Hey there, fellow metalheads! Today's a double post day, and quickly before we start, I wanna note that this is the 500th post that has been featured on the SMS' website since I launched it in December 2008. Amazing how it took just 21 months to hit that milestone! Thanks everyone for coming along for the ride! I don't have anything special planned at all to mark the occasion though, today is business as usual, as we preview this weekend's local metal and hard rock concerts! So let's begin!
We'll start TONIGHT for a prominent tribute band's local return, as Toronto-based Guns N' Roses tribute Gunz N' FN' Rosez come back to Sault Ontario! Veterans of Hempfest, GNFNR were last seen locally in January at The Speakeasy, and will now look to conquer the stage at The Rockstar Bar in their latest local stop! These guys definitely pull off a good version of the Guns N' Roses sound, and they have the look mostly down as well! They're definitely a good tribute band, and local fans will be sure to enjoy them as much as they did in January! Joining them tonight as the local openers are local classic hard rock cover band Turner Up, in a rare supporting performance! Expect lots of great classic covers from them in support of GNFNR, and if you wanna see just Turner Up this weekend, I'll have you covered a bit later! Now, tickets for tonight's show are $10 at the door, and trust me, this'll be worth the money. The show starts at 10:00 PM, and you must be 19 to enter. For more information, visit the above links or the official Facebook event page! This should be a fun concert, cause after all, who doesn't love hearing classic songs like this? Both bands are very talented, make sure to go check them out tonight! For a video preview, here's a video of Gunz N' FN' Rosez playing "Night Train" from a Niagara Falls show last month!
The tribute bands keep on coming tomorrow night, but this time, things get a lot more progressive, as Burlington, Ontario's 2112: A Tribute To Rush finally come to Sault Ontario! Originally scheduled to come here in June, the date was eventually cancelled, but 2112 are still making their way to town for a concert tomorrow night at the same venue, The Canadian Nightclub! Though there's no event page for the concert, a Facebook e-mail from The Canadian's Mary Lou Johnston and 2112's concert listings page both confirm this show, so it's definitely on! So this show will also take place at 10:00 PM, with a $5 cover charge, and like your usual bar show, you must be 19 to enter. For more details, check the above links! 2112 definitely capture the sound of Rush much better than the look of them, but the music is the main focus anyway, and they pull it off well! Rush are hard to cover, but they do an admirable job, and Rush fans will likely have a good time tomorrow night! Don't forget about this show, cause it'll be a good one, and it's the closest thing to Rush themselves that we're likely to get this year! For a video preview, here's 2112 playing "Red Barchetta" at a show in April!
Now, to the other Turner Up concert I alluded to earlier! You know that they usually play two shows on a given weekend, and keeping with that pace, they'll be back at The Rockstar Bar on Saturday night for a headlining set of their very own! Like the GNFNR show tonight, it will have a 10:00 PM start time and a 19+ age limit, but on Saturday, there will likely be no cover charge. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page and Turner Up's Facebook group! This should be a fun show, cause Turner Up always impress at their live shows with their classic hard rock sound, so check them out on Saturday if you don't see them tonight! For a video of Turner Up's current lineup playing "I Don't Wanna Be" by Gavin DeGraw, click here!
And finally, we head to Sault Michigan for a concert set, as young local cover band Free Refill return to the stage as one of the entertainers at this year's Oktoberfest! Hosted by The Downtown Development Authority, Oktoberfest takes place along Portage Avenue in Sault Michigan on Saturday from 10:00 AM until midnight, with Free Refill among the performers playing on the big stage in the middle of Portage Avenue from 5:00 PM onward! Their MySpace page suggests they're on at 9:00 PM, but I can't verify an exact time for their set, nor other performing acts. Aside from the music, Oktoberfest will have a farmer's market, vendors selling food, arts, crafts, and more, as well as activities for kids as well! Sounds like a fun time, get more Oktoberfest details at this location! As for Free Refill, this is the last listed concert from their summer bookings, so this could be your last chance to see them for a while yet, so consider heading to Oktoberfect to check them out! They're a promising young band and have some good potential! Check the above links for more!
As for a video preview, we have a brand new Free Refill video for you guys to check out! We'd been without video footage of them for some time now because the old concert clips on their MySpace page were deleted, but we finally have a new Free Refill video to share! This is courtesy of YouTube user mortallycoiledsnake, who is one of the band members, though I'm not 100% positive on which one. If you visit that link and see no video, don't worry, they just made the video unlisted for whatever reason. It's freely available to check out if you have the link, and I discovered it on their official website today, so here's what you should know! It's from last month's Sugar Island Festival, and it's their rendition of the Metallica classic "Enter Sandman"! Not bad, though the guitar's definitely lower in the mix than it should be, and I think Mary Gilbert's voice suits a more melodic song than "Enter Sandman". The video's also shot at a far angle, but it's still good though! These guys have talent, and it's interesting to see how far they'll get in the coming months!
That's all for now, but stay tuned tonight for the SMS blog's 501st post, which will be this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile, as we talk about Fifth Way and Marky Lion! Stay tuned for that tonight! Thanks everyone, and go see some concerts this weekend!
Hey gang, this is a surprise auto-post while my computer's being fixed up at Staples. I had too much news to let sit, so I had to get a post in, even if it's while I'm without my computer! This is a packed one, including many updates from Woods of Ypres, a band continuing their search to play here, and to begin, LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!!! So here's what you need to know!
Free Refill are back! The young local hard rock band from Sault Michigan will make their long awaited return to the local concert scene for three shows in the next couple of months, which I'm pretty sure are their first since a December talent show performance at Sault Area High School! Not counting talent shows, I think these are their first live concert appearances since last year's departure of guitarist Tyler Wall. It's great to see them back, I wonder where they've been for the first half of the year? The band returns to the stage on August 7th at 4:00 PM as one of the live entertainers at this year's Sidewalk Sales on Ashmun Street! So while you get some great deals from local merchants, you can enjoy some live free music from Free Refill, who are no strangers to playing at Sidewalk Sales! The band will also be among the live entertainers at this year's Sugar Island Music Festival from August 13th-15th! Note that their MySpace page incorrectly says they're playing on the 12th, which is before the festival starts, so they're likely on the 13th. This is an all ages festival on Sugar Island with loads of family activities and many different bands, click here for details! No word on if any other local hard rock/metal bands will be a part, but for what it's worth, Nixxon Dixxon have played this festival in the past.
Their other new concert will be on September 25th on Portage Avenue on the outdoor stage that will be setup for this year's Oktoberfest! Still don't get why Oktoberfest is held in September, but hey, can't argue with beer and bratwurst no matter the month! Again, this is a free all ages event, like the rest of their scheduled shows. This one and the Sugar Island Festival performance are at 9:00 PM. Odd to see just outdoor festival gigs, but it's better than nothing! It's great to finally see Free Refill back on the scene, check out the above links for more concert details and stuff from the band!
Next up, we have loads of updates from Woods of Ypres as they near the end of their North American tour, so here's what you should know! Firstly, the third entry in bassist Shane Madden's tour diary is now up at this location, and it's another good read, as he chronicles the band's tour dates from San Diego, California to San Marcos, Texas! He details the summer heat of the American Southwest, the band's experiences in their shows down there, the mistaken belief that they covered Sentenced, the varying levels of competent promotion, and the various partying and fun goings on as the tour continues! Another good read with new concert photos and mid-tour sights, check it out here! Also, before we get to new videos, I have good news and bad news on the Woods of Ypres front. The bad news is that their tour van's windows were smashed last night during a stop in Brooklyn following their New York City concert last night. Their GPS and other items were stolen, but thankfully none of their gear, so the tour continues! Shades of the Adversarium incident from last August in Vancouver, or their windshield demolition from their drive to Thunder Bay on this tour? Well, nice to see them trucking along! The good news comes from a tweet from London, Ontario music video company Handshake Inc., who posted the following on Twitter on Wednesday:
we will be shaving @DavidYpresand make him jump off a cliff for the Woods of Ypres video shoot this weekend.
Catch that? A Woods of Ypres video shoot! Awesome to see, I've been hoping for a new Woods of Ypres music video since they released their video for "The Northern Cold"! Man, that was back when David Gold has long hair and the band used keyboards! Too bad that David's shaving for the video, he has a Varg Vikernes-vibe that's very metal right now! Still, seeing a new Woods of Ypres music video will be awesome, I wonder which song they'll choose?
Speaking of videos, there's plenty of new videos online from recent Woods of Ypres concerts! Two are from drummer Evan Madden's YouTube channel, again both from the "drum cam" angle! Both are of the same songs "The Shams of Optimism" and "Crossing The 45th Parallel", the first of which went up 6 days ago! It was from their San Marcos show, and though the video quality is excellent, it cuts off after 7:23 due to a full camera card, so I'll upload the other one, but view it here! The other is from their Houston show. It's darker, but no worse musically, they're great songs, and you get a better view of the rest of the band! I've embedded it below, along with one more Woods of Ypres video! The other one I'm embedding comes from the band's Philadelphia concert, and is one of EIGHT concert videos uploaded by YouTube user impaledonafence1! The videos are VERY dark, but they're widescreen and have very clear audio of what is most of the band's set that night, if not all of it! For the sake of variety, and for it's obvious local connection, I've uploaded the video of the band playing "Your Ontario Town Is A Burial Ground" below as well, so check out the new Woods videos!
Finally for today, a metal band still wants to play a show in Sault Ontario! Vancouver drone metal duo Ahna are still hoping for a local booking, and they need YOUR HELP! Singer/bassist Graham contacted me on MySpace to look for some help getting a show here for either September 28th or October 27th. He told me that they didn't have any luck directly contacting venues for help to get a show here, so the call is out again! If you work at a venue, book shows, are interested in booking shows, or just like Ahna's music and would like to help, contact the band on MySpace TODAY! Ahna have a very unique sound that I detailed back in March when I first told you about them, they have no guitarist, they play very slow and heavy metal that I really can't effectively describe without doing them an injustice. Check them out on MySpace and see what you think, cause we definitely don't get this kind of stuff very often! Let's help Ahna out, I'd love to see them here, I can't be alone!
That's definitely all for today, but saying that my computer's back, I WILL have a new post on Saturday before I head downtown! I hope to see you guys at Foggy Notions and/or at The Rotaryfest Second Stage outside of The Grand Theater! Frightlight and other acts are rocking out for an awesome cause, and Garden of Bedlam are ending Rotaryfest with a bang, and I'll be at both tomorrow! See you guys there tomorrow night, I should have reviews and other goodies on Sunday!