A Mid-Week Concert Preview, SOOpfest 2 Updates, And A New Spaceship Opening Video!!

Before we begin this post, I wanted to note that former Havadder frontman Jason Roy's obituary was finally posted on SooToday on Monday, noting that he suddenly passed away at home on July 30th. Jason (who often went by Jay) is survived by his sisters, stepmother, and many others in his extended family. The obituary details his sense of humour, many friendships, love of music, and his musical talents (including songwriting), though it doesn't mention his local bands by name. Jason's battle with addiction is also touched upon, and in that respect, the family would appreciate donations by e-transfer or cheque to Save Our Young Adults in his name/memory. Cremation has taken place at O'Sullivan Funeral Home, and while there were no public services, a celebration of life is reportedly planned for a later date. This was well written and helped explain Jason's positive impact on so many, so give it a read above! R.I.P. Jay!

Today's post otherwise has new live video from a local band, info on a publically advertised house party concert, and leading off, here's a mid-week concert preview. Prolific local acoustic classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison's summer arrangement at The Mike Case Memorial Stage outside of The Trading Post TONIGHT! This will technically be Tym's second concert appearance of the week, as he took part in the aforementioned Save Our Young Adults walk for National Overdose Awareness Day at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion on Monday, but between his own lack of public promotion and the somber nature of the event, I hesitate to cover it as a concert, as that's not really the point. Kudos to Tym for supporting a great cause though, drug and alcohol addiction is always worthy to advocate the fight against! Tonight's Trading Post show is the penultimate gig in Tym's seasonal run there unless it gets extended.

Regardless, the Mike Case Stage is only open seasonally, so time is ticking if you want to see Tym at this outdoor Great Northern Road stage! You can check out his hard rocking covers tonight from 6:30-8:30 PM with no cover charge or age limit. 9&10 News has a better forecast for tonight than last week, with partly cloudy skies becoming clear during Tym's sets, and temperatures expected to hover around 21°. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Tym live!

Next up, here's some info on the planned second SOOpfest benefit concert! Local promoters Underground Events SSM hosted the first at a private residence on July 24th as charity drive/fundraiser for the Ken Brown Recovery Home, the $onny Vybe$ memorial, and the Soup Kitchen, and just eight weeks + one day later, they're rolling it back for the same charities. The show will again take place at an unspecified private locale ("ask a punk" for the address, lack of advertised punk bands acknowledged), and because it's not a static named location like Unnecessary Noise or the former Mellow D's Underground, I won't call it as a full public concert here, though it is publically advertised. Just ask those connected to the event for the address! This will also be a backyard potluck barbecue, similar to in July. Only one act (rap collective Fvcksxvad) are returning from last month, while party metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty, folk singer/guitarist Gimiiwan Ikwe, ...

...Peasant Poetry (featuring Case's Music drum instructor Jamie Talbot), and a mystery project named So Many Bees are also scheduled. Unspecified guests will also be present, as will an open mic/jam element. A very varied lineup is in store for SOOpfest II, though I do wonder, wouldn't a benefit concert like this raise more good for the intended charities if it was a truly public event at an permanent venue with an address that can be posted on social media? In any event, visit the above links (and/or "ask a punk") for more details on SOOpfest II later this month!

Finally for today, we go to a bandmate of SOOpfest promoter Mikhal Muto, namely his ASDP colleague Ralph Barber's space/hard rock duo The Spaceship Opening! It only took 18 days, but third video of their full set at Blaster Powerhouse on August 1st was uploaded to their Facebook page on Sunday, and it sees them playing "a fresh song" that is "something new and on the spot". Like their "Everybody's Gonna Pay" video before, this is an instrumental with Andrew facing Ralph with his back to the live audience. It's a solid driving hard rocker, but presumably because it was improvised, they noted that "(we'll) probably never play this again". In that case, good thing it was filmed, so give it a watch below!

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

A New Local Punk Band, Crush Updates, And More Recent News & Notes!!

As we wrap up the busiest month (for post count) in the 19+ year history of the SMS, here's one more news post for the end of August before we go into autumn, and it includes updates from an EUP hard rock band, clarifications on who played a recent all-day charity concert, and some assorted shorter updates, but we'll lead off with a debuting supergroup that will be intriguing for many local punk and hard rock fans! Here's what you should know!

We have a new local punk band to add to our links, and they are Dead II Society! While their Facebook page was only launched yesterday, they were one of the two mystery bands announced for October's Punk Rock Fiesta at The Rockstar Bar (we are still waiting for details on The Baby Rails). Self-described as "an outlaw punk rock (band) specializing in loud, high energy, foot-stomping songs", their lyrics are planned to revolve around members' personal lives, health, and relationships. The band features former Garden of Bedlam/Changing Lanes singer/guitarist Erik "Buzz" Boissineau alongside former Northwest/Terminal guitarist Mike Yakasovich, veteran local bassist Andrew Torgerson (most recently seen down south in The Epifats and Grant Boyer's backing band), and Billy Bastards drummer Charlie Yanni (he will be pulling double duty with both bands on October 3rd).

Dead II Society are working on original music for major streaming services and Bandcamp, and your first teaser is this video featuring an instrumental track and silent footage of the guys meeting up and jamming. Their first single and full-length video (presumably both for this song) premiere on September 16th, 2½ weeks before their Punk Rock Fiesta debut. Sadly, the video is both vertical and black & white, aspects that I hope don't translate to what we get in two weeks, but it's great to see this promising band full of established names making their debut shortly, and it'll be interesting to hear how Buzz's long-teased original punk songs turn out! See more from them above and below, and stay tuned for updates!

Next up, let's bolt across the border to Sault Michigan for the latest updates from local hard rock trio Crush! It's been a few months since we last talked about Tarnished's original-heavy splinter group, who haven't played a local concert in over four months (or downstate since May), but they haven't been completely idle. After jokey posts, AI-generated memes, and more love for Big Boy restaurants over the summer, they have announced two tour dates for September on their Facebook page, one being a show on Friday at Bemo's Bar in Bay City (3½ hours south of here, outside of Saginaw). Best of luck on the road trip for sure! The other gig is technically outside of our coverage range (an hour's drive from the Soo), but it will be their closest show since April at The Merch, and it will see Alex, Josh, and Iggy open for their friends in Rose City metal band Tribe989 at Bates Corner Bar & Grill in Gould City on Thursday, September 24th.

Hannahville "rez metal" band Ghidora (who Heavy Lies The Crown fans will know well) are also playing this show 90 minutes west of the Soo. If you can make the drive to western Mackinac County, this show may be of note, and despite Gould City being pretty small, they can book big names at Bates Corner (Buckcherry played there earlier this month!) Click here for details on the Gould City concert. Lastly, they posted this short teaser video for the Bay City show on Friday, with Iggy promoting it from an... unexpected place, while the caption at the end notes that Crush have been busy in the studio recently working on original material. Hopefully we hear more soon, so get Crushed above and below, and I hope next month's shows go well!

Also today, here's some clarification of the lineup for Maddy's Mighty Mutts Family Fun Day at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion in Sault Ontario on August 5th! The advertising for the event had conflicting details on who was and wasn't playing, but organizer Paige Dennie listed off performers in a personal Facebook post shared to Maddy's Facebook page the next day to thank everyone for volunteering. Ten acts ended up playing the Wednesday outdoor-ish concert under the big tent, with this AI-generated poster being accurate to the final bill aside from omitting Tex Riviera & The Relix Ride for one reason or another (not only did they play, they were up first!). The acts that dropped out (both for unannounced reasons) were solo musicians Arin Karki and Leslie Cook, with Tym Morrison being a last minute replacement for one of them. Of note, Jason Taillefer's sister Kelly guested for part of his solo set, which was implied to be keyboard-heavy.

Paige noted that 5 Dollar Bribe donated their drum kit and PA system for the day's full band's to use, which was nice of them, while TNT singer/guitarist Travis Sharpe helped with sound and managing set changes, and Bone Yard 225 were the headliners. It does sound like things went well, and Paige was very appreciative of everyone helping out, both from the concert aspect and towards supporting the dog rescue charity itself, so visit the above links for more on what went down four weeks ago!

Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual for our short-form story blocks, these are in alphabetical order by artist or company name:

 

• A memorial concert for late local musician Dale Corcoran will be held at the resurgent Rockstar Bar on Saturday, September 19th! Proceeds will go to his widow Clare for her own recent expenses, and the show is implied to largely be an informal and unrehearsed jam featuring friends and former bandmates rather than something with firmly scheduled and advertised bands (though I'd assume that we'll see members of Tex Riviera & The Ride). Could we see throwbacks to his local metal and hard rock work of the 1980s? Tickets cost $20 + processing fees at this link, and I do hope that this celebration of life is a huge hit across the board!
• I apologize for missing this among our backlog clearout, but a demonstration named Navigating the Modern Music Business As An Independent Artist was held at The Art Hub At Spring this past Tuesday. Hosted by local musician and manager Ryan St. Pierre of The Lonely Listeners Club and the upstart music management program Lisinin, the program was to promote his work and help encourage independent artists to explore today's music industry and better network in music communities. All are definitely good plans to help aspiring musicians in their career, so click here for more on what went down last week, and what Ryan continues working on!
• The performance order for the aforementioned Punk Rock Fiesta at The Rockstar Bar on October 3rd has been unveiled via this poster shared on the Punk Canada Facebook group two weeks ago! The running order is mostly what you'd expect given band notoriety, with everyone but headliners Random Killing having a half hour timeslot (the debuting Baby Rails lead off at 6:30 PM), but local crossover thrash trio Hails will surprisingly get the 10:30 PM co-headlining slot over the Billys and Fist Magnet reunions. This will be a huge show no matter when bands are on, so visit the above links for more on what to expect in just over a month!

 

That's all for tonight, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS next month! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Aneurysm), Another Brimley Battle Of The Bands Video, And More!!

Our backlog is almost cleaned out, so to continue towards that goal, here's another news post to check out tonight, including one more video from a battle of the bands last year, some assorted shorter updates, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month, so here's what you should know!

It's been two & a half weeks of putting this show off amidst our severe backlog, but its number has finally been called, as Winnipeg-based Nirvana tribute band Aneurysm will make their local debut on Wednesday, September 23rd at Beck's Bar! The first Nirvana tribute in the Soo since The Pixo Control's one-off turn as Like A Pisces over a decade ago, this show actually has more in common with the Rush tribute concert at Reggie's in July 2022, in that the tribute band is the sister group for a touring original band who will be playing the opening set as themselves. In this case, the band is Winnipeg "nu grunge punk n' roll" quartet The Bloodshots, who alone would be an intriguing headliner here with their up-tempo melodic, yet in your face original sound that blurs genre lines, but they do Nirvana justice in available media, so fans of grunge and alt-rock should have a blast, work/school night scheduling acknowledged!

This concert will have a 9:00 PM start time in "Saulte Ste. Marie", it is 19+, and it will have a $10 cover charge (as best as I can tell, there won't be advance ticket sales). If you can swing a Wednesday nighter in late September, this should deliver the goods for Nirvana fans, let alone The Bloodshots' own entertaining originals, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details on all of next month's action!

Next up, I wanted to wrap up our look at Dafter, Michigan singer/guitarist Molly Escherich's videos from her sets at the Superior Whitefish Festival in Brimley, as we haven't talked about her "Music In The Park" acoustic set last year! Molly's solo unplugged sets don't lean as heavy as what she plays in bands (perhaps understandably), but she does throw in some hard rock covers in unplugged settings. Before she and The Other Guys played an abbreviated 10 minute long set in that evening's battle of the bands, Molly played a more standard 40 minute set in the afternoon, which was prefaced by the announcement by her mother Tiffany that she had won a major scholarship award for middle/high school music students, allowing her to afford the tuition at the Interlochen Academy For The Arts. She begins her second year there next month, and of course, belated congratulations to Molly on her success as she furthers her musical career and education downstate!

The actual set begins 5+ minutes in with covers of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band's "Still The Same", Radiohead's "Creep", and Eddie Rabbitt's "Drivin' My Life Away", before playing her own original song "Will This Last Forever". After tackling Cat Stevens' "The First Cut Is The Deepest" (perhaps the Sheryl Crow version?), Molly next plays her own original "Cheap Cologne" (which she played with The Other Guys in the battle later on), before finishing out with covers of Zach Bryan's "Something In The Orange", The Doobie Brothers' "Listen To The Music", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain", and Coldplay's "Yellow". If you're curious, all songs here except the four from "Creep" to "The First Cut..." were played in Molly's Music In The Park set this year. Also, only five songs here were clipped out as indivdual YouTube uploads, so use the links above to see everything.

I'm thinking that the other six didn't get singular uploads to minimize on banter with people off-stage and/or false starts/minor flubs, but for a then-13 year old who had just received extremely exciting news about her further education in music, I'm not inclined to be judgy. Molly performed well here, and covered a lot of musical ground in this set, so give her full 2025 acoustic Superior Whitefish Festival set a watch below!

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

 

• A bonus 16th act has been added to the Northern Vibe Festival's Forest Stage lineup this weekend, namely Darius McRae, a teenage acoustic singer/guitarist who you may recognize from local theatrical productions and from performing in Superior Heights Collegiate's student rock band Steel Rock at Rotaryfest Stage 1 in 2024 & 2025. How will he sound on his own? Be in Ophir this coming weekend to find out! The full two day schedule has been released, but as it's now short notice for us (as usual for this event), stay tuned for our extended Northern Vibe preview next week!
• In yet another example of a local band posting a Facebook "Story" that I can't embed or link to here, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Quite Frankly shared a brief vertical video of them covering The Arrows' "I Love Rock N' Roll" (well, the Joan Jett version) at last week's Outspoken Brewing concert. Actually, the show took place outdoors beside Outspoken, which is honestly for the best, as the space for concerts inside is very small, hence why you more hear of acoustic solo artists and DJs there. Hopefully the concert went well for the band and fans, even if I truly don't like the idea of "Stories"!
• Underground Events SSM posted a "Things To Do In The Soo" events listing on their Facebook page on August 15th featuring upcoming concerts from them and other promoters, even ones that haven't been formally unveiled yet. Of note, the second SOOpfest fundraiser will indeed be on September 19th (bands and location to be announced), and there will be a "mixed bill" Thanksgiving weekend concert on October 9th followed by a "metal show" on October 30th. If they're listing them without info, the latter two must be from Underground Events SSM too, so stay tuned for details on both!

 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS next week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Stones & Crows), Weekend Concert Previews, And More!!

Before we begin our second weekend concert preview post, just a heads up that Beck's Bar briefly advertised Bone Yard 225 frontman Greg "The Ranting Rockstar" Simpson as playing their Sunday matinee timeslot this weekend, but he has quietly dropped out for unannounced reasons, and was replaced by Whiskey Hippy. Greg will be back, with and without your local 225, but hopefully nothing too serious happened with him and/or the venue! Now, here's what you should know for the rest of this weekend's hard rock concert previews, starting with a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!

New local hard/blues rock quartet Stones & Crows will return to Beck's Bar for one night only on SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the band first announced the show on their Facebook page on July 24th, then said it was cancelled due to "scheduling reasons" a day later, only to re-confirm it on the same day this past Friday. As such, disregard their newest black & white promotional video claiming this show as a "last minute announcement", as we have known about if for almost four weeks in fits and starts! This will be the first concert from the Electric Church successors since they rocked Rotaryfest Stage 2 last month, and their first at Beck's since July 3rd, and hopefully the guys deliver a fun evening of originals and covers, as fans have came to expect so far this year! Bukky, Nikki, and Tony take the stage at 9:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge as usual.

Fresh off of playing with The Big Finish Band at tonight's Downtown Street Party, Drifters frontwoman and karaoke host Elly McWatters will play a solo country rock set as the 3:00 PM matinee performer on SATURDAY, but as usual, she isn't "opening" for Stones & Crows. See above for more details, and for a preview, here's a new video of Stones & Crows from their Facebook page last month! This video features the guys playing four 10 second snippets of live covers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rolling Stones songs among them, and while I'd far prefer full songs (let alone in colour, and not heavily letterboxed), it does give a reasonable preview of songs you might hear on SATURDAY NIGHT, so give it a watch for yourselves below!

Next up, let's head south to Michigan for some E.U.P. shows (all of which had advance notice), starting with Traverse City classic metal trio Peril's second and final headlining gig for 2026 at American Legion Park in St. Ignace TOMORROW NIGHT! Just over two weeks removed from their rare Thursday gig in our neck of the woods for St. Ignace's Music By The Bay concert series, Jeff, Howard, and Brooks will rock the park one more time before things wrap up next month, though the series runs daily until Labour Day. With future shows at the Soo Kewadin in flux (more on that in a second), time will tell when we next see Peril north of the Mackinac Bridge after tomorrow, so don't bypass this concert if you like old school metal and hard rock covers, and will be in the region! Music By The Bay shows are all at 7:00 PM with 90 minute run times, they're definitely all ages, and have no cover charge. 

9&10 News is calling for cloudy skies tomorrow with a 30% chance of rain in the 8:00 PM hour, so while the rain and lightning is expected to peak overnight, consider some rain provisions if you're coming to American Legion Park (the stage has a roof for the bands' sake, at least). Temperatures are expected to be in the 69-71° (21-22° Celsius) range. Visit the above links for more on Peril's outdoor St. Ignace show, and here they are live!

Also this weekend, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Tarnished will play The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino for the final times TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Don't worry, Tarnished are alive and well, but they said on their Facebook page on Tuesday that The Rapids Lounge "is being remodeled this fall". You may recall that Kewadin had announced a series of renovations at their five casinos in this press release, which did confirm a planned new sports bar for the Soo branch, The press release says that construction of the sports bar (with virtual game bays!) will begin in "summer 2027", with the demolition of the casino's original East Wing structure beginning this fall also, so that may explain an extended closure from live concerts before the replacement lounge actually gets built. Kewadin's entertainment page lists bands at The Rapids Lounge through the end of September, but time will tell if they happen as scheduled.

That doesn't necessarily portend the real timeline for the end of The Rapids Lounge, as St. Ignace's Northern Pines Lounge also only goes that far for their own scheduled bands at press time. We'll keep you posted when more is known about Kewadin's new sports bar, but when you compare The Rapids Lounge to The Northern Pines Lounge, it never looked as detailed and modern, so this should be good in the long term. Don't miss Tarnished two last times there tomorrow & Saturday! Their hard rocking and old school covers are up at 9:00 PM with 21+ age limits and no cover. See above for more details, and for a preview, here's Tarnished live!

Finally for this weekend's known hard rock concert previews, we'll head to Three One Three On Ashmun, as local hardcore punk trio Viscera will be headliining there on SATURDAY NIGHT! Interesting timing in the sense that the Yooper Frankenstein premiere at LSSU is also on Saturday (frontman "Blind" Bob Quinn worked on the soundtrack for the film), but hopefully both events have a good crowd, and that Viscera devastate local fans with their hard rocking and socially charged sound once again! Continuing their recent positive relationships with musicians from the Western U.P., Marquette indie rock/power pop band Addicus will make their local debut on Saturday, and while not as heavy as Viscera can get, this female fronted group should make some fans out east with their well written and upbeat original material! The other opener is a project named Needhealer, so who are they?

As best as I can tell, Needhealer is a new DIY lo-fi project led by former Pick-Me-Ups bassist Trevor Yake, who primarily sings and plays keyboard here. You can hear his debut synthwave "EP" on Soundcloud, and it'll be interesting to hear how this translates at the former Back Door! Regardless, this is shaping up to be an intriguing genre mix. Presented by Viscera's own Soo Tang Records, this show goes down on Saturday at 7:00 PM, it is an 18+ event, and admission is $10 in advance through Viscera members or $15 at the door. Visit the above links for more on this explosive night of original music, and for a preview, here's the headliners live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for a new news post on the site next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Nate's Chow), The End Of Piecing It Together Shows, And New Videos!!

A new week doesn't mean we're letting our foot off the gas in terms of getting recent un-talked about stories finally talked about, and today's half Michigan/half Canada post includes recent concert festival fallout, the impending closure of a local concert promotion agency, and leading off in the EUP, a new live cover video and some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for our Yooper readers. Here's what you should know!

Rebranded local hard rock trio Nate's Chow have announced three upcoming concerts for next month, as per this AI-generated poster from their Facebook page last month! After the former Unfortunate Sun and Fake Chow successors returned to the stage at The Islander Bar in Hessel on August 7th, they will be back there for their second show of this era on Saturday, September 5th, so keep this Labour Day weekend gig in mind if you want to see Jody, Brett, and Jason back in the Les Cheneaux Islands area! One week later, the guys will headline the annual Stalwart Agricultural Fair in nearby Goetzville, which the then-Unfortunate Sun played at in 2024 (country rock cover band One Can Short were last year's closing band). Nate's Chow will cap off the festivities on Saturday, September 12th, and this feels in many ways like the EUP answer to this weekend's Laird Fair, so click here for full details on the rural and farm-friendly entertainment then!

Nate's Chow will be playing in the on-site pavilion at 8081 East M-48 in Goetzville, admission is a flat $5 for weekend passes (no single day options), and this is absolutely all ages. Finally for the new shows, the renamed group will play their first Sault Ste. Marie date of this era when they rock The Merchants Bar on Saturday, September 26th, so keep that gig in mind as well if you wanna see how the Skip-less group sound and you'd prefer to do so in the Soo! The Merch show should be at 9:00 PM, the Islander Bar and Stalwart Fair gigs are at 8:00 PM, and the bar shows are both 21+. Visit the above links for more on Nate's Chow's early fall slate of concerts!

Next up, here's a video of Munising classic/hard rock cover quintet The Sky Pilots' headlining concert at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino on May 30th! The first public video that I've ever seen from one of their local gigs, this 40 seconds-long video features The Sky Pilots covering Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O Mine". While short, it's unique in that frontwoman Melissa Strand (formerly of local bands Swayze Train and Electric Motor Fish) filmed this while singing on stage, letting us see her vantage point of the crowd, the lounge, and her bandmates. Good cover from what we hear, and the video is definitely fun for what it is, so give it a watch!

Now let's head to Sault Ontario, starting with a story that is one of the oldest items in the backlog that I've put off for way too long, as local concert promotion agency Piecing It Together Shows is closing operations later this year. Owner Nicole Dyble revealed the news in a post on their Facebook page on July 12th, where Nicole (who is non-binary) revealed that they are moving to Toronto, and will be commuting between there and here for the rest of the year. As of July 12th, four further P.I.T.S. events were scheduled, including a house party concert headlined by Regina ambient noise group Allinesik the following week, but details on the other three events have yet to be announced. Piecing It Together Shows launched as Dryer Fire in 2018 in the wake of the closure of Nicole's former venue The Gore Street Cafe, and counting the laundromat and their run before changing the company name, Nicole put on over 300 community events, concerts or otherwise, over the past 11 years, while championing local charities and arts initiatives.

Nicole's concerts only occasionally tripped the SMS' genre lines, but they did a lot in the local arts community (music and visual alike) over the past decade, including via such large scale events as the Fishbowl Festival, the It's The Pits festival, and their various long-term residencies at pop-up venues. I still don't know if Nicole ever explained why they went with the peach pit motif for their branding after 2024 or not, but P.I.T.S. had a distinct identity that covered a lot of local ground. We'll let you know if those final three Piecing It Together Shows concerts involve hard rock or punk acts, but best of luck to Nicole in the move and their future plans!

Finally for today, let's look at some fallout from the second annual WestFest at Anna Marinelli Park on August 8th! SooToday's Darren Taylor was on hand for the West Village Revitilization Project's summer festival, covering it in this article with 16 photos of the day's events, the first four featuring opening alt-hard rock band Riverside Stasis.  Good and positive article that outlines some of the vendors and positive thoughts of the day! Mike Blair's 705Live Sound Co. was at the soundboard for WestFest II, and while he did not share a Facebook video from any performers on the company page, he did upload a video of closing local folk supergroup The Ontarians' set to his personal Facebook page that The Ontarians did share publically. WestFest's official recap video features brief clips of both The Ontarians and The Golden Scoundrels' sets, plus lots of looks at the attendees and vendors, but the audio is dubbed over with a Turnstile song.

Odd choice when only Riverside Stasis come anywhere remotely close in genre, and they weren't even in the video, but it's well edited (if vertical). Lastly, 104.3 The Fox posted a video from Ava Nori's set as an Instagram-exclusive video, confirming that she sang with acoustic accompaniment from Scoundrels guitarist Brandon Ruch, who commutes from Southern Ontario for their local gigs. The video shows them covering "Home" by the country singer Brent Morgan, with Ava & Brandon sharing vocals, and she has a distinctive voice that I hope gets more time on stage! Hopefully more WestFest media surfaces, but check everything out at the above links, and stay tuned for more news and notes this week! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Downtown Street Party #2) & A Video From Last Month's Sandman Show!!

For our ninth post already this month, this is a two topic post, starting with a big LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this month, and ending with a video from a recent tribute band concert here. Let's get things rolling!

Over one month after the City of Sault Ste. Marie's second Downtown Street Party on Thursday, July 16th was cancelled due to that day's severely poor air quality, they will host the planned third (now second) one on Thursday, August 20th! Originally scheduled to take place on a closed stretch of Queen Street East from Elgin to Dennis Street, they're basically doubling the size of this one to include the Brock-Elgin stretch that was gypped out of last month's street party, so this will virtually take place from the former BMO building all the way down to the bus terminal. Going along with this, they will try again for the Downtown Plaza aspects of last month's cancelled street party, including re-booking Nicole Does Trivia and the live screening of Jaws 1 there. Click here for full details on non-musical activities to expect on Queen Street two weeks from tomorrow (even a rock climbing wall!)

Musically speaking, there will actually be three "stages" for Street Party #2, but sadly, none of the acts on the 20th are ones who were scheduled for the cancelled street party last month (nor were any of them scheduled for Stage 1 at Rotaryfest that same day). One stage will be up... way up atop Village Media headquarters (a space they call "The Canopy"), which has sparingly hosted live bands in recent years, and this is where SMS readers will likely be most interested, as punk/alternative cover sextet BookcluB and local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith (presumably with The Big Finish Band) will be playing on the roof at 9:30 & 8:15 PM respectively! Opening on The Canopy is Dustcovers frontman "Just" Tom Peer with an acoustic set at 7:00 PM. This should be a fun and unique experience, Mike's high elevation day job acknowledged, so don't bypass this action in just over two weeks!

As for the other stages, they will try again re: having bands at the corner of Queen & March Streets (the cancelled Brock-Elgin street party would actually have been from March-Elgin), and that stage will be headlined by prolific local folk/blues musician Jay Case with support sets from blues singer/guitarist Josh "The Preacher" McNally and his Jackleg Band, as well as folk singer/guitarist Matthew James. The bonus third stage will basically be a reprise of Stage 3 from Rotaryfest, in that it will feature EDM artists/DJs, including Skeletune, Hippie Business, and Flummoxx (all set times are identical to The Canopy's). The EDM party goes down outside of Outspoken Brewing between Elgin and Bruce Street. Downtown Street Party #3 #2 runs from 6:30-11:00 PM on Thursday the 20th, and it is FREE & ALL AGES! The third and final Downtown Street Party for 2026 goes down on September 17th from Dennis-Gore Street, as the parties move west down Queen Street.

Unhealthy levels of forest fire smoke was an unexpected wrench in last month's plans that hopefully won't rear its ugly head again in two weeks, for Northwestern Ontario's sake, let alone wherever that air drifts! Otherwise, these street parties go ahead rain or shine, but still, I do hope that there's no rain to worry about after the two month wait for another one of these! With BookcluB and Mike Haggith's rooftop involvement, this is the most SMS-friendly of the three street party lineups too, so keep everything in mind in two weeks, and visit You Belong SSM's Facebook page for more details!

To close this post, let's look back at a video from one of the concerts that we are backlogged alone in terms of just covering videos from, namely the Sandman concert at The Full Throttle Saloon! The former Primavera Hall have been oddly quiet on social media since this show took place on July 25th, but Mike Blair's 705Live Sound Co. were on hand to man the soundboard for this hard-touring Toronto-based Metallica tribute band, and he did get a video for the 705Live Facebook page! FYI, despite running sound for Rotaryfest Stage 2, Mike didn't post any videos from Clergue Park. The Sandman video runs for 71 seconds of them playing "Enter Sandman" (complete with Rick jokingly mispronouncing "Sault"), and Mike makes effective use of the zoom lens to let us "walk up" to the stage from the soundboard!

It's always fun to see Sandman's faithful take on 1980s and early 1990s Metallica on a local stage, even if this concert's ticket prices were noticeably higher than past shows here, and the crowd looks decent from what is visible. Give Mike's Sandman video a watch below, and hopefully the Saloon proper shot something to upload when their social media break ends!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the SMS next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tarnished & Separate Wayz) And Most Of This Weekend's Hard Rock Concert Previews!!

It's the (relative) calm before the storm that is Rotaryfest weekend next week, as this weekend's slate of hard rock concert previews is much quieter by comparison! Still too many shows for one post, so Saturday's previously announced Quite Frankly concert will be in tomorrow's post. Here's what you should know to kick off this weekend, including LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, some on SHORT NOTICE, and an apology for a missed concert last week!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Separate Wayz (and/or their sister band Soundcheck) will return to Jay's Piston Broke Pub for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, Separate Wayz first announced these shows via their Facebook page yesterday. Now, Jay's Facebook page has an AI generated poster crediting the shows to Soundcheck, a contradictory plug that I have surprisingly never seen since Soundcheck relaunched with a 75% identical lineup. I'm inclined to believe Separate Wayz' own promotion, but at the same time, could Soundcheck singer/guitarist Travis Sharpe be on hand too for another "epic crossover" weekend, or even just a smaller guest spot? Be at Jay's TOMORROW and/or SATURDAY NIGHT to find out! If truly Separate Wayz-led gigs, these will be their first since rocking Reggie's last month, and their first standalone bookings at Jay's this year.

Hopefully there's a solid crowd TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Both shows are at 9:30 PM with no cover and 19+ age limits, and if this is of note, Jay's now serves Slush Puppies! Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's just the second public video from Separate Wayz' Facebook page (at least it's not a "Story"!). This 13 seconds-long clip appears to come from their Reggie's show on June 13th, and features Travis on guitar despite those gigs not being advertised as "epic crossover" dates. He, Nicole, Terry, Jim, and Johnny were filmed here covering Alanis Morissette's "Hand In My Pocket", and what we hear sounds good, but look for much longer full performances from Separate Wayz (and Soundcheck?) this weekend!

Next up, let's head across the border to St. Ignace, Michigan, where Sault Ste. Marie classic/hard rock cover quartet Tarnished will return to Kingston Kitchen on SATURDAY NIGHT, with two more Saturday nighters booked there on August 15th and September 19th! Again, apologies for the short notice on SATURDAY's concert, it was only announced on the venue's Facebook page on Monday. As you may recall, Tarnished debuted at the 250 South State Street Jamaican restaurant last year during the Richard Crane Memorial Truck Show weekend in St. Ignace, and while unsaid in Kingston Kitchen's promotion, that appears to be the raison d'etre for the September 2026 booking. THIS SATURDAY'S and next month's shows appear to be just standard concerts, and clearly Tarnished's Kingston Kitchen debut went well last year for them to come back thrice this year! Remember, there's more going on in St. Ignace than just the casino, as Tarnished have proved umpteen times lately.

In two more new confirmations, Tarnished will end the summer with shows at The Back Bay Grill & Games Lakeside Lounge at Bay Mills Resort & Casino in Brimley on Friday, August 28th & Saturday, August 29th, so if you want some hard rock action a little closer to the Soo at our other regional casino, keep these shows in mind! They were announced via this batch Facebook event page for all Lakeside Lounge concerts for the next two months. All five dates (THIS SATURDAY at Kingston Kitchen included) are at 8:00 PM with 21+ age limits and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details across the board, and for a preview, here's Tarnished live!

Now back to Sault Ontario briefly for a show that had lots of advance notice, as local acoustic classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will play his third show in the past week TONIGHT at The Dive Gastro Pub! Fresh off of his second Mike Case Memorial Stage show of the year yesterday (I believe the rain held off too), this is the third and last show (so far) for Tym at The Dive, as per his batch Facebook event page for shows there. While The Dive has hosted Thursday acts on their outdoor patio on occasion (including Old Roads last week), their AI generated poster confirms that tonight's "Think It Over Thursday" concert will be indoors in "The Naughty Corner". While we're on the subject, I wanted to apologize for missing a show of Tym's last week, as he debuted at Ije's Place in nearby Desbarats this past Friday, in a solo concert that he never publically corroborated on social media, just on his personal account.

While Desbarats (40 minutes southeast of the Soo) only typically comes up on the SMS when referencing CASS, it is good to see a venue there hosting live music on occasion, though I do wish Tym would have said something about that gig, as I'd have happily plugged it had I known about it. Apologies again regardless! Tonight's Dive show (despite Tym's event page listing it as a matinee) takes place at 9:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover. See above for more details, and for a preview, here's Tym live!

We'll close this post by looking at more touring rock band action in Michigan's Eastern Upper Peninsula, but unlike the three bands debuting at Kewadin Casinos in the coming weeks, the band playing TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin is quite familiar, namely Traverse City classic metal trio Peril! While not newly promoted on the band's Facebook page, this weekend's shows are confirmed on their summer calendar seen here, and mark their first EUP shows since rocking the St. Ignace branch two weeks ago. Jeff and crew (whether in Peril or their sister band Scarkazm) are not advertised to return to either Kewadin branch, so unless you go see them at the Music In The Park series in St. Ignace, these are your last chances to rock out with either band north of the Mackinac Bridge this summer, so hopefully they have lots of fun covers in store!

As usual for Peril's shows at Kewadin lounges, tomorrow and Saturday night's concerts are at 9:00 PM with 21+ age limits and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details on Jeff, Howard, and Brooks' concerts in the Soo this weekend, and here they are live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for the Quite Frankly preview and more on the SMS next! Thanks everyone!

Downtown Street Party & St. Ignace Car Show Weekend Concert Previews!!

Thanks in part to the St. Ignace Car Show and Canada Day being mid-week this year, the last weekend of June 2026 is very busy, so much so that I'll have to break up this weekend's hard rock concert previews into three posts! As such, our previews of this weekend's Peril, Stones & Crows, Tarnished, A.S.D.P., Bone Yard 225, and Generations shows will be in our next two news posts, with today's focusing on shows taking place tonight and tomorrow. Let's get things rolling with tonight's festivities in Sault Ontario!

The first downtown street party on Queen Street East for 2026 goes down TODAY, so what can you expect? While the City of Sault Ste. Marie has taken over development of these events from the former Downtown Association, things will be similar to past downtown street parties, with Queen Street being closed from Pim to Brock Street to enable vendors, bands, family activities, and beverage gardens to pop up for the occasion, with business in this block also opening, many with deals. Click here for full details on what to expect! Musically speaking, there is only one SMS-leaning band playing today, specifically newer local Pearl Jam tribute band Even Flow in just their third public concert, so if you want to check out this supergroup's take on the grunge/alternative icons, head downtown! They'll be playing on the "Brock Street Stage" and are listed as the middle band in social media promotion.

Also playing tomorrow are Half Scoundies (Josh & Todd from The Golden Scoundrels in an acoustic folk/country set, as last seen at Go Skate Day) and classic rock veterans The Cloud Bandits. Meanwhile, the "Pim Street Stage" will feature sets from rocakabilly cover trio The Steeltown Playboys, classic rock staples Angry Joe & The Growlers, and Mustang Heart keyboardist/singer Vito Tassone, and they are spaced far enough apart where music won't be fighting to be heard at either end. The street party goes down tomorrow from 6:30-11:00 PM, this is absolutely an all ages event, and it has no cover charge. 9&10 News is calling for temperatures of 14-17° tomorrow night, and while there is a chance of rain through the 9:00 PM hour, the You Belong SSM Facebook page assures everyone that the party will go on rain or shine. I'd say be prepared for the elements regardless, but hopefully things stay dry!

Visit the above links for more on what should be a fun evening of entertainment, and for a preview, here's the first public video of Even Flow, courtesy of their Facebook page on Monday! The jam session clip sees them covering Pearl Jam's "Animal", as filmed by singer/Riverside Stasis bassist Rob Speers while singing. The tight camera angles mean that Rob has to pan around for the duration to capture everyone in view (including himself), but it's a well handled cover of this early Pearl Jam classic, and not an obvious song that gets modern radio over-play, so look for this(?) and more tonight!

Next up, let's take an hour's drive south to St. Ignace, Michigan for some of the concert action taking place this weekend in conjunction with the St. Ignace Car Show! As this is the 50th anniversary of this popular car show, there's lots of activities happening in town for the next few days, and The Driftwood Sports Bar is capitalizing again like they did for Bronco The Mac, with three days of live music at their 590 North State Street headquarters. Coinciding with TONIGHT'S cruise night, The Driftwood will welcome back Manistique hard rock cover duo Fyrbird for a Thursday night encore almost three weeks later, and with lots of folks in Mackinac County for the car show alone, hopefully there is another sizeable crowd at The Driftwood for Jamie and Rikk's hard hitting slate of rock favourites! Like earlier this month, tonight's Fyrbird concert is at 9:00 PM with a 21+ age limit and no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Fyrbird live there!

Finally for today's preview post, we'll stay at The Driftwood Sports Bar, who are tripling up live music this weekend like they did for Bronco The Mac, and like then, this includes DJs on Saturday night. However, they will have another familiar hard rock band gracing their stage TOMORROW NIGHT, namely Sault Michigan cover quartet The Nameless! Leading out from tomorrow's annual Down Memory Lane Parade of classic cars, this is the first show on their most recent schedule posting on their Facebook page, and marks their first publically advertised show in St. Ignace in two years, believe it or not. Hopefully their Driftwood debut proves to be a success for Josh, Mike M., Mike E., and Jamie, and that it sets the tone well for their private booking on Saturday night! Their next currently advertised public show is in the Soo late next month. The Nameless will also be up at 9:00 PM tomorrow with a 21+ age limit and no cover. See above for more on The Driftwood's car show weekend slate, and here's The Nameless covering Chevelle live!

That's all for now, but barring a late notice announcement of some type, our next post will preview this weekend's Tarnished, Stones & Crows, Peril, and Bone Yard 225 concerts, so look for that next, with Generations and A.S.D.P. to follow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Even Flow), A New Local Band, And An Inactive Band Note!!

June is here and so is the summer for all intents and purposes, so let's kick off another month with a packed news post, including a major band moved to our inactive links, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for a big outdoor community event later this month, and first, a familiar new group that will be debuting on stage in a few weeks, so here's what you should know!

We have a new band to add to our Sault Ontario band links, and they are Riverside Stasis, the new alternative band that is debuting at the all-local Blaster Powerhouse concert on June 27th! We knew going in that this was the new band from former Handsome Sandwich singer Tea Emlaw and former HeadFirst guitarist Raine Rancourt, but as it turns out, 3/5ths of HeadFirst are back in this project, with guitarist Liam Dinsmore and drummer Anthony Boudreau also involved. Rounding out their lineup is ex-Jack Spades bassist Rob Speers, who played with Tea in the short-lived cover rock band The Barbarians last year. Riverside Stasis' new Facebook page describes them as an "indie/pop rock band", but given this lineup and the show they're debuting at, I'd be hard pressed to not cover them. Their first original song is named "The Fool", which you can sample in this performance video edited by A Dire Setback bassist Matt Quinn.

While the band has more HeadFirst DNA, post-pandemic Handsome Sandwich fans will be drawn to this via Tea's vocals, which remain as distinctive and cutting as they were on "Deconstructed" and "Collage". The song proper only gets to a harder rock sound on the chorus, but we only get the first 99 seconds of what is clearly a longer song. Given members' diverse musical backgrounds, there's a lot of potential sounds that Riverside Stasis could draw from, but it's good to see many familiar faces joining forces in this new band, so get more details above, and check out their first video below!

Next up, new Riverside Stasis bassist Rob Speers will pick up the microphone to join his other active local band (Pearl Jam tribute quintet Even Flow) when they play at this year's first Downtown Street Party on Queen Street East on Thursday, June 25th! Specifically, Rob and crew will be among the performers at the corner of Queen and Brock for one of two outdoor stages for this street party, the first since the City of Sault Ste. Marie took over management of downtown events & development from the former Downtown Association. Queen Street will be closed from Pim to Brock Street (i.e. The Rockstar Bar to the former RBC), with each street party (all on Thursdays) progressively moving their way west each month, though specifics and music lineups for the other three are to be announced. As best as I can tell, Even Flow (in just their third public concert since debuting last fall) are the only hard rock-leaning band playing on either the Brock Street or Pim Street stages on June 25th, but who else can you look for on this Thursday evening? 

I don't know if the You Belong SSM Facebook page has bands listed in performance order, but Even Flow are listed between "Half Scoundies" (frontman Josh Penno and fiddler Todd Webb of local bluegrass/folk band The Golden Scoundrels in a stripped down acoustic set) and veteran classic rock cover trio The Cloud Bandits. Meanwhile, the other stage at Queen & Pim will play host to blues/rockabilly trio The Steeltown Playboys, classic rock mainstays Angry Joe & The Growlers, and former(?) Mustang Heart keyboardist Vito Tassone. The two stages should be far enough apart where music shouldn't bleed over between ends of the block party! Attendees can also expect beverage gardens, deals from Queen Street businesses open during the event, a vendor market, and family activities, including a rope walk course in front of the Sault Ste. Marie Museum. Click here for full details!

Downtown Street Party #1 goes down on Thursday the 25th from 6:30-11:00 PM (if Even Flow are indeed second, I'd expect them to be playing in the 8:00 range), this is absolutely an ALL AGES and licensed event, and there is no cover charge. Despite the contentious end of the Downtown Association last year, it is good to see the City picking up the ball to keep bringing community events to the downtown core like this, and hopefully Even Flow's brand of grunge and alt-rock classics from the Pearl Jam catalogue add to the festivities later this month! See above for more details!

Finally, I have reluctantly opted to move local/Barrie crossover thrash band Spades GT to our inactive band links. While not at our one year inactivity threshold, activity in their camp abruptly stopped on December 18th after what I would characterize as "sudden personal differences" arose on social media. Things got fairly divisive, and it's out of my depth to wade in on this discourse on a music site, so I'll let you find out what exactly happened five months ago if you want. The band has not made any official public statements or online updates since then, but none of their 2025 band members directly list Spades in their Instagram bios now, and they dropped out of all scheduled bookings into 2026, including the annual Walterstock in Toronto in January. Barring a revival, this ends a successful 12 year run for the former Jack Spades, who relaunched in the GTA in late 2021 after frontman J.D. Pearce and guitarist Daniel Horton both moved out of town during the pandemic.

While J.D. hasn't signalled work with a new public band as of yet, Dan is still in The Fast Life and is also now playing in a classic rock cover band named Tonehenge, guitarist Matthew Voros and bassist Sean MacNab are still performing together in the Toronto psychobilly band The House Of Haunt, and drummer Tyler Reiner is working as a session drummer and podcaster. Spades accomplished a lot in their four years down south, including two album releases, some wide tour runs and high profile gigs in the GTA and beyond, and lots of fun video content, plus two return trips for local concerts in 2022 and 2023. Best of luck to all prior (Jack) Spades members in the future, and hopefully we see the band again in some form!

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