Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will return to Gateway Casino for one night only on Saturday, August 24th! Last seen at the casino to cap off Rotaryfest weekend, this will be their first show anywhere since last night's Shooters gig, which featured bassist Pierre Anthony Vaillancourt's son/ex-Fluid 5ive bandmate Liam in place of an absent Valerie Powley. Unless we hear otherwise within the next two weeks, Valerie should be back with Generations on the 24th, though it would be interesting to see videos posted from Saturday night to see how Liam fit in for the night! All should be standard for Generations' Gateway Casino gigs here, including an 8:00 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more on Generations' show later this month, and don't miss Pierre & Tony S. with Tex Riviera & The Ride at Jay's this weekend!
Next up, Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Dirty Musky will rock Huck's Pub & Grill in Rudyard for a one-nighter on Saturday, October 5th! This union of 415E, Clownsack, and Fake Chow alumni are fresh off a gig at The Islander Bar in Hessel on Friday during this year's Les Cheneaux Islands Antique Wooden Boat Show festivities, and they should be in fine form following the momentum of both that gig and their return to the Government Bay Barge Bash in Cedarville the week prior! Note that Dirty Musky had said that "we will be out tonight supporting Unfortunate Sun for their debut show at Huck's" on July 27th, but that post on their Facebook page was ambiguous as to whether they were a support band that night or if members came out as normal attendees. No word on if the Huck's concert in October will be preceded by any other public dates, but it'll be an 8:00 PM affair with a 21+ age limit and no cover charge. See above for more details!
Also today, I was going to embed one of the two videos from last month of new Heavy Lies The Crown drummer Blaze Beairl playing along to two existing H.L.T.C. original songs ("*69" and "Friend") courtesy of his solo Facebook page, but alas, neither is embeddable here because Facebook content matched the original studio tracks. Lighting's a little dark, but Blaze does Cale's (Brandon's?) original recordings justice on drums on both videos, and he definitely has the chops to join the St. Ignace deathcore band, as he has already done! He has other metal cover songs there, but again, they generally have the original song as a backing track and can't be embedded externally. That said, there is a new video of note to share from Blaze's Facebook page that is embeddable, which was filmed when his mom Amy Beach's band Exit 808 took a road trip to Republic in the Western U.P. for the second annual Drewpalooza festival in June. Of course, Blaze was filling in then on bass, but he was on drums for this clip!
If you've followed Exit 808 this year, you'll know that they're a band that's happy to jam with musicians in bands that they share the stage with, either as guests or fill-ins. For this video, Blaze and debuting Exit 808 vocalist Dillion Semasky guested with members of Marquette hard rock band (and past touring regulars here) Spun for a cover of Pantera's "Walk". Strongly performed cover featuring very capable musicians across the board, and while Dillion's voice could be a tad more aggressive, fans will take this this Yooper mashup! Do not be alarmed by the video being uploaded sideways, the filmer flipped their camera horizontally 1:41 in. Give Blaze, Dillion, and Spun's Pantera cover a watch for yourselves below!
Finally for today's post, here's three assorted shorter news items from Sault Ontario over the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or venue name:
- In the past three weeks for Shooters Downstairs Lounge's annual Talent Quest karaoke competition, the guest judges were members of the aforementioned Generations on July 28th, and in shifts from the planned usage of local bands as judges, representatives of The Soo's Got Talent on August 4th, and reigning champion Elly McWatters & friends named Brittany, Shannon, and Danielle last night. The 25 advancing contestants have all been chosen, and will return to Shooters this Sunday to move one step closer to the finals, so if the karaoke tournament is up your alley, keep that in mind! No word yet on who is judging on Sunday.
- Local alternative rock band The Haze have been added as additional openers for both The Dragonfly Run at The Grand Gardens on August 25th (joining Bone Yard 225 and fellow new confirmations Mid Life Crysis) and the Damn Truth show at Soo Blaster on September 17th (joining fellow local openers A Dire Setback), as per updated social media posters for both events. The former Skinbox played at last year's Dragonfly Run too, and they have picked things back up quick post-relaunch, so look for them at both of these concerts!
- Tazzi's Cafe & Restaurant at 478 Queen Street East has been sold, as covered in recent SooToday articles by Darren Taylor. Tazzi's prior owners had held the business since 2019, with financial impacts from the pandemic, OLG shutdown, rising food costs, and Queen Street reconstruction cited as contributing factors in the sale. City councillor Sonny Spina and his family have bought Tazzi's and will be rebranding it as Ignition Eatery, though I don't know if they will host live musicians (SMS readers will recall Tym Morrison's occasional shows there from March 2023-March 2024). Best of luck to the Spinas with Ignition moving forward!
