LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Demon King, Project 906, And Generations), And More!!

Here's a packed news post for your Monday night reading, which mostly features LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the next three months on both sides of the border, plus an inactive band note, so let's get things rolling!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations have announced five upcoming concerts for the next month and a half, courtesy of their Facebook group yesterday, so where can you see them next? The band will return to The Kiln at Searchmont Resort for Saturday nighters on January 24th and February 21st, so clearly their debut there on January 3rd was a hit for them to get rebooked this fast! You can also see Valerie, Joe, Pierre, and Tony back at The Full Throttle Saloon for two more concerts on Saturday, February 14th & Friday, February 27th, with the former falling over the Family Day long weekend (and on Valentine's Day). Lastly, their busy February will also include a one-nighter at The Water Tower Pub on Friday, February 20th, and because that venue never books the same band on consecutive nights, and The Kiln only books bands on Saturdays, the two gigs pair well to keep them busy all weekend!

The Kiln and Water Tower Pub gigs are all at 8:00 PM, the Full Throttle Saloon shows are at 9:30 PM, all are 19+ events, and none have an announced cover charge. Fans of this veteran group will want to circle these winter dates on their calendar, so visit the above links for more details! 

Next up, Family Day weekend for Sault Ontario = Presidents' Day weekend for Sault Michigan, and hard rock fans in the E.U.P. won't be lacking either, as local blues/hard rock cover quintet Project 906 will return to Snow's Bar & Grill in nearby Cedarville for a Valentine's Day concert of their own on Saturday, February 14th! The band mentioned this show at the end of their Facebook post thanking everyone for coming to see them at The Merch on Saturday night, but didn't note that the show will coincide with the annual Les Cheneaux Islands Snowsfest, the annual winter festival held jointly in Cedarville and Hessel over the long weekend. Full event details are forthcoming (check back on the Facebook event page), but this will be the (at least) fifth straight year where either The Islander Bar or Snow's Bar included a regional hard rock band playing at Snowsfest that weekend, typically during the annual pub crawl. Project 906 previously did the honours in Cedarville in 2023. 

We'll let you know when more comes out regarding the exact itinerary for Snowsfest and how bands tie in, but it's good to see 906 making the hour's trek again for what should be a busy weekend! Expect a 9:00 PM start time, 21+ age limit, and no cover charge on Valentine's Day. See above for more from updates from Project 906 and Snowsfest!

Also newly announced is a big Sault Ontario death metal concert for the spring, as Nashville-based death metal band Demon King will make their local concert debut on Tuesday, March 24th at Soo Blaster! Not to be confused with Maynard Hayes frontman Damon King (though imagine if they were added to the bill!), Demon King bring their own brand of technical blackened death metal to the forefront, and they have a ferocious and punishing sound that should start a good sized pit in two months' time! A multi-national touring roster will also include London progressive death metal quartet Sentiment Dissolve (who headlined at Jay's Piston Broke Pub this past May) and Norwegian death metal band Celestial Scourge. Both will deliver the brutality you expect, and how often do bands literally from Norway come here? Local openers will include death/thrash metal trio Pillory and progressive metal quartet Convergence.

Both local bands are making their first announced live concert appearances of 2026, and they are solid choices to set the tone! Promoted locally by Mikhal Muto via his newly created agency Underground Events SSM (more on them soon), this all ages concert has a 7:00 PM start time, and while tickets are not on sale yet, they will cost $15 in advance and $25 at the door, and will be available through the local bands, at The Rad Zone, and online. If yo u love death metal, especially of a technical and complex variety, you won't want to miss out on this concert, so visit the Facebook event page for more details!

Finally, I have moved local death metal quartet The Bear Hunters back to our inactive band links. This may not come as a surprise to many readers given their sporadic updates in the 2020s, but the band was last publically active on January 13th of last year, when they posted a belated music video for their song "Collapse The Sun" on YouTube, one of two new music videos spearheaded by guitarist Mitch Sirie that month. After previously being inactive from late 2021 onward, The Bear Hunters awoke from "hibernation" in July 2023 to play a private event that drummer Johnny Belanger put on at Robbie Adamson's church in Leeburn. Despite teasing that they'd be working on new music, no updates followed for almost a year, when Mitch said on their Facebook page that a final album and concert would be in the works, as connected to a contest relating to wearing band t-shirts.

Updates never came on the album or farewell gig, and while the two videos from last January (including a music video for their live favourite "Squirrel Buddy") were welcomed by long-time fans, the "Collapse The Sun" video was 100% archival content, and "Squirrel Buddy" was co-opted from Mitch's 2023 solo project Sir Hell, and only featured Johnny among other Bear Hunters members in audio or video. Mitch did say "slay tuned for more" at the time, and hopefully we do get more eventually, but their activity levels have been slow since the end of 2017, and members have talked about the eventual end multiple times in recent years. Hopefully we do hear from Nik, Mitch, Justin, and Johnny again, even if it's only once more, but stay tuned for more updates on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Fyrbird, Bone Yard, And The Nameless) & Weekend Concert Previews!!

Another busy concert weekend is upon us, so we're breaking up our previews into two posts again. As such, the previously announced Silent 9 and Tym Morrison shows will be covered in our next post hitting the site by tomorrow morning, so don't worry, they are coming! Now, here's what you should know to start the weekend, starting with LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, some on SHORT NOTICE!

Local southern hard rock cover trio Bone Yard have announced their slate of upcoming concerts for this month, starting with their returns to Reggie's Place for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, those dates were only announced on both the band's and venue's ends earlier this week. After a two week break, TOMORROW & SATURDAY's Reggie's shows should be a fine way to rock out with Greg, Alex, and Warren's old school covers as usual, but if you can't make it or have a preferred venue elsewhere, they have options! Their next two shows after this weekend will both be one-nighters on consecutive Saturdays, both unplugged ("uncorked", if you prefer), when they rock Gateway Casino on February 17th and The Water Tower Pub on February 24th! As of this writing, they are not playing anywhere on either Friday. 

If you'd rather hear them plugged in (and/or in the west end), Bone Yard will kick off March with shows at The Esquire Club on March 1st & 2nd, which were previously announced by the venue. All of these shows are 19+ affairs with no announced cover charge, and aside from The Water Tower Pub (8:00 PM), all of these dates have start times of 9:00 or 9:30 PM. Visit the above links for more details, including on Bone Yard's shows at Reggie's TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT, and here they are live in concert last year!

Next up, Manistique, Michigan hard rock duo Fyrbird will play their first concerts within an hour's drive of the Soo of the year when they return to The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Again, apologies for the short notice, these shows were a part of Kewadin's monthly schedule release on their entertainment page, but when I first noticed them, it was too late to cover them without redundantly plugging them twice in less than a week's span. While we're on the subject, fans in Sault Ste. Marie can also see Jamie & Rick rocking out at The Rapids Lounge at Kewadin's Soo branch on Friday, May 3rd & Saturday, May 4th, as per the band's early 2024 concert calendar shared by frontman Jamie Hider's wife Shannon on their Facebook group in October (for fans a little further out in the U.P., they'll also be playing concerts in Newberry, Paradise, Curtis, and Gould City).

It's great to see Fyrbird's minimalist hard rock attack back in our area this year, so don't miss their return to The Northern Pine(s) Lounge TOMORROW & SATURDAY if you're up for it! All four of their upcoming Kewadin dates have 9:00 PM start times, no cover charges, and 21+ age limits. See above for more details, and here's Fyrbird live!

Also this weekend, local hard rock cover quintet The Nameless will make their debut at Snow's Bar & Grill in nearby Cedarville on SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies again for the short notice, the band only announced this show via their Facebook event page this past Friday, and I didn't see it quickly enough to talk about it before this week. Just their second concert outside of the Soo after last year's Sugar Island Music Festival (though at least The Nameless plugged SATURDAY's show on Facebook!), this concert takes place as part of the annual Les Cheneaux Islands Snowsfest, marking a third straight year where a Sault Ste. Marie hard rock band heads to Cedarville for the festivities (Tarnished and Project 906 played the last two years). Despite our mild winter, hopefully this year's Snowsfest is a huge hit, and that The Nameless' hard rocking covers find another receptive audience on SATURDAY NIGHT!

A one-nighter due to tomorrow's concert from Chicago blues group The Corey Dennison Band (that's also the night of the Snowfest pub crawl), this 21+ event has an 8:00 PM start time and no apparent cover charge. Given the locale, I don't believe that Snowsfest buttons are required for entry. Click here for full details on the Snowsfest itinerary in Cedarville and Hessel this weekend, visit the above links for more details on SATURDAY'S concert, and while I can't embed it here, check out The Nameless live at this link!

We'll close things for this preview post with a pair of previously announced gigs in Sault Ontario, where local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations will return to Jay's Piston Broke Pub for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Last seen at Jay's three months ago, this will be Generations' second concert weekend of the year, and will see guitarist Tony Kajnar back in the fold after missing their Shooters gig last month. However, Generations will actually be subbing in for Soundcheck as hosts of the weekly jam night at Jay's tonight, so if you want a preview of things (albeit with guest musicians jamming with the band or playing on their own), keep that in mind! No word on why Soundcheck aren't hosting tonight, but you may recall seeing Bone Yard fill in for them last summer on weekends where they were booked at Jay's. Also, just a reminder that we don't cover jam/open mic nights as "concerts" due to their unpredictability by design.

Tomorrow & Saturday's concerts (and jam night tonight) have 9:30 PM start times, 19+ age limits, and no cover charges. Should be a good time for classic and hard rock fans, given this talented group featuring Jus' Chillin, Obsession, and Flat Stanley alumni, so don't miss out on the action at the former Rosie this weekend, and here's Generations live!

That's all for now, but look for the rest of this weekend's hard rock concert previews (and more) next! Thanks everyone!