LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Lucky 13), Tesla Concert Videos, And More!!

Keeping the news coming as the month winds down, today's post features some assorted recent news items and the first videos from the most recent major Kewadin Casino metal show, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month on the Canadian side of the border!

Sault Ontario alternative/hard rock quartet Lucky 13 will return to the stage for a one-night-only gig at The Rockstar Bar on August 9th (one week from Friday!) Believe it or not, this will be their first announced show in over three months, which is quite a while compared to similar recent bands, but at least this show has more prominent advance word than their May concert at The Nic! Featuring Route 69 bandmates Ed Vowels (ex-Aftersight) and Jeremey Salatuk (ex-Wishbone) alongside former Turner Up bassist Jeff Gray and Gully Yodelers drummer Roger Sartini, their 1990s-leaning alternative rock covers have served them well since their live debut last fall, and hopefully fans and The Rockstar Bar faithful will welcome them back and rock out next Friday! This show should be a 19+ affair with a 10:00 PM start time, and bring at least $5 for a cover charge. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! It's great to see Lucky 13 back on stage, so stay tuned for more if it comes in, and our preview of this show next week!

Next up, we finally have some videos from Saturday night's fouth Tesla concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino to share on here! From what I have heard, the show went well, but if you weren't there, now you can be the judge! We'll start with these videos from YouTube user Chuck G. (a.k.a. Goblue610) in his first local concert videos on his channel, as he filmed three of Tesla's softer tracks at the show, including "Love Song", their cover of The Five Man Electrical Band's "Signs", and (as embedded below) "What You Give"! Uploaded to Chuck's YouTube channel yesterday, all are in widescreen definitions from a fairly centered camera angle, and while they definitely sound older and a bit slower from their peak, they can still pull off these old classics, and Jeff Keith still has a solid voice! Good crowd turnout too, but see what you think at the above links, and here's Tesla playing "What You Give" in the Soo on Saturday night!



The other Tesla concert videos that I've found are courtesy of Wawa author (and local rock concert regular) Duane Roy, in what are actually his first local concert videos in 9 months, and first from a local metal show since 2011! Uploaded to his YouTube channel on Sunday, his videos are of Tesla playing "Love Song" (albeit abbreviated) and, as embedded below, "Paradise", so how did these turn out? The quality isn't as consistent (especially the distorted audio on louder stretches), but he appears to be in the front row, and he has a good angle of the band, so it works on that level! It is a shame that the "Love Song" video isn't full though, and that videos of Tesla's heavier songs haven't turned up yet. Check out Tesla's local rendition of "Paradise" below!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news stories from the last little while, and usual, these are in alphabetical order by band or artist name:

• Veteran local drummer Glen Thomas announced on his Freq's Music Planet message board two weeks ago that his progressive rock band Flat Stanley are recording a cover of Don Felder's "Heavy Metal (Takin' A Ride)" from the soundtrack of the movie "Heavy Metal", just for fun and as a free download. Nice to see more local bands joining Haggith in honouring that movie, and we'll let you know when the final version pops up!
• Local stoner/death metal band Giwakwa have NOT broken up following their last set with Josh Stephney & Nolan Rainville on Friday! In a comment reply on their Facebook page the day before, a member (likely guitarist Chris Page) said that they'd be taking some time to write and record some more songs, and they'd be "ripping up the scene again before you know it", though any potential singer/bassist searches weren't announced. Fingers crossed this turns out to be true, as with Josh & Nolan out, they have big shoes to fill!
• Chronic Demonic singer Ririe Lavoie (a.k.a. Sabrina Strange) is looking to launch a side project band to cover and play songs similar to bands like Nightwish, Tool, and Otep live. She'd love to get some female members enlisted if possible, but there's no absolute gender restrictions. If you're interested in signing on, message her on Facebook at this location or via her Musicians Wanted Facebook group post on Sunday!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes in the coming days, plus weekend concert previews Thursday morning! Thanks everyone!

Toystock Concert Preview & This Week's Classic Video!!

It's time for our next local concert preview for the weekend, and because this one ran longer than I expected, we'll bump our preview of The Locals Attack to our next news post, likely tomorrow morning! It's coming though, and it should be a great show with lots of great young local talent! Today's post features an extended preview of a major event going down tomorrow and this week's classic video, so without any further adieu, here's what you need to know!

10 local bands will descend upon The Canadian Nightclub tomorrow for a great cause in the concert known as Toystock! Planned to be the first installment of an annual event, this is being put on by local musician Greg Simpson's event promotion company Maxx Entertanment, and the goal of Toystock is to sercure donations to Christmas Cheer! To that end, admission will be by toy, canned food, or monetary donations, and the Stuff-A-Bus will be on site, while some Facebook postings have indicated that there will be some sort of prize draws and raffles. As well, this is an ALL AGES and family friendly event, so feel free to bring the kids, especially as Santa Claus will be in attendance! For all details on the non-musical elements of Toystock, visit the official Facebook event page! This all alone is awesome to help secure donations for Christmas Cheer, and kudos to Greg for coming up with this great event! On the musical side of things, this might be the biggest concert at The Canadian for band-count since the Ypres Metal Fest, but who all's playing?

The lineup is mostly local cover bands, including many who you can see at local bars and concert venues on weekends, but there's tons of talent present with these 10 bands, including three making their live concert debuts, and one hard rock-leaning act, that being newer local quartet The Suicide Kings! Fresh off their Bushplane Musical Madness set later tonight, what can we expect from Mike, Steven, Mitch, and Ben in their fourth local show? I'm not sure yet, as I have yet to see them and they have no online media yet, but I have a feeling they may be the heaviest of tomorrow's bands! They'll be on at around 3:00 PM, replacing a band named K.I.C.K. (who I have absolutely no information on. If you can help, let me know!) As for the rest of the lineup, the headlining band at 9:00 PM will be local rock trio Boxcar Junction (formerly Cleveland Steamer), and they'll be preceded by local pop rock outfit Cherry Crush at 8:00 PM, country rock quartet Bone Yard at 7:00 PM, and the recently reunited rock notables Stiffler's Mom at 6:00 PM!

The four band slots from 2:00-5:00 PM are largely for newer bands (only one of which has an official online page as of this writing), so bear with me on any missing details. The 5:00 band is named Griphook (presumably after the Harry Potter character?), and their lineup includes ex-Flat Stanley frontman Jim O'Leary, former Bigsuit guitarist Brian Oja (also a veteran of many past metal bands), prolific local bassist Dan Beaupre, and his old Southern Fried bandmate Anthony Fabiano (ex-Gsis Murphy) on drums. Dan had told me that this new band will play a variety of styles to suit a wide audience, which is a good safe bet, but will they have any heavier selections? We shall find out tomorrow! The 4:00 band is named Lucky 13 (a reference to the clothing line?), but I know a lot less on them. All I can confirm is that ex-Turner Up/Johnny Lunchbox bassist Jeff Gray is in their lineup, but I have no idea on any of their other members or their sound/setlist. Again, if you can help, let me know!

The aforementioned Suicide Kings are on at 3:00 PM, and a new local band named Asylum are on at 2:00 PM. Though they are without online pages too, their lineup is essentially local country band Asylum Country with Blind River singer Mark Tarantini in place of the departed Tyson Hanes. Will their sound retain their country leanings, or expand further to new genres? Again, we'll know tomorrow! The lineup tomorrow is rounded out by local dance rock band Obsession at 1:00 PM, and country notables Summer Thunder opening things up at 12:00 PM. Check the above links for more on the bands who have pages! As already mentioned this is an ALL AGES event running from roughly noon-10:00 PM tomorrow, and admission is via Christmas Cheer donations (toys, canned goods, or money.) For more details, check the above links! This is sounding like a great event for awesome causes, and it unites a good deal of talented local bands, so hopefully the turnout is as big as is expected, and I hope to be there for at least most of the night! For a preview, here's Stiffler's Mom playing one of their predecessor metal band Sin Stereo's tracks live at The Essar Center a few years back!

Finally for this post, here's this week's classic video! Late, I know, but it does tie in with Toystock well! When looking for non-YouTube videos featuring Toystock performers, I did find some of Griphook frontman Jim O'Leary from his past work in local progressive rock band Flat Stanley, and while drummer Glen Thomas has uploaded some videos of theirs to his YouTube channel, this video of them covering Jane's Addiction's "Been Caught Stealing" was not there! Filmed at a November 2007 concert at Docks Riverfront Grill (which was the source of various other Facebook/YouTube videos of theirs), their classic lineup is present here, including current members/Wishbone bandmates Tony Kajnar on guitar (and vocals for this song) & Glen on drums, alongside Jim on guitar & Mark Brandow on bass. This is a solid heavier song from a band not explicitly known for them, but Tony's vocals are hit & miss in trying to replicate Perry Farrell's uniquely high singing. The camera work is also very shaky and not entirely focused on the band, but I was able to correct the washed out colours after uploading this video.

NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!!! This video was originally posted on Facebook by Glen at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=14271315474 and all credit for this video goes to Flat Stanley and the original filmer! This is a good video, if patchy for quality, so give it a look below, and go see Jim's new band Griphook tomorrow at Toystock!



That's all for today, but I'll see you guys at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center TONIGHT for Bushplane Musical Madness, and stay tuned for our review of that tomorrow, along with our Locals Attack preview and more news! Thanks everyone!

News From End Of Existence, Shaw TV, And More!!

It's time for some more assorted news, including this week's classic video, an interesting note about a local photographer, and some news concerning a local TV station, but first, here's the latest from a notable local metal band!

Sault Michigan/Grand Rapids epic metal band End of Existence have announced the addition of bassist Bryan Kindel (second from the right) to the band, adding the last piece of the puzzle for their now-full lineup! I'm not familiar with Bryan's past music work at all (I don't think he was in any bands with the other EOE members before), but I know they've been searching far and wide for the right bassist, and hopefully Bryan works well! With that said, End of Existence have posted their first song featuring both Bryan and keyboardist Craig Harrison onto their various internet pages, entitled "In The Distance"! It's nice to hear an overall fuller sound, and both Craig and Bryan contribute well, though I'll be curious to see how they're integrated into older songs. Fans of Bob Helsten's growling may be disappointed, as he sings clean the whole way through, but the song has a nice pacing, a heavy sound, and some solid guitar (and i-Pad?!) work from Steve Giles! Definitely has more of an epic feel than some earlier EOE songs, which isn't bad, though if you want death metal, you'll likely prefer other songs. Check out their Reverbnation page and related pages to hear this song (and more), but you can also check out "In The Distance" straight from End of Existence's YouTube channel below!



Next up, you know how Shaw TV (channel 10 for Shaw Cable subscribers) has been featuring a few local music-related interviews on their rotation in recent months? Well, did you know that the local Shaw TV station has a website where you can watch the past week's videos and check out programming and correspondent information! They do, and you can check it out at this location! Commercials are running for the local affiliate's site, but this is only a recent discovery for me. The site features 8 interview & news pieces that aired on half hour rotation in the previous week, and the videos change weekly. The site also features info on how you can contribute to Shaw TV, but why bring it up here? Because the Dismembertainment interview that aired last week is now there to stream! I don't know when it leaves the site, but it will only leave when the full week runs out and the next week's video cycle comes up. So if you missed it on Shaw TV, check the above links to watch it, and when it disappears from there, who knows, I may have a new YouTube upload for you guys! Stay tuned!

Thirdly today, here's an interesting note concerning a local photographer's entry in a major contest from a major hard rock band! Grunge legends Soundgarden have been running a photography contest to find 17 talented photographers to professionally capture one of their 17 shows on their current North American tour (their first since reuniting), and one of the winners was actually local photographer Chris Cartwright! For this contest, Chris submitted a photo from a Police concert he attended, and eventually got enough votes (most overall, no less) to be picked by Soundgarden as one of the 17 winners! He chose the band's concert on July 3rd at The John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario to shoot (complete with a guest photo pass), and a few photos from the show can be seen on Local2's article about Chris' Soundgarden contest experience! (Remember, Local2 is the successor to the now-defunct SooNews.ca.) The rest of his photos are also online via his personal Facebook page, though they're all watermarked. Awesome work, I'd love to see Chris keep this concert photography work up, especially given this highlight of his career, and hopefully he'll be up there with Donna Hopper, Brian Tremblay, & Curt O'Neil before you know it! Congratulations again to Chris!

And finally, here is this week's classic video! With Rotaryfest approaching fast, it made perfect sense to tie in this week's video with a band or performer at this year's event, and I went outside the box a bit this time. The opening band on this year's Tenaris Second Stage on Friday will be local rock quartet Wishbone, who aren't metal, but are the heaviest Second Stage band this year in my opinion. You may recognize guitarist Tony Kajnar & drummer Glen Thomas as mainstays in the local progressive rock band Flat Stanley, who are also very talented, and they have been known to occasionally cover hard rock songs live! We featured their cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" on here before, but this video comes from a November 2007 concert at Docks Riverfront Grill where the band covered Wolfmother's "Joker & The Thief"! Featuring their classic lineup (including bassist Mark Brandow & then-frontman Jim O'Leary), the band sound pretty good here, though the video isn't high quality. The audio works well though, and Jim's range is evident as he hits higher notes in the verses! Very nice performance overall, proof that us "Flat Heads" can get some hard rocking here and there when Flat Stanley play live!

The original video was uploaded by Glen Thomas onto his personal Facebook page not long after this concert, and the original video can be seen at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=14109780474. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED!! Glen hadn't brought this video to his own YouTube channel yet, and I thought a solid performance like this deserves a wider audience, so I obviously mean no harm! Hopefully you guys like this video, and stay tuned for another video from the past next week!



That's all for today, but we have lots more news to get to very soon (including hopefully news on this week's Rosie metal night), plus weekend concert previews and much more! Stay tuned!

Local Metal Video Showcase!!

It's time for another local metal video showcase! I have enough videos to fill out a post devoted to just newly uploaded videos, in this first post of two today! So we have some new live videos from a defunct local band, a jam session clip, and this week's classic video, but first, here's the latest installment of a recent vlog series from a local band!

Yes, the Woods of Ypres tour vlogs are continuing deeper into Ontario from their most recent tour, as frontman David Gold has uploaded part 1 of their vlog from the Barrie concert onto his YouTube channel! In this vlog, we see the band's exit from Sudbury (and their attempts to map a route on their GPS), the band's hunt for breakfast, lots of drivetime footage, the tense moments brought on by fatigue, an interesting vehicle following the band's van, initial venue confusion in Barrie, what Evan Madden bought at an area music store, and even a Muslim moment that night! Interesting stuff, though if you're expecting concert footage, it's not online yet. Part 2 of the Barrie vlog isn't up yet, which should contain most (if not all) of the used concert video from The Foxx Lounge, but I'll have that when it gets uploaded! If you wanna check it out, the link for part 1 is below, give it a look! Stay tuned for the rest when it's posted!



Next up, this is a surprise, as some brand new videos of defunct Sault Michigan hard rockers Nixxon Dixxon are now online! These come from frontman Brandon Carr's dad Chris' YouTube channel, and you may recognize this channel for hosting some older music-related videos featuring Brandon, including two Nixxon Dixxon live clips. Well, Chris uploaded some brand new videos over the weekend of either Nixxon Dixxon or Brandon solo, including acoustic videos of the band covering Godsmack's "Touche", Pop Evil's "100 in a 55", and Shinedown's "Crow & The Butterfly" (a full re-upload of an earlier video), plus one of the full band covering Steel Dragon's "Blood Pollution", as well as Brandon's American Idol audition video (you'll never guess which song) and the full version of his International Idol cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" (also a full version of an old video.) Check out the above links for the new videos! It's great to see new footage of Nixxon Dixxon, and the solo Brandon videos too! I miss them, and these are further proof of their talent beyond their years! The videos are centric around Brandon given who uploaded them, but he is a very good singer, and I hope he's doing well out in California! I'll show you Nixxon Dixxon's cover of "Blood Pollution" below, but check the above links for more!



Now, here's a very brief new video from Brimley hard rockers Half A Man, and it features frontman Erik Rintamaki and drummer Mikey Bishop jamming! Uploaded on Monday to the band's official YouTube channel, this video's black and white & stationary, and only focused on Erik while playing a very heavy riff. You can't see Mikey, but his drumming comes out clear as day, especially the cymbals! The video only clocks in at 56 seconds long, so I can't say too much, but it's a heavy sounding number, and I hope to hear a full version with vocals and bass soon! Check the video out below, and more at the above links!



Finally, here's this week's classic video! With so many bands taking the stage this weekend, I had numerous bands to pick from for a video to upload, and for this week, I settled on Lion Ride! They have a ton of videos online that aren't on YouTube, so it was tough finding one to post onto the SMS' YouTube channel, but this one should pique your interest! This comes from Lion Ride's show at The Foxx Lounge in Barrie on October 30th, 2009, and it's of a Halloween-inspired performance of their opening two songs from that show! Always big Kiss fans, the band decided to dress up as Kiss frontman Paul Stanley for this Devil's Night show....yes, the whole band! They didn't just all dress up as Paul, they each donned a different costume that he wore on a different 1970s or 1980s Kiss album cover, ranging from "Hotter Than Hell" to "Crazy Nights"! And even though guitarist Marco Lion and then-bassist Diamond Brent Panther wore "unmasked" era Paul Stanley costumes, they still had the Starchild facepaint! Fun idea, especially given that the Kiss Battle of the Bands was still upon them, and they fittingly kicked this performance off with their cover of Kiss' "Strutter", before playing their original "Lock Me In"! Good performance, though "Lock Me In"'s audio is staticy.

Filmed by an attendee and uploaded onto Facebook the next day by frontman Mikey Lion, you can view the original video at http://facebook.com/video/video.php?v=178525067992. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED! All credit for this videos goes to the original filmer, Mikey, and the rest of Lion Ride for all their hard work, I'm just exposing this video to a wider audience! Plus, how often are you gonna see a video like this? Because both songs are full and have a clear divide, I split the video in two for the upload, so click here for "Lock Me In" or visit the above links, and here is Lion Ride (as Paul Stanley) covering "Strutter"!



That's all for now, but I have a new news post featuring a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT later tonight, so stay tuned for that! Thanks everyone!

Phatstick Concert Review, And More!!

Hello everyone in Sault Ste. Marie and beyond! Our 3rd Anniversary is in full gear, check the post below for the new things I'm unveiling and featuring on the SMS for the occasion! I've already expounded on that topic though, you guys want news! And headlining this post is a review of last night's Phatstick concert at Foggy Notions!

Believe it or not, this was my first time ever seeing Phatstick live, so my only impressions going in were from YouTube clips and audio from their albums. That and my knowledge of their musical resumes and local connections gave me some good promise for a good night of metal! And I will definitely say this: Phatstick are a very talented band with a natural ease on stage, but I bet most bands would be after being around for a decade! That being said, the crowd made up of mostly friends and family of the two local members (frontman Jason Taillefer and drummer Joe LaVergne) must have added to them being more comfortable and loose. Joe in particular seemed to be right at home, engaging in some pretty funny banter with the other band members and the crowd! I found it a bit odd that he did most of the talking rather than Jason, but remember, I haven't seen them enough to be used to that.

How'd Phatstick sound? Musically, they were great, the whole band are very talented musicians! I think Jason Taillefer's underrated as a singer, he can hit some pretty good notes! Good guitarist too, be it acoustic or electric, and he can nail some good solos! He evn played a couple of solo acoustic tunes that worked well, he's very adaptable! Julian Tomarin often seem shrouded in the dark, but his guitar work stood out as well, while Keith Gillam played bass effectively all night, no real complaints on that end! Joe LaVergne was great on drums and on backing vocals, I think he could sing lead in a band if he wanted to! Nope, I have no complaints about Phatstick's musical ability, they're top notch rock musicians! That being said, I was underwhelmed by their setlist for two reasons, one being the widely varying genres of their songs. They did play some heavier stuff, like AC/DC, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden covers, but they also had a lot of stuff from out of left field, like Michael Jackson, Jason Mraz, The Commodores, Coldplay, and Bob Marley. Luckily, they're an excellent band, so the covers worked no matter the genre, but after what I've seen and heard from Phatstick online, I would have thought they'd have a heavier setlist. It reminded me of the varying genres that Turner Up played when Todd Killam was their singer. Maybe it was the family environment, I dunno, but Phatstick were still good!

The other thing that disappointed me about their set was the complete lack of originals. Again, this was my first Phatstick concert, so I didn't exactly know what to expect for my first time, but I know for a fact that they have albums with some really good original songs, like "Loser" and "Bring You Down", and I was hoping to hear at least a couple of them! I did expect a cover-heavy set, judging from what I've seen online from their Southern Ontario shows, but no originals at all? Even still, it was a fun night of music, and compared to a lot of shows I go to, it had a very casual laid back feel that I welcomed, more local shows should feel like that! The crowd, which actually was at it's peak after 1 AM, had tons of fun dancing to the music and enjoying themselves, and in between a couple quick peeks at UFC 116 on the TV at Foggys (Brock won!), I had fun too, even if what I hoped to see didn't totally occur. Hopefully Phatstick come back home soon!

As always, I got a bunch of photos, click here to check them out, or visit The Sault Metal Scene's Facebook page! Sorry for the photo quality, I didn't wanna be "that guy" that blocks people's view and wanders near the front snapping tons of pictures, and the lighting wasn't fantastic either. And yes, I got a video! Check it out below, Phatstick covering the AC/DC classic "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"!



To close today's update, I have another video to share that I've overlooked for way too long since I first heard of it. I mentioned a while back that if I find a video or audio of a local non-metal band covering a metal song, I'd likely mention it here, as in the That's Chester videos I found of them covering Iron Maiden and Sammy Hagar and such. Well, here's a metal cover from local progressive rockers Flat Stanley from a 2003 show at Smack Daddy's Bar & Grill! Drummer Glen Thomas (mastermind of The Barking Eye and former local metal drummer) uploaded this onto his YouTube channel on May 26th, an audio recording of their cover of "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails, and it isn't bad! The sound's kinda off, but the song isn't a typical Flat Stanley cover choice either. Interesting to note that singer Jim O'Leary isn't saying "fuck" in the chorus like in the original, maybe he wasn't comfortable with swearing on stage. Check it out below, and not just for the metal nature of the song, cause they're quite the talented group!



That's all for today, I reckon that's all SMS-wise for our 3rd anniversary, so just a reminder: I'm now tweeting actively at The Sault Metal Scene's official Twitter page! We're up to 6 followers now, let's keep that number rising! Follow us today!!! Stay tuned for much more, including new special feature posts, concert reviews, and more local metal news and updates!