After a recently rare day off for the SMS, we're back with this weekend's hard rock concert previews, including SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, so here's what you should know! (Yes, I am aware of the Rotaryfest lineup announcements in progress, stay tuned for more when Saturday's lineup and/or Stage 2 are revealed!)
Saskatchewan post-hardcore trio Alien To The Ignorant will return to Sault Ste. Marie for a headlining concert TOMORROW NIGHT at The Rockstar Bar! Apologies for the short notice, this concert was only just announced via its official Facebook event page on Wednesday, and this is legitimately a late notice booking too. As you may recall, Alien To The Ignorant debuted here at local party metal duo The Apocalypse Afterparty's private venue Mellow D's Underground in October, and clearly good connections were made, as The A.A. have been working to get them a local date on their way back out west. There was apparently a venue change before The Rockstar Bar was locked in, but kudos to them for helping out, especially for a recently rare Friday night concert there! If you didn't request the new locale of Mellow D's last fall, you'll have missed Alien To The Ignorant's lively modern hardcore sound, so good thing they're back TOMORROW!
Like last fall, the aforementioned Apocalypse Afterparty will open in their first announced public concert of 2022, so look for more upbeat rap-influenced hard rock originals and covers from the Stanghettas! TOMORROW'S concert is a 19+ affair with doors opening at 7:00 PM, and despite the touring headliners, there is NO COVER CHARGE. If you can make it out TOMORROW, a diverse night of heavy music lies waiting, so visit the above links for more details, and here's Alien To The Ignorant live!
Next up, local alternative hard rock quartet Handsome Sandwich (or members thereof) will make their Shooters Downstairs Lounge debut TOMORROW NIGHT! Again, apologies for the short notice, this show was quietly announced on Wednesday the 15th on the band's Facebook page, but I didn't hear anything about it until this past weekend. While arguably better known from multi-band events, Handsome Sandwich have played solo headlining gigs on the weekend cover circuit before, and TOMORROW'S show at the Dennis Street nightclub fits in with that! The official poster notes that "members of Handsome Sandwich" are playing, with the name "Ourselves" given at the top, and that they'll be playing "radio hits", but the band proper have been plugging the show like normal on Facebook with no caveats, the full lineup is pictured in the poster, and they were an all-covers band before their pandemic hiatus anyway.
If the poster's very specific verbiage is accurate, does this mean that they're playing short-handed and/or with a guest fill-in, hence the Ourselves name and advertised covers focus? You can find out for sure TOMORROW at Shooters! A one nighter due to or resulting in classic rock cover quartet L!me's show there on Saturday, Handsome Sandwich (or "Ourselves") are on TOMORROW at 8:00 PM, expect a 19+ age limit, and there's no announced cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Handsome Sandwich last year!
Lastly for currently known & announced hard rock concerts in the Soo this weekend, let's head to Reggie's Place on Queen Street East, where local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard will return to the stage for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! The last of the second-quarter-of-2022 dates that the band announced back in April via this schedule, these will be Bone Yard's first gigs since their outdoor sets at the Queen Street Cruise last week, and for what it's worth, the band revealed on their Facebook page this past Friday that local country duo Jeff & Jeff (featuring Jeff McNiece) opened for them both days, an aspect never announced by event organizers. Apologies for missing that, hopefully the Jeffs set the tone well! Bone Yard last played at the downtown Reggie's over a month ago, and their hard rocking brand of southern fried covers should go over well once again this weekend with fans & regulars alike!
While we're on the subject, Bone Yard's next show after this weekend will take place on Saturday, July 2nd, when they return to the aforementioned Shooters Downstairs Lounge! That show was newly announced via the venue's Facebook event page yesterday, and will be their first show there since June 10th. Yes, it is a one nighter, as Shooters' Canada Day event on Friday the 1st is separately booked and I hope to cover that on the site shortly! Both this weekend's Reggie's shows and next Saturday's Shooters gig have 19+ age limits and no cover charges, and while the advertised start time at Reggie's is 9:00 PM, they're on at 8:00 PM at Shooters. Visit the Reggie's gigs' Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's a new live-streamed videos of Bone Yard rocking out outside of GFL Memorial Gardens for the Queen Street Cruise this past Saturday afternoon!
The seven+ minute video starts with Bone Yard midway through a cover of Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show's "The Cover of "Rolling Stone" (my mom would have loved that) before playing their last song of that set, Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" with definitely more of a hard rock base as you might expect. Despite the vertical camera angle, the filmer did move around to get closer and more varied angles, so you can easily see where the stage was set up at the Cruise and how fans were enjoying the music. Nice quality too, and Bone Yard were on their game, so check it out for yourself below before you see them at Reggie's this weekend!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site in the next few days! Thanks everyone!
Today's post is devoted to previews of two notable mid-week hard rock/metal concerts in Sault Ontario, one well over a year in the making, and the other featuring a lot of intrigue for it's cryptic locale and touring headliner, with both also featuring local openers we haven't seen in a long time. Here's what you should know!
The biggest Sault Ontario hard rock concert of the pandemic era will finally take place TOMORROW when Anaheim, California hard rock quintet Buckcherry will make their fourth local appearance (and first in this half of the Twin Saults) when they headline at Soo Blaster! This concert was originally scheduled to take place way back on May 13th, 2020 before everything went topsy turvy in March of last year, forcing a postponement to November 11th, and then ultimately to tomorrow night, but barring an imminent COVID outbreak, this show is taking place! Buckcherry are definitely in Canada and they have been touring across country all month, so fingers crossed! Well known rock radio staples from hit songs like "Sorry", "Lit Up", and "Everything", Buckcherry are touring in support of their new CD "Hellbound", so expect lots of familiar songs and new cuts in their first local stop since 2019's outdoor Kewadin Casino gig with Pop Evil, and before that, headlining Dreammakers Theater shows in 2011 & 2012.
This will also be Buckcherry's first local appearance since Billy Rowe replaced Kevin Roentgen on lead guitar last year. Amazingly, the local support acts remain unchanged since last spring, and they will include punk trio Redundant in their first public concert set since they opened for The Cancer Bats at Soo Blaster in August 2019, as far as I can gather. Obviously, it's great to see Justin, Andrew, and Rick back on stage after over two years, so don't be late for their familiar punk attack! The other opening band is local/Ottawa hard rock band Bad Chug in their long-delayed local concert debut, but they were previously active in Ottawa dating back to 2016! In case you're unfamiliar, their lineup features guitarist Aaron Desmoulin, bassist Kyle Dube (who was quietly re-added to their lineup anew), and drummer Matt D'Ettore, plus local folk singer/guitarist Jacob Quarrell as their newest member.
I'm not 100% sure if Jacob will play the same roles in Bad Chug (they credit him as "bender"), but readers may be familiar with his acoustic solo sets, previously under the project name Shit Creek Survivor. Bad Chug's mid-2010s Ottawa material had a solid carefree hard rock base, and it will be very interesting to see how they do in 2021 with in a new city, so find out first tomorrow night! Promoted by the Ottawa-based Diamond Mine Agency in their first major local booking with heavier bands, tickets are still available for $39.99 + taxes and service fees on Eventbrite, so click here to get yours online in advance! I presume you can also pay at the door, and yes, tickets bought for Buckcherry's 2020 dates will be accepted tomorrow. Everything starts at 8:00 PM, and unfortunately, this is a 19+ event. And as recently usual, attendees must show vaccine passports at the door to get into Soo Blaster.
Given the size and anticipation for this show, it's more important than ever that attending fans please mask up, follow social distancing guidelines at Soo Blaster, and use common sense to keep everyone safe, and thusly ensure that we get more concerts like this in the short term. Admittedly, I'm not a Buckcherry fan, but it's great to see that at least one of the COVID-postponed concerts is finally taking place, and hopefully Josh and crew deliver a fun set of up-tempo rock hits for fans tomorrow night, complete with local openers we haven't seen on a public stage at all in the 2020s! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Buckcherry live in Sault Michigan in 2019!
Finally for today, here's a special preview of a technically private concert taking place THIS THURSDAY NIGHT, but organizers are treating this as a public event, just with the venue being given out on request if you want to come out. The show in question will see Saskatchewan post-hardcore trio Alien To The Ignorant make their first ever local concert appearance when they headline at local party metal band The Apocalypse Afterparty's re-opened and relocated private venue Mellow D's Underground! Alien To The Ignorant's brutal hardcore sound and none-too-serious approach to their promotion should serve them well to attract an audience on Thursday, so don't miss out if you can come out on a work/school night! Local death metal quartet The Bear Hunters will play their first concert set in over two years on Thursday, which will also be their first live appearance since releasing their album "The Dead Testament" last fall, so hopefully they shake off the rust with their brutality!
And yes, The Apocalypse Afterparty themselves will perform in a rare live appearance that isn't purely a private house party, so what musical shenanigans will the Stanghettas be up to with their up-tempo brand of music? Be at Mellow D's Underground, wherever it is, to find out! There is no advertised cover charge for this concert, which has a thankfully early start time of 6:00 PM, and inquire with The Apocalypse Afterparty and/or Paul & Amanda for the address in case they never publicize it. Vaccine passports must be presented upon entry, and please use common sense re: social distancing. Visit the above links for more details, stay tuned for more updates, and here here's Alien To The Ignorant live!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
After a personal break from active updates on the SMS (my mom's COVID-delayed funeral took place on Saturday), we're back with a new news post on this Tuesday evening, including some recent updates from a popular local Facebook group, new videos from two genre-defying local bands, and a new publically advertised but privately located house party concert to keep in mind for next month. Here's what you should know!
Saskatchewan post-hardcore trio Alien To The Ignorant will make their local concert debut on Thursday, October 21st when they headline at The Apocalypse Afterparty's revived Mellow D's Underground private venue! Readers may recall seeing Mellow D's Underground turn up as a host venue for Apocalypse Afterparty-linked concerts in early-mid 2017, and again in October 2019, but the Stanghettas are bringing it back after another 2 year hiatus for an all-too-rare extreme metal show at this stage of the pandemic. The (new?) location of Mellow D's isn't publically advertised, but it is on posters circulating on personal Facebook accounts. Alien To The Ignorant have an intense modern hardcore sound that should attract a solid response from fans, to go along with a clear sense of humour, so consider coming out to see them, especially as local death metal band The Bear Hunters will open in their first concert set of any kind in two years!
This will also be The Bear Hunters' first live gig since releasing their new album "The Dead Testament" last year, though they have yet to confirm any CD pressings of it to sell, let alone if they still want to have a formal launch party. The Apocalypse Afterparty are also opening with a fun party metal attack, though if you were in the know, you may have seen them in fully private events earlier in the pandemic. Doors will open at 6:00 PM for this concert, which has no advertised cover charge, but vaccine passports will be mandatory despite the house party locale. Visit the above links for continuing details as they roll in, and while we're on the subject, The Apocalypse Afterparty posted a new video from their teased music video shoot onto their Facebook page last month! Apologies for the public delay, updates from their camp are sporadic. Back in March, you may recall seeing this clip of the band performing in a bathroom, but how about now?
The new 56 second video features what appears to be the end of the video in question being shot, in a room full of pink lighting and a LOT of smoke, leading to Amanda, Paul, and Spacebag Productions' Josh Penno (who was filming the shoot) leaving the building. The room here looked bigger than the bathroom, so is the basic idea of the video (assuming it's just one video) that the band is playing in multiple rooms of a house? Time will tell, but give it a watch below, and hopefully the final product goes live soon!
Next up, new local alt-hardcore duo These Magnificent Tentacles have posted two new videos on their Facebook page in the last two months to tease some recent studio recording work they've done with Dustin Jones at Mission Control Studios! Brent & Steve started these sessions on August 9th, and other than saying that they're recording "some new tracks", they didn't specify whether these would be part of an album of some kind, or just to have some more studio content ready. The first 18 second video is a low-res clip of what appears to be the guys tracking material with Dustin behind the computer (you hear more of the metronome than the actual song), but embedded below is last week's video shared from Tidal Records' Facebook page, where Brent & Steve use all twenty of their magnificent tentacles (ie: their fingers) simultaneously on a keyboard while in studio.
Metronome-heavy again, but you at least hear the rather trippy-sounding instrumental track clearly, and it's great to see that These Magnificent Tentacles are working on new material so they'll hopefully have more than one song on social media! Will we hear these new songs when they make their live concert debut at The Klub in the Pall Mall on Saturday night? Be there to find out, and give these new videos a look above and below!
Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, all via recent postings on the the Musicians Wanted Facebook group from local musicians looking for new bands over the past month! As usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:
Toronto-area rock bassist Chris Ricci is moving to Sault Ste. Marie this month and is looking for musical projects in town to play in/with. He is an experienced musician in Southern Ontario hard rock acts like Cocked & Loaded and Black Sun, plus multiple tribute bands for the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Kiss, and AC/DC, and multiple videos are on YouTube from his recent band work if you want to see what he brings to the table. Sounds like a very promising pick-up for anyone looking for an experienced bassist, but message Chris at this link or via his group post from two weeks ago for more details!
Former Suicide Kings frontman Mike Gaetano is looking to either join or start a new local band. His post from last month notes that while he can play guitar and piano, he wants to focus on singing unless absolutely necessary. Ideally, his band would be playing covers and originals equally and he's hoping to play live once every couple of months at first, though he did not specify whether he'd want to play hard rock like in his prior major bands or something else. It'd be great to see Mike fronting a new local band, but message him at this link or through the group for more info!
A local musician named Taylor McKay is looking to start an extreme metal
band with like-minded artists (who have gear), and he can play bass &
rhythm guitar, as well as provide clean vocals. He also has a
home studio for songwriting purposes if need be. I'm not familiar with
Taylor musically, but message him at this link or via his group post (like Chris, also from two weeks ago) for details!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
