LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Salem Trials) & Videos From Maddy's Mighty Mutts' Family Fun Day!!

With this being the quietest concert weekend in a month or so, we have some extra time to tick some more items off of our backlog, so here's a new news post on this Friday afternoon, and it includes new videos and related updates from a recent fundraiser event. However, leading off is a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT of a very heavy persuasion for next month!

In the newest concert announcement from local promoters Undergound Events SSM, Ottawa deathcore quintet Salem Trials will make their local debut on Saturday, September 26th at Blaster Powerhouse! A brutal and intense batch of original songs will be in store next month from this very heavy group, who definitely caught my attention from the off, so keep their gig at the former Soo Blaster in mind! Another Ottawa-based quintet (metalcore band The Jenova Projekt) will play Sault Ste. Marie for the first time next month, and while not ad relentless, they have an appealing hard-edged sound that reminds me a bit of Demiricous on some songs, and it will be good to have them on stage here also! Local support will come by way of space/hard rock duo The Spaceship Opening (more on them soon) and sporadically seen party metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty, featuring promoter Mikhal Muto on bass.

While The A.A. missed out on the most recent rap show at Blaster, this will put them in slightly closer musical range to let their double bassed, guitar-devoid brand of music find a receptive audience! This all ages concert will have doors opening at 8:30 PM, and advance tickets will be on sale soon at The Rad Zone and via the local openers for $25 (the door charge will jump to $30). Sounds like a brutal concert to me, and it trends heavier the longer it goes, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Next up, some videos from last week's Maddy's Mighty Mutts Family Fun Day concert at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion have made their way online! Though the exact lineup order was never released, between 9 and 11 acts graced the stage for this dog rescue charity fundraiser on this Wednesday (which is still odd timing to me, especially given its 8 hour runtime). You can see some of what took place that day on the Facebook event page, where promoter Paige Dennie posted videos of four acts there on the "Discussion" thread. The earliest of her videos is of local hard rock quartet 5 Dollar Bribe covering Wheatus' "Teenage Dirtbag", though the video only runs for 35 seconds and was shot vertically (sadly, all of Paige's videos are vertical and short). I'll be honest, I hate "Teenage Dirtbag", but 5 Dollar Bribe play it well from what I can detect, and Jayce's vocals don't wear on me like on the original, so that much is of note! Give their video a watch below!

I wanted to note re: 5 Dollar Bribe too that local classic/hard rock cover band Separate Wayz shared a "Story" on Facebook of 5DB playing during their soundcheck. Why was Separate Wayz present when they weren't playing? Well, singer Nicole Thibodeau was the "friend" (friends?) teased to be guesting with TNT (Soundcheck's Terry Eaton n' Travis Sharpe, the former also in Separate Wayz) here, and Separate Wayz also posted a "Story" of her and TNT covering "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac at the Family Fun Day. Alas, "Stories" self-destruct after one or two viewings, and are short/vertical videos anyway, so all I can do is tell you about them, but hopefully TNT went over well under the tent! Terry and Travis would perform more with Nicole this past weekend on the road, and I'll talk about that in an upcoming post. Travis was also teased in some event marketing to be guesting with Bone Yard 225 frontman Greg "The Ranting Rockstar" Simpson on this day, but he does not factor into Paige's video from Greg's set.

While being shot vertically doesn't matter for a solo musician, Paige's video runs for only 11 seconds, and it features Greg's slowed down cover of Kiss' "Rock & Roll All Nite", which is a staple of Bone Yard's "uncorked" sets, and The Bearded Lounge's concerts prior. We don't hear much, but if you like Greg's laid back take on this Kiss staple, you'll like what was filmed, as seen below!

Also filmed for the event page was (former?) Dodge This singer/guitarist Jason Taillefer, who had his keyboard ready again here, and Paige filmed him covering Coldplay's "The Scientist" for 21 seconds. Like with "Teenage Dirtbag", I must confess that I don't like Coldplay at all, but Jason at least sings this a little deeper and more matter-of-factly, and he is a talented multi-instrumentalist, as Phatstick fans will be well aware! The last of Paige's videos comes from this concert's co-headliner, namely former Haggith/Eclipse frontman Curtis McKenzie (Bone Yard 225 played last on this evening). Paige filmed him covering Collective Soul's "December", but for one reason or another, this 21 seconds-long instrumental clip can't be embedded on external websites, even though everything else in the post from that day can be. Facebook has been iffier lately re: videos randomly being unembeddable, even with no copyrighted music, so yeah, it's something to juggle at present.

What we hear sounds good, but again, no singing. Embedded below is a video of Curt at the Family Fun Day, but this was actually uploaded by Beck's Bar's Facebook page, with a hard-coded caption slapped on it in post-production to hype Curtis' matinee concert there this past Sunday. Obviously, the caption limits my ability to relevantly use it for concert preview purposes around here, but on this video (also of him covering "December" from a closer vantage point), we do get more of an actual verse with singing, and while I do think Curtis should lower his voice a tad, it's well done for what was filmed! Give it a watch below, and see more from Family Fun Day above!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for another likely news post later today! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Crucifest!!)

Extreme metal fans will want to circle the last weekend of July on their calendars, as Crucifest comes to Robbie Adamson's old church in nearby Leeburn on Friday, July 26th! A spiritual successor to the late 2010s Oh!No festivals at the same locale (not to mention the technically private Bear Hunters reunion event there last July), Crucifest is brought to us by new local promoters Deciduous Events & Decor (a.k.a. D.E.A.D. and formerly Events By Vann), a decor company that launched in 2022 and has worked for clients from Southern Ontario to our neck of the woods. They have recently decided to branch out into promoting their own events, with Crucifest being their first proper concert that I'm aware of. It'll be interesting to see how well this does, and if it leads to more from Courtney & Jessica in a local concert environment! While more acts are allegedly to be announced, nine bands are already signed, including five touring acts!

Perhaps owing to the long pandemic-affected gap since we had a regular local extreme metal promoter here, all five touring bands will be making their local debuts at Crucifest. Given how local bands are mixed in, I'm unsure if the poster layout is indicative of the performance order, but the five out-of-town bands are Toronto deathcore quartet Beguiler, Ottawa death metal quintet Salem Trials, Peterborough "beatdown/core" quartet Seagrave, Sudbury hardcore band Drugwolf, and newer Kitchener metalcore band Dead Roots. There's a lot of ground to cover between these bands, but there's lots of talent and brutality within, so give all five a listen to prepare yourself for the metal attack in two months! Of the four local bands, two will be familiar to 2020s concert goers, including punk/thrash trio Hails (who played at The Bear Hunters' private event in Leeburn last year) and young metal trio The BAG in (I believe) their first show outside of city limits.

Also playing at Crucifest are local death/thrash metal band Pillory in their first announced public concert in almost five years! Fans/friends may recall seeing occasional social media teasers and false starts towards Pillory resuming as a live act (they were even briefly advertised for The Bear Hunters' private Leeburn event last year), but it looks like they are definitely back now! As you may recall, Pillory were originally active off & on from 2012-2019, and they still feature frontman Robert Sartini (recently of Pointless and All Over The Map) on vocals & guitar alongside ex-Lazer Queen/Issues drummer Bret Shuttleworth. No word on their current bassist, but Blair St. John filled in for their last few late 2010s sets. In the past year, Bret has posted dozens of solo drumming videos to his YouTube channel (look at his setup!), and a handful of videos were uploaded two months ago of him and Robert playing some metal covers.

These include bass-less renditions of Sepultura's "Territory",  Megadeth's "Youthanasia", and as embedded below, Pantera's "Use My Third Arm". Sounds good and faithful to me, but these are not technical death metal songs, as we were hearing from Pillory in the mid-late 2010s. Is this a sign of a shift to their earlier sound or just them jamming some covers? In any event, it's great to see Robert and Bret back at it, and don't bypass Bret's ample solo drumming videos too, as he's got serious chops (with that kit, he'd have to!). Pillory are back in our active band links, and check out theirs & Bret's new videos above and below!

The other band playing at Crucifest (so far) are a debuting local metal band named The Sault Side Squad, and while they currently lack social media pages or videos, their lineup is full of familiar faces! I can confirm that they feature ex-As It Stands singer Justin "Nadj" Pregent, A Dire Setback guitarist Chris Nielsen, former Jack Spades/Sativa Rose guitarist Anthony Orazietti, Skinbox/Stoned To Deaf alum Jordan Wardlaw on bass, and Anthony's old Winkstinger bandmate Jonas Gasperas on drums. We await further specifics, but given Justin's past vocal style (his recent rap career aside), I'd expect The Sault Side Squad to have hardcore influences. Very impressive lineup, and it'll be interesting to hear how The S.S.S. do in July and beyond! The listed times for Crucifest on the Eventbrite ticket sale page are 8:00 PM-2:00 AM, but there are separate tickets for Saturday, July 27th on sale for the same price as Friday alone.

The listed times imply that bands will only be playing on the 26th, which is how we're currently treating it, but if D.E.A.D. confirm that the lineup is split up with bands on Saturday the 27th too, we will let you know (the Saturday pass may only be for campers' benefit). In any event, tickets cost $25 per day and $45 for both days plus, and there are no advertised cover charges, so click here to buy yours! In what's shaping up to be a big year for summer camping-encouraged concert festivals, Crucifest will deliver the goods for fans who've found extreme metal to be lacking in the Soo as of late, so definitely visit the above links for complete details on what's going on 53 minutes east of the Soo at 5756 Highway 638, and we'll have more on another Leeburn-bound concert festival tomorrow! Thanks everyone!