still scheduled for their original dates, but we will keep you posted if anything changes for these and other May concerts. Let's end today's post on a happy note, namely a new original song from local hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison's YouTube channel! Though his regular concerts at Gliss & elsewhere are on pause due to the coronavirus-related restaurant & nightclub closures, Tym has kept busy writing new music, like this song named "Down With The Devil". While very reflective of his increased observance of Christianity, this is still a heavy track with a solid guitar solo and in-your-face impact (Stryper, this ain't!) However, starting with the chorus is a little surprising, and the processing on the vocals there is overdone to me. Give Tym's new song a listen below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's CD review and more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!
