LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Project 906), Cory Marks Concert Videos, And An Inactive Band Note!!

One more SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT has fell into my lap, so to fill out a surprise Saturday evening post, we have new videos from a big recent concert and a solo project newly moved to our inactive links, so here's what you should know on all fronts!

Sault Michigan hard/blues rock cover quintet Project 906 will return to the stage TONIGHT at The Strongs Tavern in nearby Eckerman! Apologies for the short notice, the band first announced this one-night-only gig on their Facebook page on Sunday, but it slipped past me before our last two weekend concert preview posts went live. After taking a three month break from the stage (characterized by the band as "some much needed time off"), this will be 906's first show since rocking Hulbert Happy Hour in early March, with the band last playing at The Strongs Tavern at the end of February. Of course, this belatedly kicks off their annual "#summerof906", so more shows should be announced in due course, but since we last heard from Project 906 at The Strongs, they completed renovations in the spring, so hopefully things look as good as the rock will sound TONIGHT! Billy, Joe, Dustin, Jason, and Brian will take the stage TONIGHT at 8:00 PM with a 21+ age limit and no cover charge, as usual.

If you've missed the guys in recent months, and/or are up for the hour's drive west, don't miss out on their summer season kickoff! Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview of TONIGHT'S opening #summerof906 event, here's Project 906 live!

Next up, let's head north to Sault Ontario for some new videos from the Cory Marks concert at The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre on June 11th! Last week, Cory uploaded a highlight video from the event to his Facebook page, where he highly praised the concert, which included a sold-out meet & greet session, and some fans driving 8+ hours to see it. Cory called the the Bushplane Museum's hangar "a dream concert setting for me", and if you weren't there, the hangar doors were open with the stage was set up inside, allowing for outside light to get inside and for some nice views while the North Bay country/hard rock musician rocked out. The highlight video (set to the studio version of his song "Are You With Me?") features clips of Cory at the meet-and-greet, including of him playing acoustic for VIP fans, before we see footage of the proper concert.

Good thing that we knew ahead of time where this was, as the video only has fleeting glimpses of bushplanes, which is a testament in a way to how well everyone got the hangar looking like a concert venue for more than just local bands! I would prefer hearing raw audio from the concert, but miraculously, Facebook didn't content match the studio track, so I can embed it below!

If you do want to see raw audio from the concert proper, good news, as Mike Blair's 705Live Sound Co. were on hand to take care of sound for Cory and crew, and a video of them playing "Blame It On The Double" was posted to 705Live's Facebook page! Mike doesn't do the "pan the camera up from the soundboard" thing this time, FYI. Alas, the video only runs for 46 seconds, but it does let us get more of a view of where exactly in the Bushplane Museum that the concert was set up at (and where the VIP pre-show area was). Of note, Cory actually grabs someone's cell phone from the crowd to film things mid-song, which would be neat for that fan! What Mike shot looks and sounds good, so if you like Cory's southern fried hard rock, you can relive a snippet of this high production concert for yourself below, and we'll let you know if Cory returns to the Soo for a fifth straight year in 2027!

Finally, I have a local metal act to move to our inactive band links, namely local goregrind solo project Crucify The Whore. We have heard no public updates from C.T.W. since 2024, with their final album "Bummer" being released on Bandcamp that July, and more recent updates from their owned-and-operated indie label Blood Shed Productions dried up by the spring of 2025. Active since 2012 and led by singer/guitarist Tyler "Ringsnaps" Gibson, C.T.W. became one of the more unique underground sights among extreme metal fans of the early-mid 2010s, releasing lots of studio material online and at concerts, including many of the final Oddfellows Hall concerts, plus various private & house party events. Updates from C.T.W. (let alone Blood Shed) really tailed off after the pandemic, even for a one-man project, which wasn't helped by their Facebook pages being taken down, if not by Tyler's own hand.

C.T.W. were really a critic-proof act, as a one-man goregrind band with such explicit imagery, pig squealing vocals, extremely short song lengths, a drum machine, and an ardent "I play what I want to play" ethos made it difficult to look at them in comparison with most contemporary bands. I still believe that all of the early-mid 2010s Blood Shed 1-2 man bands had the collective talent to make a great five-piece death metal band, but Tyler did what he wanted and kept this project going for a strong length of time, with fun crowd reactions and a solid skill set as a guitarist & producer. Hopefully we hear more from him and the label down the road! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes next week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Oz, The Rock Show, And Generations), And More Updates!!

Before we begin this post, I wanted to belatedly acknowledge that Sault Michigan classical metal band Theatre of Night did not play at The Soo Theater on November 30th as was advertised by the venue this fall (like in this event schedule poster). A reason for the cancellation was not publically announced, but the show was never confirmed by Theatre of Night on social media. The band is alive and well, and have been recording and teasing things on their Facebook page that I hope to talk about on the site soon, but it is disappointing to see Craig, Steve, and crew seemingly not playing a Christmas tour this year. Stay tuned for more from them!

Today's post otherwise features LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the coming months, and some assorted recent updates, so let's lead off with the return of Bay City classic/hard rock tribute band The Rock Show to the E.U.P.! One year after they toplined the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino's New Year's Eve party at The Northern Pines Lounge, The Rock Show will take things an hour north to The Rapids Lounge in the Soo for that Kewadin branch's New Year's party on Tuesday, December 31st! This year's trip north is basically an inverse of last year's, as The Rock Show will also be rocking out in their alternate guise as a Journey tribute band at the St. Ignace branch on Monday the 30th, but like last year's Journey gig in the Soo, this is a private event (at press time, the St. Ignace Kewadin doesn't have an advertised band booked on the 31st this year). The Rock Show have a strong handle on classic and hard rock hits, so don't miss their regional return!

All of the action goes down two weeks from tonight at The Rapids Lounge, there is a 9:00 PM start time with no announced cover charge, and I am unsure what kind of seasonal frills that Kewadin will have for the occasion, but there should be something. Ring in 2025 the rock way with The Rock Show, and visit the above links for more details!

Next up, let's head to Sault Ontario, where local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will play their first show of 2025 on Saturday, January 4th at The Water Tower Pub! Drummer Tony Santoro announced the gig on their Facebook group on Sunday, and while the venue has not corroborated the booking on social media at press time, a January schedule should be posted at the Great Northern Road location in a couple weeks (hopefully it makes it online, not all of them do). This will be Generations' first show since rocking Reggie's this past Saturday, and their first Water Tower Pub date since headlining their Halloween party. With no gigs planned closer to Christmas or New Year's, be sure to welcome Generations back for a new year in a few weeks' time! Remember, The Water Tower Pub hosts different nightly acts, so no word on who is playing on Friday the 3rd yet. As usual here, expect an 8:00 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no cover charge. See above for more details!

Also this weekend, let's head back to Michigan, where Iron Mountain classic/hard rock cover quintet Oz will return to the aforementioned Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on Friday, February 14th and Saturday, February 15th! The band announced these dates via their own Facebook event page, as Kewadin's entertainment page has not been updated to reflect shows beyond February 1st at press time. Oz played two weekends at the Soo Kewadin in 2024, most recently just over a week ago, so it's good to see this talented cover band back in our neck of the woods for another pair of hard rocking nights of classic rock favourites! Like normal at The Rapids Lounge, these show should have 9:00 PM start times, 21+ age limits, and no announced cover charges. Visit the above links for more details on Oz' eastern road trip on Valentine's Day weekend, and stay tuned for possible updates if they roll in!

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

 

• I have moved Sault Ontario rapper/punk artist Tristan "Bold Noize" Goslow to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity, last updating the profile & cover photo on his Facebook page in October of last year. As you may recall, Bold Noize debuted a new punk sound at Lopstock 2023, as heard on his "God Save Me" album that August, but all but two songs from it were quietly pulled from streaming services afterwards, hence why I never reviewed it here. No word on if he'll resume his punk work at all, but hopefully we haven't heard the last from Bold Noize!
• I have switched the link for local grindcore solo project Crucify The Whore from their now-deleted Facebook page to their Bandcamp page. As far as I know, C.T.W. is alive and well, but the graphic content of their song titles and album artwork may have gotten their "jgtdry" page yanked by Facebook, which has happened before. Assuming that Tyler doesn't start a new one, you can get project updates via their label Blood Shed Productions' Facebook page, and they released music on Bandcamp as recently as July!
• I have also moved local hard rock/experimental solo musician Mike Cliffe back to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity. Mike is still very active as host of the Audiofumes podcast, and promotes some upcoming concerts from local musicians thusly, but I haven't seen anything clearly new from him as a musician in well over a year. Hopefully Mike releases some new music or videos of his own music again down the road, but listen to Audiofumes for eclectic underground music from around the world!

 

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Selias & Wax Mannequin!!)

Now that we have escaped four posts of weekend concert previews and gotten this month's Defunct Local Band Profile up on schedule, let's start playing catch-up for the items that lapsed during the past few days and beyond, and we'll start with two big LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, so here's what you should know on this Sunday afternoon!

Eighteen days after their well received local return at "Adrian's House", Hamilton "weird folk art punk" solo project Wax Mannequin will return to the Soo on their way back home when they headline at The Whisky Barrel on Sunday, August 25th! It's been a while since we've heard about a concert at the Gore Street nightclub, let alone one with a touring band, but stay tuned for an even bigger outlier there in an upcoming post! Chris Adeney's creative and genre-fluid originals got a solid reception in their relocated return date this past Wednesday, and now setting up shop at a proper downtown venue again, hopefully there's a good crowd to see Wax Mannequin in action once again in two weeks, in spite of also being on a work/school night! Yes, promoters Piecing It Together Shows did post photos from the show on Wednesday on Facebook, albeit solely as "Stories", so they are impossible to share here.

What I saw pointed to a well laid out locale in this downtown backyard with string lighting, but alas, "Stories" can only be viewed once or twice before vanishing forever, and I really have never seen the point of the conceit. Wax Mannequin's return has a 19+ age limit, no cover (thought tips are welcome), and an 8:00 PM start time. It's not unheard of, but certainly not common, to see out-of-town musicians play the Soo going both directions on tour, so if you enjoyed Wax Mannequin on Wednesday or are sad that you missed out, take advantage of the encore! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details on this concert!

Next up, a big extreme metal show was announced last week that was announced as we was beginning that busy stretch of weekend concert previews, so what should you know here? On Saturday, September 28th, Toronto melodic death metal quintet Selias will make their local concert debut when they headline at Soo Blaster! A relatively new band, Selias (named for guitarist Steve Elias) do feature two familiar faces, as Spades GT bassist & drummer James Roy Daley & Tyler Reiner are in their ranks, so if you've missed them locally since the Josey Scott show last summer, keep this in mind! Granted, Selias are much heavier with harsh vocals and an assortment of extreme metal influences, and they'll definitely get the pit opened up next month! Note that Spades guitarist Daniel Horton guested on bass for a recent Selias gig in Toronto too, and yes, we will have more on recent Spades GT news soon.

Joining Selias on tour are Barrie blackened death metal trio Out Of Spite in their own local debut, and while also relatively new to the GTA metal scene, their intense and distorted brand of in-your-face death metal should be welcomed by local metalheads with open arms! A healthy & diverse roster of local openers includes alt-punk trio A Dire Setback (in their second Soo Blaster show in under two weeks), hard rock quartet Half Past (in their Soo Blaster debut and their first multi-band concert since Hempfest in 2011), new & online page-less hardcore quintet The Sault Side Squad (as seen in Leeburn last month), and grindcore solo project Crucify The Whore, who have only been seen sparingly at public concerts post-pandemic, so it'll be good for old Blood Shed diehards to see Tyler back at a formal public stage! Also returning next month are local death metal/punk band Them in their first public concert set in over seven years!

Singer/guitarist Tyler St. Amour (who is promoting this concert in his first full booking since relaunching his agency Heavy North Entertainment) had announced last month that Them had reunited with a four-piece lineup and "a list of brutal original works", but they have yet to reveal who is joining Tyler in the new lineup. For reference, current HeadFirst drummer Anthony Boudreau was a constant during their original 2014-2017 run, and while they did have stints as a four-piece band, they were best known at the time as a duo. It's great to see Tyler back as a promoter and musician after seven years away, so stay tuned for more on Them 2.0, and they're back in our active band links! The other band playing next month is Without Compromise, the rap metal project formerly known as Less Than Zero, In The Sun, and Failure To Remain, as continuously led by former Winkstinger guitarist Jason Ladouceur.

It's been way too long since we've talked about Jason's current project on the SMS, so look for more on them on the site soon, as he has been quite busy, but it will be neat to see him back on a concert stage, though in what form? This ALL AGES show has doors opening at 5:00 PM, and admission will be $15, though they are on sale for $10 online on Eventbrite right now, so click here to buy yours in advance! No word on if the price would be hiked at the door. If you have missed a very Oddfellowsy night of extreme metal and local talent, this show should fill the void very nicely, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!