Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Blind Baby & Squirrelboy And The Smiling Giraffes

Before we get our review of the Dayglo Abortions concert on here, we have this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! This monthly series looks at 1-2 defunct or inactive local bands (as randomly selected from our band links), so we can profile them and jog memories on their run, material, and successes for interested readers! This month marks our first two-band profile since May (as the first band didn't have enough surviving information), so we randomly picked another band, with both covering each side of the Soo border, so read on below for this month's profiles!
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Blind Baby

Genre: Modern Hard Rock

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Members:

Tadd "Booze" Gravelle, vocals
Darian Causley (River Witch), guitar
Bill Ogston (Dirtbag In A Dress), guitar
Chris "Crib Bisque" Leask (Power Slug, Kilacel, River Witch), bass
Ivan Schliska (Scofflaw, River Witch), drums 

Info/Analysis: Originally named Stone Circle, Blind Baby were a short lived hard rock band that was active in the Eastern U.P. circa late 2009-mid 2010. Frequently seen at local bars on weekends (including The Rapids Lounge & The Bird, among others), Blind Baby played a mix of covers & varying originals during their run, but they quietly dissolved circa July 2010. Their members (sans Tadd Gravelle & Bill Ogston) formed the similar new band River Witch the following month, and took on existing Blind Baby bookings in the process, before they evolved into Power Slug (with only Chris Leask remaining) in late 2011. Though surviving online information on Blind Baby is minimal, they have 8 original songs on their Reverbnation page that I recently posted on our YouTube channel, and they show a diverse gritty sound that has a lot of softer & mellower moments! Tadd's vocals remind me of Erik Rintamaki's, and they're an interesting contrast on ballads like "Someday", but there's a lot of visible talent, and on heavier tracks like "2 Blind 2 C", they show a solid groove that hopefully carried over to their successor bands! I've embedded one of my favourites "In Spite Of You" below, but stream more at the above links!


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Squirrelboy & The Smiling Giraffes

Genre: Experimental/Industrial Metal

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members: (E-mail me at robertfigures@outlook.com if you have any additions or corrections!)

Chase James Wigmore, all instruments

(Note that the band's MySpace page credited "Squirrelboy", "Chase Cox", and "Neuroma Fay" as their respective singer, guitarist, and programmer, but this was very likely a solo project.)

Info/Analysis: Squirrelboy & The Smiling Giraffes was a rather unique solo project maintained by local solo musician Chase Wigmore from 2007-2009, operating under a creative alias & theme, which included describing themselves as "the infectious & pointless waste of human flesh" and comparing their sound to "Yoko Ono, if she was a squirrel". Their 6 MySpace songs (which are also now on our YouTube channel) include frequent use of effects, samples, sped-up "squirrel" vocals, extreme metal screaming, and solid guitar work, to create a sound that's honestly hard to describe in text. There's a lot of originality & humourous moments, but I have a feeling The Smiling Giraffes won't be everyone's cup of tea, so it depends on if you like the included elements. Myself, I appreciate what Chase did, but some songs are better than others ("Pretty Baby" stands out, for example.) Hopefully he keeps up his talents in his current solo work (which does feature & acknowledge some Squirrelboy material), and here's one of their more popular songs "Mr. Chik'n"!



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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! So, who's up for October in this series? After random selection, we'll again be looking at two bands on each side of the border, as the first band I picked definitely doesn't have enough surviving information. With that said, next month's bands will be inactive Sault Michigan hard rock trio Elements of Madness & the former Sault Ontario comedy metal band No More Landmines, so watch out for them on or around October 10th! That's all for now, but stay tuned for our Dayglo Abortions concert review later today! Thanks everyone!

New Caveman Morrison & As It Stands Videos, A Band Looking To Play Here, And More!!

Anyone in the mood for some more local metal news and notes? Well, this post should cover that! Today, we've got new video footage from one local band's return and another video from another band's most recent show, plus details on a band with a local connection looking to play here, and much more, so here's what you need to know!

The first video footage of Caveman Morrison's new lineup is now online, courtesy of frontman Tym Morrison's YouTube channel! An attendee at their concert on Saturday night at The Roosevelt Hotel shot at least six videos of the current Caveman Morrison lineup (including bassist James White and the returning Rick White on drums), and Tym posted them onto his YouTube channel over the past few hours. The videos are of Caveman Morrison covering Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Pride & Joy", Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World", Judas Priest's "The Ripper", Foreigner's "Blue Morning, Blue Day", a cut off portion of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall", and (as embedded below) Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train", so visit the above links to see the new lineup in action! The video quality isn't spectacular, and the lighting in The Rosie still needs to be boosted, but the audio quality works, and Tym & company sound good for their first weekend! Rick's drumming flows well and James is definitely a great fit on bass, so there's nothing to fear from the new members! Nice to get lots of new footage, though the crowd doesn't seem too large from what I heard at the end of the videos. Solid stuff, so check the above links for more from Caveman Morrison's shows last weekend, and here's their "Crazy Train" cover!



Also in new videos, here's some newly posted video footage of local hardcore quintet As It Stands, who are returning to activity at the end of the month for a concert at The Elks Hall in Espanola on the 29th, so click here for details on their return after 5 months away from the stage! The new video is actually also from an out of town gig that As It Stands played this year, and their most recent to date, that being their set at the Rocking on the River festival in Blind River on July 30th, and it's of As It Stands covering Blink-182's "Stay Together For The Kids"! Uploaded by YouTube user dacelk yesterday, the angle is sort of far from the stage, but the band are in solid form as you'd expect, and this Blink-182 song is always nicely metallified by this talented local metalcore band! If only more people were there to see it. Kudos to dacelk for uploading this, and fingers crossed that we see As It Stands back on a local stage shortly, we've missed them over the fall! Check out their cover of "Stay Together For The Kids" in Blind River below!



Next up, I've recently heard about an out of town band looking for a local booking, and if you follow our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile Series, these guys might be familiar! The band in question is Victoria, British Columbia sleaze rock quintet The Lust Boys (featuring former Glass Statues guitarist Ben "Benny Blitz" Kemp-Reynolds), and I've heard from both frontman Jayme Daniel Black & band manager Joe Sunstrum in the past week for inquiries about local bookings here for the spring. The Lust Boys are touring Canada in a few months, and they're scheduled to roll through Sault Ste. Marie on March 30th, so the band are hoping to get a booking lined up for that day in town. I sent Jayme some booker contact info and directed Joe the same way, but in the event that doesn't work out, I'll send the word out to the public to help The Lust Boys Soo concert quest, so if you are interested in booking, hosting, or helping The Lust Boys play a local show on March 30th, e-mail lustboys.management@gmail.com A.S.A.P.! It'd be awesome to have The Lust Boys' glam and punk influenced sound here, and seeing Ben live on stage in town again would be cool for sure!

Fingers crossed something works out for a Lust Boys show here in the spring, so check the above links for more, and click here to check out our Out of Town profile on The Lust Boys from October! Let's close today's news post with three assorted shorter stories from the last while, and as usual, they're in alphabetical order by band or artist name:

• I'll likely be moving Sault Michigan metal quartet Intrepid to our inactive band links on Saturday due to inactivity, barring a new sign of life. The Guitar Studio products (featuring Mitch Goetz of Hoist The Sails) were last visibly active on December 17th of last year when they updated fans on their Facebook page as to how they did at a battle of the bands. Disappointing, as they had promise, but hopefully the members keep active locally!
• Local solo artist Mike Cliffe is looking for local bands to submit original material to be featured on his upcoming AudioFumes podcasts, which do get airplay and notice from non-local sources, so this could be some good exposure if you jump on board! Mike's reach extends far with his musical projects, and Sykotyk Rampage were featured this past Thursday, so e-mail audiofumes@gmail.com for details!
  
• Sault Michigan classical metal trio Theatre of Night's remastered debut album "Christmas Night" is now available to purchase on iTunes! It goes for $9.99 there or for 99¢ a song, and plans are in place to release the album onto Amazon and eMusic as well. Pick it up today if you haven't already for some great seasonal metal and classical music!

That's all for today in all likelihood, but stay tuned for lots more news and notes in the coming week, plus weekend concert previews and more! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Monkey's Uncle, Peril, And River Witch), A New Local Band, And The Endast Concert Preview!!

And so ends our second busiest month in SMS history! We had a surprisingly high total of 69 posts in July and August, here's hoping for more in September! And today, we have a bunch of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS and a preview of a big concert tomorrow, so here's what you need to know, and check out my review of SBD's new CD in the post below!

Kewadin Casino has updated their entertainment page to show all the scheduled bands at The Rapids Lounge through December, and yes, there will be metal! There's some shows scheduled from area bands like The Hixx, Paul Perry, and Electric Motor Fish (who aren't metal), plus a couple groups with no known internet pages, so I can't confirm if they're metal or not, like Rainbow and Stone Soup. Hell, there's even two listed weekends that have NO scheduled band, and that's odd in and of itself! But yes, there are confirmed metal bands, including the previously confirmed Driven shows on the September 17th weekend, but here's what you should know that's new!

We'll go in chronological order by band, and we'll start with... Blind Baby? Didn't Tadd Gravelle leave them in July? Well, here's the story. Blind Baby are listed for weekend sets on September 3rd-4th, November 5th-6th, and December 10th-11th. When I did some research to see if these were on in some way or another, I came across a new local hard rock band named River Witch. This band just happens to feature Blind Baby guitarists Darian Causley & Chris Leask, and drummer Ivan Shliska, along with new singer Aaron Fasel and bassist Chris Gurnoe. So it looks like Tadd and Bill Ogston both left Blind Baby, and the remaining members have regrouped with new members and a new name. Not a lot is said about River Witch yet, they play classic/modern rock, have played at least once live (in St. Ignace), and have confirmed that they are playing THIS WEEKEND at The Rapids Lounge! Like previous shows there, both the Friday and Saturday shows are 9:00 PM deals with no cover and a 21+ age limit. Chances are, River Witch are playing all of the scheduled Blind Baby dates, so they're listed as such in the SMS concert listings on your right! Stay tuned for more from River Witch, who sound promising, if Blind Baby were any indication! Click here for more!

Next up for new metal/hard rock shows at The Rapids Lounge are two weekend sets from Monkey's Uncle! The local hard rock trio will return to Kewadin Casino's bar in October for four shows, on the weekends of October 8th-9th and 22nd-23rd! Odd that they're playing there twice in the same month, you don't see that often. As has been the case with most of the Monkey's Uncle shows I've covered in the past year, their MySpace page does NOT list these shows, none have been listed since they were known as Jager, my only source for these is the Kewadin Casino entertainment page linked above. Like the River Witch shows, these will have 9:00 PM start times with no cover charge, and you must be 21 to enter. Should be fun, Monkey's Uncle are a solid hard rock band with a nice classic twist, and they have some pretty good originals too! Check the above links for more, and if I hear of any more Monkey's Uncle shows, I'll let you all know!

The other new shows come courtesy of Northern Michigan classic metal trio Peril, who have scheduled at least one weekend at The Rapids Lounge this weekend, possibly two! How do I mean? Well, both Kewadin and a photo on their Facebook page have confirmed that they will be rocking Sault Michigan on October 15th and 16th (their MySpace page incorrectly lists those shows as being in St. Ignace), so make note of that! However, Kewadin Casino also lists Peril as playing there on the weekend of November 19th and 20th. It should be noted that their MySpace page doesn't list dates for that weekend at all, and the photo linked above says they're in St. Ignace that weekend, but if Kewadin list the shows, there must be some truth to them. All of the above shows have the same ground rules as the other new Kewadin concerts, with 21+ age limits, no cover, and a 9:00 PM start time. Peril are a great band, here's hoping these shows are awesome! I have both of these weekend sets listed on the SMS just in case, but if either is moved or called off, I will definitely let you guys know!

To close today's post, here's a concert preview for a notable concert taking place tomorrow evening! Death metal fans take note, as Jagermeister presents the Metal Made Me Deaf Tour, as it makes it's way to Foggy Notions! Your headliners are Montreal death metal band Endast, who are fucking brutal, you have my word, so let the moshing commence! Relentless extreme death metal, click here to check them out! Joining them are Kamploops grindcore band Blood Drunk, who immediately stand out with their female lead singer and intense musical style! Definitely check them out on MySpace as well! Opening this show are the returning As It Stands, in their first show under that name since January 2009! After a year's absence while members played in Out Of The Mouth Of Babes, they're back to rock the Sault once again with their own brand of metalcore that will be sure to get some mosh pits going! This promises to be one of the heaviest concerts of 2010, do check out all of the above bands! Now, this concert has a $5 cover charge, you must be 19 to enter, and it will be taking place at 6:30 PM tomorrow evening rather than the typical 10:00 PM start time at most bars. This is because the scheduled karaoke night with Jeff July and Silverfox Entertainment is not being moved or postponed, so the metal will just be early to accomodate that! But think about sticking around for the karaoke, cause with metalheads lurking, you could hear some good stuff! For more details and to confirm your attendance, visit the official Facebook event page!

This will be one hell of a concert, and you can guarantee I will be there! I will have a review with photos and videos on Friday, and I hope to see you guys at Foggy's tomorrow at 6:30 PM! Check all of the above links for more, you will not want to miss this show! For a preview, here's Endast's music video for their song "The Craving"!



That's all for now, but I have news about the Kiss show, Stillbroke, a new local music forum, and the rest of the weekend concert previews, and more very soon! But first, stay tuned at midnight sharp for our September update to our "Where Are The New Albums?" post! Thanks everyone!

Tons Of Updates From Sault Michigan Bands & Concerts!!

Hey Sault Michigan metalheads, this post is completely geared towards you guys! And of course, those of you on the Canadian side who follow those bands and go see them too! We have some Kewadin Festival updates, new songs from a young local band, the possible end or frontman exit of a local hard rock band, and some more assorted updates, but first, some very cool stuff from a band I just recently rediscovered!

Last fall, you may remember that I plugged a new local death metal band named End of Existence, later renamed to In Memorandum, who were fronted by current Elipzis drummer Bob "Orb Hearthstone" Helsten, who you'll recognize for his work in Clownsack, Weed, Chord On Bluez, and most notably, Integrated System of Machines. Well, they honestly slipped me by after an inactive period, but they never broke up, and they're still going strong! Now known as End of Existence again, they launched a new MySpace page and website last month (the old one is still online but inactive) with updated bio information and material! They're now listed as being from Grand Rapids, though they were formed and originally based here, so make sure you guys remember that if you question why they're being covered here! The same original lineup remains now, with guitarist Steve "Sven Gilesten" Giles on guitar (also an ex-I.S.O.M. member) and his brother Greg "Grg Gilesten" Giles on drums. You may recognize both of the Giles brothers from some other Grand Rapids-area bands, notably Steve's work in Flesh For The Beast. At present, End of Existence are searching for a bassist and keyboardist, contact the band on MySpace if you're interested!

Reportedly, End of Existence are working on an 8 song EP for release on August 15th entitled "Sun Is Gone", which was the name of their original demo on their old MySpace page. Their website says that they will "post the songs" on that day, so who knows if "Sun Is Gone" will be sold in any fashion. Sounds like some exciting things are coming up for End of Existence, check out all of the above links to get caught up! And last, but not least, they have a video online! The band have launched an official YouTube channel with a promo video featuring samples of their original songs, including "Inside You", "Deathbed", and "Recurring Dreams", along with photos and video footage of the band and other "things". Sounds good, Orb's clean vocals are being used more aggressively than I remember him doing in I.S.O.M., and the instrumentation is good, but it feels a bit empty. Maybe it's cause they need a full lineup yet, but it sounds good! Check out the End of Existence promo video below!



Next up, some bad news from a recently prominent local hard rock band. Blind Baby frontman Tadd Gravelle posted this on his personal Facebook page on Wednesday: "Blind Baby is no more! Goodbye to frustration and headache, and hello to myself a new day has begun!" A later post on his page that day questioned whether one should move on from doing what one loves to do if they're no longer able to do it without anger and frustration. If you ask me, the two posts sure sound linked, but the latter sounds intentionally open-ended. So it's clear that, at the very least, Blind Baby have parted ways with Tadd, but have the band broken up? He said that the band was "no more", but that could just be a general statement about their presence in his life. For what it's worth, neither the band's Reverbnation or Facebook pages have been recently updated. I'll keep you posted with updates on Blind Baby's status if I hear them, and fingers crossed that they're not ending! It's sad to see Tadd leave the band, he wasn't a bad singer, especially when using a heavier vocal style!

Thirdly today, we have some more Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival updates! Kewadin Casino's Facebook page was asking fans for input and suggestions in the aftermath of the Kewadin Festival, including what people liked and didn't like, and if people would want to see the festival return. I'm not sure how much of an impact people's suggestions will have towards Kewadin events going forward, but why not suggest things? Was there elements you REALLY liked or wanted gone? Would you go to a second festival next year? Click here to voice your opinion! Also, photos from some of the meet and greets from the headlining bands and celebrities have been posted on Kewadin Casino's website! There's photos from the meet and greets with Three Doors Down, the Playboy Playmates, Detroit Lions legends Herman Moore & Billy Sims, Henry Winkler (THREE PAGES, no less!) and, most metal of all, Bret Michaels! Odd that there was no Vince Neil meet and greet, but hey, you take what you can get. Click here for all of the meet and greet photos, and here for the Bret Michaels shots! Good quality, he looks happy to be there, as do the large contingent of female fans in the pictures! I'll have more fallout from the festival as I hear it!

And now, we have new demos from young local progressive metal band Analog Deficiency, led by Monkey's Uncle frontman Henry Switzer's son Nathan on guitar! I gotta say, these guys are really improving, and the new demos are more proof! Production's a little iffy, but the new demos really shine! One's amusingly titled "We're Dealing With A Samsquanch Boys", and the riffing is of a high quality and is very catchy! Instrumentation shines all around, these guys know what they're doing! The solo comes later than it really should have, and it does get repetitive, but it's a very promising demo! The other new song, "Lamps Falling From The Sky" takes a more Korn-like sound like their first few (now removed) demos exhibited, but on a bit faster pace. These guys have really grown from when we first heard them, and once they get a singer, they've got a great base to really make some noise on the concert scene! Check out the new demos at this location, and I'll keep you posted with more information on Analog Deficiency!

And to close today's Sault Michigan-centric post, two quick updates that have passed me by. One is that Nixxon Dixxon have launched a page on Eventful in a contest Eventful is running to find individual local openers for Kiss' next North American tour! Nixxon Dixxon entered to try and become openers for Kiss' Detroit show on the tour, but are just in 121st place with a single demand for them to be the openers. Wanna help Nixxon Dixxon out? Head to their Eventful page today to demand them as Kiss' openers in Detroit! Personally, I thought they were sleepers to win the Kiss Battle of the Bands in December, and they definitely have the goods, so help them out! The other quick note is a show I missed. Local progressive metal band Hammerspace defeated Elipzis and Scofflaw (haven't heard from them in a while!) in a battle of the bands at The Corner Pub Bar & Grill on June 26th! Congratulations to Hammerspace, I bet it was an awesome battle! My apologies on missing that battle, concerts at The Corner Pub are VERY hard to find information about online. Their MySpace page doesn't announce new concerts regularly, so I usually have to rely on individual band announcements for details. Hopefully we'll hear more from Hammerspace and the other competing bands real soon! My source for the battle of the bands updates is a MySpace status post from Hammerspace.

There, I think we're mostly caught up on Sault Michigan metal news and updates now, but rest assured, more is on the horizon! Stay tuned to the SMS TOMORROW for my newest out-of-town bands profiles on Jar. and Thrawsunblat, and more news and updates are to come after that as well! Thanks everyone, I'll be back real soon!

This Weekend's Local Concert Previews!!

Hello everyone! We have seven hard rock/metal concerts to my knowledge this weekend, so today's post is dedicated solely to them, so if you need help picking a concert to attend this weekend, I have you covered! So here's what you need to know for this weekend's concerts!

We'll quickly start in Sault Ontario tomorrow night, as Turner Up return to the live stage for the first time since Todd Killam's departure for a show at The Nicolet Tavern! This show was originally part of two scheduled for next weekend, but was pushed back and cut in half in favour of a singular show tomorrow night. Despite the recent confirmation of Brent Royer at their new frontman, Turner Up will play tomorrow's show as a four-piece while they "prepare" Brent. So for tomorrow, drummer Scott McClurg will handle lead vocals, which should be interesting! The show starts at 10:30 PM, there's no announced cover, and I imagine you myst be 19 to get in. If nothing else, you should go for the unique nature of this show, and for the classic hard rock covers they'll bring to the table! Check out more from Turner Up at their official Facebook page, confirm your attendance by clicking here, and for a preview, here's an old Todd Killam-era video of the band covering Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music"!



Now we'll head to Sault Michigan for the next four shows, before returning to Sault Ontario for the final two. We'll start just outside of town in Kinross, where locals Nixxon Dixxon take the stage for a unique show of their own! As part of the entertainment at a National Guard golf scramble event at The Oaks at Kincheloe Golf Course, Nixxon Dixxon will play a concert set at the course's on-site bar, The Bunker Bar & Grill! I never pictured Nixxon Dixxon and golf together at all, but hey, they're one of the area's best young bands, they'll do fine! They're just playing tomorrow at 9:00 PM, there's no listed cover charge (keep in mind that there may be members restrictions though, this is a golf course), and I believe there's a 21+ age limit. Great to see Nixxon Dixxon live, hopefully they knock it out of the park as they lead up to their Kewadin festival appearance! Get more info on this concert and the band at this location, and for a preview, here's the band covering Metallica's "Master of Puppets" from last December!



Meanwhile, back in Sault Michigan, an out-of-town band will make their long awaited return here tomorrow night! Cheboygan hard rockers The Darwin Project are making their way back to town for a concert tomorrow night at The Corner Pub Bar & Grill! There's no announced cover charge, and there's definitely a 21+ age limit. It's been a while since we last saw The Darwin Project live locally, but if you've followed the Sault Michigan scene for a while now, these guys should be quite familiar! They've played here numerous times, notably at the July 2008 "Rock Starz" show at The Soo Theater, and they should be set to deliver another fun night of radio-friendly hard rock to the partons at The Corner Pub! I like what I hear, heavy yet accessible! Click here for more from The Darwin Project, and for a preview, here's the band playing their song "Back To Dust" in Traverse City in January!



Finally for the Sault Michigan previews, local hard rock band Blind Baby will return to The Bird for a pair of shows this weekend! According to their Reverbnation page, the band will take the stage tomorrow night and Saturday night for two likely 21+ shows, with start times of around 10:00 PM. If you wanna hear some solid progressive hard rock this weekend, you've got a great example of it at The Bird! Melodic and well played hard rock with gritty vocals and a hard edge, it's good stuff! Check out more from Blind Baby at their official Reverbnation page! No videos are online of them yet, but rest assured, they'll put on good performances this weekend! There's more from Blind Baby coming soon!

Now we're back in Sault Ontario for the last two metal concerts of the weekend, but one I'm actually starting to second guess. It was confirmed last week that local hard rock quartet Silver Dream would be making their live concert debut on Saturday with local indie band Broken House at a concert at Foggy Notions. The event pages for it (frontman Matthew Silver's and Broken House's Jason McBride's) are still online, with listed start times of 10:00 PM, and the show would likely have a $3-$5 cover and a 19+ age limit. That we know or can guess. But I'm second-guessing this show because Matthew Silver, the founder and mainman of Silver Dream, has both shut down his Facebook account AND his YouTube channel. Those were the only internet pages that had anything to do with Silver Dream, who had no music page. So you can understand why I might have thoughts that this show was cancelled, or possibly worse. I hope nothing bad or drastic happened with Silver Dream, I know how much Matthew's been putting into this band and how much he wants to make it big! Good stuff that I heard too!

I'm just not comfortable calling this show right now, so I'm removing it from the concert listings, but if I hear different, I'll be sure to let you guys know! Last I heard, Broken House might still be playing, if that counts for anything, though I can't verify that. Fingers crossed that Silver Dream are still alive in some fashion! I'll keep you guys posted!

That leads us to the last concert this weekend to preview, and this I can 100% verify is on! Local punk/metal quartet Frightlight will bring their horror-influenced concert set to Coch's Corner on Saturday night, in their first publicly advertised concert since Halloween 2009 (not counting the "secret show", of course!) Featuring Fitswitch mainstays J.D. Pearce & Rick White, bassist Mike Gingras, and Caveman Morrison drummer Jeff Richards, they'll bring their Misfits-influenced sound to Coch's on Saturday for a very unique concert! It's unique in that, they'll be recording their first album LIVE at the concert, to be produced and mixed by iT's Nick Jackson! Is that more incentive to go? Really, how often can you be present for a recording session, this'll be a special moment! Also to be featured is local rock trio Marshmellow Gun in their live debut! They have sort of a Tom Waits/punk style which is very unique locally, so don't expect the typical stuff with them! Click here and the above links to check out the bands! There's no cover charge, you must be 19, and the show starts at 10:00 PM! Get more information at the Facebook event page too!

I guarantee I'll be at Coch's Corner on Saturday for this, I can't pass up a show of this type, especially after missing Frightlight so much since their inception! I'll have a review, video, and photo album on Sunday, so stay tuned for that! I'll be tweeting live from Coch's too during the concert, so FOLLOW US ON TWITTER for live updates! For a video preview, here's a live video of Frightlight playing their song "Dead Town"!



So there are your concert previews for this weekend! It just gets bigger from here though, with two weekends of major music festivals on the horizon, starting with Rotaryfest next weekend! I'll be there for Garden of Bedlam, hopefully you guys are too! Stay tuned to The Sault Metal Scene around midnight for the fourth installment of our GarageBand Profile Mini-Series, on local solo artist Mike Cliffe! Expect a new news post on Saturday, and my Frightlight review on Sunday! Lots of excitements here over the next few days, stay tuned for it all!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Blind Baby & Nixxon Dixxon), A Fifth Way Video, And Rotaryfest Updates!!

Well, as I expected, I have yet another post tonight, as I continue to get old news stories out to the public as they deserve! I have another major concert video and the latest Rotaryfest lineup news, but first, LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!! (Check my post below for another new concert next weekend, previews of this weekend's concerts, and a cool local concert photo discovery!)

Conveniently, today's new concerts are courtesy of the two metal bands playing in Sault Michigan this weekend! And firstly, let's discuss local metal band Nixxon Dixxon, who will be playing a special concert on July 9th in the Sault Michigan area at a place you may not expect! That night, they'll be entertaining fans at The Bunker Bar & Grill in Kinross (just outside of town), which doesn't sound that odd on the surface. When you add into account that this bar is located at The Oaks at Kincheloe Golf Course, you'll see what I mean by this being not what you expect! Nixxon Dixxon are the live entertainment that evening for a National Guard golf scramble tournament, which is pretty cool! Show starts at 9:00 PM, I imagine it's a 21+ show because they're playing at a bar. Check the above links for my sources on this concert! Should be a good show (they're only playing once that weekend to my knowledge), and if you're a golfer, you'll get treated to some awesome metal and hard rock from one of the area's most talented bands! Stay tuned for more Nixxon Dixxon news soon!

Meanwhile, local progressive hard rockers Blind Baby are also hitting the stage as well next weekend, as they have booked a weekend set at The Bird! According to their Reverbnation page, they'll be playing there next Friday and Saturday at 10:00 PM both nights, there's no announced cover charge, and I wouldn't expect the shows are all ages like the page says, cause The Bird is a bar. No other word on what else might be going on, sounds like a standard concert weekend for Blind Baby, not that that's bad! If you want some great hard rock from one of the area's more promising new metal bands, head to The Bird next weekend! Check out more from Blind Baby at this location, and I'll keep you posted with more on them as I hear it!

Now onto some more news stories to clear out, and firstly, we have a new video from a recent major local concert! A few days ago, I shown you guys the videos that Duane Roy took at last week's Tesla concert at Kewadin Casino, and when I did, I noted that there was no videos of the opening band, Detroit hard rockers Fifth Way. Never fear though, we have one now! This was uploaded four days ago onto the band's official YouTube channel, and it features the band performing their song "Rock N' Roll" (No, not the Led Zeppelin song, this is an original.) Sounds good, a bit muffled at parts, but it's well recorded! Nice heavy song, it has a nice groove and they seem really into it! I love the angle too, it feels like you're above the concert in a balcony or something! Nice to finally see some Fifth Way video from the concert, especially at such quality, and the full song to boot! Check it out below!



Finally, here's the latest lineup news for the stages at this year's Rotaryfest! Firstly, two more bands have been announced for the Tenaris Second Stage, and though they're not metal, they're playing the same stage at the same festival as Garden of Bedlam, so I should at least mention them. Yesterday, the first mystery slot was revealed to be Amanda Rheaume, a solo indie artist from Ottawa. She'll be performing at 7:00 PM on Saturday, July 17th. The other newly announced Second Stage band is The Wooden Sky, a roots rock band from Toronto. They're headlining the Second Stage on Friday, July 16th at 9:00 PM, despite the Facebook event page's initial claim that the headlining slot for that night wouldn't be announced until tomorrow. Two more Second Stage band announcements to go, on Saturday and Monday, stay tuned for those, especially if there's a metal band lurking!

Also, the lineup for the First Stage (or simply, "The Stage") at Clergue Park has been completely announced, and sadly, there is no metal to speak of. It's not unheard of to see metal on the first stage though (Stillbroke played there in 2008), so it was worth exploring! The full lineup for The Stage can be checked out at this location, and here's some highlights! Thursday, July 15th will be "Jazz in the Park", with just local jazz bands from 6:00-10:30 PM, headlined by Jazzy Goodtimes. The Stage will host bands on Friday the 16th from 6:00-11:30 PM, with the headliners being local classic rock cover band That's Chester, who are fronted by Greg Simpson from Sin Stereo and Stiffler's Mom! They'll be worth seeing, and they're probably the closest thing to a metal band on The Stage! Also of note: former Garage Inc. bassist Josh Donofrio will play that night with local country band Thin Ice! Saturday presents bands from 2:00-11:30 PM, headlined by Gsis Murphy and a Bruce Springsteen tribute band named Glory Days! You may notice a few local metal musicians in that lineup too, including Foothill Road's Mark Oliverio in Boogie Fever, and Greg Simpson again, fronting Bone Yard! Remember, for full First Stage lineup details, click here!

That's all for tonight, I promise to have a new post tomorrow, likely two. Also, will you guys see me at Foggy Notions for Phatstick, or will I be there Saturday? We will soon find out! Stay tuned as well for the second of six GarageBand profiles in our special mini-series on Saturday! I'll be back real soon with more local metal news and updates!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Silver Dream), Weekend Concert Previews, And More!!

Happy Canada Day to all of the Canadian metalheads out there! The clearing out of news continues as we creep closer to our third anniversary (that's on SUNDAY), and today, we have a couple stories to get to along with your local concert previews for this weekend! But first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!!

You've waited patiently, and the time is near: Silver Dream are playing their first ever concert this month! Yes, the hard rock band featuring Matthew Silver, Mike LaRue, Chris Stainthorpe, and Steven Flint will finally hit the live stage on July 10th for a headlining show at Foggy Notions! Great to see the full band finally getting ready for a real full concert, I was wondering when they'd finally take that step! Joining them for this concert is local indie band Broken House, who aren't metal, but are quite talented! The show's at 10:00 PM that night, there is likely a cover charge of around $3, and there's an age limit of 19+. To confirm your attendance, click here for Matthew Silver's Facebook event page, or here for the one started by Broken House's Jason McBride! It'll be great to finally see Silver Dream live, rather than just members of them at a jam session or open mic night! I'll keep you all posted as I hear more on this show, and also, I'll show you guys this: A commercial for the show! Matthew made up this the other day and uploaded it to his YouTube channel, check it out below!



Now, to your local concert previews for this weekend, as three metal bands are playing weekend sets in the Sault area (to my knowledge.) Only one of them is in Sault Ontario, so let's start with that, and I'm sure some of you guys have been anticipating their return for a while now! St. Catharines metal band Phatstick will make their long awaited return to the local stage tomorrow night and Saturday night at Foggy Notions, the same venue as their cancelled show from May 28th! This time, we'll get two chances to see them, so I forgive the renovations for calling off the first show attempt! As you know, Phatstick feature three former members of the defunct Port Colborne metal band Human Disorder, among them, Saultites Jason Taillefer & Joe LaVergne! Doors open at 10:00 PM both nights, I'd expect a cover charge of around $3, and you definitely have to be 19 to get in. Confirm your attendance for each individual concert by clicking here for the event page for tomorrow's concert and here for Saturday's! After at least 2 years of anticipating their return here for a show, our time is here to see Phatstick locally again! This will be my first time ever seeing them live, being that I was too young when they last played here. I WILL be at Foggy's this weekend, not sure which day (probably tomorrow night), but I will have a review, photos, and video regardless, so stay tuned for that!

Check out more great hard rock from Phatstick at their official website, and for a preview, here's a video of Phatstick covering Rage Against The Machine's "Bullet In The Head" from a 2008 concert!



Now to Sault Michigan for the other known concerts this weekend, and first, we'll discuss local hard rockers Blind Baby, as they return to the stage tomorrow night and Saturday night for a pair of concerts at The Rapids Lounge at Kewadin Casino! Both shows will start at around 9:00 PM, there is NO cover charge, and you must be 21 to enter. I like what I've heard from Blind Baby so far, they should put in some good performances this weekend! When your band has members of Kilacel and Scofflaw, you must be doing something right! No videos of Blind Baby to speak of yet, but check out more from them at their official Reverbnation page, which has eight demos of some original progressive hard rock songs that show lots of promise! So if you're at the casino this weekend, you'll get some good music!

Finally this weekend, rising local metal band Nixxon Dixxon return to The Bird for a weekend full of metal classics and originals! If you missed seeing them last weekend, now's as good a time as ever to see one of the best young bands in the area! Both concerts this weekend (tomorrow night and Saturday night) have an announced start time of 10:00 PM, there is no announced cover charge, and as The Bird is a bar, you must be 21. Great to see Nixxon Dixxon keeping busy on the live scene, they impress at every show, and this weekend should be no different! For more, visit their official MySpace page, which curiously no longer features their original song "High Life" in the music player. Where'd it go? Regardless, a couple of their old studio covers are back on the page to check out! For a video, here's a brand new acoustic performance clip of Nixxon Dixxon covering Shinedown's "The Crow & The Butterfly"! (Thanks to YouTube user rubbs001 for the upload!)



To close today's post, I made a pretty cool discovery that I don't think most of you guys know about. If you go to the official website of The Sault's Rock Station, Rock 101, and click on "Photo Archives" on the left hand side, you'll find some photo albums from some past concerts! A few are from some assorted non-concert events, like a four wheeler party and from a cruise that DJs Scott Cook and Brian Davie took to The Caribbean! But for us metalheads, there's some pictures up from a few extra concerts from the mid-2000s at Kewadin Casino! There's a tiny album from the 2006 Ratt/Skid Row concert featuring a photo of Scott Cook with Ratt's Jizzy Pearl, and most notably of all, a pretty big album from the 2004 Godsmack acoustic concert there! There's tons of concert photos, as well as pics with Rock 101 DJs and the band, and some shots of a free t-shirt giveaway! I wish I was there! Also, this page has photos of Rock 101's crew at Van Halen's party plane and shots from the ZZ Top/George Thorogood show in 2005! Lots of great photos here, click here to check them all out! Rock 101 should really update this section, it looks like it hasn't been touched in a few years, I imagine they must have some cool concert photos laying around from other shows!

That's all for now, but because I'm so backlogged with stories, I WILL have a post later tonight, probably around midnight. Just to make a point of the stories I promise to get to, here's the bands and establishments I plan to discuss while my pile of delayed news gets cleared out: Blind Baby, Fifth Way, Garden of Bedlam, Turner Up, Energy Rock Radio, Jason Mapes, The Sexual Vigilantes, Nixxon Dixxon, Rotaryfest, and a couple more I won't spoil. Look out for all these in the coming days!

Five Updates From Five Local Bands!!!

Before I get to some new updates, I have an apology to make for a missed story. As it turns out, Sault Michigan hard rockers Monkey's Uncle played a weekend set at Dondee Lanes Friday night and yesterday. I could blame the band for not posting concert listings on MySpace, but I take full responsibility for missing these shows because they were hyped on The Dondee's Facebook page on Wednesday and it completely passed me by. I only first heard about them today in a commercial on Rock 101. So my apologies for missing these concerts, I bet they were awesome, and I'll try harder to pay attention to The Dondee on Facebook for upcoming shows there!

Today, we'll take a look at 5 different local bands with varying updates to share, including a new band page, a new magazine article, membership changes, an album update, and your first opportunity to a certain local band live in a different setting! Here we go!

Sault Ontario's own Lion Ride are featured in the Summer 2010 issue of Urban Male Magazine! This time, they were the focus of a "Music Buzz" feature by UMM's Keith Carman, where he sat down with Mikey Lion and Marky Lion to discuss the band! The article discusses Lion Ride's sound, background, philosophy, and much more. Among the notable tidbits: Their opinions on energy compared to hitting the right notes, their evolution from their over the top glam-influenced stage shows of 2007, and what the only kind of music they currently buy is. Fun read, though it'd be nice to feature a real sit-down interview/transcript rather than capsule replies. It's awesome to see Lion Ride get more press, and it's definitely worth reading! Check your local magazine-carrying stores for the newest issue of Urban Male Magazine (self-promoted as "the best Canadian magazine for guys"), and if you wanna subscribe, click here for details! Just $1 an issue, not bad! But if you don't want the full magazine, no worries, the band uploaded it to the internet for all to see! Click the image to check it out, and I know that the words are small, so if you want clarity from the interview, click here to read a transcript! Stay tuned for more news on Lion Ride, including news on their upcoming album that they hope will be "free of any songs that suck"!

Secondly today are some updates from local metal band Silver Dream, who continue to creatively keep fans updated on band news via Facebook-uploaded images. Apparently, Silver Dream are now ready to play live shows! That being said, they need shows to play on, so if you're in a local band that'd like Silver Dream to open for you, message frontman Matthew Silver on Facebook by clicking here! Good 80s metal sound that these guys have, mixture of heavy and lighter material, they'll go over well! Leading from that, the band will be playing at an open mic night TODAY at The Royal Canadian Legion on Great Northern Road with local folk rock outfit Blackwater! My source for this is this image. Now I'm not considering this an official "concert" because it appears to be completely open mic, but if you want a live taste of Silver Dream, you'll wanna be at the Legion between 3:00 and 11:00 tonight! Matthew has played a few open mic nights with members of Silver Dream and solo in recent months, maybe you've seen him/them at one! Nice to see them finally getting out there, once an official concert is booked, I shall let you guys know!

Next, we have updates on the upcoming 23rd album from Sykotyk Rampage, entitled "Bella Disgusta"! Though audio samples have yet to appear online yet (well, not that I've seen), the band have posted some information on the album onto their Facebook page! The album will have 11 tracks for a total run time of 50:54, much smaller than their last album "22" was, though to be fair, that had a number of re-recordings. The band's lineup remains the same as it was on "22". Of the songs on "Bella Disgusta", probably most notable to fans of their live show is "Bag On Your Face", which the band has performed live, including during the t-shirt giveaway at the Scotties Tournament Battle of the Bands from earlier this year! The track listing features a number of songs that seem to refer to girls and love, if the song titles are something to go by. Might this be a recurring theme on the album? If so, I wouldn't expect this album to be "soft", this should be another shining example of the blue Chinese metal crash punk we've come to enjoy over the past so many years! Click here for the full setlist and more! Now it also says the album had a release date of June 1st, which has come and gone. No word on an official release date, but when it comes out, expect an SMS review!

Closing today's updates are stories from a pair of local bands with a page on Reverbnation, which is a really good music site that I think more bands should take advantage of. We'll start with the discovery of a page, this one for Sault Michigan's own Blind Baby! If you've been following their Facebook page hoping for band updates with no luck, then check their Reverbnation page out! So here's what I can tell you guys about the band now that I have more to go off of: Blind Baby were previously known as Stone Circle, in case you remember them. A full band lineup is listed too rather than just nicknames, so I can now confirm the full lineup of Blind Baby, including singer Tadd Gravelle, guitarists Darian Causley and Bill Ogston, bassist Chris Leask (from the now-on-hiatus Muskegon rock band Kilacel), and drummer Ivan Shliska from Scofflaw! And also, the band have uploaded eight demos to the page, so now you can hear what Tadd sent me through e-mail! Definitely a progressive tinge to this stuff, but heavy enough to keep a nice groove, definitely check out Blind Baby on Reverbnation to get a taste of their sound! Click here to check out their new page!

And finally, we have lineup changes for Sault Ontario hard rockers Browbeat, and these are pretty noticeable! Bassist Tiffany Emmerson has once again left the band, reasons not stated, and replacing her on bass is... frontman Dutch Vanderploeg, who will trade instruments but will continue to sing. So who's playing guitar for Browbeat now? None other than local guitarist, concert promoter, and radio host Rich Moreland (pictured), who you may recognize from his work in local bands like Time of Ruin! Believe me when I say that Rich is extremely talented on the guitar, this is only going to help Browbeat with him in it! Dutch tells me the band will be even heavier with the current lineup, so we'll have to see! Definitely much different looking than it has in the past, but hopefully all will fall into place this time! I'll keep you guys posted with more on Browbeat as I hear it!

That's all for tonight, sorry again for the slowness of this post, usually I have more news more frequently, but at least I'm keeping my self-started goal to have at least one new post every three days! I'd rather have new stuff quicker though, things should pick up soon though! I have stuff on the Kiss show, the Kewadin festival, and more by Wednesday, hopefully sooner, so keep an eye out!

Local Metal Concert Previews For This Weekend, Browbeat's Return, And More!!

Bit of a slow stretch for news, but I have some good stuff today, so here's what's today! Previews of this weekend's concerts, the return of a certain local band, plus some more assorted updates! So here's what you need to know for today!

Three local metal concerts to my knowledge this weekend, and we'll start in Sault Ontario for a concert that I'm sure will appeal to Bon Jovi fans! But before I go into details, I wanna clarify a contradiction in the latest issue of Sault This Week. In the Hot Spots section this week, the ad for The Canadian Nightclub says that the Bon Jovi tribute band playing there on Friday is named Bed of Roses. Now there IS a Bon Jovi tribute band from Winnipeg named Bed of Roses, but they are NOT the ones playing here tomorrow night. The info I reported to you guys on Friday is completely accurate, don't be confused by the ad in Sault This Week. The ads in the Hot Spots section can be susceptible to misinformation and typos, like with this one, though they're usually accurate!

As previously reported (with a verified source at their Facebook group), the Bon Jovi tribute band playing at The Canadian tomorrow night is Keep The Faith: The Quintessential Tribute To Bon Jovi, the same band that played there back in March! Fronted by Chris Newman, who looks and sounds just like Jon Bon Jovi, Keep The Faith will bring their authentic Bon Jovi sound and live show back here, and if you love Bon Jovi of any era of their history, you're bound to enjoy yourself tomorrow! There's no detailed information about the concert itself online, but going by the past track record of concerts at The Canadian, I'd imagine it will start at 10:00 PM (likely later), with a cover charge of $5 and a 19+ age limit. I heard good things about Keep The Faith's show here in March, and though I'm admittedly not a Bon Jovi fan, I recognize Keep The Faith's talent and musical ability, and I guarantee this will be something any fan of Bon Jovi won't wanna miss! For a preview, here's Keep The Faith performing the song they named themselves after and a Rolling Stones cover from a show last spring in Toronto!



(Before I get to the next preview, an e-mail by The Canadian's Mary Lou Johnson to members of their Facebook group yesterday was hyping a Alice Cooper tribute band as playing there next Friday. I've done some searching to try and figure out which one, because it wasn't stated in the e-mail, but I haven't been able to find out the specific one. If you know which Alice Cooper tribute band is playing here next weekend, so I can properly cover it on the SMS, e-mail me at robertfigures@hotmail.com!)

The other concerts this weekend come courtesy of Sault Michigan hard rockers Blind Baby, who will be at Cozy Corners Bar & Grill in Barbeau, Michigan (just outside of the Soo) for two shows this weekend, tomorrow night and Saturday night! All credit to frontman Tadd Gravelle for telling me about these shows, I wouldn't have heard about them otherwise! If you're up for a trip to Barbeau, get ready for some solid hard rock and some covers as well! Good band, though the samples I've heard don't do them justice, you'll have to check them out live! Nice groove, good singing, solid instrumentation, take my word for it! Now, Blind Baby doesn't update show listings, and Cozy Corners has no website, so I again don't have verified show details, but going by past shows there that I've reported, expect a 9:00 PM start time, I doubt there's a cover charge, and I'm pretty sure you must be 21 to get in. If you want something heavy this weekend in Sault Michigan, Blind Baby will have you covered!

Next up, Browbeat are back! The local hard rock trio most recently known as Social Play are back from a recent hiatus and have a new internet page, this time hosted on Reverbnation! It's nicely updated so far with some band information and a link to the video I shot of them performing "Walk Away" at their lone show under the "Social Play" name in January! The page also confirms the current lineup, including current Caveman Morrison bassist Dutch Vanderploeg on lead vocals and guitar and the returning Tiffany Emmerson on bass! Now on drums is Sean See, replacing the departed Chris Smith. Nice to see them back, I know how much Dutch wanted to keep this band going, they really were a fun band to check out, and I can't wait to see them live again in the future! For now, check out their new page at this location, and as I hear more on them, I'll have it for you guys!

And to close today's post, three quick news updates, in alphabetical order by band name:

• Garden of Bedlam officially entered Stereo Soul Studios this past weekend to begin recording sessions for their first full length album! According to producer Miguel Gauthier at his Facebook page, the scratch tracks and demos are done, and the first recordings tracked were by drummer Derek Turner, who Miguel concluded must not be human by his skills. Miguel says "this is shaping up to be a mean, mean album" and "prepare to have your teeth punched in." I'll take his word for that! When I hear more, I'll let you all know!
• Local experimental hard rockers SBD have posted two new songs onto their SoundClick page! One, "Rio Bravo", has a definite "southern/grunge" feel, while "Rubber Hose/Throwing Pies" is actually very hard to describe. You'll have to listen to it for yourself, they have a wide variety of stuff ranging from moshable songs to trippy fare over at their page, so click here for those songs and more!
• Woods of Ypres have added two more dates to their American tour, with stops now booked for July 12th in Stockbridge, Georgia and July 13th in Philadelphia! Get full details at this location, I have both shows listed in the out-of-town listings on your right! Also, a fan of Woods of Ypres in Montreal has started a Facebook group to help get a booking for the band there, click here to check it out! Still waiting for a Sault Ste. Marie show though...I hope a local booking pops up, we'd love if David brought Woods back to our burial ground!

There, I think we're mostly caught up for news now! Stay tuned for much more in the coming days, I guarantee a new post of some type will be up by Sunday, likely sooner!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Keep The Faith, Monkey's Uncle, & Blind Baby), Concert Previews, And SMS 3rd Anniversary Plans!!

Hey guys, you ready for some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS?! I have a bunch to share today, so here's what you need to know on them! Afterwards, stay tuned for previews of this weekend's concerts, and info on the SMS 3rd anniversary on July 4th, and how YOU can help out with it!

Yesterday, I mentioned in my paragraph about the 2112 cancellation that The Canadian Nightclub was hyping a Bon Jovi tribute band as playing there next Friday, and I would be checking online to find out which specific one would be here. Well, I didn't have to look far! Keep The Faith: The Quintessential Tribute To Bon Jovi will be back at The Canadian once again on June 11th for another night of faithfully performed Bon Jovi classics! My source for this is the band's Facebook group. You may remember seeing Keep The Faith there in March at a well advertised concert, and are returning! Fronted by Jon Bon Jovi look and sound-alike Chris Newman, the band do really sound like Bon Jovi, performing hits of theirs from their 1980s hair metal heyday all the way to their more accessible country-influenced songs of recent years! Though I'm not a huge Bon Jovi fan, Keep The Faith always impress with their sound, and fans of the band will be sure to have a ball! I'd expect a $5 cover charge for this show, expect a start time of 10:00 PM, and it will definitely be 19+. As I hear more, I will share it with you guys! For more information and samples of Keep The Faith, click here!

The next new concerts I have for today come courtesy of Kewadin Casino's Entertainment page, which was recently updated to reflect concerts at The Rapids Lounge for all weekends through August! Some we knew about already (Peril and Nixxon Dixxon), some are non-metal bands (The Hixx and The 2nd Hand Band), and others still I still don't know a genre for (Rainbow, Gary's Driving, and Crossroads.) But there are two more local metal bands returning to The Rapids Lounge at Kewadin Casino this summer for some concerts, so here's what you need to know about them! We'll start with Sault Michigan hard rockers Monkey's Uncle, who are returning to The Rapids Lounge once again for a pair of weekends this summer! Though the band still does not plug upcoming shows on MySpace (though they still update it), Monkey's Uncle will indeed be back at Kewadin's bar on June 25-26th, and August 6-7th! All four shows have a free admission, they all begin at 9:00 PM, and you must be 21 to get in. Nice to see them back for a few shows, though I really wish they would update their MySpace for full dates! If they have shows at The Bird or The Satisfied Frog, I have no way of knowing! Really good band though, check them out at this location!

Now I actually went out of chronological order for the concert announcements, the final band actually should be first chronologically, but I'm putting them last to segue into the weekend concert previews, as they're a part of them too! Sault Michigan hard rockers Blind Baby will be at The Rapids Lounge themselves this summer, but first, they've got shows a LOT sooner! According to frontman Tadd "Booze" Gravelle (thanks for adding me on Facebook!), Blind Baby will be playing at The Bird THIS WEEKEND for two shows, tonight and tomorrow night! Then, the band will be at Cozy Corners Bar & Grill in Barbeau (just outside of town) for shows next weekend on June 11th and 12th, followed by the Kewadin shows on July 3rd and 4th! This comes straight from Blind Baby's singer, so there's my source. The band haven't announced these shows on their Facebook page, and The Bird and Cozy Corners don't have an online page to my knowledge, so I can't 100% verify additional details, but let me say this: The Kewadin shows have a 9:00 PM start time with no cover charge, the rest of the shows can't be terribly different!

Should be good shows, especially this weekend at The Bird, sorry for the short notice of announcing it! I've probably missed some other Blind Baby shows too, my apologies for any I did miss! I can actually tell you a bit about Blind Baby's sound now too, as Tadd was kind enough to send me some audio samples via e-mail, and they aren't bad! A mix of heavier and lighter originals, good musically but I assume the samples won't do justice to the live experience! Good vocals (especially the heavier material), I like the guitar too! Kinda hard to define, but if you like some hard rock originals, you can't go wrong! As I hear more on Blind Baby, I'll have it for you guys!

Seeing as the Blind Baby concert alerts discussed concerts taking place this weekend, we'll continue from that with the other local concert preview for this weekend, as Turner Up will play just one concert this weekend, as they bring their live show to The Canadian Nightclub tomorrow night! Expect a night full of rock covers (with heavier stuff to be seen the later you stick around) from a band full of local music veterans! They're a great band to dance to, if you're into that kind of stuff also! A start time of 10:30 PM is listed on the Facebook event page, there should be a cover charge of $5 or less, and you must be 19 to get in. Turner Up are always fun to see live, head on out to The Canadian on Saturday if you want to enjoy yourself with some live hard rock! Check out more from Turner Up at this location, and for a video preview, here's a live clip of the band covering the Def Leppard classic "Hysteria"!



Finally for today, it is now June 4th, just one month away from The Sault Metal Scene's third anniversary! Hard to believe, isn't it? To start the countdown to July 4th, I have a third anniversary-specific banner on the blog and a special logo for it on our Facebook page, which will be up until our anniversary on July 4th (with a week's exception from June 20-26th, when we'll have a special logo and banner up for Tesla's show at Kewadin Casino on June 26th.) But that's far from all! As you may know from following the SMS over the past 35 months, you'll know that I try to celebrate the anniversary each year by having something special in store! Like how last year, I unveiled the current logo and launched our Facebook page, or with the SMS CD giveaways that I likely won't repeat this year due to waning interest. This year, I definitely want to do something special, and my plan is to add a new special feature to the SMS of some type! But, here's the problem: I'm not entirely sure what I want to do.

This is where YOU come in, the faithful SMS readers! I want your opinions as to what I should start or launch or add or feature or edit on The Sault Metal Scene in time for our 3rd anniversary on July 4th! I have a few ideas, but I don't know what would be popular, worth your time, or feasible. So here's what I'm gonna do: I have a topic posted on the discussion board of the SMS' Facebook page called "SMS 3rd Anniversary Ideas" where I share many of the ideas I've been debating. I'd like you guys to voice your opinions there, in comments on SMS posts, by e-mail at robertfigures@hotmail.com, or through my Facebook page as to what YOU would want to see on the SMS for our third anniversary! It doesn't have to be something I mentioned on the topic, if you have a bright alternate idea! I can't promise that the most popular suggestion will be chosen, some are more feasible than others, while a few choices I didn't include because I can't pull them off either time-wise or financially, but I'd love to hear your ideas! Whatever sounds like the best option with a good size of popular opinion will be the newest SMS feature, addition, page, or edit! HELP ME OUT, GUYS! WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE ON THE SMS ON JULY 4TH?!!?

That's all for today, I will have more news and updates in the coming days, so stay tuned for more! Remember, I NEED YOUR HELP!!!