LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison) & I Mother Earth/Finger Eleven Concert Videos!!

Happy Mother's Day to all of our moms who follow the site (I know there's a few of you out there!) The fact that much of this post deals with a band named I Mother Earth is purely coincidental, but we have lots of concert videos to look at today, and to start, LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (some on short notice), so here's what you should know!

Former Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison will bring his acoustic solo show back to Mark's Breakfast Plus at the Market Mall for early-week matinees TOMORROW, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, and on Monday-Wednesday, June 11th, 12th, and 13th! Apologies for the short notice on this week's shows, they were only announced via their Facebook event page yesterday (all six shows share it.) After having just played the former Kackleberry's Cafe a couple of weeks back, this run of shows will see Tym Morrison play the second full week of this and next month, with six evenings of fan favourite and often heavy covers in store in the west end, so keep these in mind for your supper-time entertainment TOMORROW through WEDNESDAY, and then next month! No word yet on if this scheduling will maintain in July, but if it does, he'd play Mark's from July 9th-11th.

If you missed Tym at Friday's finger food-featured concert at Room 21, you'll get a quicker than expected encore at this other frequent recent venue of his! All six of these Mark's Breakfast Plus shows (TOMORROW, TUESDAY, and WEDNESDAY included) are 4:00 PM affairs with no announced cover charges or age limits, but mind the locale, this is a restaurant first. See above for more details, and here's Tym live!



To round out today's post, let's feature some long awaited videos from last month's I Mother Earth/Finger Eleven concert at The Machine Shop, courtesy of frequent local concert attendee Christopher Paci's YouTube channel on Tuesday! I'm not sure why these videos took this long to make his channel, but better late than never, and we all know Chris' work is excellent by now! We usually go in descending order by lineup placement when featuring videos like this, but I'll reverse things given how the two bands joined forces to close the night. Chris didn't post anything from the acoustic pre-show or J.J. Thompson's opening set, but he did get 7 videos of Burlington hard rock quintet Finger Eleven in action, including of their songs "First Time", "Living in a Dream", "One Thing", "Falling On", "Drag You Down", "Paralyzer", and as embedded below, their set-opener "Above". While not super close to the stage, Chris has a good & central view!

As noted in our prior thoughts on videos from this concert, Finger Eleven sounded great, especially on their older and heavier material, and Scott's voice is as solid as ever! I'm sure it was a thrill for local fans to finally hear "Paralyzer"-era songs on a local stage too, of course. Nice work from Chris once again, so check out "Above" below, and their other songs above!

Likewise, Chris also filmed 7 videos of headlining Toronto alt-hard rock band I Mother Earth's set last month, filming them playing their songs "Used To Be Alright", "Raspberry", "Undone", "Summertime in the Void", "One More Astronaut", "Rain Will Fall", and as embedded below, their opener "Not Quite Sonic" (complete with spoken interlude from Edwin.) The camera work here is a little shakier, but the performances here are solid, if only marred by some muddy vocals, but long-time I.M.E. fans were right at home at The Machine Shop! Note that later songs from their set were filmed from a sharper angle to our left/the stage's right, but the camera quality is no different otherwise. Give "Not Quite Sonic" a look below, and see more from I Mother Earth's set above!



Finally, Chris shot two videos of I Mother Earth & Finger Eleven's joint encore, including the two bands playing I.M.E.'s "Levitate", but embedded below is their combined rendition of Finger Eleven's own "Good Times" (no Supertramp cover here.) These had to be a thrill for fans of both bands, especially in a more intimate live setting, but when you have 9 band members plus I.M.E.'s touring musicians playing the same song at once, the instruments and sounds do admittedly get cluttered up. The spectacle of it all is absolutely there, but I'd rather hear both songs with just one band, not two at once. Maybe I'm wrong though, so see for yourself below and above!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates this week! Thanks everyone!

I Mother Earth/Finger Eleven Concert Fallout & Videos!!

Today's post is entirely devoted to fallout from Wednesday night's I Mother Earth/Finger Eleven concert at The Machine Shop, which appears to have gotten rave reviews from attending fans so far! SooToday's Donna Hopper and Sault Online's Riley Smith were both on hand to cover the festivities, with 29 and 30 photos respectively making each local news website, which look very solid on both ends! Donna got 10 photos of I Mother Earth, 8 of Finger Eleven, 7 from the pre-show acoustic set by both bands, 3 of opener/Q&A session MC J.J. Thompson, and 1 of Rock 101 morning show host Scott Cook, who emceed the concert proper. Riley's shots (some overhead) include 6 of Finger Eleven, 5 of I Mother Earth, 13 from their show-ending joint encore, 5 of attendees, and 1 of The Boiler Room, the venue's new on-site bar (though Riley did not get any shots of J.J. or the acoustic pre-show.) Donna's article outlines songs played on Wednesday and some of the remarks from the bands on stage, while Riley's features remarks from Finger Eleven drummer Steve Molella.

Both articles are well detailed with quality pictures, so see the above links to give both a look! Now, to currently posted public videos from Wednesday night, starting with videos from YouTube user BBBBBBBBeast, who got one video of both featured bands. Firstly, this 4:34 clip is actually a compilation cobbled together from Toronto alt-hard rock quartet I Mother Earth's headlining set, including snippets of their songs "Raspberry", "One More Astronaut", and "Rain Will Fall", before showing them and Finger Eleven's joint encore as they played I.M.E.'s "Levitate", Finger Eleven's "Good Times", and a cover of Supertramp's "Bloody Well Right". The audio quality is fantastic on these clips, and I like the bluish tinge on the video, though the vertical camera angle is unfortunate, and you can't do too much about the fans' heads. I just wish that he had included more of certain songs in the editing process ("Rain Will Fall" only got 15 seconds!) Give this one a look below!



BBBBBBBBeast (why so many Bs?) also filmed two songs from Burlington hard rock quintet Finger Eleven's preceding set on Wendesday, those being "One Thing" and "Drag You Down". He must prefer their older, pre-"Paralyzer" music, which I can relate to! This video has equally excellent audio quality, but now with a more central, further away camera angle and a monochrome colour filter. In this case, the visuals work on the former song, as it's video was in black & white, but less so the latter. With no public videos surviving at present from their 2004 show here, it's nice to see some vintage Finger Eleven songs in solid quality online, so check them out below also!



The other two currently posted videos from this show come via presenting sponsor Rock 101's Facebook page, as a staffer filmed two Finger Eleven-involved songs before the concert proper began. One is a 33 second clip of Finger Eleven (minus singer Scott Anderson) playing their newer song "Living in a Dream" during their soundcheck, which sounds fine in this instrumental format! The other video, which is embedded below, is of Finger Eleven and I Mother Earth (I Mother Eleven?) covering Christopher Cross' "Ride Like The Wind" during the acoustic pre-show on Wednesday evening. Very unexpected cover, but for it's also short runtime, the song appears to turn out well enough! Donna noted in her SooToday article that the two bands also covered America, The Kinks, and Peter Gabriel during this unplugged set, which is surprising, but it does show the two bands' range & diversity, so give this video a look below as well!



As someone who strongly prefers older Finger Eleven (no "Stay In Shadow" on Wednesday?) and is admittedly selective on I.M.E. favourites, I reluctantly passed on going given the ticket prices, but I'm very glad the show was a huge hit! Hopefully this and Big Wreck will help encourage even more hard rock and metal bands to play The Machine Shop! Stay tuned for more fallout from this concert when and/if it comes in, and for more news and notes soon! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Infathom & Project 906), Plus Our I Mother Earth/Finger Eleven Concert Preview!!

I hope everyone's staying safe and warm during this snowy Monday! Today's news post is half devoted to a big mid-week concert preview and new updates therein, but we'll lead off with some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the Eastern U.P. in the coming months, one with a related missed show apology, so here's what you should know!

Munising, Michigan hard rock quartet Infathom will return to the Eastern U.P. for a show at The Back Bay Grill & Games at Bay Mills Resort & Casino in Brimley on Saturday, May 26th! This will mark Infathom's first concert appearance in our area since opening for Theory of a Deadman in December, but it will be their Back Bay Grill debut, as well as their first headlining concert and Brimley stop since headlining at Pickles Bar & Grill on November 4th, a show that we regrettably missed to cover on the site at the time. Profuse apologies for that, we'd have gladly covered it had it not fallen through the cracks last fall! For what it's worth, that show coincided with frontman Dillion Semasky's 25th birthday party, so hopefully it was a blast for him and everyone in attendance! Infathom have been playing out east a little more frequently in the last couple of years, so don't bypass their heavy rock attack at Bay Mills' waterfront nightclub late next month!

This one night only concert has a 10:00 PM start time, a 21+ age limit, and no announced cover charge. It's great to have Infathom back in our neck of the woods next month, so if you're up for some explosive covers and originals from this rising quartet, head down to Brimley on May 26th! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and apologies again for missing their Pickles show in November!

Next up, local hard/blues rock quartet Project 906 are themselves scheduled to return to The Back Bay Grill and Games later this year, as Bay Mills' concert calendar lists them as playing Saturday night gigs on June 16th, August 11th, and December 8th! Arguably the most familiar band in our main coverage to play at this venue, fans will have last seen Billy, Joe, and Dustin there in August of last year, with June's show there being their first Back Bay stop with their current lineup. We haven't heard much from Project 906 since the Musicians Competition at the Superior Cafe late last month, and they haven't confirmed these new Brimley shows publically yet, but hopefully they deliver with a solid night of hard rocking favourites at these three upcoming one-nighters! Like with the Infathom show next month, expect these to be 21+ gigs with no cover and 10:00 PM start times. Visit the above links for current and continuing details!

Also today, here's our preview of a huge concert hitting The Machine Shop in Sault Ontario THIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT, as I Mother Earth and Finger Eleven will unite for a high impact night of Ontario-bred, Juno Award-winning hard rock! Fans should recognize I Mother Earth for hit songs like "One More Astronaut" and "Summertime in the Void" in their mid-late 1990s heyday, and with Edwin back in the fold, their multi-platinum brand of hard rock hits should be welcomed back to the local stage for the first time since the Club Princess days! It hasn't been as long to see Finger Eleven on the local stage, with that band last seen here headlining at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion back in 2004 (only 14 years ago), but now with hits like "Paralyzer" and "Pieces Fit" joining classics like "First Time" and "Above" in their repertoire, fans old and new should find something to like in their own long awaited return to the Soo! Note that both bands will participate in a question & answer session and acoustic pre-show set as well on Wednesday for an additional fee, which is an intriguing bonus!

Also, a late opener confirmation was made on the Facebook event page this afternoon, as Peterborough folk rock musician J.J. Thompson (frontman of the band J.J. & The Pillars) has joined I.M.E. and Finger Eleven for their Ontario dates. Bit of a sonic departure, but J.J. is a solid musician and should prove to be an effective bridge between the acoustic pre-set and the main event! This (unfortunately) 19+ concert has an oddly specific start time of 8:50 PM, while the acoustic set/Q&A session will start at 7:00 PM. Not counting online service fees, tickets are $40 for general admission and $60 for both the show and the unplugged/Q&A package, and you can buy them at this link and at the in-person box offices at The Machine Shop and Station Mall. This show's already got huge buzz around it, especially given both bands' long waits to come back & their extensive array of familiar songs, so don't miss out on Wednesday! For a preview, here's the two bands together in a concert encore last year (might we get something similar?)



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