LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Hellrager & Krash), A New Local Band, And More News & Notes!!

Another packed news post is ready to check out for this Tuesday night, and it includes some recent shorter updates, two LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for later this summer with a common band, and first, a new addition to our links & coverage, so here's what you should know!

We have a new-ish local band to add to our active links, and they are local alt-rock quartet The Reeves! You may recognize this band from their debut set at Toystock in November, but at the time, I wasn't sure of their general sound, aside from what their predecessor bands played. The Reeves are basically the successors to 2023-2025 alternative band The Haze (f.k.a. Skinbox), with singer/guitarist/synth player Brad Irwin (ex-Gnaeus) and guitarist Steve Edwards (ex-Pixo Control/Vol.) returning from that group. The rhythm section here is filled out by former Long Shot bandmates Adam Dawe and Jeremy Ganuelas on bass and drums, and it is good to see them back in a new project! While sound descriptions of Skinbox/The Haze pointed to them playing alternative/indie rock and Arctic Monkeys covers, the write-up on Rotaryfest's website says that The Reeves "combine elements of hard rock/blues and other genres to create their own unique vibe".

No word on if the name is an allusion to small town mayors, celebrities named Reeve/Reeves, or some other reference, but their second public concert will see them as the first scheduled band at Rotaryfest Stage 2 on Saturday, July 18th, and their set will reportedly feature "a collection of songs that will become their debut EP". No media of The Reeves is publically streamable yet, but this is a talented group on paper, and they do have descriptions pointing to a heavier sound than The Haze/Skinbox had, though be advised that Steve or Brad took down The Haze's social media pages when that band broke up. Stay tuned for more from them when things go public!

Next up, relaunched local death metal quartet Eden Plague have announced two upcoming indoor concerts that they'll be rocking out at, so besides Rotaryfest, when can you see the former Bear Hunters next? The first of the two will be on Tuesday, July 28th, when they make their debut appearance at Beck's Bar, and the headliners will be Cornwall hardcore metal band Hellrager in their first regional concert since playing at the Northern Vibe Festival in 2023! That's not for a lack of trying, as they dropped out of the last two Northern Vibes, but it will be good to see Hellrager in city limits for a change! Nice punishing sound that is reminiscent of bands like Clutch and Motorhead, and remember that guitarist Jay "Beard" Sarrazin was a member of Spades GT from 2022-2023 (playing with them at Northern Vibe 2022 as a fill-in bassist). He previously came to the Soo with his old band Caym twice in the mid-2010s.

Joining Eden Plague as openers are local metal quintet With Gunfire (the former Sault Side Squad) in their first concert of 2026 and first since finally launching their own Facebook page. Hopefully their recent break has been fruitful towards their promising original slate! Promoted by Eden Plague drummer Johnny Belanger, this stop on Hellrager's Jurassic Punk tour will have a 19+ age limit, no cover charge(!), and an early runtime of 6:00-10:00 PM, which is just as well given that it's a work/school night. This should be a fun one for metalheads across the board, with lots of familiar faces, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

The other new Eden Plague show ahead will be at Blaster Powerhouse on Sunday, August 16th, and apologies for the almost month-long delay in this making the site. Compared to the metal show three weeks prior, this is more of a genre hybrid event as put on by promoters Underground Events SSM, and it will be headlined by Saskatoon "D-beat hardcore punk" band Krash in their local debut. If you like down and dirty hardcore punk with aggressive vocals, Krash will deliver the goods, and they should take names when they rock the former Soo Blaster in two months! Note that the Facebook event page claim that "we're getting our first Saskatchewan band in the Sault!" clearly only refers to Underground Events SSM bookings, as The Sheepdogs played here in April, among other bands from there in the past. Promoter Mikhal Muto's ska punk/"crackrocksteady" band A.S.D.P. are slotted ahead of Eden Plague in the band order here, and may be the last band if you believe the poster.

While not a hardcore punk act, it's only natural that Adam Smith Death Parade get in on this one! A 7:00 PM start time is advertised on the Facebook event page for this all ages concert, and tickets cost $10 in advance (I presume at the venue and through the local openers, as I haven't seen an online ticket sale page). The door charge will jump to $15, and given that this too is on a work/school night, Mikhal pledged that the show will end early due to that. Add another intriguing concert to the pile for your summer plans, just don't krash when driving to Blaster! Visit the above links for more details on both upcoming Eden Plague shows!

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

 

• While not yet confirmed by name within the band's slim social media presence, it looks like former One Shot guitarist Tucker Lidstone has joined the aforementioned A.S.D.P., making them a quartet. Tucker had previously performed at common folk punk-leaning events with frontman Mikhal Muto, and has been pictured in recent photos with the band, including at the Write-Ups show at The Speak Easy in May (source here). No word on if he is the guest guitarist "Keagles" from their debut album "Atom Bombs & Lemonade", but hopefully Tucker is a solid addition to their live roster! 
• Remember when a mystery act named "Benny's Acoustic Thing" was booked to open the Saturday bill at The Northern Vibe Festival last year? Well, that was supposed to be Ben "Boom" Poitras, the singer/bassist for the aforementioned Hellrager, but he and the band both dropped out of last year's festival after the heavy rainstorm severely damaged the Forest Stage overnight. It would have been interesting to hear how his acoustic thing sounded, but alas, blame Mother Nature! Thanks to former Forest Stage curator J.D. Pearce for confirming who Benny was.
• This is old news now, but it looks like the Sunday Night Vinyl Series ended on 104.3 The Fox and their sister Rogers Radio rock stations at the end of 2025, as did the conceit of on-air theme weeks (which always tied in with that week's album of choice). The 8:00 PM series featured Howard Mandshein from 92.1 CITI in Winnipeg spinning a classic rock album from front to back while discussing its backstory and legacy. While inconsistent depending on musical preferences, the Sunday Night Vinyl Series was an informative listen during The Fox's first year! I would have liked to seen newer bands/albums selected though, as well as more Canadian content.

 

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

Details On The Fox 104.3's Saturday-Sunday On-Air Schedule!!

Today on the SMS, we're outlining the weekend schedule on The Fox 104.3 FM, which is quite different than what listeners to CJQM will be accustomed to from Monday-Friday! Remember, there is no "Shows" tab on the station's website yet, but the schedule is more or less verbatim to what you'll hear on Q92 in Sudbury and their sister stations in North Bay, Timmins, and Kingston. After spending much of Saturday mornings on autoplay music rotation, the first scheduled program of the day is This Year In Rock, which airs from 11:00 AM-12:00 PM with a re-airing from 6:00-7:00 PM. Hosted by Adam Kane of 92.1 CITI in Winnipeg, he looks at ten notable rock songs from a given calendar year, while he also outlines historical events and milestones from the year in question, often with a Canadian slant. The local premiere episode from January 11th was on 1976, while this Saturday's episode focused on 1978.

This show is roughly comparable in purpose to the syndicated Time Warp with Bill St. James on Sault Michigan's Rock 101, though Time Warp is four hours long and has more of a sonic collage of audio clips beyond just songs (also, the two shows do not conflict, as Time Warp runs on Saturdays from 6:00-10:00 AM). I like hearing more modern tunes than what This Year In Rock has focused on so far, but classic rock fans should be into it, and Adam's trivia and facts add some spice! From 12:00-6:00 PM on Saturdays, you'll hear Dan Koo (the Country 104.3 holdover in the 2:00-6:00 PM weekday timeslot) back in the booth, and after the This Year In Rock replay at 6:00 PM, the last scheduled program on Saturdays from 7:00-9:00 PM is The Biggs & Barr Show with Pastey Jamie, the Ottawa-based zoo crew show heard on The Fox weeknights from 6:00-8:00. Less unique programming, but there's lots to enjoy for rock fans!

For the record, Biggs & Barr were followed on Saturday the 11th by the syndicated Greg Beharrell Show from 9:00 PM-2:00 AM, but Greg's show has not visibly resurfaced on the former Q104 since that night. If you liked what you heard on the first three nights after the format change, or are curious as to how Greg is on air, click here to find his current affiliates!

Lastly for the regular schedule on The Fox 104.3 is the biggest diversion of all, as Sundays there are Classic Rock Sundays! From 6:00 AM until midnight, CJQM and their sister rock stations devote 18 consecutive hours to music almost entirely from the 1960s-1980s, which will please classic rock fans and former The Bear listeners to no end! In terms of scheduled programming, Sunday's first show (from 9:00 AM-12:00 PM) is the Church Of Rock, which is hosted by Cosmo Grant out of CHEZ 106 in Ottawa. This program is loosely themed around being an actual Sunday church service, with Cosmo's "sermons" being trivia and context on certain songs. Informative program with a good range of classics, and I even heard a couple of 1950s songs on air during the Church of Rock! Note that the show's first hour does run opposite the last hour of The Chop Shop with Steve Black on Rock 101, in case you're planning what to hear.

From 12:00-8:00 PM on Classic Rock Sundays, DJs are in the booth, with the first being "Big" Kris Bawden (a.k.a. BK) until 4:00 PM. BK isn't otherwise an on-air personality on The Fox or Q92, but he is also out of CHEZ in Ottawa. The Fox's weekday afternoon DJ Lew MacDonald takes over from 4:00-8:00, and he is definitely well tuned to classic rock, as he also hosts the Classic Rock Lunch from 12:00-1:00 PM on weekdays. The last scheduled program of the weekend is the Sunday Night Vinyl Series, which airs at 8:00 PM and seems to have a somewhat variable end time. Each week, host Howard Manshein (also out of CITI in Winnipeg) plays a notable rock album in full, from front to back, while adding trivia and context before and afterwards, as well as at the midpoint when the vinyl would be flipped over from side A to side B (nice touch!) For the local premiere episode, the album played was Rush's "Moving Pictures".

Last night's album was Van Halen's 1978 self-titled debut, and if you noticed that both albums were by the band who was spotlighted with their very own "week" of coverage and extra songs played on air, you're not alone! I don't know whether the Sunday Night Vinyl Series selection is made prior to or as a result of what band gets the weekly focus, but keep that in mind going forward! It does go head to head with the second hour of the modern hard rock-focused hardDrive with Lou Brutus on Rock 101, so make note of that as well. Beyond the possibility of the Sunday Night Vinyl Series album being post-1989, I did catch at least one instance of a 1990s song being played during Classic Rock Sunday (Colin James' 1990 hit "Just Came Back" was definitely played one week ago), so the 1960s-1980s focus isn't 100% ironclad. Personally speaking, I honestly prefer The Fox's general rotation to Classic Rock Sundays, but there are still lots of good tunes then!

Myself, I do want to hear modern stuff along with older songs, but 18 hours of classic rock will have a lot of appeal for many listeners, especially with the Canadian content factor. If you want songs from the 1990s or this millennium though, you'll have to tune in before 6:00 AM Sundays, or wait until Monday. Barring future programming changes or hosts/DJs coming & going, this concludes our look at The Fox 104.3's on-air schedule, so hopefully this helps give a better look at what you're hearing on Sault Ontario's new rock station, and whether you're all-in on The Fox or if you like bopping between it and Rock 101 or any other stations as songs/shows dictate, enjoy this new variety on the local dial! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Telephone & Address), New Sault Michigan Videos, And More!!

After a couple of slow days, let's get back into the groove with a new news post for your Wednesday morning, which includes some concluding updates (for now) to one of our past feature profiles, some new videos from across the river, and first, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for the spring!

Local acoustic/punk solo project Telephone & Address will be among the local openers at a concert at LopLops Lounge on Thursday, April 21st, when they open for Toronto pop duo Moon King! Off hand, this is the first LopLops show that I can recall from Chris Shoust's solo act, but his punk originals should be a nice mood setter in two months' time, so keep his opening set in mind for then. Some fans may recognize Moon King's members from the defunct indie rock band Spiral Beach, who played here at least twice in the late 2000s, but Moon King's energetic and poppy sound should find an audience of their own next month, so give them a look if their sound is up your alley! Local indie/alternative band Aldous will join Telephone & Address as openers on April 21st as well, with Nick's recent electronic-tinged originals sure to leave their mark once again as well! Promoted by Ears & Eyes Online's Jackson Reed, this 19+ concert has NO COVER, and starts at 9:30 PM.

This should be a solid concert for indie rock fans, and while it definitely leans more that direction than most shows we cover, Telephone & Address will deliver some unplugged punk to start the evening, so whatever your pleasure, keep this show in mind for April 21st, and visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Next up, here's some new video finds from Sault Michigan artists, including two new solo videos from 415E guitarist Chris Hubbard's YouTube channel, as he has two new multi-instrument covers to take in from Monday! Both featuring Chris on guitar, bass, and drums in separate clips edited together, one is a cover of Van Halen's "Unchained" (joining last week's version of "Light The Sky"), but embedded below is his take on Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine". These are strong covers, especially the extremely faithful "Unchained", but it's interesting to hear his Van Halen-inspired take on GNR, and I wonder how these would sound with vocals? Give them a look!



Also today, here's a video that we recently found from the local cover rock trio Broke On Sunday, who covered Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike" at The Merchant's Bar last spring! Uploaded in the fall to singer/guitarist Mark Bowen's YouTube channel, this is the only public video that I've seen from Broke on Sunday, who don't have a known online page, but their lineup includes Mark (formerly seen in The London Gentlemen) alongside Retro Troop/ex-Ten Kings bassist Barney Gravelle, and Chump Change drummer Jason VanLuven, who you may recognize as a former bandmate of Mark's in Bucksaw, and has also recently played with The London Gentlemen. I can't verify a whole lot about Broke On Sunday,  including on if their sets tend to lean heavier, but they do play live a fair amount, were a part of this year's 1-500 Pub Crawl with a set at Moloney's Alley, and I believe they generally play acoustic-only concert sets. On watching this video, Broke On Sunday definitely do a good job on this grunge staple!

Featuring Jason singing the Eddie Vedder parts and Mark handling the Chris Cornell parts (Barney appears to be absent entirely here), it's a nice casual performance with surprisingly accurate takes on the vocals, and while the lighting is very red, it's nice to see this video, and to see something from in The Merch for a change as well! Give this Broke on Sunday clip a look below, and hopefully more from them turns up down the road!



Finally for today, here's our final major updates to our Battle of the Bands Rewind Profiles before we get into new profiles next month, as we're refreshing and updating our profile of Viva La Battle from November 2013! There, we restored all photos, and in the section on performers' later activity, we updated the details on recent work from winners The Bear Hunters and runners-up Northwest. For the section on performers' later bands, we replaced Haggith, The Sorrow Fields, and Urawk with Eclipse, Heavy Head, and Mourning Wood to get that updated, In the trivia section, we updated references to how third placers Punch's original songs were re-appropriated as Haggith originals during that band's 2014-2015 reunion (with "Road Rash" making their final EP.) Lastly, we added trivia notes concerning Punch members' second place run in 2014's Rock N' Roar Battle with The Suicide Kings, and notes on how The Bear Hunters and Punch alumni did in last March's VM Radio and Speak Easy Battles of the Bands. Hopefully that covers all major updates, and stay tuned for our profiles of last March's battles next!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for last month's poll results and weekend concert previews next! Thanks everyone!

SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Frightlight), A New Local Band, And Much More!!

Here's some more news for Wednesday before we focus on weekend concert previews tomorrow (including Rotaryfest), so tonight, we have some assorted shorter stories, some new videos from Woods of Ypres, and a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, but first, here's a new local band! (UPDATED, 3:09 PM)

...Ok, this band isn't "new", but they recently emerged from inactivity with coverable material, so here's what you should know! The band is Swampghas, a death/thrash metal trio from nearby Eckerman, Michigan, and they've actually been around longer than you think! The band features Jason Mills of Life's Eclipse on vocals & bass, "J.R." from the band Black Market Body Parts on guitar (I'm unsure of his full name), and former Half A Man drummer Doug Reed. According to the biography on their MySpace page, Swampghas actually formed circa 2001 during their then-bands' respective downtimes, but "outside influences" got in the way. Eight years later, Swampghas reunited to commence work on their debut album "The Raco Tower Incident", and we're finally hearing some real details on it! The album will be released through Jason's independent label Werehold Records, and though it's current status is largely unknown, Jason did upload one Swampghas demo to the Werehold Records YouTube channel!

Entitled "Bog", it's a shorter track with no vocals yet, but it's very heavy and has a groove metal influence! It doesn't feel finished, but there's some heavy promise there, so definitely give "Bog" a look below, and stay tuned for more news from Swampghas, Life's Eclipse, and other Werehold Records projects!



Now for the LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, as local horror punk quintet Frightlight have scheduled a new headlining concert for THIS SATURDAY at Foggy Notions! This is the second straight year that Frightlight have played a concert at Foggy's concurrently with the Rotaryfest stages, but unlike last year's afternoon benefit concert, this one will have a normal 9:00 PM start time & a 19+ age limit (and their current lineup, of course!) Plus, if you don't wanna miss the Second Stage, it's literally less than a block from Foggy's, so you can catch most of it before the action at Foggy's begins! Frightlight will of course bring tons of horror movie-influenced punk/metal to the table, so they'll be worth checking out! The opening act will be former Terminal bassist Greg Callaghan, who'll be playing a solo set. No word on how his solo material sounds, but I'd put my money on acoustic indie rock. He's a talented musician regardless though, so he's worth checking out! There will be a $3 cover for this concert, and apologies for the short notice, the concert was only just announced yesterday evening. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! Nice to see Frightlight rocking Rotaryfest weekend again, this should be an interesting show! Stay tuned for more on this show in our weekend concert previews later tonight!

And now, here's some news from local blackened doom metal standouts Woods of Ypres! Since the Madden brothers left last month, there hasn't been a ton of new band updates, but frontman David Gold has uploaded some new videos onto his YouTube channel of a Woods of Ypres-nature! Most of them relate to his 2007-2008 period where he worked in South Korea and drummed for Necramyth, including a few new videos of South Korean settings with "You Are Here With Me (In This Sequence Of Dreams)" as the backing music. They're basically seasonal variants of a winter-set version that was posted in March, so they're largely similar, but search for the song's title on the above links to see all three! Is a fall version coming next? These, along with this video of a very.... suggestive park in Seoul, are apparently gonna be part of a travelogue documentary that David's been working on about the South Korean metal scene called "Korea Metal - Into Exile: "Can You Get Here in 10 Days?", which shares a title with a "W4" song. A 10 minute preview of the film is also now on David's channel, and though it's mostly focused around South Korean culture and Necramyth band happenings (including concert footage), it does have a similar vibe to a Woods of Ypres tour vlog, so it's familiar in theme!

I'd be interested to see the full film, especially if David offers some narrative about the South Korean scene's positives & negative, similarly to Sam Dunn's work in "Global Metal". Plus, for Woods of Ypres fans, they do make cameos in the preview video, including their video for "The Northern Cold" in a public setting, their cover of Unrestrained! Magazine, and the winter-themed "You Are Here With Me" video at the start! Very interesting so far, hopefully more comes out, so check out all the new Korean videos at the above links, and here's the 10 minute preview below!



And finally, here's three assorted shorter stories from the last little while! As always when we end a post like this, these are in alphabetical order by band name:

• If you're still wondering why Desbarats death metal band For All That Is Lost didn't show up on Sunday for their set at the Fatality/Immersed concert, it looks like we now know why. Guitarist Allen Piche left the band for personal reasons that same day, and the band dropped out as a result, though promoters didn't get the message until after the show ended. Get more details at this location! Sucks that he left, but hey, he's gotta do what he's gotta do, and check the above links for more on how you could try out for the band!
• I deleted the inactive local hard rock band Sunday Life from our band listings, as someone connected with the band shut their MySpace page down at some point this year. As far as I knew, they didn't have audio material there, and I don't think they had a lot posted beyond bio information, so it's not a huge loss, but still, I'd have left the page up for archival reasons. Still, if you noticed they were gone from our listings, now you know why!
• Local extreme metal quintet Winkstinger have been confirmed as the second local openers for August 1st's Alcoholic White Trash/Lesbian Fist Magnet concert at The Canadian Nightclub, joining RedD Monkey! Nice addition, we have a great mix of punk, hardcore, and metal now for this ALL AGES show! Click here for more details, and I'll keep you posted!
  

That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews later today! Thanks everyone!