LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (B.A. Johnston), Darsombra Concert Preview, And New Videos!!

Let's wrap up this weekend's concert previews with a look at the remaining announced hard rock show of the weekend, complete with a late lineup change and opener addition! Along with that, we also have lots of new concert videos and first, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for later this fall!

Hamilton comedy/folk punk musician B.A. Johnston will return to Sault Ste. Marie on Saturday, November 9th when he opens for Montreal power pop band Dany Laj & The Looks at The New American Pub! Local fans may recognize B.A.'s irreverent mix of outsider folk and punk rock from his well received headlining sets at the same venue in April as well as at Cafe Natura back in 2015, and with his creative and somewhat polarizing original set, you know there'll be a lot to take in at The New A this fall! Of course, he's opening for Dany Laj & The Looks in that band's fifth local concert appearance since 2015, though this will be their first Soo gig in almost two years. With their upbeat and proficient power pop originals, Dany and company should be more than welcomed back to the Soo themselves, so don't bypass them! Potential local openers have not been announced at press time. This show is a presentation of Girl Friday Productions, who also booked B.A. here in April.

An 8:00 PM start time is in effect for this 19+ concert,  which will have admission via $12 tickets that will be available at The New A and at an online source to be announced, and they apparently go on sale on Thursday. This should be a fun show for power pop and punk fans, including two local favourites delivering in their own diverse ways, so visit the official Facebook event page for more updates as they roll in!

Next up, here's our last concert preview for the weekend, as Baltimore, Maryland psychedelic hard rock duo Darsombra will play their second local concert TOMORROW NIGHT when they hit LopLops Lounge! This show was moved on short notice from the aformentioned New A to LopLops, as per promoters Six, Two, Oh. on the official Facebook event page yesterday, though a reason was not announced for the relocation. Fans may recall their eclectic stage show at the same venue two years ago, where their instrumental form of "trans-apocalyptic galaxy rock" made a bunch of new fans, and with their ambitious audio-visual presentation and extended jams, this is a show that has to be seen to be believed! Openers will include ex-Lion Ride bassist Brent Ellis' masked alt-folk solo project Slumshine, in a set that will also serve to launch his debut solo album "SLMSHN" on a physical run of cassette tapes (Six, Two, Oh.'s debut indie album release), so keep this angle in mind as well!

The other opening band, who we just learned about, are local drone/noise rock trio Pointless (led by Treble Charger's Bill Priddle), who opened for Darsombra in 2017 as well. This 19+ show has a 9:00 PM start time with an $8 cover charge, while Brent will also be selling some of his own original artwork tomorrow as well. This should be a fun and very diverse night of music with a little something for everyone to enjoy, and with Darsombra's impressive and hard to describe set, you won't want to miss out at The New A tomorrow! See above for more details, and here's Darsombra live!



Finally for today, here's eighteen new videos of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck from their road trip to Wawa for another show at their annual drag races earlier this month! These were uploaded to drummer Glen Thomas' YouTube channel over the past couple of days, all but one as filmed on a stationary camera. These don't appear to have been uploaded in performance order, as the sky will tell you. Seventeen of the videos include Soundcheck covering The Outfield's "Your Love", Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me", The Tragically Hip's "Blow At High Dough" & "New Orleans Is Sinking", The Offspring's "Why Don't You Get A Job?", Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl", Def Leppard's "Hysteria", Kenny Loggins' "Footloose", Dwight Yoakam's "Fast As You", Sublime's "Santeria", David Bowie's "Let's Dance", David Wilcox's "My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble", Bryan Adams' "Summer of 69", ..

...Van Morrison's "Wild Night", Poison's "Talk Dirty To Me" (plus a fan-shot alternate video), and REO Speedwagon's "Take It On The Run". These covers largely feature Travis Sharpe on lead vocals, with the exception of the Cheap Trick, Offspring, Dwight Yoakam, David Wilcox, and REO Speedwagon covers, plus "Blow At High Dough", which all have Terry Eaton taking the lead. Also, be warned of an over-exuberant fan with an "adult" item dancing on stage during "Fast As You". Embedded below is Soundcheck's regular 10+ minute cover medley, which features renditions of David Wilcox's "Riverboat Fantasy", Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", Metallica's "Enter Sandman", Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time", Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer", Van Halen's "Jamie's Cryin'", and a reprise of "Riverboat Fantasy". As usual, Travis handles the lead vocals for the Journey, Boston, and Bon Jovi covers, with Terry doing the rest. Of course, huge thanks to Glen for getting all of these videos filmed, he certainly didn't have to!

Capturing a whopping 83 minutes or so from the Wawa drag races, I can't quickly confirm if this was their whole concert, but you sure get two regular sets' worth, and Soundcheck generally sound solid throughout this diverse range of covers! Fans will definitely want to give these a look, and don't miss Soundcheck TONIGHT & TOMORROW at The Reggievelt!



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

Soundcheck Concert Video Showcase!!

Today's post is entirely devoted to a bunch of new videos from local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck, all courtesy of drummer Glen Thomas' YouTube channel in the past two weeks! Glen posted 11 new videos in this span, adding up to over an hour of new content from this talented veteran group, and with things being spread across multiple different venues, it only makes sense to give each concert's videos their own write-ups! Two of these videos were previously shared to Soundcheck's Facebook page and subsequently featured here already (this Alanis Morisette cover at The Esquire Club & their classic rock medley at The Machine Shop in February), so I won't rehash them in this post. Also, one video is a sampler of scattered clips from various shows of theirs, and I'll approach it at a later date. Going in rough chronological order, we'll start with Soundcheck's set at a drag racing event in Wawa in August, oddly not featuring Glen on drums.

Prior to his addition to the band, this was filmed during Scott McLurg's brief stint behind the drumkit last year. The video is of Soundcheck's aforementioned 12-13 minute classic rock medley, where they cover David Wilcox's "Riverboat Fantasy", Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", Metallica's "Enter Sandman", Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time", Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer", Van Halen's "Jamie's Cryin'", and a reprise of "Riverboat Fantasy". This is the third video of this medley that I've seen, and it still has a nice balance of tunes, if with fuzzy visuals, so give it a look below!



Next up, here's Soundcheck (now with Glen on drums) covering REO Speedwagon's "Take It On The Run" at what I believe to be their Rockstar Bar show on November 15th. Featuring guitarist Terry Eaton on lead vocals, the performance seems to be solid, especially on the guitar solo, but the vertical camera angle, green lighting, abbreviated run-time and even fuzzier visual quality don't help matters. If you can look past the above points, there's good stuff to take in below!



Moving to another Christmas-season concert, Glen posted three more videos of their Toystock VII set at the Northern Grand Gardens later that month to his YouTube channel as well, all featuring Travis Sharpe on vocals only, not even playing guitar here. These include covers of Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", Kenny Loggins' "Footloose" (complete with overlaid cell phone footage of attendees dancing), and as embedded below, John Mellencamp's "Wild Night". Filmed on the same strong camera & angle from their prior-posted medley video, these are largely well done covers, but attendee heads remain in the foreground. Give these a look above & below!



The other three videos are from two (maybe three) different concerts at Reggie's West over the past few months, all again with Travis singing lead. One undated video (possibly from the November show mentioned in a minute) is a very blurry and distant clip of them covering Keith Urban's "Somebody To Love", which is a fitting choice for either Reggie's branch, and the audio here holds up far better than the visuals! This is the only one of the three where Travis plays guitar too. Another video from the Reggievelt features Soundcheck covering Greta Van Fleet's "Highway Tune" in February, distinct from their Esquire Club cover of the same song from November. Solid rendition of this recent rock radio hit with much improved visuals, and the vertical camera angle better frames the band here! Embedded below is this set-ending cover of Ozzy Osbourne's "Bark At The Moon" at Reggie's West in November, which happens to feature guest guitarist Tym Morrison!

Nice to see him back with his old Hollow and Carbon Black bandmates for a brief spell, and it's a shame we don't see his proficient guitar work in an electric setting as much anymore! Travis' vocals strike me as a little soft for this cover, but everyone performs well, and Tym fits in like a glove, so give Soundcheck's Ozzy cover a look below as well!



That's all for today, but thanks to Glen for sharing all of these videos, and stay tuned for more news and updates on the site soon! Thanks everyone!