LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Phatstick), Sneaky Pete Updates, And Three New Local Videos!!!

Hey there, metalheads! Another exciting post chock full of local metal news today, including three new videos that should interest you all, the first audio samples from a new local band, and starting things off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!!

They're baaaaaaack! St. Catharines metal band Phatstick, featuring Saultites Jason Taillefer and Joe LaVergne, are coming back to Sault Ontario near the end of the month! They'll be back at Foggy Notions on May 28th for what has to be their first local show in at least a couple of years! I can't tell you much else about the show yet, the Facebook event page does not go into detail, but it looks like a done deal! A 10:00 PM start time is listed, and knowing shows at Foggy's, I would expect a cover charge of around $3. After hearing about Jason's solo show here on April 27th, I never would have guessed Phatstick would be back so soon! And you can guaran-damn-tee I'll be there! I'm a fan of Phatstick's, I've never had the chance to see them live before (thank you, drinking age), and this show's over my 21st birthday weekend to boot! I'll keep you guys posted as I here more on this special show, and of course, I recommend heading to Phatstick's official website to check them out!

Next up, the first audio recordings from new local hard rockers Sneaky Pete have been posted online! Recorded on a mounted handheld recording device, the songs are not of any amazing quality, but these are our first glimpses into the Sneaky Pete sound! The band uploaded four audio clips onto their Facebook page, including AC/DC, Velvet Revolver, Kiss, and Neil Young covers! On first listen, I do see some promise, these guys are definitely good musicians and handle the covers pretty well, though I don't know if AC/DC is the best band for them to cover vocally. I like their version of "Cold Gin" especially! I also think the band were too hard on themselves for the recording quality, it's not like we were expecting Stereo Soul-esque production on live covers from a jam session. Pretty good stuff, I can't wait to hear more from Sneaky Pete, hopefully they'll take the live stage before you know it!

The end of today's post will have three new local metal videos! There's been no shortage of new videos lately, has there? The first new video I have today is a performance from Thursday's Derelict-headlined death metal show at Foggy Notions, which I heard went very well by most accounts! I haven't seen video of Derelict, Thekillingfield, or Bring The Fallen yet, but there is video online from Beyond Within's set, courtesy of their official YouTube channel! It's of their performance of their song "Mechanical Infection", and it makes me wish I was there for it even more! Sound is slightly muddled at parts, but I'm impressed, as always! I miss seeing Beyond Within live, can't beat Northern Ontario death metal! Check out the clip below, hopefully there's more from the show floating around!



Secondly for new videos is the clip I promised a few days ago before a bunch of new news stories got bunched in the way. And this is newly posted video footage from Megadeth's set from their March 2007 show with Heaven and Hell and Down at the now-Essar Center! YouTube user exyurock uploaded this just 5 days ago, and he got the year wrong on dating the video, but it still has pretty good audio quality, and not just because Megadeth are an awesome band! The video's far from the stage though. The clip includes Megadeth's performance of "Symphony of Destruction", followed by the very beginning of "Hangar 18", and you can check it out immediately below! Nice to see more video pop up online from this show, I wonder what else is floating around from older shows like this?

Finally for today's update is another new Woods of Ypres live video, courtesy of frontman David Gold's YouTube channel! Amongst some new videos of his vacations to Vietnam and Finland is a new clip from the band's Western Canada tour last August, this time coming from their show in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan! It's mostly of their performance of the song "Crossing The 45th Parallel", but it also features a lighthearted opening "warm-up" segment where David goes...a little bit country? I won't spoil it, just watch it! Oh, and it's pretty good quality. I've always enjoyed this song too, so that helps!



That's all for today, my next post (which in all likelihood will be after I get home tomorrow night) will include news on a local band's return, Bret Michaels' health, what appears to be some local hard rock/metal mention on CBC Radio One, and more! Stay tuned, everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison & Turner Up) And Weekend Concert Previews!!

Ah, the joys of being out of town, you're more likely to miss certain things, and I missed some concerts over the last couple of days to give you guys. But luckily, they haven't happened yet, so there's still time to push the cause and get you all out to them! So here are some (apologetically) short notice LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!!! Stay tuned afterwards for the rest of the previews of this weekend's stacked concert lineup!

Firstly, Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison will be back for four more solo sets, the first two of which are taking place THIS WEEKEND! Tym will bring his acoustic solo show to The Nicolet Tavern tomorrow and Saturday night, at a venue I don't think he's played before as a solo artist, though Caveman fans will no doubt remember seeing the full band there in December! Then, he'll be at Coch's Corner for shows next Friday and Saturday as well! Those two shows aren't publically announced, but Tym confirmed them with me via e-mail and asked if I could plug them, so I'm doing just that! This weekend's shows at the Nicolet are posted with 9:30 PM start times, I'd expect next weekend's Coch's Corner shows start at a similar hour. I wouldn't expect a cover charge either, but make sure you're 19! Sorry again about the short notice for these new shows, being away is rough. Confirm your attendance for Tym's Nicolet Tavern shows at this location! If you want to hear some great acoustic hard rock and metal covers and enjoy a cold one, you'll know where to be this weekend! Check out more solo material from Tym Morrison (and some Caveman stuff) at his official website!

The other new shows this weekend, and again, with my apologies for the late warning, come courtesy of local hard rock cover stars Turner Up, who will be back at The Rockstar Bar this weekend themselves! From 10:30 PM onward tomorrow and Saturday, get ready to rock out and dance to some great rock covers, and some heavier stuff later in their set! No cover charge, you must be 19. These should also be good shows, and for the record, these were announced late too, so it's not completely my fault for their late announcement. So if you want to get on the dance floor with one of the area's more prominent local cover bands, The Rockstar Bar is the place to be! Confirm your attendance at the Facebook event page, check out more from Turner Up at this location, and for a preview, here's video of the band covering the Def Leppard classic "Hysteria"!


The rest of the shows this weekend are next, so these are just weekend concert previews, and we'll start with possibly the biggest one of all! TONIGHT, Holy Hell Productions presents Derelict, live at Foggy Notions! The Montreal-based progressive death metal rockers will make their way here on their Northern Shores tour, and will deliver an onslaught of death metal we don't see here nearly enough! Awesome band, they've supported bands like Job For A Cowboy live and have three albums to their credit, all full of unrelenting yet melodic death metal! Joining them are Sudbury's Beyond Within and North Bay's Thekillingfield, both making their first stop in Sault Ste. Marie since their show supporting Cattle Decapitation last March at The Oddfellows Hall! Beyond Within's extreme death metal sound will be quite familiar to local concert goers, themselves a frequent sight here, while Thekillingfield will bring their more experimental style here for just the second time! Rounding out the lineup is the Soo's very own Bring The Fallen, in their first local concert since performing at the Nite-Life portion of Algoma Hope4Haiti! No disrespect to any other local bands, but Bring The Fallen are the absolute best fit to open this concert, what with their awesome death metal sound and all! Click the above links to check out all four bands!

The concert will take place TONIGHT at Foggy Notions with an advertised start time of 10:00 PM. Despite past history for Beyond Within shows in town, this concert will NOT be all ages. Tickets have been adjusted to $7 flat at the door, a dollar cheaper than they were to cost at the door, so there's some good value! It's not often that we get such great value out of one bill at a local concert, it seems rarer and rarer that we get a package show like this with so much heaviness! You guys have gotta hit this, make it a success and encourage more shows like this one! That way, out of town multi band metal concerts can become normal again, not just a one off event. Confirm your attendance at the Facebook event page, and for a preview, here's the music video for Derelict's single "Machete"!

Then tomorrow night, head back to Foggy Notions for the debut live performance from local experimental hard rockers SBD, the new project from No Arrow frontman Dann Pichette and bassist Brad Griffifth! In what is being hyped as "a rare public performance", expect some CD giveaways and lots of unique, hard to categorize music far from the grunge sound that No Arrow brought to the table in the 2000s! Also joining in support is The Fury, the local genre-less band featuring ex-members of Out Of The Mouth Of Babes and D.O.T.H.! 19+, $3 admission, the fun starts at 10:00 PM. This should be a fun concert and one of the most unique shows you'll be likely to see this year, as both bands are hard to categorize, but will no doubt entertain! Personally, it's nice to see Dann back on stage, I really miss No Arrow, and even if this isn't close in sound, it's still been a long time coming! To confirm your attendance for this show, click here, click the above links to check out the bands, and for a video preview, here's the beginning of a jam room clip of SBD playing the song "Rock Paper Scissors"! (Click here to view the rest of the song)



Quick detour to Sault Michigan for the only two local metal concerts there this weekend that I know of, as local hard rockers Blind Baby appear to be returning to the local stage! Well, I'm going by Kewadin Casino's entertainment page for this, as Kewadin is advertising Blind Baby as playing there this weekend at The Rapids Lounge. As best as I can tell, the concerts (taking place tomorrow night and Saturday night) will be at 9:00 PM both nights with no cover charge. But that's as much as I can tell you, as Blind Baby's lone page (on Facebook) is rarely updated so I don't have band confirmation. But, Kewadin Casino's website is valid proof in itself, so I'd say believing it isn't a bad idea! They look like a good band, no idea how they sound, but if you want a band to check out this weekend in Sault Michigan, there's an option! If I hear more on Blind Baby, I'll let you all know!

Finally this weekend is one of the strangest genre clash concerts we're likely to get this year, and the metal band that's taking part will be local punk/metal band Destroilet! Returning to Coch's Corner for their second ever concert, the band chock full of local music veterans will take the stage with two acts you wouldn't expect, both of which come from the rap world! Toronto underground rappers The Hobo Banditos and solo artist Unknown Mizery will make their way up here for this unique hybrid concert, hyped under the name "Hobo Banditos & Unknown Mizery vs. Destroilet"! Does the "vs." imply a collaboration? We'll have to see! The show starts at 10:00 PM on Saturday night, it's also 19+, and will have a $10 cover at the door. I honestly think this show will draw more rap fans than punk fans, but if you go for Destroilet, you're bound to be entertained! Hopefully they'll have some great old school punk and metal to rock the rap fans to the core on Saturday! Click the above links to check out the involved bands, confirm your attendance at this location, and for a preview, here's Destroilet covering the Hank Williams III song "Tennessee Driver" from their debut show from December!



There, all of this weekend's shows are previewed, hopefully you guys can make it to some of them and make them successes! I'll miss them all because I will still be out of town (sadly, I REALLY wanted to see Derelict), but PLEASE go to some shows this weekend! My next update should have that video from the older major local concert I found, possibly some Bret Michaels health updates, and more depending on what I can locate! Stay tuned!

Concert Updates And News On Potential New Shows!

Man, homework SUCKS. My cache of local metal news is piling up, so I basically HAVE to update everyone today or people are gonna be wondering why this story or that info isn't getting plugged! Today's news will revolve around the topic of concerts: We have updates on two potential shows, a new band for one, and major updates on a certain local music festival, so here we go!

We have more info online concerning what to expect for this July's Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival! Firstly, as you can see, they have an official event logo! Looks nice, though the colours scream "fall" more than summer. I'd have changed the brown to a red, but hey, they must have had their reasons! Also, a tentative schedule is now online for it at this location! Aside from the main headliners (Vince Neil, Bret Michaels, Three Doors Down, and Meat Loaf), specific bands have yet to be announced by Kewadin, so we'll have to wait and see! That being said, the schedule says that there will be "Entertainment" (I am 95% sure this means "Live Bands") at 12:00, 2:00, and 4:00 at 1 hour timeslots each day. If you noticed that there's one hour gaps between these sets, they're not dead air, DJ Chef will be on for an hour a piece at 1:00, 3:00, and 5:00 each day! Through more research on DJ Chef, I can tell you that he's a Food Network personality who has the unique ability to spin the turntables AND cook gourmet meals at the same time! Maybe not metal, but that takes obvious talent! Also, it should be noted that the headlining bands are listed as performing from 6:00-10:00 PM. I can't see a band being given four hours to themselves, so if you hear support bands added to that timeslot, don't be surprised!

As for the rest of the daily schedules, the "strolling magician" will be around to do magic tricks from 12:00-3:00, 4:00-7:00, and 8:00-10:00! The NASCAR simulator, Rock Band, birdie golf (I assume that's mini golf?), bumper cars, and mechanical bull will be active from 12:00-4:00, along with carnival food for sale! Registration for the daily eating contests is from 1:00-3:00 each day, I assume the contests themselves are in the same timeframe. Also from 1:00-3:00 are the autograph signings (Remember, Thursday has Playboy Bunnies, Friday has Detroit Lions players, and Saturday has The Fonz!) The bean bag toss tournament is from 1:00-7:00 daily, there's food and merchants throughout the day, and fireworks will conclude each night at 10:00 PM!

In terms of other new updates that I haven't mentioned yet, the festival itself will be held outside Kewadin Casino in the south parking lot & RV park, I believe in a similar location to where the Kiss concert was held. There are NO discounts or deals for tickets beyond the cheaper total rate for a three day pass. That being said, there are no children's rates, so they'll cost the same as adults. Doors (or should I say, gates) open at 11:00 AM daily for the festival, and all contests can be registered for at the registration table. Admission is general, but you'll need your own chair if you want to sit down on one. Coolers and outside beverages are prohibited, those 21+ will be marked at the beer tent, and tickets will be monitored at entry and exit. Kewadin's really pulling out all the stops, this should be one hell of a festival! You can guarantee that I'll keep you posted with updates on this festival, especially where newly announced bands are concerned, particularly of the metal variety! Stay tuned, and click here for complete details so far, and tickets go on sale on FRIDAY!

Next up, it appears that a new band has been announced for an upcoming death metal show! While I still haven't seen local press or a Facebook event page for it, Derelict and Thekillingfield are indeed coming to Foggy Notions on May 6th, and they will have company! The new band on the bill is Sudbury death metal quartet Beyond Within, who should be quite familiar to you local metalheads! Beyond Within have played here numerous times, mostly at The Oddfellows Hall, most recently last March as one of the support acts for Cattle Decapitation (coincidentally, Thekillingfield were also on the bill for that show!) I love Beyond Within, one of the most brutal death metal bands I've seen locally! In fact, one of my first local concert t-shirts was a Beyond Within one! It'll be weird seeing them at a bar though, I'm sure we're all more used to seeing them at The Oddfellows Hall! Trust me, metalheads, you'll love this concert! Check out more from Beyond Within at this location (their involvement in this show is confirmed there), and if I hear more on this concert, I'll be sure to share it with you all!

Now we come to shows that aren't confirmed totally yet, but there's interesting stuff about them to mention. Firstly, remember that possible Doom Cannon metal/hardcore show that may happen on May 18th? Well, the signs pointing to it's confirmedness continue to build, as Doom Cannon's MySpace page lists a May 18th concert in Sault Ontario with the venue being...The Oddfellows Hall. Exactly where I predicted it would be! Now this isn't enough to confirm this show yet, I've learned from past mistakes that often times, a show there can't totally be confirmed by a MySpace concert listing alone, so I will wait for official word from Jasmin Nott (the promoter) before I call this an official show. Time is getting thinner to properly hype it though, hopefully something 100% official pops up soon! In any event, a Doom Cannon-headlined hardcore show at The Oddfellows Hall on May 18th seems more likely than not, so keep it in the back of your head! And keep up to date on this potential show's happenings and news at the official Facebook event page!

And finally for today, here's another potential concert to keep on your radars! Local hardcore band Out Of The Mouth Of Babes (featuring 4/5ths of As It Stands and Matt Maccarone from A Fall From Innocence) have a possible concert listed for May 28th at Foggy Notions on their MySpace page! Little is given, just an 8:00 PM start time and the information that they will be playing with a band named Kingdoms. After a quick Google search, I can tell you that they are a hardcore band from Kitchener, not a bad sound to them! Now for what it's worth, Kingdoms' MySpace page lists a show in Etobicoke for that same day, so it may have been cancelled in the first place. But really, Out Of The Mouth Of Babes have announced a number of shows since their inception that led nowhere, like the show supposedly happening at The Oddfellows Hall this Saturday that's on their MySpace. Either the advertising for it is abysmal, they're really keeping it a secret, or it was called off too. Well, if I hear anything, I'll let you guys know, I just wish they were clearer about their show statuses!

I have lots more coming, likely tomorrow, mostly assorted news that doesn't apply to any specific concert, ranging from a glimpse at how a certain local band sound to a rock themed car wash?! All that and more tomorrow, hopefully, so stay tuned!