Most Of This Weekend's Metal/Hard Rock Concert Previews, Including Oddzfest's New Headiners!!

Today's post touches on most of this weekend's known metal/hard rock concerts, and while it's a quiet weekend on the Sault Ontario side, a HUGE metal show is going down tomorrow that will be both sad and brutal all at once! On the Sault Michigan side of the border, there's more going on, but I'm bumping our Tesla/Fifth Way preview to tomorrow to give it proper emphasis (and if we've missed any late notice hard rock shows, they'll go along with it!) With that said, let's begin out first weekend concert preview post!

TOMORROW NIGHT at The Oddfellows Hall, metal will reign in a stacked (yet very bittersweet) concert event named Oddzfest 2013 Metal Mash-Up! Promoted by Bear Hunters guitarist/Giwakwa frontman Josh Stephney, this show is half a local metal concert and half a farewell for both him and his Giwakwa bandmate Nolan Rainville, who are both coincidentally moving out of town next month, making this their last local concert beforehand. This is absolutely disappointing news, as Josh and Nolan have been among the most prominent and successful local death metal artists of the last 4 years, and hopefully they succeed in their future endeavours and bring their metal talents with them to their new homes! Oddzfest will feature 8 metal/hard rock acts rocking out to send off Josh & Nolan in the heaviest way possible, including late notice out of town headliners, as Vancouver heavy metal quintet West of Hell will hit the Soo for the second time on Friday night in the midst of their Demon Sent Tour! Last seen headlining one of Dismembertainment's last shows at The Canadian last May, their extreme and high energy classic metal sound is sure to be welcomed back after their show-stealing set last year, so don't miss The Heathen and company in their local return, and kudos to Josh for bringing them in on late notice!

West Of Hell will headline at 12:15 AM, with the bands preceding them including a one-off reunion set from 3 time battle of the bands-winning death metal quintet Bring The Fallen at 11:15 PM! Over 2 years after their breakup, this will be a fitting farewell for both B.T.F. and their two moving members, so don't miss tomorrow's show to stand before with Bring The Fallen one more time!

Note as well that this will likely be lead guitarist Andrew Chiarello's first live concert appearance since B.T.F.'s original breakup, so it'll be great to see him back on it's own! The other local performers with hour long sets include melodic death metal quintet The Bear Hunters (in their last set with Josh on guitar) at 10:00 PM, and grindcore/death metal trio Shit Liver (in their first live concert since May) at 8:45 PM. The other performers have half hour sets each, and in descending order, they include local solo musician James Watterworth at 8:00 PM, Josh & Nolan's last concert with their stoner/death metal quartet Giwakwa at 7:30 PM, local death metal band Crimson Crusade's first set since their brief breakup at 6:45 PM, and local grunge/alternative quartet Haggith's Oddfellows Hall debut to open the night at 6:00 PM. Note as well that Giwakwa's Facebook page yesterday asked fans to "come share one last sludgy night with us" tomorrow night, but it remains to be seen whether that refers to Josh & Nolan only, or if the band are dissolving afterwards. We should know by tomorrow!

As a thank you to fans and friends for their support during his local music career, Josh is offering FREE ADMISSION to anyone who wears local band merchandise to the show (anyone from As It Stands to Woods of Ypres works), while admission will be $5 if you don't. Doors open at 5:30 PM, and as you'd expect, this is ALL AGES! For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This should be an awesome (yet disappointing) evening, but the metal will come fast & furious, and there's no heavier way to send off Josh, Nolan, and Bring The Fallen (and maybe Giwakwa?), so do NOT miss Oddzfest 2013 Metal Mash-Up tomorrow night! For a preview, here's new headliners West of Hell letting sparks fly (literally) in the Soo two years ago!

Now to most of the known Sault Michigan concerts this weekend (Tesla's coming tomorrow), starting with young local metal quartet Tantrym Tyme's latest gigs outside of Harmony Health Foods at 217 Ashmun Street TOMORROW & SATURDAY as part of this weekend's live entertainment during Downtown Days! Also known as the Sidewalk Sales, this yearly community event features outdoor sales from local merchants, kids games, and live music across town, so there should be a little something for everyone this year! Not the most obvious event for metal/hard rock acts, but bands like Free Refill have played Downtown Days in the past, so this isn't unheard of. As you may also know, Tantyrm Tyme and Harmony Health Foods have a long relationship thanks to drummer Ethan Twardy's parents owning this popular natural grocery store, and they've played, been sponsored by, and sold shirts there in the past, so it's a fitting location for them! These are outdoor gigs (like so many of their other live appearances), and as a result, are obviously ALL AGES, but I'm not able to pin down an exact time for their sets. Check the above links for more details!

Tantrym Tyme are improving fast with age with their entertaining metal sound, and they've impressed at many recent live sets, so if you're in the region (Harmony Health Foods is just seconds from The Corner Pub), then go check them out tomorrow or Saturday, likely in the daytime! For a preview, here's Tantrym Tyme covering Poison's "Talk Dirty To Me" last year, and stay tuned soon for a new video from their old Abstract days!

Finally for this post, Sault Michigan hard rock/metal quartet 415E will return to the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT for shows at their Northern Pines Lounge! Increasingly getting more prominent at local concerts, the band featuring Nixxon Dixxon, Splitshot, 7/47, and Free Refill alumni are making a big local impression with their Van Halen-inspired originals and covers, so keep their latest regional dates in mind for this weekend! Still curious to see when they'll play outside of Kewadin Casino branches, but they fit well there! Both of this weekend's shows are 21+ affairs with likely 9:00 PM start times, and there's no announced cover charge. Check the above links for more details! These should be some solid concerts from this talented local quartet, so don't miss them, and for a preview, check out 415E playing their self-titled original below, and click here to see guitarist Chris Hubbard playing a 4 minute+ guitar solo in St. Ignace on June 28th! As a Facebook video, I can't embed it here, but his skills are clear as day!



That's all for today, but stay tuned tomorrow for our Tesla concert preview and more! Thanks everyone!

SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison & Scofflaw), And Much More!!

I wasn't planning to have a new news post today, but it's amazing how rapidly some big news falls into place, so I felt I should slap one together! In that regard, don't forget my Defunct Local Band Profiles on From The Ashes Of Angels and TraynWreck from this morning, especially if you're from the Sault Michigan area! So today, we have a cool new audio clip from a local band, some updates to one of our monthly feature posts, and kicking things off, two SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, so here's what you need to know!! Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison is indeed back at Service Grill Pizza TODAY! After a one week absence for a St. Joseph Island concert, Tym's back at the Korah Road restaurant today for two sets after he returns from his set this afternoon at The Searchmont Music Festival, and apologies for the short notice, Tym only announced this show earlier today. Also to note, the Facebook event page still says that he's there "every Saturday", so it looks like his weekly summer arrangement there has been extended into at least one fall month! With the Searchmont gig, his usual times at the Service Grill are slightly amended, as he'll now be hitting the stage a bit later at 4:30 PM, with a second set likely to start around 8:00 PM tonight. There's no announced cover charge, and I don't believe there's an age restriction. Check the above links for more details! Sounds good, hopefully Tym knocks it out of the park tonight, even if it's short notice! Remember to go see him TODAY, and for a preview, here's Tym (and a special guest) covering Extreme's "More Than Words" a few years ago! Meanwhile, Sault Michigan hard rock trio Scofflaw will return to the local stage TONIGHT for a set at The Merchant's Bar! The popular band featuring singer/guitarist Jeff Barnes, Bucksaw bassist Barney Gravelle, and PowerSlug drummer Ivan Schliska will make their first advertised local concert appearance since LemmaFest when they rock The Merch for a night of drunken metal originals! They're a fun band and well worth hitting up shows for, but hearing them announced in advance is nice, so it's good to finally be able to plug a concert of theirs on here! That said, it's still short notice for the announcement, and I apologize for that. They'll be on at 10:00 PM tonight, you must be 21 to attend, and there's no announced cover charge. For more details, click here! If you like and miss Scofflaw, you'll wanna be at The Merchant's Bar TONIGHT, so don't miss it if you're across the river! For a preview, here's Scofflaw playing their original song "Love Destroyer" at a 2008 jam session! Thirdly today, I received a cool new audio track from Sneaky Pete frontman Bill Brouillard that I'd like to share with you guys! Yesterday, Bill e-mailed me an mp3 file of the band covering both Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" and Judas Priest's "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" into a mashup that they call "Another Crazy Thing Comin'", and I decided to post it on The Sault Metal Scene's YouTube channel to show to the world! It basically starts as a "Crazy Train" cover, then segues into Judas Priest, then closes with the "Crazy Train" cover's last portion, resulting in over 10 minutes of hard rocking! The band sounds good, this is probably the best quality audio I've heard of theirs, and though the vocals aren't as rangy, there's added grit and heaviness to them, so it all works out! So enjoy this Sneaky Pete cover mashup, and hopefully it encourages you to check them out at their next live concerts! Give "Another Crazy Thing Comin'" a listen! And finally, I've updated the info on a few of the profiles in our Defunct Local Band Profile Series & our GarageBand Profile Mini-Series to keep them more accurate, so here's what's changed! I've updated both the M7K and Death Rise defunct profiles to add references to Mike Vincent and Adam Brett's current band The Dead Kings, and slightly downplay the now-defunct Skull After Betrayl. I updated the Life's Eclipse* profile to refer to frontman Jason Mills' work in Swampghas, and to note that both he and and his brother, bassist David Mills, share vocal duties in the band. Finally for the defunct profiles, I edited the State of Misery* profile to mention that guitarist Ray Cowan was in the local band The Unforgiven, a band he won "Best Guitarist" at the 2008 Case's Music Battle of the Bands with. As for the GarageBand Profile Mini-Series, I edited the Sin Stereo profile to change the references to the members' later band Stiffler's Mom, as they broke up earlier this year. Lastly, I edited the Gates of Winter profile to condense things a tiny bit (mostly in the notes on their drummers), and I added references to my reviews of their two released CDs in lieu of substantial song critiquing in that profile. Check the above links for each of the updated profiles in those two monthly feature series! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news soon, and in case anything doesn't go up tomorrow, pay your respects tomorrow on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and never forget. Thanks everyone!