Double Down & Oz Concert Previews, New Videos, And More Recent Updates!!

As promised, we're wrapping up this weekend's known hard rock concert previews today, along with clearing up some loose ends re: preview videos that I couldn't use yesterday, and some more recent updates, so here's what you should know on this mild Friday night!

We'll start in Sault Michigan, where Iron Mountain classic/hard rock cover quintet Oz will play their first local dates of 2026 TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT at The Rapids Lounge at the local Kewadin Casino! Last seen in the Soo over two months ago, this veteran outfit have proved to be a reliable favourite sight in their mid-2020s trips east, and hopefully tonight and tomorrow's shows provide more hard rocking classic hits from Ryan, Kevin, Joe, Todd, and Dave once again! And you know they put on a good live show, as Oz noted on their Facebook page that they brought two trailers with their gear and equipment! Tonight and tomorrow's concerts, as usual at The Rapids Lounge, are 9:00 PM affairs with no announced cover charges and 21+ age limits. Visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's Oz live!

Next up, we'll wrap up this weekend's hard rock concert previews at The Water Tower Pub, where local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down will take the stage TOMORROW NIGHT! This show will feature the long awaited return of bassist Dan Beaupre for the first time since last summer, after taking a six month break for health matters and foreign travel, so if you've missed this local rock mainstay, don't be absent tomorrow! Double Down were last seen with fill-in bassist Lori Reinholtz at Beck's Bar last month, and they kicked off 2026 at The Water Tower Pub on January 3rd. Remember, this venue does not host bands on consecutive nights, and Generations are playing there tonight (more on them in a second). Tomorrow's show is at 8:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover. See above for more details, and for a preview, here's a new video of Double Down (and Lori) live at Beck's last month!

This clip sees the band covering Our Lady Peace's "Starseed" with guitarist Beej Syrette on lead vocals, and it was uploaded three days after their initial batch of videos from that night. Alas, like with the prior three, this is both incomplete (75 seconds) and vertical, but it's a soundly handled cover that O.L.P. fans should like! I think that there are songs that suit Beej's vocal range better though. Give it a watch for yourselves below!

Also today, this extends from our weekend concert previews, as two of the bands playing this weekend have posted new live videos to their Facebook pages that I am unable to embed here, so I held discussion about them from yesterday's post so it didn't get overlong. Two are from local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations' Facebook group, where new guitarist Joe Miller posted videos from their Full Throttle Saloon gig this past Saturday! One is a cover of Sheryl Crow's "If It Makes You Happy", and the other appears to be the guitar solo from ZZ Top's "Tush". I'd have embedded the former here if able, but I can't embed either video externally, and I don't know whether that's a changed setting in the group or if that was Joe's call. Regardless, both are vertical and incomplete, seemingly filmed from a cell phone set down on the side of the stage. What we hear sounds good, but they aren't optimal in a few regards.

The other unembeddable video is from hard rock quintet HeadF1rst's Facebook page, and it's a highlight video compiled with InShot featuring three tiled windows of them playing at Beck's Bar last month, overlaid with post-production lighting effects and the Beck's logo. I can't embed the video here because Facebook content matched the backing music (the band's studio track "Stay For The Show"). I'd really prefer seeing the raw unedited live video with the music as performed that night, but at least it's an attempt to do something artistic with vertical cell phone videos! Give all three videos a watch above, and don't miss Generations tonight at The Water Tower Pub or HeadF1rst TOMORROW NIGHT at Beck's!

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 event name:

 

• A tribute concert in memory of late Rebel Priest/Glass Statues guitarist Ben Kemp-Reynolds (named Blitz Fest) will be held at The Rickshaw Theatre in Vancouver on Saturday, April 4th! Friends and former bandmates of Benny's, including Rebel Priest and reunions of The Lust Boys and Roadrash, will be on hand to perform songs from his B.C. bands & his own favourite artists. West Of Hell singer Chris "The Heathen" Valagao (who fronted that band at the former Roosevelt Hotel in 2012) will be the host of Blitz Fest. Not a local event, but it's great to see friends and colleagues putting on a proper memorial concert for Ben, so see above for more details!
• In clarification for the performers on local death/thrash metal trio Pillory's new full length album "Old Soul", their Bandcamp page confirms that 2015-2017 bassist Jordan Leach did indeed perform the low end on the final product, not his replacement Blair St. John or current bassist Devon Lucier. What's unsaid there is whether these are archival recordings from his stint in the band a decade ago or if he tracked his parts remotely in the past year (he lives and works out of country now). Regardless, it is neat to see Jordan in a new context again in local music! The album was recorded at Mission Control Studios with producer Dustin Jones.
• The Soo's Got Talent is looking for a band to perform at this fall's seventh annual installment, where they would perform a guest set during the semifinals and be the house band during the finals, backing up the last performers on their chosen covers. Handsome Sandwich (in 2022) and Mike Haggith & The Big Finish Band (2023-2024) did the honours previously, before T.S.G.T. went without a live band last fall during its "Soo Voxx" format change. This is a paid role and will garner wide exposure for the chosen group. If you're interested in more details, message The Soo's Got Talent at this link!

 

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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tarnished), The Unfortunate Sun Concert Preview, And More Recent Updates!!

Here's a new news post to check out on this wet Tuesday night, which is half devoted to Sault Ontario and half to Sault Michigan. We'll start south of the border as our Yooper readers gear up for Thanksgiving, so here's a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT and a related mid-week preview, before we finish things up north!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Tarnished will rock The Merchants Bar TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the band only announced this gig on their Facebook page earlier today, and as usual, The Merch don't advertise bands playing there on their own Facebook page. For Canadian reference, the Wednesday night booking is because Thursday is the American Thanksgiving, so most people will have the day off, and thusly can stay out late and go to the bar without impairing work or school (hence why some call tomorrow "Drinksgiving"). Tarnished have taken most of the past month off, so if you've missed Alex, Josh, Chris, and Ron's brand of hard rocking covers on a local stage, consider a mid-week jaunt to The Merch for their Thanksgiving pregame action TOMORROW! This is a 21+ event at 9:00 PM with no cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Tarnished live last year!

Next up, hard rock fans in the E.U.P. have one more opportunity to partake in a "Drinksgiving" concert TOMORROW NIGHT, but in this case, it had advance notice, as local hard rock quartet Unfortunate Sun will set up shop tomorrow at The Islander Bar in Hessel! This is a reprise of their Thanksgiving Eve concert last year (also the last time that the Fake Chow successors played at The Islander Bar), with the venue calling it a Drinksgiving Party again, but the band are calling this year's event a "pre-stuffed party". Of course, you can get stuffed early if you want, but we know how Thanksgiving tends to go! Unfortunate Sun's lively and fan-friendly mix of hard rocking covers should draw another solid audience, so come rock out before you settle in for the parade, the Lions game, turkey, and more on Thursday! All of the action begins at 8:00 PM with a 21+ age limit and no cover. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Unfortunate Sun live! 

Also, I have sadly moved Sault Ontario/Toronto punk supergroup project Mikey & His Uke to our inactive band links. Guitarist/ukelelist Mikey Hawdon hasn't posted any updates relating to him and his uke since posting the finale of his 30th anniversary series of covers of Green Day's "Dookie" (the album's closing songs "F.O.D." & "All By Myself") one year ago today, though commitments to his family and local bands BookcluB & Dos Amigos shouldn't be overlooked. Originally launched during the spring 2020 pandemic lockdown as a series of loose solo ukelele "quarantunes" for social media, Mikey's covers quickly caught steam and eventually attracted guest musicians of an increasing scale, and these soon took on their final form as remotely filmed full band covers, with Mikey starting each on ukelele before dropping the pretense and rocking out on guitar. Mikey moved back to Sault Ste. Marie in June 2022, and based the project locally from that point.

There were no inklings last fall that the "Dookie" series was Mikey & His Uke's grand farewell, but if it was, he sure went out with a bang! Truly transcending his home base, the YouTube channel has over 42,000 subscribers, with 10 songs getting 200,000+ views, including the cover of The Ramones' "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg" exceeding 930,000. These were always fun covers with cool names to recognize and discover from afar, so definitely check out Mikey & His Uke's litany of all-star covers above, and hopefully he picks up his uke again in the future!

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 station name:

 

• In a programming note for 104.3 The Fox, 2:00-6:00 PM weekday & 12-6:00 PM Saturday DJ Dan Koo has not been on air since (at the earliest) August 15th, with Rogers Radio regional content director and 101.9 The Fox (North Bay) DJ Mitch Belanger replacing him ever since. Assuming that Dan has left The Fox/Rogers, a reason for his departure was not announced (unless it was only on air), but hopefully this isn't a sign of consolidating operations from afar, as Dan was the only fully local on-air personality dating back to final years of Country 104.3. Note that Dan is still credited in his timeslot in the schedule on The Fox's website, albeit without a picture.
• If you follow the Up & Down Lounge on Facebook, you may have seen this vertical video from the 24 Second Line West bar & golf simulator lounge on Sunday, which features a very brief clip of classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9 playing there. We didn't miss a concert of theirs (the Up & Down Lounge rarely hosts public concerts), as this was definitely a private holiday party, and the video seems mostly intended to promote that you can book private events there. Silent 9's clip is muted out in favour of a seasonal Drake/Wham mashup anyway. It looks like a lot of fun was had!
• Convergence frontman Stephen Gagnon-Ruscio finished in second place in last month's sixth annual The Soo's Got Talent! We didn't cover this year's due to it being all-karaoke (let alone that there was no house band for the finalists like the last few years), but congratulations to Stephen, who has a really strong voice that goes beyond his recent metal work! This year's winner was David Ikechukwu (a.k.a. Bobbie Lex), making him just the second male champion of T.S.G.T., while perennial finalist Demoy MacSamuels finished in third place, and Shae Levi (the only female finalist this year) finished in fourth. Congratulations to all six finalists!

 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next! Thanks everyone!

The Soo's Got Talent Finals Recap (Part 2!!)

For our first news post of December 2024, let's finish our recap of the finals of The Soo's Got Talent at Soo Blaster on November 22nd! This post will feature the remaining videos of the finalists' second songs with Mike Haggith & The Big Finish Band from the T.S.G.T. Facebook page, and to see what winner Madii Schomogyi, runner-up Demoy MacSamuels, third place finisher Nicolette Rebello, and fellow finalist Robert Nevitt did with Mike's band, click here. We'll go in upload order here for the other three finalists, starting with Kristina Sagrak, who covered No Doubt's "Don't Speak" for her full band song. Like on Madii's Cher cover that night, the full Big Finish Band played here while Mike himself played tambourine (though he didn't do backing vocals this time). Good rendition that was a solid enough choice for Kristina's range, and everyone handles this early No Doubt ballad well, so check it out below!

Next up, golden buzzer recipient Chloe Tessier was filmed at the finals covering Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' "I Love Rock N' Roll" with The Big Finish Band (accurate description, as Mike didn't play here at all, not even on tambourine). Honestly, I don't think Joan Jett was the best choice to showcase Chloe's vocal range, but she does what she can with this classic rock staple, and the band is solid as you'd expect, so give this performance a watch for yourselves below!

Finally from the finalists this year was Celeste Burton, who put down her guitar to cover Pink's "Sober" for her last song. The band here saw Mike playing bass with Matt Fronzi sitting out (similarly to the Savage Garden cover with Demoy), though in this case, Elly McWatters provided backing vocals and didn't play guitar, like on Nicolette's Halestorm cover. Celeste seemed a little unsteady on stage just singing, but the song suited her vocal abilities well, and the pared down Big Finish Band worked fine on a song like this, so give her full-ish band cover a watch below!

Lastly, videos weren't publically posted from potential guest spots by 2023 champion Storm (Rausch) Dowding or judge Valerie Powley, but Mike Haggith & The Big Finish Band's intermission set was filmed for a 2 minute live-stream clip of most of their opening song "Carousel". It's short and vertical, but it's not a bad watch! Embedded below though is Mike & crew's full set, as live-streamed onto Mike's own YouTube channel! In the 24 minute video, they're seen playing "Carousel" as well as "I Really Hope This Gets To You", "No Love", "Hot & Cold", "All The Best", and "Twist Of Fate". Everyone's instrument roles are largely the same as seen at Northern Vibe, with Mike just singing and not playing guitar, though Elly just does backing vocals on "Twist Of Fate". Filmed from a front row vantage point from slightly below, the live-stream looks better than it sounds, with muffled audio and a slight hiss.

Despite that, Mike, Chris, Elly, Matt, and Brandan have a lively and strong mini-set here that helped set the tone for the competition songs ahead that night, so fans of Mike's will definitely want to check their Soo's Got Talent intermission set out below, and stay tuned for their Toystock set's live-stream from two days later in an upcoming post!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post on the site next! Thanks everyone!

The Soo's Got Talent Finals Recap (Part 1!!)

As you may know, the finals of the fifth annual The Soo's Got Talent went down on Friday, so who claimed the top prizes at Soo Blaster on this night? Your $1,000 first place winner this year is Lime frontwoman Madii Schomogyi, in her third run in this event after her semifinal placement in 2018 and also entering T.S.G.T. in 2019 (apologies for mistakenly saying that she was a finalist in 2018). Fans of Madii's will know that she has developed as a guitarist and songwriter in recent years, including her "Miss Madii" set at Rotaryfest Stage 2 this year, and judges absolutely looked at that along with her obvious vocal talent when assessing the final results! Demoy MacSamuels bettered his third place finish this year by coming in second place, notably making him the highest placed male contestant in two straight years, while Nicolette Rebello came in third place. No word on where Celeste Burton, Robert Nevitt, Kristina Sagrak, and Chloe Tessier placed.

Pictures of the finalists can be seen at this link from their solo and band sets, confirming that Madii and Celeste played guitar for their solo numbers, but none of the finalists played one for their song with Mike Haggith & The Big Finish Band. The Soo's Got Talent got Facebook videos of each finalist with Mike's band, and as I don't know the exact running order, let's look at the podium finishers + one today! Madii covered Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" with Mike and crew on Friday, and her vocals are strong here and hit all of the necessary notes! This was good icing on the cake for her run to the title, aided by her songwriting and guitar abilities, so check out this 1980s pop rock cover for yourselves below!

For his full-band T.S.G.T. encore, Demoy covered Savage Garden's "Truly Madly Deeply", which is an unexpected cover choice as far as the Soo goes, but he put good passion and groove into it! In terms of The Big Finish Band, Mike is playing bass here in lieu of Matt Fronzi, though Matt did play on the Cher cover with Madii. Also, for that song, Mike instead did backing vocals and played tambourine (and put his all into it). Yes, guitarist Elly McWatters sat for much of the night, and if it was for a medical reason, hopefully she heals up soon! Check out Demoy's closing song below!

To cap off her third place run, Nicolette covered Halestorm's "I Miss The Misery", which is mildly surprising to hear from a local artist, especially given Lzzy Hale's vocal abilities, but Nicolette holds her own throughout this song, and it's cool seeing something heavy on this scale in the finals again! For this song, Mike played guitar while Elly (standing up) sang backing vocals. Good stuff, so check out Nicolette and Mike's band tackling Halestorm below, and hopefully we hear more from her soon!

I don't know who was fourth place, but let's round things out on a hard rock note with former Big Mistake/Steel Sour frontman Robert Nevitt, who joined his old Re:Born bandmate Brandan Glew (plus Elly, who replaced him in that band) to cover Jelly Roll's "Need A Favour". Not sure that Re:Born would ever have covered a southern rock song like this, but it's a fair contemporary choice, and Rob sings it well! Of the four finals videos shared here, this the only one to feature Mike, Elly, and Chris Nielsen all on guitar simultaneously. Check out this mini-Re:Born reunion below!

That's all for now, but I will cover Celeste, Chloe, and Kristina's videos with Mike & The Big Finish Band in an upcoming post, not to mention Mike's band's intermission set, so look for that and more soon! Thanks everyone!

The Soo's Got Talent 2024 Semifinals Recap & Results!!

Let's take some time today on the SMS to finally go over the semifinal results of the fifth annual The Soo's Got Talent, which went down on Friday at Soo Blaster! All twelve semifinalists competed by way of two songs that night, and judges sent through seven (not six) performers to the finals on Friday, November 22nd, those being singers Demoy MacSamuels, Robert Nevitt, Kristina Sagrak, and Chloe Tessier, alongside singer/guitarists Celeste Burton, Nicolette Rebello, and Madii Schomogyi. Eliminated on Friday were singer/guitarists Jennifer Joseph and Arin Karki, plus singers Haley Alopaeus, Rebekah Moran, and Ricky Roy.  The results were announced for social media in the Facebook video embedded below by judges Darren Robertson and Mario Naccarato, where they complimented the performances but also acknowledged a scoring discrepancy that initially kept Robert out of the final six.

No word on the teased audience save, though Chloe was acknowledged by Darren as being the audience favourite. It is good that the judges caught their error with their tallies, and that no one was eliminated by way of that! Darren also hinted at a change in how the finals would have been formatted as a result of adding a seventh finalist, but given how he described the plans for next Friday, it doesn't sound dissimilar to last year's finals. In any event, give the announcement video a watch below!

While videos from round 2 were never posted to the T.S.G.T. Facebook page for unannounced reasons, they did post footage of all twelve semifinalists there this week, with three videos being uploaded featuring four performers apiece. We only get minute-or-so-long clips of one song each, but it's better than nothing! Note that Celeste & Arin are the only semifinalists who were filmed playing guitar here, though I can't vouch for everyone's unfilmed second song. Video #1 features Celeste doing an apparent original song, Rebekah singing Anais Mitchell & Ani DiFranco's "Our Lady Of The Underground", Chloe covering Dolly Parton's "Jolene", and Jennifer covering Irene Cara's "Flashdance... What A Feeling". I would have embedded video #2 here, but unfortunately, Robert and/or Nicolette's backing track was content matched by Facebook, so it's unembeddable on external websites. Click here to check it out!

There, you'll see Robert covering Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive", Nicolette covering Alannah Myles' "Black Velvet", and Demoy & Madii both singing apparent originals. Robert has a good handle on the classic Bon Jovi power ballad, and I'm glad to see that a judges' tallying error didn't send him home early! Nicolette did a good job with "Black Velvet" too, if a somewhat overplayed song (it being Cancon is acknowledged), and it's good to see another finalist doing a heavier song! There's clear talent across the board here, including songwriting talent for Demoy & Madii, so don't bypass it! We can embed video #3 here though, which features Kristina singing a possible original (maybe titled "Watch Yourself, Girl"?), Haley covering Demi Lovato's "Anyone", Ricky covering Greta Van Fleet's "Highway Tune", and Arin playing an original. Note that only Kristina advanced out of this group.

If it was up to me, I'd have balanced the semifinal videos better for Facebook, especially as everyone in video #2 advanced. Regardless, there are good performances here, though I will admit that I don't think Ricky picked a great song for his vocal range (the author's dislike for Greta Van Fleet is acknowledged, eventhough it's a hard rock cover). Check out the last four semifinal clips for yourself below!

The finals go down next Friday at 6:30 PM, with Celeste, Demoy, Robert, Nicolette, Kristina, Madii, and Chloe going head to head for the top prize! Demoy is the only returning finalist from last year, whereas Kristina finally made the finals of The Soo's Got Talent after being knocked out in the 2023 semifinals despite getting a golden buzzer last year. Can Demoy improve on last year's success and match his Shooters Talent Quest victory? This year's only golden buzzer went to Chloe, but will that be an omen of a solid finish next week? Madii was a finalist in 2018's inaugural T.S.G.T., but can she finally win it all in 2024? She has covered hard rock songs with her local cover band Lime, so will that bode well for the song with Mike Haggith's band, let alone Nicolette's Alannah Myles cover? Celeste has reliably played guitar throughout this year's competition, but will Nicolette & Madii break theirs out again?

And of course, fans of 2018-2022 power rock/classic metal band Re:Born will want to pay attention next Friday, as Robert was that band's original singer. Not only is his old bandmate Brandan Glew drumming for The Big Finish Band, but his replacement (2023 runner-up Elly McWatters) is now their rhythm guitarist, so we'll get a mini-reunion of sorts at Soo Blaster! We'll have more on the finals next week in that round of weekend concert previews, and we'll discuss Mike's halftime set in the near future as well, but visit the above links for more on all that went down at T.S.G.T. V on Friday night! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Exit 808) & More Weekend Concert Previews!!

In today's post, we're wrapping up this weekend's Sault Ontario hard rock concert previews, but leading off, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for you Sault Michigan/E.U.P. readers!

Sault Michigan hard rock band Exit 808 will make their debut at the Back Bay Grill & Games at Bay Mills Resort & Casino in Brimley on Saturday, November 23rd! Concerts at Bay Mills' on-site bar/restaurant are not common, especially compared to what goes down at Kewadin Casinos, with this show being the first publically advertised Back Bay Grill show that I've heard about since Project 906 played there in September of last year. This will be Exit 808's first show since their Halloween concert at The Merch this past weekend, and will definitely see the return of co-vocalist Dillion Semasky after he had to miss the Merch gig. Just to clarify the lineup from that Halloween show, their Facebook page confirmed that bassist Myke Young was on hand despite not being tagged in pre-concert promotions, though former fill-in bassist Blaze Beairl did play on some songs. (Ex-?)guitarist Will Robbins was not present.

Exit 808 also welcomed Project 906 guitarist Joe Jenkins and Bob Libick from the Marquette hard rock band Spun as guest musicians at The Merch alongside No Expectations singer Drew Collister (who sat in for Dillion all night). While there's no videos (yet?), a bunch of photos of the spooky season festivities can be seen on their Facebook page! The costume-less action in Brimley later this month will have a 21+ age limit, 9:00 PM start time, and no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details on Exit 808's Bay Mills debut in just over two weeks!

Next up, here's out preview of the semifinals of the fifth annual The Soo's Got Talent go down TONIGHT at Soo Blaster in Sault Ontario! With six judges picks & an implied audience save awaiting the twelve remaining contestants, things will get even better as the competition whittles down, and with all semifinalists performing twice, hopefully attendees will get a good sample of who will be worthy of the final round in two weeks! This year, all twelve semifinalists are singers of some description, though five have been seen in videos or photos from prior rounds playing guitar at least some of the time, those being Celeste Burton, Jennifer Joseph, 2023 semifinalist Arin Karki, Nicolette Rebello, and 2018 finalist/Lime frontwoman Madii Schomogyi. The seven singing-only competitors are Haley Alopaeus, 2023 third place finisher Demoy MacSamuels, Rebekah Moran, ex-Re:Born frontman Robert Nevitt, 2022 competitor Ricky Roy, 2023 semifinalist Kristina Sagrak, and golden buzzer recipient Chloe Tessier.

While videos from the second round have not (yet?) been shared publically by T.S.G.T., three semifinalists (Arin, Haley, and Robert) were filmed performing at least one hard rock cover through round #1, so will they be a genre respite for fans, or could we get some SMS-amenable surprises? Speaking of which, local/Barrie alternative/hard rock musician Mike Haggith and his Big Finish Band (now featuring 2023 runner-up Elly McWatters on guitar) will be the halftime performers tomorrow, repeating their role as the house band for the final two rounds last year, so prepare for a fun set of Mike's original music in between the semifinalists' first and second songs! The semifinals begin tonight at 6:30 PM with admission at the door of $15 (adults) and $10 (kids). Remember that proceeds of this year's The Soo's Got Talent are going to the Second Chances Animal Rescue, as every year supports a different local charity. Visit the above links for full details on tomorrow's Soo's Got Talent semifinals, and here's Mike & crew live at Soo Blaster last year!

Finally, let's preview one more pair of hard rock concerts in the Soo this weekend, as local classic/hard rock cover quartet Double Down will return to The Esquire Club for concerts TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT! Last seen at the Second Line West nightclub in September, this weekend's shows kick off a busy month for the Syrettes, Brad, and Ric, as they'll be playing somewhere over three of the next four weekends. Hopefully there's a strong turnout at The Esquire Club this weekend for Double Down's fan friendly and often heavy array of covers! If you can't make it, they'll be at Jay's next weekend. Tonight and tomorrow night's concerts have 19+ age limits, no cover charges, and 9:00 PM start times. Visit the above links for more details on Double Down's Esquire Club concerts tomorrow and Saturday night, and for a preview, here's a video of the guys live in concert earlier this year!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Mike Haggith) & The Soo's Got Talent Rounds #1 & 2 Recap!!

After first looking at the audition level of the fifth annual The Soo's Got Talent on Saturday, let's continue recapping what went down at Soo Blaster in this post, as the 23 acts who passed muster with the judges in September returned for the first elimination round on Wednesday, October 11th! On that night, six acts were eliminated either due to the judges' scores or not appearing for that day's competition, those being singers Elena Fera, Abiguale Lacroix, Elizabeth Budge, Sheena Matchett, and Abigail Joseph, plus "read rapper" Corey Marques. Sixteen other acts who performed that day moved on, though it was clarified on T.S.G.T.'s Facebook page that singer Chloe Tessier was the only "golden buzzer" recipient of the entire audition level, meaning that she was directly byed to the second elimination round on Friday, October 25th. First round action was highlighted in two recap videos posted to Facebook, so what can you see there?

All performers are singers doing covers unless otherwise stated. In order, the first video features Rebekah Moran ("In My Dreams" from the Anastasia musical), singer/guitarist Jennifer Joseph (Little Big Town's "Girl Crush"), Owen "MK" Kjiersdam doing an apparent original song, Andrea Dantzer ("Wishing You Were Somewhere Here" from The Phantom Of The Opera), Madii Schomogyi (Hozier's "It Will Come Back"), singer/guitarist Arin Karki (Eric Clapton's unplugged version of "Layla"), and Kristina Sagrak (Abba's "Dancing Queen"). Nothing heavier in there for song choices, but there is definitely some clear talent to check out! The second video has some hard rock content and is thusly embedded below. It features Demoy MacSamuels singing an original song possibly named "No Regrets", Ricky Roy (The Killers' "Mr. Brightside"), Haley Alopaeus (Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life"), Robert Nevitt (AC/DC's "Ride On")...

...singer/guitarist Nicolette Rebello (The 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up?"), Rebecca Wabigwan (Adele's "Make You Feel My Love"), and singer/guitarist Celeste Burton playing an original song. Two advancing performers (magic act Mxsterious and singer Theo Ravihansa) went unfilmed for The Soo's Got Talent, and while reasons for their omissions weren't announced, remember that a couple of audition videos had to be uploaded in excerpts due to copyright flags. Good stuff in video #2 as well, with Robert delivering some sold pitched-down AC/DC in his clip, and Haley showed off a good voice doing Evanescence in hers, so give most of the round 2 qualifiers a watch for yourselves above & below!

As mentioned above, the second elimination round took place this past Friday, where we learned which twelve of the seventeen remaining contestants would be moving on. Owen MK, Rebecca Wabigwan, and Mxsterious were eliminated at this stage, while Andrea Dantzer and Theo Ravihansa were unable to attend on Friday and are now out of the competition. As of this writing, videos from the second round have not been posted on The Soo's Got Talent's Facebook page, but photos of all fifteen competing acts can be seen at this link. If you want to see how the final twelve performers do in the semifinals, you can find out on Friday, November 8th, but here's where the LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS come in, as Mike Haggith and his Big Finish Band will return as the house band for the semifinals and finals this year! This was hinted at during the finals last year, but Mike and crew will be back next Friday and two weeks later on November 22nd!

Like last year, the semifinals will feature Mike and crew (now including T.S.G.T. MC and 2023 runner-up Elly McWatters on rhythm guitar) as the halftime band in between the competitors, but on the 22nd, they will again provide backing instrumentation in some form or fashion for the remaining finalists on one or both of their songs. Everyone left in the field is a singer of some description, so things should fit cleanly next month, especially with Robert, Arin, and Haley all doing hard rock songs already, so they could fit extra well if they make the finals! It is also implied in the write-up for the above poster that there will be an audience save for a contestant eliminated by the judges next week, and you will get entries for a door prize if you vote thusly. The semifinals begin next Friday at 6:30 PM, and admission is $15 for adults and $10 for children. As best as I can tell, it will be more of the same for the finals on the 22nd.

If past years are any indication, 2023 T.S.G.T. winner Storm Rausch should get an invite to perform a guest song on the 22nd too, but their involvement has not been publically confirmed by organizers. Of course, best of luck to all twelve remaining competitiors next week, and hopefully they impress the judges (and audience) to stamp their finals tickets over the last weekend of November!  See above for more on what went down in the first two knockout rounds of The Soo's Got Talent V, and Halloween concert previews are on the way next! Thanks everyone!

The Soo's Got Talent 2024 Auditions Recap!!

The fifth annual The Soo's Got Talent is ongoing at Soo Blaster, and just completed its second elimination round at Soo Blaster last night! Alas, it also seems like an annual occurrence that our coverage of it is delayed, so I do apologize for not covering anything from this year's festivities until now. Once again, T.S.G.T. is benefiting a deserving local charity, and this time, it's the Second Chances Animal Rescue, which only launched in Sault Ste. Marie last summer. An animal shelter is a wonderful cause, and hopefully this year's talent competition goes a long way towards helping Second Chances out! Remember, while we don't cover karaoke and singing-only competitions on the SMS, The Soo's Got Talent is open to musicians, bands, and other artistic performers, but who all advanced into October 11th's first round action this year? The auditions were also held at Soo Blaster, with night #1 taking place on Friday, September 20th.

On that day, judges sent six performers to the first round, and all were filmed for The Soo's Got Talent's Facebook page, with videos uploaded in a batch post four days later! The six advancing contestants are all singers only who performed cover songs, and they included 2019 competitor Andrea Dantzer (Thomas Aquinas' "Panis Angelicus"), Nicolette Rebello (Joy Woods' "My Days"), Rebekah Moran (Barbra Streisand's "I'm The Greatest Star"), 2023 semifinalist Kristina Sagrak (Ariana Grande's "Almost Is Never Enough"), and local electro-synth musician Owen MK (Radiohead's "Creep"), though Owen's video is only shown in excerpts due to a copyright flag. Yes, he will be opening for Skoff at The Eagles Club's Halloween concert tonight, but expect Owen to be playing more of his usual repertoire there. Embedded below is the sixth advancing contestant on the 20th, so who is that?

None other than former Re:Born singer Robert Nevitt, who covered Seven Mary Three's "Cumbersome" as his audition song. Good to see him back out there beyond karaoke nights, and he sings this 1990s hard rock cover well with good energy, so it's obvious why he was sent through! Not a lot of heavier content from audition night #1, but there's a lot of clear talent on display, so check these videos out above and below!

Day #2 of the auditions was on Saturday, September 21st, where judges sent four performers to the competition level, and if you're seeking something beyond borderline karaoke, you'll like that three of the four to advance here played an instrument too! That day's contestants moving on included singer/guitarist Celeste Burton (her own original song "Live Like Nobody's Watching"), Rebecca Wabigwan (the hymn "Amazing Grace" while playing a hand drum), and singer Elena Fera (Olivia Newton-John's "Let Me Be There"), though like with Owen-MK, be advised that Elena's video was only uploaded in excerpts due to Facebook content matching the song. Embedded below is 2023 semifinalist Arin Karki, who was only filmed once officially for T.S.G.T. last year doing a Billy Joel vocal cover. Here, he's adding to his repertoire by playing acoustic guitar, and SMS readers will like that he covered Motley Crue!

This unplugged rendition of "Home Sweet Home" isn't badly handled, and Arin shows off a solid hard rock voice that suits him better than how he did "Vienna" last year, and I know from experience that judges will like that he's playing an instrument this year after just singing previously! Daring choice to wear white after Labour Day too (I'm joking!). Nice to see a more diverse array of talent advancing for the second day of auditions, so give these videos a watch above & below as well!

The third day of auditions was on Friday, September 27th, with six contestants stamping their ticket to the first round here, and all here are singers doing covers. Moving on that night were Abiguale Lacroix (Andra Day's "Rise Up"), a singer monomyously credited just as Theo (Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud") Lime frontwoman/2018 T.S.G.T. finalist Madii Schomogyi (Fiona Apple's "Paper Bag"), 2023 finalist and reigning Shooters Talent Quest champion Demoy MacSamuels (his own original song "Heart Cry"), Haley Alopaeus (Bishop Briggs' "River"), and 2022 contestant Ricky Roy (Mike Posner's "I Took A Pill In Ibiza"). Nothing too hard rock-friendly there, but the talent is very clear, and Demoy will instantly be a favourite this year! I will note that I am surprised that Madii didn't do any of her original songs that she unveiled in her "Miss Madii" set at Rotaryfest Stage 2 this year, but she could be saving those for later.

Finally, seven acts were sent through during the last round of auditions on Saturday, September 28th, starting with Chloe Tessier covering Morgan Wallen's "Sand In My Boots". The next three were lumped together as excerpts in the same video, including two returning first round qualifiers from last year, including Elizabeth Budge covering Christina Perri's "Jar Of Hearts" and magic act Mxsterious (Brooklyn Coghill alongside Nicholas Gingras) doing a trick with help from the judges. The third act in that clip is singer Sheena Matchett covering Mindy McCready's "Maybe He'll Notice Me Now". Another combined video sees successful auditions from Jennifer & Abigail Joseph (clearly family), with Jennifer playing acoustic guitar while singing Little Big Town's "Sober", then playing guitar for Abigail's cover of Lady Gaga's "Look What I Found". Last up was Corey Marques, who was actually a co-MC of the finals last year!

This is a bit of a hybrid performance here, as Corey (known locally as a poet and publisher with AwakenInk) was performing a "read rap", which basically amounted to inspirational and motivational beat poetry over a musical beat. Definitely a change of pace, but a unique original performance will play well with judges! No word on if any of the audition level contestants got a "golden buzzer" this year, for the record. We'll pick things back up from The Soo's Got Talent V soon when we look at what happened in rounds 1 & 2, but there's a lot of promising talent on display, so don't bypass the audition videos above! Thanks everyone!

Full Concert Videos From The Inner City Surfers & Mike Haggith At Soo Blaster!!

Today's post is devoted to shows at the same venue last month that featured videos of a prominent band's full set, so here's what you should know on both on this Sunday morning!

I profusely apologize for the month+ delay in this making the site, but remember how inactive local punk quartet The Inner City Surfers reunited at Soo Blaster on November 3rd to support drummer Mikey Hawdon's wedding? Well, bassist Brad "Example" Lacell live-streamed their whole headlining set for his YouTube channel! Unfortunately, Brad's camera was set up partially behind something (perhaps a speaker?), so about 30% of the view is blocked on the bottom left. The video is also filmed from beside the stage, at an angle where we see more of everyone's back than front, so only guitarist Dave Bahun is visible with any steady regularity. Frontman Dustin Jones is obscured at the other side of the stage when not moving around, and Mikey's drumkit is mostly blocked out, so be advised of the limited view. The 65 minute video begins with the guys covering Gioachino Rossini's "William Tell Overture", before tackling a cover of Stompin' Tom Connors' "Algoma 69" with Brad on lead vocals.

The Surfers' first original on this night was "Screwed", as followed by "Pickin' From The Country", "Get High", "Been Done", and "Never Ender Bender". For the next two songs, Mikey left the drumkit to sing lead on covers of The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and The Beastie Boys' "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)", both featuring guest drummers. On the former, Brent Shepherd of the Toronto cover rock band WD50 handled percussion, while Mikey's AMY/DC bandmate Dean Glover (also the webmaster of the Mikey & His Uke website) drummed on the latter. Mikey returned to the kit to begin the second half of their set, starting with this familiar instrumental whose name I couldn't immediately place, We get back to originals next with "Won't Belong", "Grab My Pen" (with Brad singing lead), "Booze N' Doobs", and "Here's To The Days", before a brief Muppet Show theme song interlude.

Extended jams of "Commandments" and "The Quest" ended their set, the latter segueing into a cover of Corey Hart's "Sunglasses At Night", if you can believe it! Despite the visual impairments and some distorted audio, it's great to see a full Surfers concert set like this, and here's hoping that Mikey's late-set teaser that "we'll see you in about 10 years" is a conservative estimate! Fans of their self-titled "black album" will like that eight of the thirteen songs were played here, along with three from earlier albums (nothing from "Time To Travel On" though). Give The Inner City Surfers' reunion set a watch for yourselves below!

Next up, remember how local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith had announced plans to live-stream his complete set at The Soo's Got Talent finals (also at Soo Blaster) on November 4th, only for technical difficulties to scuttle that? Well, we still have a full video of his band's half hour set to check out courtesy of his YouTube channel on December 7th! Two different cameras (one from the floor in front of the stage and a stationary camera off to the side) combined to show off the final product, though be advised that there isn't consistent audio from one source here, so the quality does change from camera to camera (I'd have at least had the videos fade in/out when transitioning). Two TikTok styled videos (vertical, short, and featuring on-screen text) have also been uploaded from this set to Mike's Facebook page from a different filmer, but you know me, longer, clean, and horizontal videos are far more preferable in every way imaginable!

By "complete set", I mean Mike's half hour-long mid-finals set where he, Chris, Jacob, and Brandan did Mike's own material, not the main finals competition where they backed up most of the finalists. In order, their set included "I've Seen It Before", "Hot & Cold", covers of The Din's "Missing" and Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City", "MorningStar" (extended with band introductions), and "The Nature Of The Times". I won't rehash my complete thoughts on Mike's set, as I did review everything in person last month, but it was a solid performance from Mike & crew, and these videos capture that well! Particularly the non-stationary camera, which got the majority of the footage here, with the side-stage camera mainly filling in some between song breaks (just as well, as the tight angle isn't ideal and really does Jacob a disservice). Give Mike's final full-band concert set of 2023 a watch below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

The Soo's Got Talent 2023 Finals Review (Part 3!!)

We have some big concerts to touch on here very shortly, so let's wrap up our The Soo's Got Talent finals coverage with the rest of what went down at Soo Blaster on Saturday! For the first round (as far as I saw and can confirm after the fact), Mike Haggith's intermission set, and the first half of the second "judge's choice" round, click here or visit the two posts below this one. Fourth up for the "judge's choice" songs was former Re:Born singer and Shooters' Talent Quest champion Elly McWatters, who got dressed up in a hippie/flower child costume for her second song. Any assumptions that she'd be doing a late 1960s song were off by four decades, as her judge's pick was Florence & The Machine's "Dog Days Are Over". Definitely a change of pace from her usual rock and country covers, but Elly did a really good job as you'd expect given her vocal pedigree! Give her second song a watch below!

Elly's song was actually the last of the evening to feature Mike Haggith's full band, with Chris and Jacob sitting out Demoy MacSamuels' judge's pick song. Mike and drummer Brandan Glew backed him up here on an acoustic cover of Seal's "Kiss From A Rose", and it was neat hearing him tackle a cover for a change, but given his vocal range and tone, I don't think Seal was the best choice for him. Demoy's voice is higher, and as far as 1990s R&B covers go, my first thought would be to hear him cover something like Mark Morrison's "Return Of The Mack", both for vocal style and for its loose, upbeat nature. Still, he adapted well on a song he wasn't familiar with, so give Demoy's second song a watch below!

The last finals performer was dancer Jophin Shaju, and as it turns out, his opening dance to Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" was actually the judge's pick, not what he did second (regardless, neither had Mike's band backing him up, but I'd be curious to hear Mike tackle Indian pop/rap music!) It looks Jophin asked to swap the two dances because of what he had planned for dance #2, as his twin brother Joel joined in for the first half of his dance. The two dressed as Pennywise and Georgie Denbrough from the 2017 It remake, for a dance set to Benjamin Wallfisch's "Every 27 Years" from the It soundtrack, before going solo and more familiar for the second half, dancing to Aditya Gadhvi & Achint's "Khalasi". As it turns out, Jophin had wanted to dance with Joel earlier in the competition, if not from the start as a dual act, but Joel had personal commitments until the finals.

Like in the first round on Saturday, it was hard to fully see the Shaju brothers' routine from the floor (again, they had more space there), but both have clear dancing and choreography talent, and having them in T.S.G.T. and making it this far was great for variety! It's hard for me to say how I'd compare Jophin against five singers, especially when I haven't seen the first two opening performances live or after the fact, but hopefully he left a strong impression. Give his & Joel's dance a watch below!

Like when Daniella Brewer and Adrian Sullivan were invited back for the T.S.G.T. finals in 2019 and 2022 (this wasn't held in 2020 or 2021 for obvious reasons), the reigning champion of the event returned for a guest performance in this year's finals, namely singer Amanda Phillips, who covered Journey's "Lights". No word (at least live at Soo Blaster) as to what she's been up to musically, but Amanda put her voice to work with a well sung cover that showed why she came out on top last fall, and give her song a watch below!

After lengthy deliberations from the judges (and I mean lengthy), judge Darren Robertson took to the stage to announce the 50/50 draw and door prize winners, thank all of the staff, volunteers, and performers, and announce the complete running order for the finalists, while also giving positive feedback and suggestions in case non-winners decide to try out again next year (a common suggestion to the singers: learn an instrument). The winner of the fourth annual The Soo's Got Talent was.... Storm Rausch, with Elly McWatters finishing in second place and Demoy MacSamuels rounding out the podium in third place! Xavier Pelletier LeBeouf improved to fourth place this year, with Jophin Shaju finishing in fifth place and Greg McLeod coming in sixth place. Prizes were not announced live at Soo Blaster, but Storm won $1,000 for their victory, and is invited back as a guest performer next year (winners can't compete again). Mike Haggith & his band were also invited back as the house band, and they seemed receptive to the idea!

Overall, it was fun seeing (most of) the finals in person, and congratulations to Storm and the rest of the finalists on a job well done! I opted not to vote in the fan ballot as I didn't see most of the first round on Saturday, but it was clear from Darren's remarks and the final running order that judges' scores were based on the entire competition, not just the finals, and showing a dual talent was important (i.e. don't just sing, but write original songs and/or play an instrument too). I will say that, based solely on the "judge's pick" songs, Storm & Elly had the strongest performances, but again, that's not enough for me to have fairly voted. Click here or visit our Facebook page for photos of Mike Haggith's intermission set and of each finalist where possible, as well as all eight videos that I shot on Saturday, plus photos where possible, and stay tuned for a packed news post full of big holiday season concerts tomorrow! Thanks everyone!