Defunct Local Band Profile Series: A Shade Of Light & Route 69

With the 10th of the month now upon us, it's now time for this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! This monthly feature series looks at one or two local metal or hard rock bands (all selected randomly) that, though no longer active or together, should get another look with a current audience! This month's bands include a Sault Michigan area solo project that, as they lacked a lot of surviving information, were supplemented by a Sault Ontario band, one we originally planned to look at 3 years ago in this series before their brief reunion, so it's nice for them to finally come up in the random selection again! Now, here's this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! (Updated at 11:23 AM)
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A Shade of Light

Genre: Alternative/Progressive Rock

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Members: (This lineup information may be incomplete. Let me know at robertfigures@outlook.com if you have any additions or corrections!)

Juan Sarduy, vocals/guitar
 

Info/Analysis: Launched in June 2006, A Shade of Light was a hard rock project based out of Sault Michigan that was led by musician Juan Sarduy. Their MySpace page described their sound as sounding like "the gentle crack of rain that strikes the ground", cited influences from the likes of Iron Maiden and Coheed & Cambria, and described the project in a cryptic biography that alluded to escaping reality & entering a dream. An unplayable video on MySpace shows Juan playing live with an uncredited drummer, but no extra band members were confirmed before their page's last update in April 2008, and Juan would later move to Pennsylvania. A Shade of Light's 3 surviving demos show some unique promise, with their only song exceeding a minute in length ("What Do You Need") showcasing a progressive and melodic flourish that sounded like a good starting point for bigger things, though the songs are unrefined and lacking other instruments. It's hard to say how far this project could have went, but give this acoustic video of Juan a look below, and see one more acoustic video at this location!


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Route 69

Genre: Experimental/Progressive Rock

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
 
Members: (Members not in their last full lineup in italics. This lineup information may be incomplete. Let me know at robertfigures@outlook.com if you have any additions or corrections!)

Amanda Vespini, vocals
Jeremey Salatuk (Wishbone, Lucky 13, The Chosen), guitar
Josh Donofrio (Thin Ice, Leaves Off Trees, Mustang Sally), bass
Glen Thomas (Flat Stanley, The Peace Vibe, Wishbone), drums/bass
Ed Vowels (Lucky 13, Aftersight), vocals/guitar
Jeff Pennet (Big Iron, Marshal Law, Swamped), drums

Audio/Video: No known media from Route 69's run is known to exist at present online (at least, not in a publically viewable form), but Route 69's MySpace page had indicated that they were influenced by everyone from Alice In Chains, Pantera, and King's X to Blue Rodeo, Ted Nugent, and The Beatles. For reference sake, Route 69 likely share the most similarities with frontman Ed Vowels' more substantial local band work (including his and Jeremey Salatuk's current cover band Lucky 13), while the progressive elements can widely be seen in many of Glen Thomas' recent bands.
 
Info/Analysis: Self described by bassist Glen Thomas as "a wild card band" due to the members' diverse musical backgrounds, Route 69 began in 2005 as a side project cover band that played a number of gigs at Docks Riverfront Grill in the mid-2000s, though surviving information from the peak of their run is minimal at present. After falling inactive in 2007 with members moving on to more active projects, Glen & guitarist Jeremey Salatuk resurrected Route 69 in 2011 (notably with a female singer) with the goal of playing live again and recording original songs, though nothing substantial occurred publically in their second incarnation, and the band split up for good in mid-2012. While no public videos or songs survive from Route 69's run, their lineup was full of talented local veterans, and the combination of Ed's gritty hard rock base and Glen's progressive rock influences must have worked out well! Hopefully some media pops up of them down the road, and follow the members' more recent live bands!
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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profiles! Next month in this series, we'll begin a new 1-1-1-1-1 cycle when selecting bands on each side of the border, meaning we'll stay in Sault Ontario, but for just the second time since last August, I'm projecting a single band profile due to what I'm forecasting to be enough info to supplant a single post in this series. The band in question (randomly selected as always) is Despised Eyes, a late 2000s metal band featuring future members of Skull After Betrayl, so look out for that on or around July 10th, and stay tuned for more news and notes later this week! Thanks everyone!

Defunct Local Band Profile Series: Renderware

We're back in Sault Ontario this month for our latest Defunct Local Band Profile! This is our 11th profiled band in the last 10 months, and this month, we have a bit of a change of plans. Originally, we were going to profile Route 69, featuring alumni of local bands like Aftersight & Wishbone. However, the band announced on their newly redesigned MySpace page that they're working on a comeback this summer! Full details aren't known yet, but the above links will hook you up. Nice to see them back, I've always wondered how they sounded, but that kinda disqualifies them for a "defunct" profile on the SMS. So I had to pick a new band this month, which wasn't hard, I just did what I do in any case where the band I randomly select is still active: I picked the closest defunct band alphabetically, and now we have a new band to profile! Let's begin! (Edited on February 11th, 2012)
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Renderware

Genre: Rock

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Members: (Members not in their last lineup in italics.)

Jordan Foisy, vocals
Marc Lafrance (The Mark Rand Band, Talk Shit), guitar
Wayne Watkins (The Small Town Rivals, Nebraska Arms), bass
Adam Sauve (The Business Suit Trappers, Nebraska Arms), drums
Thomas Whitney, guitar
Ian Robinson (Talk Shit), bass

Audio/Video: Renderware have three songs posted on their MySpace page, those being the original songs "Washed Up Celebrity", "Babie's Momma", and "Breakin' Me Down"! All three are streamable there, but if you click the above links, you'll find YouTube uploads of each that I have made to The Sault Metal Scene's YouTube channel! "Babie's Momma" was an old upload, but the other songs are brand new to go along with this post. As for video footage, the only video I know of comes from YouTube user M4RRC's channel, and it's from Renderware's debut performance at a Bon Soo Battle of the Bands in 2004, featuring the band's original lineup playing an original song, name not known, that wasn't posted in studio form on MySpace. Decent quality, but too short, only comprising of what sounds like that song's latter half followed by the crowd's reaction. Good stuff though, give it a look below!



Info/Analysis: Renderware formed in 2004 or earlier, debuting at that year's Bon Soo Battle of the Bands, but didn't launch a MySpace page until 2006. They played scattered live shows in the mid-2000s, as openers and headliners, and were last seen live in July 2007 as openers for Lion Ride in their own debut concert at the former Foggy Notions. To my knowledge, the band went inactive after this show, possibly due to frontman Jordan Foisy moving to Toronto, though members of Renderware later reunited in bands like Talk Shit & Nebraska Arms. Renderware's sound was really unique, with the band saying they sounded like "Tom Waits meets Motorhead". That's accurate, as Jordan's vocals have that gritty harsh Tom Waits-esque tone, but the music is straight up hard rock! The songs are fairly straightforward and simple, but they do have a nice hard rock quality with a bit of punk flavour, and you can tell the band has talent! I also like the sense of humour they show with their material, giving each song a lighter amusing feel while still bringing the rock! Though it's a shame their planned CD never seemed to come out, their music has a unique effectiveness to it, though I imagine they won't be everyone's cup of tea, especially vocally. Give them a look though, and see what you think! Also, check out their official forum (free membership required) for some old band news!
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Hope you guys enjoyed this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! I wasn't prepared to change the band so closely to when I planned to post it, but luckily Renderware had enough information to make it interesting (their old Geocities page would have helped though), and Route 69's return is welcome! But what band will we profile next month? The band I randomly selected is The Harsh Heads, the defunct Sault Ontario hardcore band featuring members of Destroilet & The Billy Bastards! Watch out for this profile between May 7th and 13th! That's all for now, but stay tuned for our news Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile on The Heatseeking Moisture Missiles tomorrow! Thanks everyone!