Here's a surprise second post for your Thursday evening, so what lies beyond with this one? A couple of new videos (actual new ones posted this week), and a note on a band that was recently moved to our inactive band links, but first, here's a unique SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for TOMORROW!
Local alt-punk quartet A Dire Setback, blues/hard rock trio Electric Church, and punk/hard rock solo musician Mike McCleary will join forces for a concert at Sault College's campus lounge Odeno TOMORROW in honour of Sault College's reunion fesitivies! Apologies for the short notice, A Dire Setback only announced their involvement via their Facebook page this afternoon, with a share of the post by Andrew Pucci noting the other acts, though Mike had plugged the show on his Facebook page last month. While not acknowledged as such by the two announced bands, this is a day-long event celebrating the 50th anniversary of Ontario's college system, with students, alumni, and past & present faculty encouraged to come to the the Northern Avenue East college for special events, speeches, tours, an hors d'oeuvres social, an alumni vs. varsity basketball game, and yes, music, so visit the official Facebook event page for full non-musical details!
It's great to see everyone involved with sets TOMORROW, especially Electric Church after taking much of the summer off from gigs, and as for Mike McCleary... we'll have more on him in an upcoming post, so stay tuned, but he'll be worth seeing for sure! There are no cover charges or advertised age limits for TOMORROW'S reunion, which starts at 1:00 PM with bands beginning at 4:00 PM at Odeno (which replaced The Outback), though be mindful of the reunion aspect if you're not a prior student. See above for more details, and here's A Dire Setback live!
Next up, I have reluctantly moved Sault Michigan metal trio Tantrym Tyme to our inactive band links. This is partially due to a year's public inactivity (last posting on their Facebook page with a video share in August 2016), but with their online updates always being somewhat sporadic, I was hesitant until learning that drummer Ethan Twardy currently lives out of state, which can't help their status. Active since 2010 under early names like Aux, Abstract, and Tantrum, the guys initially attracted attention as late-period graduates of the Guitar Studio rock camp, with members being around 11 years old when they first started making waves. Though gigs weren't always advertised well online, Tantrym Tyme played numerous concerts, community events, and fundraisers through last summer, and their development and improvement as musicians was always great to see as they got older! Hopefully the guys get back on stage down the road, but best of luck to Jacob, Mike, Ethan, and other former members in the future!
Also today, here's our first video look at new Sault Ontario based Foo Fighters tribute band The Soo Fighters! A side project from members of Cherry Crush (more on an upcoming benefit event for their singer in the coming days), The Soo Fighters are featured in this video shared by guitarist John Amendola to their Facebook page on Tuesday, where the band (sans guitarist Jeremey Salatuk) jam the Foos classic "All My Life". The softer verses are a little shaky, and Jules Cote's singing can be hard to hear, but this is a good preview that the guys can hopefully polish up in time for their debut at The Algonquin Pub for their first of two Halloween weekend parties, and give their first cover video a look below!
Finally for today, here's one more new video from local recording studio Mission Control Studios' Facebook page on Tuesday, and it's of Electric Church frontman Spencer Pine playing a guitar solo! Performed alongside presumed material from their forthcoming debut CD (recorded at Mission Control), this is a quality solo that will come as no surprise to diehard Electric Church fans, even while sitting down, so give it a look below as well!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates this weekend! Thanks everyone!
Now, let's dive into another weekend's worth of hard rock concert previews in a somewhat quiet stretch of concerts, but we do have some SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, so here's what you need to know!
Local funk/ska/hard rock quartet The Elements will once again open for indie rock quartet K.I.C.K. for a show at LopLops Lounge TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was first announced on K.I.C.K.'s Facebook page one week ago, but we couldn't fit it into a post before it got too soon to cover here in full twice. Last seen together at The Canadian last month, this will be a makeup date of sorts for the two bands, who were slated to play together at LopLops three weeks ago, but a scheduling mix-up and the Keep It Cool Kids' commitments at the Northern Vibe Festival scuttled plans as originally announced. The Elements played on that weekend alongside touring headliners The Chicken-Like Birds, but if you wanted to see these bands together at this popular downtown venue, TOMORROW is your new chance! Remember, The Elements are riding high off of their Oh!No Festival set last week, while K.I.C.K. are still preparing for their debut album's release and will play songs from it in their headlining set.
A $5 cover charge is likely for this 19+ concert, which has a 9:00 PM start time TOMORROW. With some heavy ska-influenced originals and covers to compliment K.I.C.K.'s blues/indie sound, this should be another fun contrast of styles, so visit the official Facebook event page for full details, and here's The Elements live a few years back!
Next up, prolific local hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison is slated to return to Gliss Steak & Seafood for matinee headlining concerts TONIGHT, TOMORROW, and SATURDAY, but he will also rock Room 21 above Low & Slow on Albert Street West with two more regular nighttime shows TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Again, apologies for the short notice regarding the Room 21 shows, they were only announced via their Facebook event page yesterday. Playing five shows across the two venues for the second straight week, Tym's Gliss shows remain a reliable presence at The Quality Inn's house restaurant, while his third weekend at Room 21 should be another fun opportunity to see his skilled acoustic hard rock covers at this new nightclub, especially now that their logo unveiling last week was a hit, so keep those newly announced gigs in mind for TOMORROW & SATURDAY!
As usual, Tym's regular weekly Gliss shows tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday are at 6:00 PM with no announced cover charges or age limits (but mind the location), while TOMORROW & SATURDAY'S Room 21 shows are 19+ events with no announced cover and 10:00 PM start times. Visit the official Facebook event pages linked here & here for more details, and here's Tym live!
Moving to entirely previously announced concerts, outgoing local alt-hard rock trio The Din are apparently opening for Lindsay, Ontario indie/pop rock quartet The Kents TONIGHT at Sault College's campus lounge Odeno! Before I get ahead of myself, just a disclaimer that the headliners have not acknowledged any local support publically, and The Din have not promoted the show since announcing their final concert calendar listing last week. If The Din confirm that they're not playing, we will edit this post! Perhaps an opportunity for frontman Mike Haggith (a recent aviation graduate at Sault College) to say goodbye and thank his alma mater before his likely move out of town, this will be a rare hard rock-featured show at The Outback's successor lounge, and assuming The Din are playing, consider a trip to Odeno tonight before it's too late! The Kents are bringing their adult alternative sound to Sault College late in their Eastern Canada tour, which features a number of college campus gigs, so if you're a regular WLSO listener, they'll be up your alley!
As promoted in Brian Kelly's Sault Star interview with Kents frontman Warren Frank last week, tickets for this 7:00 PM show are available online at this link, at the Sault College Students' Union office and Health & Wellness building for $10 each (the door price jumps to $15), and while the Sault Star article implies that non-students will not be allowed entry unless guests of a current student, that isn't stated in advertising elsewhere. Check the above links for more details on tonight's concert, and here's The Din live!
Finally for this weekend's currently announced hard rock concerts, we'll head to The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, where Traverse City classic metal trio Peril will return for solo headlining concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Continuing their regular recent run of shows at regional Kewadin branches, this will be Peril's first weekend in the E.U.P. since rocking St. Ignace last month, and their first in the Soo since June. This talented veteran group continue to be fan favourite sights at the two nearby Kewadin lounges, and this weekend's shows should be no different, so consider a trip to The Rapids Lounge for more hard hitting cover action tomorrow and/or Saturday night! As usual for Peril's northern trips, expect 9:00 PM start times both nights, these shows both have 21+ age limits, and there are no announced cover charges. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Peril live a few years back!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates in the coming days! Thanks everyone!
This longer-than-usual news post is devoted to two extended topics: Our preview of a massive music festival in our area tomorrow night, and leading off, lots of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS relating to a prominent local band whose days as an active presence in the scene are sadly numbered. Here's what you should know on this Friday morning!
Local alternative/hard rock trio The Din have announced that they will be disbanding following a farewell headlining concert (and CD release show) at LopLops Lounge on Saturday, October 21st. As unfortunately announced on Tuesday via their Facebook page and related video below, The Din confirmed their impending split, saying that this was an "incredibly difficult decision to make", but frontman Mike Haggith says in the video that "there isn't very much opportunity (to) get all the living done that we want to if we keep going like this", with Mike's likely work-related relocation out of the Soo a contributing factor. However, the news isn't all bad, as they will release their second and final studio album at LopLops on October 21st, with a limited print run of 50 CDs for the occasion (no word on price or Bandcamp availability yet), with Mike noting that they returned to where they started to record it at Pretoria Hill Productions, presumably with earlier demos now being the final copies.
This isn't all for The Din's fall plans, as they will still play at THIS SUNDAY's Loud & Proud event at The Bushplane Museum (look for it's preview in our next post), but The Din also have four more shows to play in the interim! As first announced in the comments of the video below, they'll play a show next week at Sault College's campus lounge Odeno (basically The Outback's replacement) on Thursday, September 14th, in what may be a farewell/thank you event from aviation graduate Mike to his alma mater, but no details are out on this event beyond a 7:00 PM start time. A cosplay optional family picnic set for Sault Pridefest is also advertised for Saturday, September 23rd down at the Soo Locks, with their set planned for 11:00 AM (yes, AM!) The Din will also play a presumed solo concert at The Canadian Nightclub on Friday, September 29th at 9:00 PM, while their last opening set will be on Monday, October 11th when they open for Niagara Falls indie/pop rock trio James Blonde at LopLops Lounge. They're not going gentle into that good night!
Of the four new shows, the Pride picnic will be ALL AGES but the rest are 19+. The LopLops show will likely have a cover charge of at least $5, but the rest likely have no cover. See above for details where available on them, and look for our Loud & Proud preview soon! The news of The Din's breakup is very sudden and disappointing, but like the band Haggith's initial breakup announcement from 4 years prior, at least we have advance notice and more chances to see Mike, Tammy, and Brandan on stage before the big farewell and CD release on October 21st! In terms of that show, expect a 9:30 PM start time and 19+ age limit, but there has been no announcement yet on admission fees. As well, an opening band is expected to be named, and advance singles from the album will be posted online in the lead-up to the event. I hope everyone stays active in music after next month, be it in solo form or new bands, but enjoy The Din while you can, visit the official Facebook event page for more on the farewell show, and here's The Din's video announcement on their breakup!
Finally for today, here's our extended preview of TOMORROW'S Oh!No 2017 Music Festival in nearby Leeburn, Ontario! A spiritual successor to promoters Six, Two, Oh.'s prior Das Bunkerfest event, this end-of-summer festival will see thirteen bands and one DJ cram into Robbie's Church (truly a former church turned residence) in nearby Leeburn for a day full of musical intensity from out of town and local bands alike, including a few new confirmations, so who can you expect tomorrow? The nominal headlining act is DJ Seith with some night-capping turntable mixes at 1:00 AM, but in terms of bands, promoters impressively managed to get all 5 touring bands in the closing slots. Those bands are Toronto country/indie rock band Run Coyote at 11:30 PM, Barrie all-female punk quartet (and local headliners from June) Beaver Slap at 10:30 PM, Sudbury punk trio Lightmares at 9:30 PM, and two bands who played here last year, namely Hamilton punk rockers Artificial Dissemination at 8:30 PM & Thunder Bay desert rock group The Franquilizers at 7:15 PM.
Local bands will include new indie/hard rock trio Vol. at 6:30 PM, punk/metal quintet Jack Spades at 5:45 PM, drone/ambient rock trio Pointless (replacing a planned solo set from frontman Bill Priddle) at 4:30 PM, and alt-punk quartet A Dire Setback (in their second show in under 24 hours) at 3:45 PM. Prior to one of two mid-show intermissions, the opening acts will be funk/hard rock quartet The Elements at 2:45 PM, Brent Ellis' new project Slumshine at 2:00 PM, reunited extreme metal rockers Winkstinger at 1:15 PM, and indie/punk rock trio Handsome Sandwich (in their first show in 2 months) opening the festival at 12:30 PM. Notably, both The Elements & Handsome Sandwich are late confirmations for the festival lineup, with one/both replacing doom metal trio AlgomA for unannounced reasons, possibly due to their promotional duties for Oh!No 2017. Great to see the new bands the bill, and don't miss AlgomA on October 2nd! Six, Two, Oh. will also be filming the days bands, though no word yet on what form their public postings will be in.
A bonfire, outdoor activities, vendors, food from The Gore Street Cafe, and on-site parking and camping will be available for festival patrons, so feel free to stay awhile and enjoy the festival's entire scope tomorrow! No age limit is stated for the fest, and tickets are $25 via the cafe, The Rad Zone, Case's Music, Northland Music, Coch's Corner, and Big Guns Barbershop, while you can also get hooked up from local performers, and presumably at the door, while directions to the festival (just outside of Bruce Mines) and extra details can be found at the official Facebook event page. Also, while early shuttle bus plans were cancelled due to cost concerns, promoters are encouraging prospective attendees to consider ride-sharing or cab rentals to get to Leeburn for the show tomorrow if unable to drive there yourselves, so you do have options to get to the Oh!No Festival! This presumably inaugural festival promises to deliver loads of entertaining music from many genres!
The unique setting in an old church outside of town should provide an intriguing backdrop to all of this action, so whether you can stay all day, can camp beyond, or can only see a few bands, definitely consider a trip to Leeburn TOMORROW if at all possible for this ambitious festival! See above for more details on tomorrow's action, here's a preview video of Beaver Slap live, and stay tuned for more news on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!
Before we get into the poll updating and such, we're going to clear out some backlogged news from this past busy weekend (personally and computer issue-related, it is what it is.) Most of these relate to new YouTube postings, but we do have a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, so here's what you need to know!
Fresh off of their set opening for Anvil this past weekend, local hard rock standouts The Suicide Kings will make their first ever appearance at Sault College TOMORROW as the entertainment at a fundraiser event! Apologies for the short notice, I only just heard about this show late last week, and it got lost in the shuffle until now. They'll be playing at Odeno, the college's new lounge and bar that replaced The Outback last fall upon completion of the Health & Wellness Center that it's inside, and this (I believe) will be the first ever public hard rock show to take place there since it's opening. The event itself will be a benefit event for Sault College's Social Service Worker/Native Specialization program and their upcoming project & scholarships to connect Aboriginal youths to community role models to help build sustainable relationships, which is a nice cause for sure, so come on out to support it! Admission is $5 in advance and at the door, it is an ALL AGES event, and it has an early start time of 6:00 PM. For more information, check the above links or click here!
This show flew under the radar in many respects, but it is for a good cause, and fans might be curious to see how Odeno compares to The Outback as a concert venue, so keep it in mind for some mid-week hard rock action from this talented quartet! For a preview, here's The Suicide Kings live at Rotaryfest last summer!
Next up, we have another newly posted video from the Heaven & Hell concert at The Essar Centre in March 2007! Courtesy again of filmer Duane Roy's YouTube channel, this went online on Sunday, and it features the end of their set, specifically the last seconds of their song "Heaven & Hell", before closing with their full encore song "Neon Knights" (both from their eponymous 1980 album released as Black Sabbath.) The same video quality as before is on this clip, so there's not a lot to look at, but the sound's good, and it's a nice reminder of my favourite Steelback/Essar Centre concert to date (on a musical basis; Kiss' presentation can't be topped.) Check out Duane's new/old video below!
Also today, here's some new videos from local all-female hard rock quartet The Danger Cats! The girls launched an official YouTube channel last week that already features three videos from their two Docks Riverfront Grill gigs three weeks ago! One is of their cover of The Spice Girls "Wannabe" (with Paula Panther on lead vocals), while the other two (both from the same separate show) feature bassist Jamie Jaguar on vocals, and they're covers of The Runaways' "Cherry Bomb" and, as embedded below, AC/DC's "Big Balls"! The filmer had a nice close angle of the action, and the crowd sounds into everything, but it does look like there was an auto-focus setting put on them. The audio's pretty good too, and it's nice to get some solid quality footage of the girls' Docks debut weekend, so check out these new videos above, and here's their AC/DC cover!
Finally for today, remember the Superior Heights student cover trio featuring Sailor's Tongue guitarist Liam Seymour, singer/guitarist Adam Gualtieri, and an uncredited drummer that often covered hard rock material? Well, the first live recording of theirs in 8 months is now up on Adam's YouTube channel! An audio-only upload, this is a cover of Mumford & Sons' "Little Lion Man", but while it's not a hard rock cover, it is well performed and melodic, and it is nice to see them playing together still! Solid audio quality too, so check it out below, and stay tuned for more from Adam & Liam!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for last month's poll results & this month's poll details later today! Thanks everyone!
