LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison), Weekend Concert Previews, And New Videos!!

It's now time to kick off another weekend of concert previews! Due to both the amount of shows this weekend and the massive scope of that festival, our previews of Oh!No in Leeburn will come in a second post making the site later today. Don't worry, it is coming! Now, here's what you should know regarding other hard rock shows this weekend, including new videos from two acts, a missed concert apology, and a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!

Joining his regular matinee gigs at Gliss Restaurant TOMORROW & SATURDAY, local hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will play a second straight Thursday evening gig TONIGHT at Thomson Farms Cider & Winery on Third Line West! Apologies for the short notice, Tym only announced this show via his Facebook event page earlier this week. Clearly, his show last week did well, as Tym's back for an encore at this popular west end winery & cider mill TONIGHT, so if you're up for some live acoustic hard and classic rock while partaking in locally made & grown wine, cider, and produce, you know where to be! At this juncture, I have no idea if Thursday matinees here will become a regular thing or not, though note that Thomson Farms closes for the season after Halloween, as best as I can tell. Of course, look for Tym's regular downtown acoustic shows tomorrow & Saturday as well at Gliss, as per usual in his long-term run there, so regular fans are in good hands!

The Gliss shows are at 6:00 PM, TONIGHT'S Thomson Farms show is at 5:00 PM, and none have announced cover charges or age limits. Click here and above for more details, and for a preview, here's a new video of Tym live inside of Thomson Farms' wine barn last week, as per their Facebook page on Monday! A cover of Tom Petty's "Free Falling", this 22 second clip doesn't even last long enough to get to the chorus, but Tym sounds good as far as it goes, so check it out below, and don't miss him there TONIGHT!



Next up, let's take a detour to the Eastern Upper Peninsula, where Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished will play at the acoustic-centric Signatures Lounge at the local Kewadin Casino branch TONIGHT, before the (presumably) full band rocks Kinross Speedpark TOMORROW NIGHT! These are the middle shows in a busy stretch for Alex & Josh (and Tommy tomorrow), following a short notice set at yesterday's Sault Ste. Marie Farmers Market, and preceding their road trip to Toledo, Ohio on Saturday. I profusely apologize for missing their matinee gig at the Farmers Market yesterday, it's brief advertising on their Facebook page on Monday slipped right by us. Hopefully it was a hit though, we'd have covered it had we known about it! Originally announced as an Alex Traynor solo show and a Banned concert respectively, tonight's Signatures Lounge date and tomorrow's post-Four Cylinder Friday set should deliver solid crowds each for this new band!

Note that Tarnished did not mention a Biggby Coffee matinee in their Facebook advertising from Monday, which would seemingly signal the end of their shows "every Thursday" there, but we'll let you know if that proves to be incorrect. Tonight's Signatures Lounge gig has an early 6:00 PM start time, a 19+ age limit, and no cover, while tomorrow's Kinross Speedpark show begins after the races end. I can't verify if you can get in free after the races just to see Tarnished or not, but the races proper have a 7:30 PM start time, and $5 admission fees ($6 Canadian), with kids 11 and under FREE. Click here and visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's a new video of Tarnished live-ish at the Soo Farmers Market on Wednesday! Shared onto the Farmers Market's Facebook page yesterday during business hours, this 9 second clip is primarily about the market proper, but in the upper left, if you look really close, you can see Alex & Josh covering Kenny Wayne Shepherd's "Blue on Black"!

This is not an ideal video for angle or length if you want to see Tarnished in action, but they sound good while it lasts, and the video shows the scope of the Farmers Market well enough. Check it out if you want below, and see much more from Tarnished's unplugged hard rock cover attack TONIGHT in the Soo and in Kinross TOMORROW with electric gear and drums in tow!



Finally for this weekend's non-Oh!No concert previews, let's head back to Sault Ontario, where local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to The Esquire Club for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! As advdertised on their 2019 concert calendar, this will be Soundcheck's second concert weekend at this popular west end venue in a three week span, and first shows anywhere since their Roberta Bondar Pavilion matinee late last month. This should be another prime opportunity for fans to see Soundcheck's often heavy blend of covers, so don't miss them at The Esquire Club once again this weekend! As usual for shows there, expect a 10:00 PM-ish start time, no cover charges, and a 19+ age limit tomorrow and/or Saturday. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Soundcheck live!


 
That's all for now, but stay tuned for our Oh!No III previews next, plus more news shortly! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tarnished) & Related Weekend Concert Previews!!

After a one week lull following Rotaryfest, we have an unusually busy concert weekend at the SMS  to kick off August, so here's what we have in store. Due to a number of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (some on SHORT NOTICE) from the same local band, we'll focus only on them to start, while we'll look at Tym Morrison, The Wyld Stallyns, and Pop Evil later today, before looking at Saturday's Inner City Surfers, Highway 63, and Black Crown Initiate concerts tomorrow. Hopefully that covers everything, barring more late notice announcements. Now, here's what you should know to start this weekend!

New Sault Michigan hard rock band Tarnished will continue their "every Thursday" run of acoustic matinee concerts TODAY at Biggby Coffee, but that's not all for Alex and Josh (and Tommy?) this month! Joining their increasingly busy concert schedule, the Banned successors will also play outside of Phat Boutique at 559 Ashmun Street for a second straight week as part of the ongoing Ashmun Alive festival series TONIGHT, while they'll also be playing another acoustic set TOMORROW AFTERNOON as part of this year's Sidewalk Sales! Apologies for the short notice on the latter two gigs, they were only publically confirmed via Facebook event pages linked here and here earlier this week.  All three of these two man unplugged gigs are FREE and ALL AGES matinees, so whether you're up for some 10:30 AM indoor jams for tips and coffee today, or you want to head downtown TONIGHT at 6:00 PM or TOMORROW at 12:00 PM, you have ample opportunities to hear Alex & Josh break out some fan favourite covers this weekend!

Note that I don't know where exactly Tarnished will be playing during Sidewalk Sales, but Phat Boutique again would make sense. That all said, Tarnished will also have one non-Biggby/Ashmun show this month in the region, as they will (more or less) take Banned's place at this year's Sugar Island Music Festival on Saturday, August 10th! Advertised without the "acoustic" tag in it's Facebook event page's title (and thusly implying that they'll have electric instruments and drums here), this will be frontman Alex Traynor's ninth straight year at this annual festival, and first not fronting Banned, though Tarnished get a high co-headlining slot at 8:45 PM on Saturday. Other bands this year, again of the festival regular, country/folk, and online page-less variety, will include headliners 3 Zip, 3½ Men, Aberdeen, 2 Cents, All Arms, Joel Choate, The Gentleman George Band, Walkers Rye, Moose River and February Sky, and an Al Gross-hosted open mic block opening at 11:00 AM.

With the exception of Friday openers Steph & Dave and Sunday headliners Jim & Joe Schutz, every band on those days is also playing on Saturday, unlisted "friends" aside, and Tarnished are only advertised for Saturday. As usual, admission for this ALL AGES outdoor festival on Sugar Island is via a $10 souvenir button purchase (kids 12 and under are FREE), which gets you admission for all three days of the festival, with no single day passes available. Buttons are on sale at Ed's Bayview Store, The Hilltop Bar & Grill, or the Westshore Convenience Store in Sugar Island, and at Crooked Music in Sault Ste. Marie, and presumably at the gate, and for more details (including on all of the non-musical festivities), visit the official website! Also for Tarnished's busy concert slate, they just played out of our coverage area today in Curtis, they'll take a road trip to Alex's current(?) Mount Pleasant home base for a show on August 15th, and will also travel to Gould City and Toledo, Ohio for gigs next month, so keep those in mind if you live afar!

Lastly, Alex Traynor's previously advertised solo concert at The Signatures Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on September 5th, and Banned's previously announced Kinross Speedpark gig on September 6th have both turned into Tarnished concerts, as per their new Facebook event pages linked here & here, so both are now credited in our Sault Michigan concert listings as such. This seems to confirm that Tarnished have superceded Alex's own solo project in live priority, though hopefully he doesn't completely put his original music on the shelf. I think that covers all of Tarnished's new concert updates, and it's great to see Alex & Josh (and Tommy) staying busy! No word on how long this will last, especially if Alex has any impending Mount Pleasant commitments, but enjoy Tarnished while you can at all of these gigs, including TODAY & TOMORROW! See above for more details on all of these new concerts, and here's Tarnished live!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more weekend concert previews this afternoon! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Banned), An Inactive Band Note, And New Videos!!

Let's dive back into news and updates on this slippery Tuesday morning, and here, we have some new videos from the Ontario side of the border, a note on a band moved out of our active band links, and leading off, here's some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for this summer!

Kinross, Michigan classic/hard rock trio Banned will return to their hometown for a pair of special post-race concerts at the Kinross Speedpark later in the 2019 auto racing season! Much like they did last year, this veteran cover outfit will rock the on-site stage for concerts on Saturday, July 13th and on Friday, September 6th, which will respectively follow the second annual Baby Show qualifier race and the Four Cylinder Friday events during the Memorial Invitational weekend. For full details on the race aspects of both days, click here! It's great to see Alex, Don, and Wayne back at the Speedpark for a couple of gigs this season, and hopefully they provide a great soundtrack to cap these nights with! The other four races with a scheduled musical performer will feature classic rockers The Whole Shabang and Rudyard country/classic rock quartet Steelhead (featuring Banned alum Alex Schrovenwever.)

Both of Banned's Kinross Speedpark gigs in 2019 have 9:30 PM start times, these are definitely ALL AGES events, and concert admission is FREE post-race, though click here to locate full admission fees regarding the races proper. Visit the above links for more details, and stay tuned for more!

Next up, we have a local band to move to our inactive band links, namely Sault Ontario lo-fi punk/grunge project Telephone & Address. While a firm public statement has not been made regarding their status, there hasn't been a public update from Telephone & Address' camp since the release of their album "Monster" on February 3rd of last year, now over a year ago. It's also worth noting that frontman Christopher Shoust's old website (which featured Telephone & Address information and material) has had it's domain expire, and his current website is solely devoted to his painting & visual art pursuits. A recurring presence in our coverage since 2013 (though demo albums were recorded dating back to 2010), Chris achieved a following with his varied albums, which featured acoustic, punk, ambient, drum-and-bass, and grunge influences over the years, while his unplugged solo sets were easy to slide into concerts big and small.

Plans to release an early demo compilation named "The Early Tapes" stalled indefinitely, and not a lot came of their late-period expansion to a duo, but Chris had a good thing going with Telephone & Address, and he had an eclectic range of sounds to apply to his albums, always well suited to his lo-fi production and packaging methods. Hopefully they resurface down the road, but best of luck to Chris and Jackson in the future!

Also today, here's a new video of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck's set at the Soolebrity Showcase Saturday concert at The Machine Shop from this past weekend's Bon Soo festivities! Posted to their Facebook page on Sunday, this is of the guys playing their lengthy classic rock medley that long time fans will easily recognize, such as from Toystock last year. As a refresher, the 10 minute video features the guys covering fragments of David Wilcox's "Riverboat Fantasy", Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", Metallica's "Enter Sandman", Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time", Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer", and Van Halen's "Jamie's Cryin'", though it cuts off before the "Riverboat Fantasy" reprise. Like previously, Terry Eaton sings for the Wilcox, Metallica, and Van Halen covers, Travis Sharpe handles the rest, and they sing backing vocals for each other.

The vertical cell phone camera angle isn't ideal, especially as Soundcheck proper are only in the video's top half, but the guys have these covers down well, and their chemistry and energy comes through strongly enough! Give Soundcheck's Soolebrity Showcase video a look below, and stay tuned for more updates from Soundcheck when announced!

We'll close today with a new-ish live concert recording from local/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock solo artist Mike Haggith's Facebook page! Though uploaded on Friday, this "from the vault" clip was recorded at MacLean Park in Thompson during the city's Concert In The Park series last July that Mike played at, and this is of him playing a stripped down acoustic version of his newer original "An Act of Strength." I presume we'll be reviewing the full version when the "Bridges" CD finally comes out, but in this mid-2018 live form, it's a solidly done number with a sense of purpose, and the recording quality is nice! Based on the video's picture, I can't confirm if Mike has plans to release this concert as a live Bandcamp album or not, though stay tuned if he does. Give Mike's live & unplugged rendition of "An Act of Strength" a listen below, and stay tuned for more from his camp!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Banned & Tym Morrison) And Weekend Concert Previews!!

Before we get into this weekend concert preview post (sans the Oh!No Festival, which will get an extended preview tomorrow), note that I am well aware of a major local band's announced farewell/CD release show next month, and that will be a featured story in an upcoming post, perhaps tomorrow's, so don't worry, it's coming! Now, here's what you should know for this weekend's non-Leeburn hard rock concerts, starting with some SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!

Kinross, Michigan classic/hard rock cover trio Banned will play a rare hometown show TOMORROW NIGHT when they rock... the Jack Passmore Grandstand at Kinross Speedpark?! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via it's official Facebook event page on Tuesday, with the band even confirming that this was a "new booking" on their Facebook page. The unusual setting will see Banned provide musical entertainment after practice wraps up for Kinross Speedpark's 12th annual Memorial Invitational race, which is the Crazy Eight Racing Series' season finale, so if you love local stock car racing, get down to the West Fair Road race track this weekend! Alex, Don, and Wayne will play their fan-favorite covers to end day one of the weekend's events TOMORROW, and they should end things with a bang before the racing proper begins on Saturday!

Presumably all ages, Banned will take to the outdoor grandstand stage at 9:00 PM TOMORROW, and while admission for the races is $12 for adults, $8 for seniors and students, and free for kids 11 and under, I can't confirm if that applies to practice day and Banned's set. For more details on this weekend's entertainment, musical or automotive, check the above links, and for a preview, here's Banned live!

Next up, prolific Sault Ontario hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will continue his long-term arrangement at Gliss Steak & Seafood with matinee shows TONIGHT, TOMORROW, and SATURDAY, but he will also return to new local bar Room 21 (above Low & Slow on Albert Street West) TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT, and Mark's Breakfast Plus at the Market Mall for one night only THIS TUESDAY! Again, apologies for the short notice on the Room 21 and Mark's shows, these were only announced via their respective Facebook event pages (linked here and here) on Saturday. Now playing six concerts in six days, Tym's busy schedule sees him playing at two newer local businesses over the next while that he's previously played at, with TOMORROW's Room 21 show helping serve as the kick-off event for the bar's official logo, so keep that specific angle in mind along with this very full weekend of shows, including three downtown matinees as expected, and the second Room 21 night on SATURDAY!

No word on why Tym's not playing at Mark's on Monday, but keep his special matinee show there on TUESDAY for more acoustic hard rock action this month! The Gliss & Mark's shows are 6:00 PM affairs with no announced cover charges or age limits (but remember that these are restaurants), while the Room 21 shows are 19+ events at 10:00 PM with no cover. Click here and visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Tym Morrison live!



Moving to entirely previously announced concerts, we'll next head to The Canadian Nightclub, where local classic metal quartet Project 421 will play their second headlining concert of the year and third total TOMORROW NIGHT! Still riding high off of last month's Diamond Head show, this will be another solid opportunity for fans to take in 421's 1980s-centric brand of metal covers and select originals, so don't miss out on this one for another nostalgic mindtrip! As previously announced, local alt-punk quartet A Dire Setback will open in their first show in almost a month and first since the recent Live705 cancellations, so keep their return in mind for more of their strong originals! However, a third band was added on Monday, as hard rock quartet Skeyes of Seven will make their long awaited return to the local stage tomorrow! After a 2+ year hiatus from concerts, this will serve as both their re-introducton to the scene and their live debut with new rhythm guitarist Kyle Sweet, so come see how Skeyes of Seven sound in their big return tomorrow!

And yes, A Dire Setback will also be playing at Saturday's Oh!No Festival in Leeburn, which will be previewed tomorrow, so keep watch for it then! Tomorrow's show has a 10:00 PM start time, is a 19+ event, and has NO COVER CHARGE, so there's all the more reason to come check out this blast of metal, hard rock, and punk action tomorrow! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Project 421 live!



Finally for today's previews, we'll head back across the river for the latest shows from Sault Michigan classic/hard rock cover quartet Highway 63, who are slated to rock The Northern Pines Lounge at the Kewadin Shores Casino in St. Ignace TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Keeping up their recent trend of monthly shows at the St. Ignace Kewadin branch, this weekend's shows should provide another solid opportunity for fans to take in the Monkey's Uncle successors' classic and hard rock cover selections, so keep these ones in mind if you're in the E.U.P.! Note that these shows haven't been recently plugged by Highway 63 online, but were among their shows in their schedule post on their Facebook page from January. Also, note that most of Highway 63 have recently formed a side project band (I assume) named Cousin Eddie that played a few shows this summer, and feature singer/guitarist Greg Smith in place of Henry Switzer.

No word on Cousin Eddie's genre range or online pages yet, but don't bypass them if you see them scheduled somewhere locally! This weekend's Highway 63 shows have no announced cover charges, 21+ age limits, and 9:00 PM start times. Check the above links for more details on their first shows of the fall, and for a preview, here's Highway 63 live!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our Oh!No 2017 Music Festival preview and more tomorrow! Thanks everyon