Another concert weekend is upon us, if not with much going on tonight for hard rock/punk fans, but we do have LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS to address, some on SHORT NOTICE! Due to the amount of shows this weekend, our preview of Sunday night's Matthew Good concert will hit the site tomorrow. Now, here's what you should know for your Saturday concert plans (and beyond in one case!)
Local alternative/punk cover supergroup Bookclub will return to the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre TOMORROW as the headline musical performers for this year's Great Lakes Outdoor Show! Apologies for the short notice, we only heard above Bookclub's involvement via Facebook advertising earlier this week, complicated by Bookclub's continued lack of an online page to publically promote shows with. While an outdoors expo might not seem like a traditional event for a concert, Bookclub are no strangers to playing at community events and festivals, and hopefully their unique retro covers fins a receptive audience TOMORROW! Folk/pop singer/guitarist Matthew James (who you may have seen last year at Rotaryfest Stage 2) will open the proceedings. While this concert is taking place as part of the Great Lakes Outdoor Show, it is being treated as its own event with its own separate admission fee.
The Outdoor Show is an all ages event with $10 passes for the weekend (including the band-less Sunday program), and while doors open at 10:00 AM, the concert proper is at 5:00 PM. The concert proper is also $10 and does not require Outdoor Show tickets to attend, but $20 packages that get you entry to both are also available. It'll be interesting to see how Bookclub and Mathhew Matthew do as a post-show attraction rather than mid-show entertainment, but the talent is definitely there, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Bookclub live!
Next up, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to Shooters Downstairs Lounge for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Again, apologies for the short notice, the band only announced this show via their Facebook page on Tuesday, and at press time, Shooters have not confirmed the booking on social media. After an off week (Thursday jam nights at Jay's aside), Soundcheck are back for a traditional concert on SATURDAY, which will be their first show at the Dennis Street nightclub since the winter, and it may serve as the lead-out entertainment following Shooters' showing of game 2 of the Soo Greyhounds' second round playoff series against the Saginaw Spirit, assuming that Shooters keeps with their recent trend of showing the road games on the TVs there (the game is in Saginaw). Hockey or not, Soundcheck's mix of classic and hard rock hits will find a receptive audience TOMORROW!
This show has a 9:30 PM start time (possibly later if the Hounds game dictates), no cover charge, and a 19+ age limit. If you can't make it, Soundcheck have a full weekend at Jay's next week, and of course, they are hosting jam night there on Thursday as usual if you want to count that. See above for more details, and for a preview, here's Soundcheck live!
Also this weekend, local classic/hard rock cover quartet
Generations will celebrate their one year anniversary when they rock The Water Tower Pub for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT, but they will also make their first ever stop at Gateway Casino on Saturday, May 18th! The latter show was newly announced by drummer Tony Santoro on their Facebook group on Tuesday, and it's good to see Valerie, the Tonys, and Pierre spreading their wings to a new (to them) venue, so don't miss them at Sault Ontario's casino over the Victoria Day long weekend! Before then, the band will rock The Water Tower Pub as previously announced tomorrow, marking one year since they succeeded Jus' Chillin, so head to the central nightclub for lots of classic and hard rock cover favourites! This is a one-nighter as is standard for The Water Tower Pub, with classic rock trio The Sidekicks playing there tonight.
Tomorrow's Water Tower Pub show is at 8:00 PM, next month's Gateway Casino show is at 9:00 PM, both are 19+ events, and neither has an announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more on Generations' upcoming concerts, and for a preview, here they are live!
Finally for today's previews, you can also check out local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison's continuation of his bi-weekly run at Misty's Fifties TOMORROW! His first of two April matinee gigs at the venerable Second Line West nightclub/restaurant in this current arrangement, tomorrow's show does not fall on a major holiday weekend, so expect a standard block of well produced acoustic rock hits from the former Caveman Morrison frontman tomorrow! If you can't make it, Tym returns to Misty's on April 27th, and the series is advertised to continue once every two weeks until the end of June. Tomorrow's matinee concert has a 4:00 PM start time, it's presumably a 19+ event given the locale, and there is no announced cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Tym live in concert last year!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for our Matthew Good preview and more next! Thanks everyone!
Here's some more news for this Sunday morning, and there's some notable stuff to address and cover! Today, we've got updates to one of our monthly feature series, a bunch of assorted news and notes, videos of a local metal guitarist, and the likely status of a local metal band, but first, here's some information on a planned major concert event that YOU can apply to play on!
Are you or your band interested in playing at a multi-band outdoor concert in the Sault Ontario area next summer? Applications are being taken right now for some sort of concert event to be held in June 2013, as per postings by organizer Rita Slater on our Facebook page, and a related "Sault Ste. Marie Outdoor Concert" Facebook page that she's launched. Rita is the general manager of Laird International Raceway and the organizer of the relaunched Hot Rides Cornfest that was held there this month & last August, and from what I can gather, this event (which may also be a festival) would likely take place in Laird as well, though it's not planned to be country music-centric like Cornfest is. Details are otherwise scant on this planned event, but headlining bands will apparently be announced later this year, and she's hoping to find 10-12 local acts to perform. If you or your band are interested in playing this outdoor concert event in Laird next June, e-mail Rita A.S.A.P. at theboomboomshow@hotmail.ca! I know the new Cornfest has been successful, but a new music festival in the area with rock integration (and hopefully some metal) would be neat, especially in June rather than later months where it'd have more competition. I'd say take Rita up on this offer to apply for this event, you never know how big it could be, so send your e-mails A.S.A.P., and stay tuned for updates on this event!
Next up, I wanted to note a band that we're regrettably moving to the inactive band links on the SMS, that being local classic metal quintet Sativa Rose. Though we're not at the one year-inactivity threshold for them (they were last visibly active in December via some concert video uploads), an immediate future for Sativa Rose is unlikely due to members Andrew Angelic & Adam Veale's planned move to London for college early next month. Nothing official has ever came out regarding Sativa Rose's status, but with Andrew & Adam focusing on the also-moving Valentine's Day Massacre, guitarist Anthony Orazietti now in Winkstinger, and drummer Alex Palmer living out of town himself right now (I think), the writing seems to be on the wall. It's disappointing to see Sativa Rose fall into inactivity, especially knowing their musical talent and the unrealized potential that their final lineup (including singer Marisa Valois) had following that lineup's first & last show in November. No matter what, they gave us a lot of great shows and originals from their summer 2010 debut through last fall, and classic metal fans had a lot to like and headbang with! Best of luck to Marisa, Andrew, Anthony, Adam, and Alex in the future, and maybe Sativa Rose will pop up again in some form down the road!
Thirdly today, remember how we shared videos from new Sault Ontario thrash metal band Pillory and their 2011 predecessors Roadkill on Thursday? Well, guitarist Robert Sartini has posted 10 solo thrash covers aside from his recent band work on his YouTube channel as well! With one exception, these were all filmed last year, and they include covers of Metallica's "Jump In The Fire" and the solo from "Disposable Heroes", and Viking's "Case of the Stubborns", but the rest are all Megadeth, including versions of "In My Darkest Hour", "Set The World Afire", "Victory", "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due", and the solo from it in a separate video, so click each link to see Robert in action! He has skill at metal guitar work for sure, but his guitar is tuned a bit weirdly on some of the videos, and there are some rough patches. He does have talent though, and I'm curious to hear more from Robert in Pillory or solo uploads, so check out his cover of "Holy Wars" below, and see more at the above links!
Fourthly, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and as always, these are in alphabetical order by band or musician name:
Local classic metal quartet Late & Loud have quietly uploaded their entire upcoming debut EP to their Reverbnation page! It's good to hear all of these songs in full, but as always, I'll hold on full thoughts until it's hopeful release. Check all five tracks out at the above links, and stay tuned for their long awaited return at the end of the month when they open for Skull Fist!
Former Bear Hunters/Skull After Betrayl guitarist Mike Vincent is looking for a hardcore/metalcore vocalist for his new project, which will apparently cover bands like August Burns Red and Whitechapel. This could be interesting if it gets to the level of Mike's older bands, but I don't know a whole lot on them yet. If you're interested, message Mike at this location or find his post on the Musicians Wanted Facebook group from August 6th!
Also new on the Musicians Wanted group, local hardcore band With Blood Builds Character are officially looking for a drummer (they had temporarily enlisted Travis St. Amour for their debut show.) Frontman Jeremy Hannah indicated in a post late last month on the group that they're hoping to tour in January, so make note of that. If you're a technical metal drummer and are interested in joining W.B.B.C., message Jeremy at this location or read more at the above links!
And finally for today, here's some updates to our YouTube Channel Profiles, to make that monthly feature series more accurate and current! On the profile of YouTube user AshTraynor's channel (which is centric towards Kinross hard rockers Banned), I updated references to their current lineup (namely the return of Alex Schrovenwever as their new second guitarist), and made lineup adjustments accordingly, along with some date fixing. On the StateOfMisery2011 channel profile, I updated it to reflect State of Misery's latest breakup from earlier this summer, and finally, I edited the GardenofBedlamBand channel profile to note the current amount and usage of newer band channels, as it's been replaced twice over in the last 3 years. That's all for that latest batch of updates, but as more updates come up relating to our monthly feature series, I'll let you guys know so you don't miss anything that's added, removed, or switched! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes shortly, including our next YouTube Channel Profiles and our Dead & Divine concert preview in a few days! Thanks everyone!
