Things have been relatively quiet for news and notes this week, but let's correct that with some new videos from a few familiar faces for rock fans of different stripes, and even a little holiday magic at the end. Without any further ado, here's what you should know!
After a year+ break from posting new videos onto his YouTube channel, prolific local rock guitarist/bassist Arthur Lacasse has made up for lost time with fourteen uploads there a couple of days ago! These all feature his three current bands, including reunited hard rock quartet Half Past, giving us our first visual look at them since their last public concert over a decade ago, and our first chance to see Jamie Labreche as their new drummer! These videos appear to come from a jam session, albeit with a very dolled up stage setup that does resemble a proper nightclub. All four are of modern hard rock covers, including Breaking Benjamin's "Blow Me Away", Staind's "For You", Seether's "Fallen" (which has the best angle of the band, albeit vertically), and as embedded below, System of a Down's "Spiders". Half Past sound good with these covers, they've more or less picked up where they left off in 2011!
Jordan's vocals have definitely gotten more confident since we last saw him with this group, and Jamie's drum skills are evident, while it doesn't hurt that only he is really well lit with their jam room lighting! No word on when Half Past will return to the stage, such as the concert scene is right now given the pandemic, but give their new videos a look above & below!
The other new videos on Arthur's channel are of his other two active bands, namely Foo Fighters tribute band The Soo Fighters and their sister pop rock cover band Lockdown (Art and Jules Cote are in both bands, as was the late Chris Thompson on drums). All of these videos come from the Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir back in August, which was the debut for Lockdown period and The Soo Fighters' new lineup, as well as Chris' penultimate live concert. These appear to be the same videos previously posted onto both bands' Facebook pages from the festival, including more from both sets, though Art didn't re-upload Lockdown's cover of The Arctic Monkeys' "Snap Out Of It". The Lockdown videos now on YouTube include the previously seen covers of The Tragically Hip's "Blow At High Dough", The Black Keys' "Gold On The Ceiling", and Elle King's "Ex's & Oh's".
The new videos have renditions of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son", Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out", and The Sheepdogs' "The Way It Is". These covers aren't of hard rock songs, but they are definitely well performed by this group of talented musicians, though the distant camera angle doesn't help at all. That gets worse for The Soo Fighters, who were the surprising closing band at Northern Vibe VI, so their nighttime videos from the same filmer/location suffer greatly in the visual department. You will have seen their version of The Foos' "Monkey Wrench" on Facebook already, but the three new covers are of "Learn To Fly", "My Hero", and as embedded below, "Bridge Burning", which was their opening song, complete with an introduction by River Stage curator J.D. Pearce. Given the late setting and the state of the crowd, I do wish the filmer had gotten a lot closer to the stage for their set.
Despite the lack of visual clarity and overly bright stage lighting as such, these are strongly done Foo Fighters covers, so musically, you're in good hands! Nice to hear Chris again in these too, in what may be his final new concert videos, unless someone belatedly posts something from both bands' Halloween weekend show at The Rockstar Bar. Give all of Arthur's new YouTube videos a look above & below!
We'll close today with a Christmas surprise from former Brain Tuel guitarist Zach Reid's YouTube channel on Saturday, namely a 39 second acoustic guitar cover of John Williams' "Somewhere In My Memory", the theme song for the first two Home Alone movies. If you know me personally, you'll know that I love Home Alone 1 & 2, so I totally approve of a local musician tackling this song, even if a short snippet! Spare but effective, give Zach's take a watch below, and watch Home Alone while you're at it!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on the site next! Thanks everyone!
I promised a busy week to end October with, and I'm delivering, with this being our fifth post in as many days, and I hope to make it 6 tomorrow with this month's CD review! Before then, it's the Halloween weekend, and with concerts more amenable to happen at this stage of the pandemic, we have a decent amount of hard rock shows across both sides of the border to check out, including a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT! Barring anything else on late notice, here's what you should know!
Young local classic hard rock quartet The Uncanny Valley will make their Soo Blaster debut TOMORROW NIGHT when they play a special Halloween themed headlining concert there! Apologies for the short notice, the band only announced this show via their Facebook event page this past Friday. TOMORROW's concert will be The Uncanny Valley's third of 2021 and with their current lineup, and will give this rising group a chance to unleash their growing arsenal of original material on a spooky audience. It may be a tough task for them to sell out a venue the size of Soo Blaster, but this is a prime downtown locale for The Uncanny Valley to do their thing at, so consider coming out TOMORROW! Advertising does not confirm if there will be a costume contest of any kind or not, but you should definitely wear one if you attend, as if you're paying at the door, you will save $5 by coming in a costume!
Tickets are $15 in advance or for costumed attendees, $20 at the door if you aren't dressed up, and while this may seem steep to just see one band, remember that holiday frills are a given, and regardless, this is a larger venue with pandemic measures in place. Otherwise, this is a 19+ concert with a 10:00 PM start time, and contact/head down to Soo Blaster for advance tickets. And of course, vaccine passports are mandatory to attend this concert, and please use common sense & wear face masks where mandated to keep everyone safe. Visit the above links for more details, and here's The Uncanny Valley live earlier this year!
Next up, let's head to Michigan's Eastern Upper Peninsula for some previously announced Halloween weekend concerts, and we'll start at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino, where Traverse City classic metal trio Peril will play their only E.U.P. dates of the year TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! While we have seen their sister band Scarkazm north of the Mack since, this will be Peril's first E.U.P. concert weekend since February 2020 for obvious pandemic-related reasons. Scarkazm are more frequently seen nowadays, but Jeff, Adam, and Brooks' brand of old school hard rock and metal classics are sure to bring in a solid crowd this weekend, so don't miss out on Peril this weekend, especially as they won't be back until next year! No special Halloween frills are in the band's advertising, but expect 9:00 PM start times, no cover charge, and a 21+ age limit, as is standard for Peril and Scarkazm's Kewadin bookings.
And as recently usual, please respect & follow any public health guidelines in place at the casino and/or lounge to ensure that everyone comes and goes safe & healthy. It's great to see Peril back in our neck of the woods after way too long away, and with or without costumes, hopefully tomorrow & Saturday night's concerts go off without a hitch! Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Peril live!
Further north but still in the States, fans can head to Sugar Island THIS SATURDAY NIGHT, where revived Sault Ste. Marie hard rock quartet 415E will return to The Hilltop Bar for a Halloween weekend concert of their own! Like Peril, we haven't seen 415E in concert locally since February 2020 (at the same venue in this case), and while guitarist Chris Hubbard and bassist Brett Blackwood did resurface with the debuting Rhythm & Brews a few months back, that band hasn't been heard from online since, with 415E resuming public activity afterwards. In any event, it's great to see 415E back after a lengthy break, and hopefully Dave, Chris, Brett, and Jason deliver a solid night of hard rocking covers for fans in Sugar Island on Devil's Night! This is unequivocally The Hilltop Bar's Halloween party, so costumes are encouraged, with a contest planned as well as drink specials & appetizers for the occasion.
This 19+ event has no announced cover charge (bring cash just in case), and while a start time of 7:00 PM is advertised with the costume contest winners being announced at 9:00 PM, I can't say for certain whether 415E proper will be playing that early or if they'll be after the winners are announced. Regardless, please respect and follow any and all social distancing and public health guidelines at The Hilltop Bar to ensure that every *one has a safe time on Saturday. Visit the official Facebook event page and the above links for more details, and here's 415E live in the 2010s!
Finally, let's head back to Sault Ontario for arguably the biggest hard rock-featured Halloween show of the weekend, if only because this one has two bands, namely new local pop rock cover quintet Lockdown and their sister band, Foo Fighters tribute quartet The Soo Fighters, who will hit The Rockstar Bar for their Halloween party on SATURDAY NIGHT! Both bands were last seen at The Northern Vibe Festival in August, which was the first show period for Lockdown and the debut of The Soo Fighters' new lineup, but that was in Ophir, so this will be the first time in Sault city limits on both fronts. Lockdown aren't a hard rock band, if videos from August are anything to go by, but 3 band members are in The Soo Fighters (and Nicole did some guest backing vocals for them too), so there's a lot of talented DNA between the two bands, and come early to get your hard rock fill via The Soos (hard to believe this is just their fifth show!)
Note that this is not J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween party, which was last held in 2019 due to the pandemic & his out of town work commitments, but given the locale and The Soo Fighters' involvement, this is the closest you're going to get to it this weekend! Expect a costume contest & the usual Halloween frills, with The Soo Fighters kicking things off at 10:00 PM. No cover charge is announced for this 19+ concert, but bring cash just in case, and vaccine passports are mandatory to attend, so use common sense once you enter! Solid music will abound at The Rockstar Bar on Saturday night, so visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's The Soo Fighters live!
That's all for today, but barring some very late notice show announcements, stay tuned for this month's CD review next! Thanks everyone!
After a one year hiatus due to the pandemic, the annual Northern Vibe Festival will return from Friday, August 27th-Sunday, August 29th for it's sixth installment! Debuting in 2015 as a spiritual successor to the former Hempfest (both are held on the same festival grounds on Poplardale Road in nearby Ophir), the Northern Vibe Festival has not been a traditional haven for heavier/punk bands, only featuring a couple at most, sometimes not having any. That changes this year, as local concert promoter and punk/metal singer J.D. Pearce is curating this year's Forest Stage lineup! Remember, Northern Vibe has two separate stages, one for bands, and the River Stage for DJs. This poster lists the original artist lineup, though bands and DJs are mixed together, and there have been a couple of withdrawals since, including DJ Fuels from the River Stage (check the official performer listings on the website for the up to date lineups). Performers have been advertised all month, so why have we not covered the festival on here until now?
Honestly, it's because organizers still have not announced daily schedules for the Forest Stage, and as of this writing, bands are being plugged as just performing during the festival and for us to get our weekend passes. That said, we're less than two weeks out, so I better get the ball rolling and at least mention the scheduled bands (click here to see who's spinning tunes on the River Stage). Three touring acts from Sudbury will make their way to Ophir for The Northern Vibe Festival VI, namely "northern soul rock n' roll" septet Harvey King & The Grindstone, alternative/world music solo artist Matt Foy, and funk rock one-man-band Dr. Bong, none of whom I'm familiar with from local dates in the 2010s. Notably, Matt is a new addition to replace Montreal indie rockers (and pre-pandemic touring favourites) Dany Laj & The Looks on the bill. Shame that Dany and crew had to drop out, it'd have been nice to see them back for a sixth local gig later this month!
The highest listed local band in festival advertising is local horror punk quintet Frightlight in their first live set since opening for Michale Graves here in September 2019, and it will be great to see their spooky brand of punk and metal originals back after such a long wait! Instrumental surf rock trio The Dynowaves also get a high placement in event advertising, so their retro feel-good brand of rock should go over well at month's end too! Reunited no-genre (but alternative/punk-leaning) quartet Handsome Sandwich will play their first show with new singer Taylor Emlaw and bassist Mitch Sirie at Northern Vibe during the festival, while fan-favourite punk trio A Dire Setback will play their first true live concert set since the pandemic began as well! No word on if they'll have CD copies of their debut album on sale, but I doubt they're considering this to be their long-delayed release party, which was to have been in March 2020.
Two bands who you may have seen at the drive-thru Rotaryfest last month will also play at Northern VIbe (see what I did there?), including local funk/hard rock quintet The Wyld Stallyns and online page-less local punk/country supergroup Jonesy Land (featuring Rising Tide and Lake Effect alumni) in their second concert set of any kind. The last two bands share three members between them, one being local Foo Fighters tribute band The Soo Fighters! This band will be playing their fourth concert here, which is also their first non-benefit concert outside of Halloween parties. It will also see the debut of new bassist Arthur Lacasse, and in a surprise, his old Half Past bandmate Chris Thompson, who quietly replaced Jonas Gasperas on drums at some point earlier this year. A reason for Jonas' exit wasn't announced, but you can still see him in Ophir with The Wyld Stallyns, and Chris' prolific drum skill and chemistry with Art should go a long way!
Finally, if you'd like to hear Arthur, Chris, and frontman Jules Cote cover bands other than The Foo Fighters, look for their set together as debuting local cover rock quintet Lockdown, where they'll be joined by singer Nicole Ambeault and guitarist Randy Russell (Soo Fighters guitarist Wes Greco is not in Lockdown). Despite their promising lineup, I haven't heard any hints as to what Lockdown's set might include, but don't bypass them at The Northern Vibe Festival at month's end, assuming we don't actually get locked down again! The festival is a 19+ event, it officially begins at 12:00 PM on Friday the 27th, and tickets run for $100 for the full weekend or $60 for Saturday the 28th only (there are no single day passes listed for Friday or Sunday). Buy your tickets online at this link. Vendors will be on site selling local goods, food, and drinks (click here for the current list, though updates are forthcoming).
Camping is encouraged for attendees, and the festival website lists directions to Poplardale Road, plus recommended things to bring to have a safe/clean time for the sake of the grounds and everyone else (i.e. don't bring glass bottles or bad attitudes). Re: the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be extra hand washing/sanitizing stations on-site, organizers request that you bring and use face masks when going to vendors/not social distancing, and while being an outdoor festival at this point in the pandemic (and in a wide-open area) allows for the festival to occur close to normally in 2021, please be respectful of others and stay distanced where possible. Click here for more on that. It's been a long year & a half+ for a concert festival of this nature and magnitude to return to the Algoma District, and hopefully Northern Vibe VI goes off without a hitch in Ophir in a couple of weeks!
Visit the above links for full current details, stay tuned for the daily schedules when announced, and look for more news on the SMS this week, both from the Northern Vibe Festival and elsewhere! Thanks everyone!
A new month is upon us, and it's already starting out to be newsworthy in a somewhat melancholy way, so that's leading things off, but there will be a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT and a new video to check out later on. Now, here's what you should know in the news!
As many of you will probably be aware by now, Ontario Premier Doug Ford will put the province into another mass lockdown phase starting Saturday at midnight due to rapidly rising COVID-19 cases. This is slated to run through the end of the month, and an extension into May or possible tightened restrictions would be on the table if case counts don't visibly improve. Click here or visit your preferred local/provincial news outlets for more details on these new measures. This won't be a complete lockdown on the level of the ones we went through from March-June of last year and in December-February, as schools are not slated to close, and non-essential retailers can remain open with a 25% capacity limit. However, this will wipe out indoor dining & nightclub service once again, consequently also calling off what little concerts in the Soo that were booked at traditional venues from April 3rd-30th.
The only scheduled hard rock concert in Sault Ontario that was publically announced in that timeframe was a planned matinee this Sunday at Reggie's Place from Tym Morrison, a show that would have been previewed on short notice in this post had the Premier not pulled the emergency brake. The Facebook event page for that concert has not been updated to reflect it's cancellation, but regardless, yesterday's announcement will have confirmed it's status. Of course, a third lockdown is not ideal for the local music scene, especially given that the Algoma District is still not doing as badly as Southern Ontario for cases, though numbers have slowly been adding up in this region (229 confirmed cases and 4 deaths as of this writing, source here.) Yes, vaccines are starting to roll out, but clearly not fast enough to stem the tide of this third wave, so hopefully these new measures will help.
Unless you were lucky enough to get a vaccine already, please take every recommended measure to keep yourself and others safe. Wear a face mask, be vigilant, wash your hands, practice social distancing, and stay home where possible. Hopefully this lockdown isn't lengthened or tightened, so that we can get back to somewhat more normal proceedings, especially with more vaccines eventually making their way here. We will get through this!
With that said, we do have a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT before the lockdown goes into effect, as local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will rock Reggie's West for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the band only announced this gig via their Facebook event page yesterday (it's unclear whether this is a last minute booking due to the lockdown or if this was already planned, just not publically promoted before now.) This will be Soundcheck's first concert since their run of three in four days at the same venue during St. Patrick's Day week, and their last until May(?), so if you want to see Terry, Cameron, Paul, and Glen's brand of classic and hard rock covers on Good Friday, be at The Reggievelt TOMORROW! A 7:30 PM start time is in effect for this 19+ show with no age limit. See above for more details, and here's Soundcheck live!
Finally for today, remember how local folk punk/extreme metal musician Chase Wigmore teased on his Facebook page last month that he is "almost finished with something that is on an
entirely different level of magnitude than my normal work"? Well, the fruits of that labour were uploaded to his YouTube channel yesterday, namely a half hour piano composition named "The Symphonic Organism"! If considered an "album", there are no track listings given. Chase is a more accomplished guitarist, but his piano playing is lively and proficient, and it's great to see him expand his horizons like this! Give "The Symphonic Organism" a listen below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums? post next! Thanks everyone!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Boxing Day! We're back as we begin the dash towards the end of 2020, and given that most of this post is devoted to obvious recent news that goes beyond music, I am projecting that we will have at least one more news post after this, likely on Tuesday, with our year-end retrospective post now pencilled in for New Year's Eve. With that said, here's what you should know regarding a certain major news story in Ontario, with a belated Christmas bonus at the end!
As is likely common knowledge by now for most readers, the province of Ontario entered a new lockdown yesterday due to rapidly increasing COVID-19 infection rates. The lockdown is projected to last for two weeks in Sault Ste. Marie and the rest of Northern Ontario, running through January 8th, while Southern Ontario will be under this order for four weeks, though these are subject to change pending how case totals look over the lockdown timeframe. Click here or visit your preferred local/provincial news sources for details, but the resulting closures and capacity restrictions will be very familiar from the lockdown we endured in Ontario from March-June. This news will not be welcomed by some, especially given that Sault Ste. Marie and the Algoma District are in code green, and have done a much better job at keeping case counts low than much of the province.
As of this writing, there have been 65 coronavirus cases reported here, and all but 3 are now resolved (source here), but of course, we want to keep the numbers low in the area and discourage travel to & from Southern Ontario for the time being. I know this can be frustrating, but at least this is only 2 weeks (we hope), and luckily, this didn't go into effect until after Christmas. Stay home, stay safe, stay vigilant, wear a mask, and use common sense! With all of that said, this news does affect what little of a concert calendar we had in the Soo. Specifically, this will cancel the Fort Creek-headlined New Year's Eve concert at Reggie's Place next week, though the guys are taking this in stride, and have teased on Facebook that they'll be spending the lockdown recording. We'll keep you posted on that! Also, Tym Morrison crammed in one more late notice gig at the same venue this past Wednesday before the holiday break & lockdown went into effect.
I profusely apologize for not covering that concert on the site proper, as it was announced on too late of notice (and with too few stories for us to fill out a post with) to plug it on the site, but it was covered on our Facebook page, and hopefully Tym put on a great show for downtown Reggie's patrons on Wednesday! Lastly, this isn't related to the Ontario lockdowns, but I have removed the previously announced Scarkazm concert at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino on New Year's Eve from our concert calendar. That date was announced well before COVID was an immediate concern, and while Scarkazm have been playing limited live dates in recent months, the casino has yet to resume booking regular live acts at their on-site lounges. As such, there are no concerts whatsoever listed in our Sault Michigan concert calendar at present, but when we hear of a publically attendable hard rock/metal event there, we'll let you know!
We'll close today with a new video from local hard rock band Tarnished, specifically their cover of Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run"! This was posted onto their Facebook page on Christmas Eve, and it is their "2020 holiday special", with everyone's parts filmed remotely (I can't confirm if this is due to convenience or social distancing) and combined afterwards in post production, with mixing & mastering by Ryan Nicklas. Despite everyone being apart for filming, drummer Gary Croad was still unable to appear, so the band gave a "shout out to Santa for letting us "borrow" one of his elves to fill in" for Gary in this video. The elf bears a striking resemblance to frontman Alex Traynor, does he not? This cover won't be new to anyone who saw Alex & Nathan cover it on Eagle 95.1 earlier this month, but of course, this is electric, has a full-ish band, and has lots of Christmasy accoutrements.
I will be honest, I'm not a fan of "Run Rudolph Run" (primarily for the somewhat illogical lyrics), but Tarnished turn in a fun and proficient version of this rock & roll carol, and it's well mixed and edited, so if you want the belated Christmas spirit, this may just provide it! Give it a watch below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for our last news post of 2020 on Tuesday, if all goes according to plan! Thanks everyone!
