More Recent Kewadin Casino Concert Videos, Double Down Updates, And More!!

Today's post keeps us covering some big news and notes from the last little bit in the twin Saults, and that includes new videos, a big lineup change, and some more shorter updates. However, let's start with some more videos from high profile touring acts in our area, so here's what you should know!

Let's tackle some more recent major concert videos to start this post, and of course, this past weekend's other major headlining concert was the Tesla show at The Dreammakers Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on February 28th! Taking place just in time for Kewadin to reopen the Soo branch after the ransomware attack-prompted closure, I haven't found too many YouTube uploaders from this concert, but prolific Sault Ontario concert filmer Christopher Paci's YouTube channel filmed eight videos of the Sacramento hair metal quintet's headlining set, so what all did he film? Videos include Tesla playing "Rock Me To The Top", "Modern Day Cowboy", "Changes", "What You Give", "Love Song", and their covers of Ph. D's "Little Suzi" & The Five Man Electrical Band's "Signs", but embedded below are two songs back to back, namely "Forever More" and "Heaven's Trail (No Way Out)".

Solid performances overall, and while some of Jeff's lower register singing sounds slightly off, they have a good sound on their classics! It is neat to see that Tesla still play songs from 2000s albums (like "Forever More"), rather than just leaning on songs from their commercial heyday, so fans who stuck with them well beyond will be rewarded. Chris had a strong close angle of the stage, if from a sharp vantage point, but it accentuates the sea of people in the center section well, and his camera's audio holds up, so check everything out for yourselves above & below!

Next up, Chris was also on hand for Staind frontman Aaron Lewis' solo concert at The Dreammakers Theater in December, but only posted videos from that event onto his YouTube channel on February 27th. This isn't a show that we covered because Aaron's solo output is 100% country music, but he does cover stripped down versions of a handful of Staind songs live, which I have noted when local videos have popped up before. Aaron played at the Soo Kewadin in 2014 and 2021 as well, not to mention Staind's own Kewadin dates in 2006 & 2009, so he has always been good to the E.U.P.! If you know anything about Aaron's country career, you'll know that his solo music is often patriotic and/or quite politically charged, so I'll hold comment on all of that, but click here to see what Chris filmed from his solo catalogue. In terms of Staind covers, he played "It's Been Awhile", "Here & Now", and as embedded below, "Outside".

Aaron and his backing guitarist (playing on his lap, Jeff Healy-style) pair well to give these Staind songs a more reserved, intimate atmosphere, and Chris' camera captures the audio nicely, though this does include a very clear take of the audience singing along with "It's Been Awhile" and "Outside" in particular, as well as Aaron's crowd banter, often during songs. Give his Kewadin videos a watch above and below!

Now let's head north to Sault Ontario for some big news from local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down, as they have enlisted Sidekicks bassist Dan Beaupre into their lineup, replacing Brad Stephen. The band announced his addition as "our new bass player" in this video from their concert at Jay's Piston Broke Pub on Friday night. A reason for Brad's departure was not announced, but he hadn't been visibly pictured in the band's social media postings since January. Hopefully nothing too serious happened, especially given his long run in bands with Ric dating back well before Double Down's 2023 inception, and that we see Brad out there again soon! Dan will be familiar to readers from work in bands like Hollow, let alone his work with Griphook and 100 Gran (both alongside Double Down singer/guitarist Joel Syrette), and he's a good guy and very talented bassist, so he will be an asset with Joel, Beej, and Ric going forward!

With The Sidekicks playing at The Water Tower Pub last night, Double Down enlisted Mid Life Crysis/ex-Havadder bassist Lori Reinholtz to fill in at Jay's for night #2. From the Friday concert, Double Down's Facebook page has two brief clips with Dan on bass, including the one linked above of them covering A Flock Of Seagulls' "I Ran (So Far Away)" with drummer Ric Datson on lead vocals, but embedded below is 30 seconds of them covering Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" with Joel on vocals only and Dan's Sidekicks bandmate Steve Cardiff guesting on guitar. Very dark visually, but it's well done, and Steve nails the solo, so check out Double Down's new videos above & below!

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

 

• Local folk punk/extreme metal solo musician Chase Wigmore has been added as the final opener for the Selias-headlined concert at Soo Blaster on Saturday, as per quiet updates to the Facebook event page last week. Solid choice to ease into things while still providing Chase's requisite intensity! Note that the event page now says that tickets will be $15 in advance (identical to Selias' debut here last fall) or $20 at the door, but an Eventbrite page for advance tickets is not online that I can find, so if you want to save $5, get yours at Soo Blaster or through Heavy North Entertainment or the local openers.
• To promote both their Sault Ontario concert in January & their Shamrock Show set at Three One Three on Ashmun on Saturday, Sault Michigan punk trio The Sole Aggressors shared the presumed setlists for those gigs in photos on their Facebook page. You don't see this often from local bands, so it's a neat window into what to expect! Regarding the teased setlist for this week (nice dog!), it features all thirteen original songs from their Brimley concert in August, plus newer cuts named "Burning Down", "Humans Aren't Ordinary Monkeys", "Heil Artificiality", "Tale Of An American Hero", and "The Same Individiualist". See how everything sounds live this Saturday night at Three One Three!
• Back on Sault Ontario, the roof of the Tarentorus Sports Club's curling rink collapsed on Wednesday, as covered in this SooToday article. No injuries were reported, and while details on the building's future for events aren't clear yet, let alone the cause of the collapse, social media postings indicate that the club has plans in place. This is relevant to the SMS because the Avery Road venue hosted the Band Together To Rock Cancer fundraiser in September, so to hear of the building suffering severe damage like this less than six months later is really surprising. Hopefully the Tarentorus Sports Club can rebuild and/or move forward as best as they can!

 

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles next! Thanks everyone!

Skid Row/Buckcherry Concert Video Showcase (Part 2) & More!!

Today's post is devoted to Kewadin Casino concert videos, new and old alike, and we'll start with the Skid Row-headlined concert at The Dreammakers Theater in Sault Ste. Marie on March 23rd, which took on new significance when frontman Erik Gronwall left the New Jersey glam metal band just four days later to focus on his health (Erik is a leukemia survivor & bone marrow transplant recipient with a compromised immune system). In fact, the Sault Ste. Marie show was the final one with Erik, so how's that for timing? Our first post with videos from the show went up on the day his departure was announced! Of course, our best thoughts go out to Erik, whose health actually caused this show/tour to be postponed from the fall as it was, and for my money, he was the best singer Skid Row had brought on since Sebastian Bach left! Halestorm's Lzzy Hale will fill in temporarily with Skid Row in their upcoming festival dates. 

As for the Soo show, the ever prolific Christopher Paci was in attendance to film all three bands on the 23rd for his YouTube channel, filming Skid Row in eight videos! He shot them playing "Big Guns", "18 & Life", "Psycho Therapy", "Time Bomb", "I Remember You", "The Gang's All Here", "Youth Gone Wild", and as embedded below, their set-opener "Slave To The Grind". Chris was further away from the stage than in prior local videos that we've seen, but we do see more of the stage at once here, and it was an honest sell out based on the audience! The sound here is a little soft but you hear everything you need to, and Erik was nailing these songs even on his final date, so check them out above & below!

Next up, Chris also filmed six videos from co-headlining Los Angeles hard rock quintet Buckcherry's set, including "Say Fuck It" (they titled it, not me), "Hellbound", "Sorry", "Gluttony", their extended & covers-infused "Crazy Bitch" medley, and as embedded below, their opening song "Lit Up". I've never been a huge fan of theirs, and Josh's voice is inconsistent across these videos, especially later in the set, but they put in an energetic performance for fans, and they've always been good to the Twin Saults, so give Buckcherry's newest local concert videos a watch above & below!

As for opening Philadelphia hair metal quartet Britny Fox, Chris filmed them playing "Plenty Of Love", "Girlschool", and as embedded below, "Dream On". Even with a mostly different lineup than when fans last saw Britny Fox in town, they sound good for glam metal fans on these videos, and for better or worse, less fans had cameras rolling so you get a clearer view of the band than you do with the later acts. Check these out for yourselves above & below as well!

Finally, let's wind back to 2014 for a video that I didn't feature on the site in the first place. Back in November 2014, Staind frontman Aaron Lewis came to Sault Ste. Marie for the first time since launching his solo career as a country musician, and while that obviously doesn't fit our genre range, he did and still does cover Staind ballads in his solo sets. At the time, I covered videos filmed by attendee Dana Howland on here, as she filmed Aaron playing Staind's "It's Been Awhile" and covering Pearl Jam's "Black" (which was a solo radio hit for him years before he acutally went solo). Either due to my own omission or due to that post being written before she uploaded it (it's been nine years, I don't remember), I never acknowledged that she also filmed Aaron playing the Staind hit "Right Here Waiting" at Kewadin on this night, so it is embedded below! This came to my attention because it was re-uploaded as a "Shorts" video.

As such, her Staind videos from 2014, this one included, turned up in their own special section when searching for recent Kewadin videos. "Shorts" are not as restrictive as Facebook "Reels", and her videos were vertical and focused on a solo musician right along, so I won't complain about the formatting here (no comment on Aaron's political views either, but this show was before a lot of that became more prominent). The stage lighting is VERY over-exposed here, but Aaron's performance is on point for Staind fans, so give this belated local concert video a watch below!

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

A New Local Hard Rock Band, Lots Of Live Concert Videos, And More!!

After a couple of single topic posts the last two days, here's a mix of stories on this Monday morning, including a local solo project's return with new material, lots of new YouTube videos from a prominent local cover band, but let's start with a new and very promising group to check out!

We have a new local hard rock band to add to our band links, namely Raincourt, a high school-age group that launched in August of last year! Raincourt's social media presence is spotty at best, so it took a bit of work to glean the information here, but you can get more on them via their Facebook page. Named for their lead guitarist Raine Rancourt, the lineup is comprised of current White Pines Collegiate students, all members of their school band The Pine Tones, and Raine is joined by singer/guitarist Elijah Russell, bassist Owen Dearing, and drummer Jakob Kuiack (a.k.a. Jakob Fice-Lesage). Curiously, their lineup is not given on their Facebook page, I had to get the credits from this video interview that Raine took part in with the local podcast series The Boar's Nest with Don Lewis last month. For the record, The Boar's Nest doesn't appear to be music-centric (wrestling moreso), but it's cool to see Don give Raincourt some early promotion!

Raincourt first posted on Facebook last fall via video covers (complete with face masks) of Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral" & Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" at White Pines, resurfacing in March to tease the release of their debut original single "Penny Arcade" (embedded below), though again, curiously not linked on their Facebook page. This was recorded at Mission Control Studios with producer Dustin Jones, so Raincourt are aiming high and working with the right people from the start, and you can watch more from those recording sessions in January via this video on their new YouTube channel. Official band t-shirts are also now on sale, for the record. Raine's interview on The Boar's Nest will be the best source of information on Raincourt so far (it's 57 minutes long, FYI) where you'll learn about how the band formed, Raine's future aspirations in music, the inspiration of "Penny Arcade", the support from White Pines students/faculty so far, ...

...their songwriting process, aimed local concerts to play at, recording at Mission Control Studios, musical inspirations, future plans, and much more. For hearing just one song, Don sure shows his fandom for Raincourt so far, which is cool! "Penny Arcade" will appeal to modern hard rock fans with it's catchy guitar riffs, strong production, and tight structure, and as Don often noted, you can be very surprised that this song was recorded by teenagers! That said, this is one song, so unless you're a Wolverine, you'll have only seen this and the above covers. Hopefully we hear much more from Raincourt in due course, but give their videos a look above, and here's "Penny Arcade", which is also on Spotify!

Next up, let's take a somewhat overdue look at videos of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck that have been uploaded to drummer Glen Thomas' YouTube channel since the fall! While some of these were uploaded to the band's Facebook page at the time, not all of them were, and it's odd that many have lived here without Soundcheck giving them a public push. Ten videos of Soundcheck (with Paul or Rob on bass) have made their way to Glen's channel in the past six months, including them covering The Black Keys' "Lonely Boy" at The Esquire Club & The Tragically Hip's "New Orleans Is Sinking" at Reggie's Place. From Shooters Downstairs Lounge, you can see Soundcheck cover Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like A Woman", John Mellencamp's "Hurts So Good", Kenny Chesney's "Young", and ZZ Top's "TV Dinners", while the other four are from Reggie's West shows, including two from a Thursday jam night & an overhead camera angle!

These include "Young" & "TV Dinners" again (the latter video uploaded twice), plus Harlequin's "Thinking of You" and David Wilcox's "My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble". Singer/guitarist Terry Eaton sings lead on all but the Black Keys, John Mellencamp, and Kenny Chesney songs, which were handled by Cameron Oliver, and notably, Cameron was not featured in any of the Reggievelt clips except "Young". For the wide screen resolution and Cameron's presence, I'll embed the Shania cover here, believe it or not, but all will deliver for fans of Soundcheck's workmanlike and diverse set with some good hard rock bits along the way, so give these a look!

Finally, let's head to Sault Michigan, as local metal solo project X's & Y's is back in action! Led by former Life's Eclipse guitarist and Werehold Records founder Jason Mills, the project's Facebook page had been quietly deactivated in mid-late 2020, but it came back by December of that year (apologies for not noticing that until now) with a teaser video of a Casio DG-20 guitar synth. Updates were extremely sporadic afterwards, but last night, Jason uploaded a full track from the planned debut X's & Y's EP (title now anglicized from “Þe Obsidian Sömnen” to "The Obsidian Dream"). The song is named "Solid Glass", and it's a very djent-heavy instrumental that Meshuggah fans will take to, and this comes honestly to Jason if you followed his Werehold-era music, or saw his prior upload of playing all of the songs from Meshuggah's new album "Immutable" simultaneously.

The technical brutality is great, but given all of the planned Werehold albums that never got a formal paid release, who knows when "The Obsidian Dream" will go on sale, but hopefully it bucks old trends! Give this a listen below, and X's & Y's are back in our active band links!

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Soo Fighters), New Videos, And Much More!!

On this twentieth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, make sure you never forget the horrible and extremely events that occured in the United States 20 years ago today, and the thousands of innocent lives lost as a result. Today's SMS post features some assorted recent news and notes, new videos, an apology for a missed concert, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month, so here's what you should know!

Local Foo Fighters tribute band The Soo Fighters will play their second show of the year (and with their new lineup) on Saturday, October 30th when they open for their new sister band Lockdown at The Rockstar Bar in a Halloween-themed concert! It's hard to say how the pandemic will look by the end of next month, but seeing a seasonal concert like this is very welcomed, even if it isn't the return of J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween party, which was last held in 2019 for obvious reasons (remember, he also moved out of town for work last year). Lockdown just debuted last month at The Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir, and while their initial video uploads on their Facebook group didn't point to a heavier base, they are definitely a talented group, and they feature 3/4ths of The Soo Fighters Mark 3, so seeing both bands here makes a lot of sense! Remember, The Soos debuted at J.D.'s Halloween party in the first place.

A costume contest and the usual (pandemic-adjusted?) Halloween frills will be in place for this concert, which will likely be a 10:00 PM affair with no cover charge and a 19+ age limit. Remember, please respect and honour any and all social distancing guidelines at The Rockstar Bar, wear a normal face mask beyond anything for a costume, and be aware that this show takes place after vaccine passports are mandatory for non-essential events, though we should be able to use the QR code version by then. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Next up, I wanted to apologize for a recently missed concert, as Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished played an acoustic two man set at the Sault Ste. Marie Farmers' Market yesterday during the United Way of the Eastern Upper Peninsula's Foodies United fundraiser! Unfortunately, their involvement in this event was not publically acknowledged by the band, Farmers' Market, or United Way on Facebook... aside from Tarnished's Facebook "story", which is where I belatedly discovered that they played at the fundraiser. Alas, stories (the temporary content from friends and pages at the top of modern Facebook news feeds) do not have to be permanent posts, and unless they did so more than once, Tarnished only plugged their set on social media via their Facebook story yesterday. I'll be honest, I find Facebook stories to be a pointless artificial limitation, and unless double posted normally, they're impossible to use as a source for SMS purposes.

You can only look at a story once or twice before it vanishes forever (it will leave after 24 hours regardless), so unless you take a very fast screenshot or screen recording, you may not ever have proof that it was posted. Tarnished haven't posted anything on Facebook in over a month (at least, not that will self destruct), and it's great to see that they're still gigging, but I profusely apologize for both not promoting this show in advance & my lack of a concrete source for their set yesterday. I wish someone had said something permanent earlier, but Foodies United looked like a fun way for Michigan Saulities to get some local grub and support The United Way!

Also, here's some new video uploads on Fort Creek bassist Robin "Bones" Lee's YouTube channel from last month, and in these cases, they are not unlisted there! Both are titled "FC Opening", which appear to signal that these are pre-recorded opening tracks played before Fort Creek begin a concert/set (I can't 100% confirm that, as I have yet to see them live). "FC Opening 2 take 2" is a dramatic orchestral recording featuring a motivational message by podcaster/retired Navy SEAL Jocko Wi!link, while embedded below is "FC Opening 3", featuring warning sirens, a snippet of anti-Satanic rock music sermon by Pastor John Hagee, and emergency alert messages that end in an abrupt (if blue) way. These sound like they'd set the mood for a Fort Creek show well enough, if in different ways, so give both a listen above & below!

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:

• Staind frontman Aaron Lewis and his solo band The Stateliners will return to The Dreammakers Theatre at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on Thursday, October 28th, marking his second Sault Michigan date during his solo career as a country musician, following a November 2014 show at the same venue. Aaron recently made the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Am I The Only One", and he does cover Staind ballads live in his country shows (videos from the 2014 concert are on YouTube). Again, this is a country concert, but Staind fans may be curious to see Aaron live in the Soo again, so click here for ticket details! 
• I have moved Sault Ontario alternative hard rock band Foothill Road back to our inactive band links. The mid-1990s fan favourites surprisingly reunited in August of last year to record a solid new song named "Heard It", but no new social media pages followed, so if the guys did more in the past year+, it's not public knowledge. Hopefully this wasn't it, but we'll let you know if Ken, Mark, Steve, Rick, and Ron resurface in some form!
• Also, I have moved local hard rock quintet Skeyes of Seven back to our inactive band links. The guys returned in July 2020 after an almost 3 year hiatus to record a new song named "Detonate" for Corus Radio's $20,000 Summer Song Contest, but no public updates have followed since, possibly due to the pandemic. Sadly, the video was made private by Corus Radio after the contest ended, but hopefully they at least re-post "Detonate" somewhere, it was a good track! Hopefully we'll see Cory, Ron, Kyle, Al, and John on stage again when the time is right!

 

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

New Concert Videos, An Inactive Band, And Much More!!

Now that I'm back from Detroit (the city), we can get back to normal business on the site, including a new video of Detroit (the band), a recent Kewadin concert video, a band that we're likely moving to our inactive band links in the coming days, and more assorted notes. Read on below for what you should know, and yes, we have some big (and somewhat overdue) feature posts to come before the month & year are out, so keep an eye out!

Did you miss the Detroit reunion concert on Tuesday night at The Algonquin Pub? I sadly did, but if you want a video of the proceedings, Bad Back drummer Nathan Sauve has you covered! He uploaded this video of the local/Toronto hardcore punk quartet (including two of his old Lion Ride bandmates) onto his YouTube channel on Christmas Eve, which is definitely a nice Christmas gift of sorts! Nathan shot Detroit playing their songs "Blue Collar", "Lord, Beer Me Strength", "Fortress" (complete with guest vocals from singer Brent Ellis' Destroilet bandmate Adam Larocque), and "Shithouse Ratt", though the first and last songs are incomplete. Nathan had planned to shoot more of their set but forgot his backup battery, though what we get is a solid sampling, especially if you liked their "Let The Hammers Fly" EP, as all but "Fortress" were on that one! Filmed from a stationary side stage angle, the guys have great energy (and generally longer hair than 5 years ago), but the audio can be muffled.

Very nice overall, and the familiar drum intro is great to hear one more time, so give the new Detroit video a look below, as who knows when/if you'll see Brent, Curtis, Mark, and Mikey back together again? Also, keep an eye out in case more media turns up from Tuesday night!



Next up, we have one more band to likely add to our inactive band links in 2014, that being local metal cover trio Caveman Morrison. While frontman Tym Morrison indicated in June on their Facebook group that there were "not a lot of places to play" for them and he didn't know what the future held, the guys have not played a live public concert since New Year's Eve last year at the former Roosevelt Hotel, so we're approaching a year's inactivity for them. Caveman Morrison had been a fairly frequent sight at numerous local concert venues since reforming locally in 2009, following successful stints here and in Calgary through the mid-2000s. Joined by many different musicians in assorted lineups, Caveman Morrison were best known for cover-only shows, but did play Tym's own original material on special occasions. In the past year, Tym has transitioned to a regular weekly solo concert run at The Harp Bar & Grill, while recent members James White & Johnny Belanger remain active in multiple metal & punk bands each.

The sudden halt in new Caveman Morrison concerts was surprising, but if the venue drought is accurate (plus the continued success of Tym's Harp shows), immediate future plans for Caveman Morrison don't look too promising. Tym and company had a solid sound and knew lots of classic metal & hard rock songs, and given that he plays similar material at his solo dates, a Caveman return likely wouldn't be hard to orchestrate! Until then, best of luck to Tym, James, Johnny, and all of their other past members in the future!

Also today, we have a new video of a hard rock cover from a recent Kewadin Casino concert, once again coming from the Aaron Lewis show at The Dreammaker's Theater in Sault Michigan last month! As you may remember, Aaron is best known as Staind's frontman, but he has been carving a solo career in country music in the early 2010s, which was the main focus of this tour, though he's been covering Staind songs like "It's Been Awhile" and "Outside" in the process! This video is of Aaron tackling another Staind hit, "Right Here", as uploaded by YouTube user Melissa McNamara on her YouTube channel 2 weeks ago (which also has a video from last year's local Shinedown concert.) Though filmed on the vertical cell phone camera angle, Melissa is much closer to the stage than when she saw Shinedown, and the audio quality is nice on this cover, which is familiar to the original song but has a country feel. The visuals can be a bit bright, but it's a solid video, so give it a look!



Finally, here's three assorted shorter items from the last little while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist, event, or venue name:

• Sault Michigan nightclub The Back Door is apparently closing early next year, as per posts on their Facebook page this month hyping their New Year's party as their "final" such event. If this is true, a reason for the impending closure has not been posted there. We mention this on here because The Back Door experimented with booking live bands last year (including Banned & Power Slug), and if the club's days are indeed numbered, I know many in the area will be disappointed! We'll keep you posted if anything else is said.
• Local/St. Catharine's grindcore trio Shit Liver will make their Quebec debut (and first live appearance of 2015) when they play a concert in Montreal on January 16th! Awesome news, and hopefully it's a success for them! Click here for more details!
• The Tidal Records Battle of the Bands at The Canadian Nightclub in March will have individual awards for the best individual performances and original song, with prizes being provided by event sponsors, as per promoter J.D. Pearce on the Facebook event page last week. Though most recent battles haven't featured individual awards, 2012's Humane Society Battle and the old Case's Music Battles both utilized the idea, and it's a nice idea to give competitors something extra to try for! Stay tuned for more updates on this battle as we hear them!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (The Pixo Control), Album Updates, And More!!

Keeping this steady stream of news rolling, we have recent concert videos, new studio songs, and lots of updates from a rising young band (including a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT) to touch on, so here's what you should know!

Local grunge/alternative trio The Pixo Control will play an acoustic headlining show at a unique venue on Friday, December 19th, when they make their debut at Low & Slow Smoked Fusion BBQ! If you're not familiar with it, Low & Slow is a relatively new restaurant at 113 Gore Street that specializes in slow cooked barbeque items with an open concept, and they also appear to be getting into the acoustic concert promotion game, having hosted Jay Case & Frank Deresti there last month (source here.) As such, I don't know a lot about Low & Slow as a concert site, but an acoustic setting is nothing new for The Pixo Control, having played some unplugged gigs at Gusto's Bar & Grill earlier this year. They should deliver a solid set, so keep it in mind for in just under two weeks time! For reference, 113 Gore Street is the former location of Hunter's Grill and Grazia's Italian Restaurant, not the old GLOW/Other Place building (that's 119 Gore Street), but it's nice to have another active concert venue on Gore Street either way!

Promoted by Boxes of Boom mainman Sam Decter, this show has a 9:00 PM start time, no announced cover charge, and given the restaurant setting, may not have a designated age limit. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be an interesting show, so keep it in mind if you're up for a more reserved night of original action! The Pixo Control have been keeping busy in recent weeks beyond their live shows too, as they mentioned on their Facebook page on Saturday that they are working on a debut CD, confirming earlier teases via some recording session photos shared by veteran local musician Keith Conway, like the one here. Details are otherwise minimal, but it'll be interesting to hear the final product! The guys have also been subject to a handful of recent video postings, including this video posted to their Instagram page last month, which initially confirmed the album plans, and features bassist Steve Edwards recording a bass track.

This is the first Instagram video that we've ever shared on here, and though it's short, it does give a glimpse into The Pixo Control's album recording process! It's great to finally have full confirmation of their CD plans, and I'm curious to see where things go, so give their new Instagram video a look below, don't miss them at Low & Slow on the 17th, and stay tuned for more!

A video posted by The Pixo Control (@thepixocontrol) on Nov 11, 2014 at 3:55pm PST

Speaking of albums, local alternative/blues rock quartet Sykotyk Rampage officially released their newest "album" on November 29th via their Reverbnation page! Entitled "Bring The Heavy", this is officially considered the band's 47th album, and will likely be their last of 2014's recording batch, barring a resurrection of the four dropped 2014 albums that they had once planned, like "Wyrd Radio" & "Double Live". We won't post the album artwork here though, as it's content is partially not safe for work. I have yet to hear "Bring The Heavy" in full, but love appears to be a partial theme for the tracks, with songs like "Her Love", "Love Is Good", and "Love Her So" among the 18 tracks, though no word on if any of the songs are holdovers from their three cancelled albums. Like the band's prior studio output with their current lineup, the albums have not been posted in a full album sale format (you can buy separate tracks individually, but that's all), but fans of Sykotyk Rampage's creative improvised hard rock will be right at home, so give "Bring The Heavy" a listen above!

Finally today, remember how Staind frontman Aaron Lewis headlined a solo country concert at The Dreammaker's Theatre at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino last month? Well, we have a pair of YouTube videos of him covering songs that will be familiar to Staind fans! Attendee Dana Howland uploaded 9 videos from the show onto her YouTube channel just in the last day, and while they're mostly of his new country originals and genre covers, one is of Aaron covering Staind's biggest song "It's Been Awhile", and the other features his cover of Pearl Jam's "Black", which became a solo radio hit for him in the early 2000s. Both are naturally played in a country music style on this tour, and while "Black" adapts better to that genre (partially due to being slowed down), fans of his hard rock work should like these! It's just a shame that Dana only got under 40 seconds of each song, but two of her videos from Aaron's set do surpass three minutes. Well recorded with a good camera angle (despite the orientation), so give "It's Been Awhile" a look below, and see more above!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more Toystock fallout and more in the coming days! Thanks everyone!