Before we get into this post, I wanted to profusely apologize for forgetting to preview Hornepayne classic/hard rock quartet Damage Case's concert at Soo Blaster on Saturday night in this weekend's concert previews. How that slipped me by, especially given the homecoming of bassist Will Tholberg, I'll never know, but note that 705Live Sound Co.'s Facebook post about the show from yesterday morning erroneously implies that the show was last night (it was 100% one night only on Saturday). Hopefully Will and crew had a great show, and that they come back our way in the near future!
Local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 will end 2025 by headlining the New Year's Eve party on Wednesday, December 31st at The Moose Lodge at 543 Trunk Road! Definitely an unexpected locale for "the dirty three", but The Moose Lodge has sporadically come up as a concert host for SMS purposes, most recently when Soundcheck played for Terry Eaton's Great Northern Opry induction in June 2023, and prior to that, in 2015. Curiously, Bone Yard have yet to publicize their involvement in this event on their own social media, but this is Toystock week, so they are definitely pre-occupied getting that rolling (more on that in a bit). This is a proper ticketed 19+ New Year's bash, complete with a cash bar, dinner, and more seasonal frivolities, so definitely keep tabs with the lodge for full details on how to ring in 2026 in style! As such, tickets run for $50 and you can buy them at the lodge or by contacting lodge535@shaw.ca.
Bone Yard proper take the stage at 9:00 PM, but doors open at 6:00 PM with dinner at 7:00 PM. This should be a fun event with all of the year-end frills you'd hope for (especially at that cost), so visit the above links for more on Bone Yard 225's last concert of the year! While we're on the subject, let's touch on some other recent Bone Yard updates while they've been taking a pre-Toystock break from the stage! As you may recall, a flash mob of over a dozen women dressed like Helen Roper from Three's Company showed up when the guys headlined at Reggie's Place last November, and the gang of Mrs. Ropers made their way to their Esquire Club show on November 8th! Your photo proof is on the left, courtesy of their Facebook page. What the end game of the Mrs. Ropers is, who's to say, but it's fun for classic sitcom fans! Two days later, they announced that their single "Fuck!" has been re-released on major streaming services with a new name.
Whether it will retain this name on their forthcoming CD, I don't know, but on Spotify and such, it's now called "The F Word", possibly in response to the title getting flagged for its blatant expletive. Nothing else has changed, but keep the new name in mind! A Facebook video that same day shows Greg Simpson playing a.... unique pair of drums, while this vertical video from five days later teases that they were "back at it", and based on the B.T.O. song as backing music, "takin' care of business". implying that they were recording in studio again. Later that day, guitarist Alex D'Ettore and bassist Warren Reville starred in this video where they teased that they "re-did something" while Greg was hunting, but they didn't want to send it yet because Greg was asleep at the time. I assume this relates to their album, but I'm sure we will see what they meant in due course!
Most other updates weren't directly related to new band activity, though embedded below is a video shot the night that the Mrs. Ropers brigade crashed their Reggie's show last year, and it features Greg and Alex trying out hula hoops at 2:00 AM after the show ended. Fun palate cleanser for sure, so give it a watch below, and stay tuned for more from your local 225!
We'll close today's post with clarifications (if not 100% ones) on the two mystery bands playing at the twelfth annual Christmas Cheer benefit concert Toystock at The Grand Gardens North on Sunday! On Thursday, organizers began sharing info on their Facebook page on "the 10 bands of Toystock" in scheduled performance order, which meant that Saturday's post was about the debuting Sunday & The Broken Hearts (the late replacements for Redundant). Toystock proper haven't said anything about band lineups yet, but the band is reportedly an "old-school rock & blues outfit" that plays "smoke-drenched blues, soul-soaked 70's R&B, and rock & roll" with "the spirit of the vinyl era". Shares of the post imply that Eight Seventies/Dark Eyed Junko singer/guitarist Jason Gasparetto will be leading this group, but we await fuller details. Likely not hard rock-leaning, but there should be lots of talent here! Now, how about The Reeves?
They won't get their "10 bands of Toystock" write-up until Friday, but personal Facebook postings suggest that The Reeves are successors to 2023-2024 Toystock performers The Haze (f.k.a. Skinbox), with singer/guitarists Steve Edwards (ex-Pixo Control) & Brad Irwin (ex-Gnaeus) now joined by bassist Adam Dawe and drummer Jeremy Ganuelas, who were the rhythm section of mid-2010s hard rock quartet Long Shot. The Haze were an indie/alternative rock band, so will The Reeves lean to that, or members' heavier past band work? We'll know more soon! Stay tuned for more on Toystock in our preview this weekend, and for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
