Most Of This Weekend's Hard Rock Concert Previews!!

Another weekend is upon us, so let's dive into this slate of hard rock concert previews! Due to the amount of shows, I'll hold our preview of Saturday night's Destroyer concert for tomorrow's post, so Kiss Army soldiers need not worry! All of today's shows had advance notice, so here's what you should know on them!

We'll start with TONIGHT'S rare concert from a touring headliner at Reggie's Place, as London progressive/hard rock band The Nameless Friends will make their way there! Quite an original band from presentation to sound, The Nameless Friends (whose members are only identified as "Number One", "Number Two", etc.) are touring in support of their new album "Blasphemy", and they should impress with their 1970s progressive rock-infused brand of metal, complete with liberally-focused lyrics about social issues. If you believe their website, they actually played at Reggie's back in 2017, and while I cannot 100% verify if that show happened otherwise, hopefully tonight's goes smoothly! Be advised that neither advertised local opener (alt-punk trio A Dire Setback and pop rock cover quartet Lime) have promoted this show on Facebook whatsoever, with all advertising coming from the headliners and Reggie's. 

I hope that everything is ready for takeoff across the board, and these opener choices do point to an eclectic night of rock music! Doors open at 7:00 PM tonight for this 19+ concert, which has a $15 admission fee at the door. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview of this one, here's The Nameless Friends live!

Next up, we'll (partially) stay at Reggie's Place, as local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard will return there TOMORROW NIGHT in a surprisingly rare gig for them at this nightclub! This is the first show in Bone Yard's pictured concert calendar for this and next month, and Reggie's should prove more than hospitable for their southern fried brand of classic and hard rock covers! This one-nighter is the result of their separate booking on SATURDAY NIGHT, as they'll hit Gateway Casino for an acoustic gig, so if you miss The Bearded Lounge but also want bassist Warren Reville to join Greg & Alex in unplugged settings, consider a run to the Sault Ontario casino for this one! Whether you like electric or acoustic instruments, you'll be covered this weekend regardless from Bone Yard, with both of these shows having 19+ age limits and no cover charges. Tomorrow's Reggie's show begins at 9:00 PM, while the Gateway Casino gig is at 8:00 PM.

Visit the above links for more details on Bone Yard's busy weekend downtown, look for them at Shooters next Friday and back at Gateway Casino late next month, and for a preview, here they are live!

Also this weekend, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will return to Shooters Downstairs Lounge for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Another band with a busy fall schedule, tomorrow's gig will see Valerie, the Tonys, and Pierre replace The Nostalgic Band (who quietly cancelled all of their announced concerts) as the Friday band at Shooters this week, their first at this venue with their current lineup. Fans should get their classic and hard rock cover fix tomorrow, but if you would rather see them live on SATURDAY (where a DJ has taken up residence at Shooters this fall), then head to Reggie's Place, as Generations will tag in for Bone Yard as the live entertainment that night. Regardless of downtown venue, fans will be entertained by Generations' cover attack this weekend, so keep the locales in mind! Both shows have 9:00 PM start times, no cover charges, and 19+ age limits. See above for more details, and here's Generations live!

We'll close today by heading to St. Ignace, Michigan, where Traverse City classic metal trio Peril will return to the E.U.P. TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino! I do apologize for erroneously listing these shows in our concert calendar for their sister band Scarkazm, but we had announced these shows as being for Peril when we first announced them on the site last month. One night removed from Scarkazm opening for Anthrax singer Joey Belladonna's Journey tribute band in Cadillac, fans can see Jeff and crew in their older and more established cover band this weekend in St. Ignace, marking their first shows at this Kewadin branch in two months. If you're in the neighbourhood, or up for the hour's drive south, keep Peril's skilled hard rock covers in mind at The Northern Pines Lounge this weekend! This 21+ show has a 9:00 PM start time and no cover, as usual for Kewadin's on-site lounges.

As for Scarkazm, they 100% will be back in St. Ignace on December 8th & 9th, and will return to The Rapids Lounge in the Soo in three weeks. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Peril live!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for our Destroyer preview and more on the site next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (The Nameless Friends, The Apocalypse Afterparty, And Soundcheck), And Much More!!

Before we begin today's post, I wanted to apologize for missing "Wing Wednesday" acoustic concerts at Jay's Piston Broke Pub by Bone Yard frontman Greg Simpson (August 9th & 23rd) and Nostalgic Band frontman Tym Morrison (this past Wednesday) for coverage on the site. These shows often only get late notice coverage from the venue, so they have been easy to miss on my part, especially given the atypical mid-week scheduling. I'll try to keep a better eye out for them, but hopefully all three were hits! Now, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (one on SHORT NOTICE) and a surprise metal solo project's return!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to Jay's Piston Broke Pub for a concert TONIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced late last night, and it truly did come together on short notice, as Jay's were openly looking for a late replacement musical act following The Nostalgic Band dropping out of their planned booking this weekend. Of course, Soundcheck just played their usual Thursday jam night last night, so they are very well known around these parts, but this show will have a twist. As you can see in the marquee image from the venue, Soundch(ec)k will have a guest, and while there hasn't been a public confirmation as to his identity, drummer Glen Thomas confirmed on his personal Facebook page that singer Darrel Ford will be filling in for Cameron Oliver, who is involved with a wedding this weekend and will be unavailable as a result.

While not in a Soundcheck video, you can see Darrel covering Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" at a Bone Yard-hosted jam night at this link, and he should do a good job as a fill-in, possibly adding a heavier edge for the night! Due to the aforementioned wedding (which singer/guitarist Terry Eaton is actually DJing tomorrow night), Soundcheck are only playing TONIGHT, so keep posted with Jay's if you're curious as to who the Saturday band may end up being. TONIGHT's concert has a 9:00 PM start time, 19+ age limit, and no cover charge. See above for more details, and here's Soundcheck live at a recent jam night!

Next up, London progressive/hard rock band The Nameless Friends will make their way to the Soo on Thursday, October 12th at Reggie's Place! An uncommon (but not unheard of) venue for touring bands, Reggie's will be getting quite an original band in three weeks, with band members only identified as "Number One", "Number Two", and so on, charged songs about left-wing social issues, and a unique keyboard-infused sound that calls to mind 1970s prog rock with a heavier modern sensibility and lots of influences. They're a band that's hard to pin down, and should turn many heads when they play here in support of their new album "Blasphemy" next month! Note that The Nameless Friends reportedly played at Reggie's back in July 2017 (source here) but I have no memory of that event. An eclectic local support roster includes alt-punk trio A Dire Setback (in their Reggie's debut) and pop rock cover quartet Lime.

No one is a pure compliment in musical styles here, and neither local band has publically confirmed their involvement in this show (the venue and headliners did those honours), but hopefully everything runs smoothly across the board for what should be a fun night! This 19+ concert has an earlier 7:00 PM start time and will have $15 admission at the door. Visit the above links for more details on this event!

Today's other new concert takes us to Soo Blaster on Saturday, November 18th for an all-local event headlined in a rare appearance by local party metal duo The Apocalypse Afterparty! In some ways, this is basically a pared down, 100% public sequel to a private house party event that they put on last month, but you don't see Paul & Amanda play public gigs at actual public venues too often (especially not as headliners), so expect fireworks from their own charged rap metal attack in two months! They will reportedly feature Vanity First/Hails guitarist Mikhal Muto as a second bassist for this show, as per his personal Facebook page, but I can't confirm if he has joined the band or if he's just a guest. Newer local metal trio The BAG and prolific local folk punk/extreme metal solo musician Chase Wigmore will open the proceedings, so metal and hard rock fans will definitely get pulled in many directions from these acts!

The public poster (from Chase's Facebook page) is cropped to square dimensions, but Mikhal's personal Facebook page has the full poster, confirming that admission will be $10 in advance (via an Eventbrite link to be launched) or $15 at the door, and this 7:00 PM show will be all ages. All-local, all-original events like this are rarer than they really should be, so keep this Saturday nighter in November in mind to see an eclectic range of local metal talent, and see above for more details!

Finally today, here's a pleasant surprise from Sault Michigan (well, a few hours away): Galactic Alignment are back! In case you need a refresher, this was the 2009-2014 progressive metal solo project from local guitarist Mike Libertoski, who local fans may recognize from bands like The Slackjawed Rats, Swayze Train, and The London Gentlemen in the late 2000s and early 2010s. He has since moved downstate and currently performs in the southeast Michigan deathcore band Living Dissection, and it is cool seeing him playing original metal in a band of this scale nowadays, even if he had had to move 5+ hours away to do it. Aside from sharing this video that was posted to his YouTube channel in 2021, we hadn't heard from Galactic Alignment on their Facebook page since October 2013, so it was very surprising to see a post there on September 14th, where Mike revealed that he's re-recording Galactic Alignment's original 2009 demos!

Mike is planning to release them in some form or fashion by year's end, and you can hear the first fruit of this labour via his new Facebook video of the Galactic Alignment original "Shredded Into Pieces" (well, the first 85 seconds of it). If you want to hear more of their old original output, visit their Reverbnation page to see what Mike may be redoing. It's no hyperbole when I say that Mike is one of the most talented guitarists that Sault Michigan has ever produced, so I fully welcome him bringing back Galactic Alignment, and this teaser clip will leave fans wanting more! Check it out for yourself below, and stay tuned for updates!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!

More New Videos, Plus An Inactive Band Note!!

Hopefully everyone survived that cold snap in the Soo area over the last few days! Hopefully this will help warm everyone up, as we have another SMS post to check out today as this month moves along at a glacial pace. We mostly have some new videos to put the spotlight on, but there is a band moved to our inactive band links within, so here's what you should know!

Here's an interesting find, namely a clip of inactive local/Toronto indie/punk band Treble Charger playing "Sick Friend Called" on the CBC variety show Rita & Friends circa 1996! This was uploaded in October by YouTube user Uncool Dispatch, who previously posted this video of Greig & Trevor being interviewed on MuchMusic in 1997. If you're too young to remember it, Rita & Friends was hosted by the late country singer Rita MacNeil from 1994-1997, and while it is odd to see her introducing Treble Charger, it does show that she wanted to spotlight a wide array of music! The video quality is very rough (was this making the tape trading rounds?), but the audio's alright, and it's neat seeing an early video like this, especially given that Greig's on lead vocals for an indie-era song.

If you can get past the visual quality, this is a prime early performance from Treble Charger that surely gave them some much needed exposure to a national TV audience! Give it a look below, and do check out Uncool Dispatch's channel for much more videos of Canadian TV appearances from 1990s rock and alternative musicians, as there's a lot to see there!

Next up, I have moved local hardcore punk quintet Destroilet to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity. The band's last public update (a picture on their Facebook page) went up one year ago yesterday, and while the pandemic is acknowledged, Destroilet updates had dramatically slowed down in the late 2010s, with the band playing just two public sets in the past six years, most recently at the Joni Radford memorial concert in March 2019. One of the most enduring original local punk bands of the new millennium, Destroilet launched in 2009, uniting five scene veterans into a fast & blistering old school package that fans will have seen open for the likes of Random Killing, The Rebel Spell, and The Dayglo Abortions at concerts through 2015, as well as releasing a self-titled EP in 2011, expanded into a full length CD in 2012, and participating in 2015's "Fed Up!" split alongside The Ripcordz and Jack Spades.

Jam space renovations, members' personal lives, and the pandemic haven't helped Destroilet's concert frequency since the mid-2010s, but given their sporadic usage of social media to post band photos and sell t-shirts, hopefully they're not 100% done and that we'll see the guys tear up the stage once again when things return to normal! Best of luck to Mike, John, Christian, Adam, Matt, and Brent in the interim, they've all been missed!

Also, let's belatedly cover some more of local/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith's recent appearances/reviews in Thomas Christ's YouTube series You Rock!, where the host reviews songs by independent musicians in a 2+ hour live stream, Studio Live Today style! Mike debuted in the series with song reviews in episodes #11, #12, and #13 late last year, but he also popped up in episode #14 at the 57:44 mark, with Thomas checking out "Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost" from "Bridges", positively complimenting the song for it's professionalism, slow burn, and overall talent, even plugging Mike's interview with Pete Johns. As it turns out, former Bizotic frontman Brad Griffith (a.k.a. Gortium85) recommended Mike submit songs for Thomas to feature on air, which seems to have worked out! Embedded below is episode #15 from last month. 

In Mike's fifth straight appearance, his song reviewed was "The Best You Never Had", this time from 2020's "If Ever Comes The Day", and you can check that out 1:16:07 into the lengthy video. Thomas also liked this song for it's 1980s/modern hybrid sound and production, though you can tell that Thomas has his limits as a critic, as he didn't know who Michael Hutchence (INXS' late frontman) was when a viewer complimented Mike's vocals. Solid work all around, so give both episodes a watch, and look for local indie band Man Feelings in episode #15 as well! We'll have more from Mike soon!

Finally, here's a surprise upload of an old song by former No Arrow frontman Dann Pichette's inactive solo project! Posted to his YouTube channel last month, this is The Dann Pichette Multi-Track Recording Extravaganza's song "Swass", which has been up on their Soundclick page since 2012 or so (given that this isn't a new recording, I won't move the Extravaganza to our active links unless we hear that Dann's working on new material). As I thought last year when Dann first linked me to these songs, "Swass" reminds me of a Primus demo, albeit one that cascades into chaos, and it's a silly but well performed number for what it is! Give it a listen below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

The Return Of Winkstinger, Tuned Updates, And Much More!!

Another slow news period has hit as of late, but let's help remedy that now that Thanksgiving has come and passed (on the Canadian side of the border), and I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! Today, we have lots of assorted recent notes, updates on a popular webseries, and first, a surprise band reunion, so here's what you should know!

Local extreme metal band Winkstinger are back! After almost two & a half years of public dormancy, they reemerged with a new Bandcamp page with live jam recordings this morning, with their Facebook page confirming that "things are happening", among other typically irreverent hype. Guitarist Jesse Cook (also of Jack Spades & The Elements) and drummer Jonas Gasperas are back from the original run, but singer Alan Wells and bassist Jason Bourcier are not back from their last full incarnation in 2013, and it remains to be seen who will fill out the new lineup. Their Bandcamp page features two new original songs in progress (one being over 7 minutes in length), though both are untitled at this stage, so give them a listen at the above links! Of course, fans will remember Winkstinger well from their original 2010-2013 run which saw them win 2012's Battle for the Blood, play numerous fun & heavy concerts (including at 6 Roosevelt Hotel metal nights), and record material for an unreleased debut EP.

Dare I say it, the new Winkstinger original jams actually sound more technical and progressive-influenced than back in their heyday, and while they did take a self-deprecating bent when describing the quality, I'd be very curious to hear these fleshed out with bass, vocals, and perhaps rhythm guitar! It's great to have Winkstinger back at last, so check out their new material above, and they're back in our active band links!

Next up, here's the latest from Local2's music webseries Tuned with Donna Hopper! Alongside newer episodes on Al Wood & The Woodsmen and another from Sudbury's Northern Lights Festival, the newest installment went up on Saturday, spotlighting the Soup Kitchen benefit at The Algonquin Pub earlier this month featuring (among others) the aforementioned Elements and The Bear Hunters! The main interview is with Machines Dream frontman and event promoter Craig West about the inspiration to promote the show and add the benefit side to it, why local musicians are more prone to participate in charity shows like this, and the odds that Machines Dream may do a similar event in the future. Short but respectful interview that shows Craig's good nature well, and it looks like the concert was a hit! In terms of concert footage, Machines Dream, Drew Armstrong & friends, and The Elements were filmed, but The Bear Hunters and Nikkfitt were not.

Most of the music is muted behind the interview, particularly Drew and friends (some of which being very familiar faces), but The Elements get some spotlight during the credits, covering what appears to be the ending of Primus' "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver". Another solid, if brief episode of Tuned, so give it a look at the above links!

Finally for today, here's six assorted shorter news items (including two inactive band notes) from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist or website name:

• Project 421 singer Curtis McKenzie is looking for a bassist and drummer for his "sweet new project" in the making. Presumably this references the band he previously posted about that he hoped wouldn't play metal or hard rock, but just in case it fits our coverage, message him at this link or via his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from Wednesday!
• In their newest update on their Facebook page, secretive local black metal duo Dullahan revealed that they plan to record their second "EP" soon, which they hope to be "even rawer" in production than on older recordings. They also reiterated that they'll "never" reveal their full identities, and have "no intention" of playing live (which is odd, they'd attract positive and unique attention with their sound if they did!) Stay tuned for more from Dullahan above!
• Rudyard, Michigan hard rock quintet Exiled have quietly deleted their Facebook (and sadly, only online) page, which likely indicates their breakup. Featuring Absolute, Full Throttle, and Division of Sanity alumni, Exiled played numerous regional concerts in the latter half of 2014 before announcing a break in December due to drummer Justin Lawless and his wife's impending arrival of their new baby, though no word on if that's a factor for the apparently demise. Exiled had a strong lineup, so hopefully everyone stays active in music, best of luck to Donny, Joe, Myke, Johnny, and Justin, and don't miss Joe with Ten Kings!
• We have moved Sault Michigan hard/alternative rock collective The Highest of Fives to our inactive band links due to a year's inactivity. Featuring Intrepid, 415E, and Free Refill alumni, the band expanded from a young cover group in 2011 to a more fluid studio project that had ambitious plans to record & release short films, an album, and music videos that were only partially complete before their Twitter page's last update over a year ago. I liked The Highest of Fives high goals and diverse skill set, and hopefully they pick things back up again at some point! Best of luck to Devin, Jack, Marcel, Mike, Mitch, and Travis in the future!
• Ex-Late & Loud frontman Jonathan Tiberi is gauging support towards bringing his current Hamilton blues/hard rock quartet Jon & His Friends to the Soo for a concert (for reference, their lineup also features Mike Agostino & Scott Brady, Jon's bandmates in Xanadu from 2013's Apocalypse: The Musical event.) It'd be nice to see Jon and the guys back home, so message him at this link or via his Musicians Wanted Facebook group on October 7th for more details!
• And just as a house cleaning note for the SMS, we've removed the video bars from the sides of the page, which rotated recent videos from YouTube channels that we're subscribed to. For one reason or another, they no longer work, so I deleted the widgets that ran them. If they're ever restored or replaced by the host, I'll add them back, but I just wanted to acknowledge their absence!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more later this week! Thanks everyone!

Newly Discovered Cinderella, Garden of Bedlam, Half Past, and Jim O'Leary Hard Rock Concert Videos!!

Our last post of July is a showcase of live metal & hard rock concert videos from a YouTube channel that I recently came across that hadn't appeared to get a lot of attention (possibly because many videos didn't have descriptive titles.) Uploaded by YouTube user leather1972 (who I believe is Brenda "Leather" Roy, sister of "Soo Stories" author Duane Roy), this channel has had videos since 2007, but Brenda's only been posting live concert videos since February 2012, with the channel mainly based around karaoke performances beforehand (some of which were in Sault Michigan!) A few dozen videos are on her channel from concerts, including non-metal acts like Obsession, Lorrie Morgan, and Greg Lamothe, so be sure to check out Brenda's channel at this location to see her other clips! Today, we'll look at most of the acts on this channel with metal/hard rock performances, and out of fairness, we'll look at them in chronological order (with the latest videos in an upcoming post), so here's what you need to know!

Brenda's earliest concert videos come from Rotaryfest's Second Stage on Queen Street East from July 17th, 2010, as she filmed two videos of headliners Garden of Bedlam's set that night! They're of the prominent local metal band playing their songs "Everything Will Die" (albeit cut at the end) and, as embedded below, "Your Disgrace", and they turned out pretty well! The big flaw is the lighting combined with her camera angle, especially on "Everything Will Die" (way too far from the stage), but she came closer during the second video. This was a well filmed set for the guys, but it's nice to get more angles, so check out more above, and here's Brenda's video of "Your Disgrace" from Rotaryfest 2010!



Also in delayed local concert videos posted last February, she posted four videos from a Rockstar Bar concert by defunct local hard rock band Half Past, which I believe came from singer Luke LeBlanc's last show with them on February 26th, 2011. Brenda's filmed videos were of Half Past (also featuring Skeyes of Seven's Alain Fletcher & Frightlight's Chris Thompson) covering Staind's "For You", 10 Years' "Wasteland", System of a Down's "Aerials", and (as embedded below) Disturbed's "Down With The Sickness", complete with a guest vocalist on a specific part of the song. The videos do suffer from very dark lighting & muffled audio (and the 10 Years & S.O.A.D. songs aren't filmed in full), but the songs are clearly identifiable, and their talents are clear, especially with Alain's guitar work! They're also a good reminder of Luke's vocal talent, and in a perfect world, he'd be on stage rather than in the hopsital. Check out Half Past's Disturbed cover below, see more at the above links, and remember to donate to help Luke's medical funds in his cancer battle by clicking here!



Lastly for her batch of February 2012 postings, Brenda uploaded four videos from Pennsylvania glam metal legends Cinderella's headlining show at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on April 14th, 2011! The videos are of Cinderella playing their songs "Shelter Me", "Gypsy Road", "Shake Me", and (as embedded below) "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)", but how did they turn out? Not spectacularly, though she did have a good angle from the left of the stage. The videos are visually grainy, and the audio has stuttering loud portions that make them hard to listen to, which is a shame, as they sounded fine otherwise. Nice to see them all the same, so check out more above & below!



Finally for today's coverage of Brenda's video uploads, we jump forward to last month, as she filmed three songs that Griphook frontman Jim O'Leary and friends (including Obsession's Valerie Powley) played at the Faces of the Soup Kitchen fundraising event at The Machine Shop at Mill Square (the former St. Mary's Paper site) on June 1st. Uploaded two weeks after the event, the videos include Jim & friends covering Sheryl Crow's "If It Makes You Happy", The Band's "The Weight", and (as embedded below) Nazareth's "Sunshine"! You may remember "Sunshine" from Local2's video covering this event's artists, and while it's nothing we haven't seen, it's a nice different angle of their set with solid audio quality and a good close angle, so check out the gang covering this Nazareth classic below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and more updates soon, including the remaining hard rock videos from this channel! Thanks everyone!

LemmaFest Fallout & Videos, Including Our First Look At Some Acts!!

Hey guys, I've decided to postpone this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile to tomorrow just to keep the news rolling along, as we're already behind for news, and with a review of last night's Striker concert also imminent, I don't wanna keep these stories falling behind. Today's news post is 100% Sault Michigan-centric, as we're recapping the fallout and videos from the third annual LemmaFest from this past Saturday outside of Dondee Lanes for the entirety of this post! From what I have heard & read, this year's event was another success, with over $960 raised from attendees, the vast majority of which is going to the Ross family to help their son Hunter through his recent medical battles (though some will also go to LemmaFest 2012 performer Caitlin LeBlanc so she can audition for American Idol), so hopefully the money is used well all around! Half A Man frontman Erik Rintamaki also got a bunch of photos of the bands and fans (though not as many as last year), so click here to see the full album, which features pictures from Tantrym Tyme, Scofflaw, Mark Bowen & friends, and RamWagon's sets! Also to note, the tarp over the stage from last year was not back for this year. As more fallout and major news comes in, I'll be sure to let you know!

In terms of videos, we'll go in rough chronological order by performance, starting with young local metal/hard rock quartet Tantrym Tyme, who were filmed for at least two cover songs on Saturday! Those were Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way" & Black Stone Cherry's "Lonely Train", but both were uploaded to their Facebook page, not YouTube, so they're unembeddable here. The audio quality on each is pretty good, though the video quality seems jittery, despite the camera not moving much. Check them out at the above links, and hopefully there's more of their set around somewhere!

Now we move to the YouTube-uploaded videos from LemmaFest (at least, the ones I've found), starting with this clip of local metal trio Scofflaw playing their song "Burn One" on Saturday afternoon! One of the few live concert videos I've seen of them (as opposed to jam session clips), this comes courtesy of the YouTube channel of attendee Wayne Kozeyah, who also added a title bug, credits, some interesting video effects, and a picture of Mike Lemma to the footage, which tend to be nice additions. This song in particular reminds me of a more conventional Sykotyk Rampage, and the now short-haired Jeff Barnes has some solid raspy (yet melodic) vocals and a nice guitar solo to add to the track! Catchy song to be sure, so give this new Scofflaw video a look below, and stay tuned in case they have more shows planned this year!

Following Scofflaw at LemmaFest was local singer/guitarist (and regular Merchant's Bar performer) Mark Bowen and "friends", but who were the friends? A drummer named Larry (I can't source anything else about his identity) and at least two guest bassists (Scofflaw & Dirtbag In A Dress' Barney Gravelle, and the aforementioned Erik Rintamaki), with Erik's YouTube channel providing us with 3 videos from Mark's set featuring 6 different covers, as uploaded on Sunday! Only one video & song features Barney on bass (a cover of Sublime's "Scarlet Begonias"), while a lengthy second video features Mark, Erik, and Larry covering Stevie Wonder's "Superstition", Rehab's "Bartender Song (Sittin' At A Bar)", Adele's "Someone Like You" (yes, you read that right), and Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues". The video embedded below though (and the only metal cover that was uploaded) features Mark and friends covering Black Label Society's "The Blessed Hellride", so how does everything sound?

You can tell that some songs aren't ones that Larry and the bassists know, but Mark has a solid melodic voice and guitar ability, and he has good chemistry with the guys, including Erik (a former bandmate of his.) I assume he added well to Bucksaw when he was in that band, and the friends do adapt well on songs they're not as familiar with, especially on such a diverse assortment! Check out Mark Bowen & friends' performances above, and here's their surprisingly good cover of "The Blessed Hellride", complete with effortless lower register singing!



Transitioning to the end of the night, here's a video of announced headliners Half A Man playing their original song "Freedom Ride" at LemmaFest! As you may know, this was the Brimley metal trio's first live concert since last year's LemmaFest, so how'd they do after such a long hiatus? They sound as heavy as ever, and there's no visible stage rust, so fans shouldn't be disappointed! If anything, I'd like to see Erik and Gary Croad move around more, and I lament the fact that the video cuts off before the song ends, but it's great to see Half A Man back it, and hopefully we're not waiting another year for their gritty and very heavy original sound! Give their performance of "Freedom Ride" a look below!



Finally for today, as you may remember, Half A Man split their set at LemmaFest with the debut of the former Bucksaw's new lineup, sound, and name (Dirtbag In A Dress), and they got a lot of time to rock out! In fact, Erik filmed Ryan, Bill, Barney, and Mikey playing 12 songs across 4 videos (two other uploads are less than 10 seconds each and fairly unneeded), so here's what you should know on each! One video features just one performance (a cover of Young The Giant's "My Body"), while another video features D.I.A.D. covering The Tragically Hip's "New Orleans Is Sinking" (albeit cut off at the beginning), Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out", and The Refreshments' "Banditos". A third video has the guys covering Lady Antebellum's "We Owned The Night" (also cut off at the start), The Flys' "Got You (Where I Want You)", and The Killers' "Mr. Brightside" (the latter two with Mark Bowen providing guest backing vocals), but there's one more featuring Dirtbag In A Dress playing hard rock covers!

The last video (which is embedded below) features covers of Alice In Chains' "Would" (also with Mark Bowen helping on vocals), Seether's "Tonight", Jason Aldean's "She's Country", Velvet Revolver's "Slither", and The Foo Fighters' "Everlong", so how does Dirtbag In A Dress sound overall? Pretty good, the guys have chemistry, and Ryan Franklin's voice suits their more rock-based covers (and they definitely de-countrify the country songs, if that makes sense!) Very diverse, but I assume solo shows will have more metal covers, lining up with what Mikey told me. There's a good workman-like rock sound here with a hard edge, so check out Dirtbag In A Dress' heaviest covers and more below!



I'm not done with the LemmaFest videos, as debuting local rock band Plastic have a pile of videos from their set on frontman Zac Crook's YouTube channel, including hard rock covers, but this post is already longer than I'd probably like, so I'll wait to touch on them so they don't get lost in the shuffle. That's all for now, but stay tuned later today for our Striker concert review, especially if you're on the Ontario side of the border! Thanks everyone!