LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison) & This Weekend's Hard Rock Concert Previews!!

Let's dive into the last concert weekend of March 2019 in today's post, luckily without any short notice shows (at press time?) That said, we do have some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS to add to our listings for next month, so here's what you should know for hard rock bands this weekend and beyond!

Prolific local singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will continue his long-term arrangement at Gliss Restaurant with acoustic matinee concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY, but while we're at it, I'm rolling his April concert schedule into our listings too! Remember, due to their length and amount, we approach Tym's concerts (particularly the Gliss ones) a month at a time for our coverage on the SMS. As such, expect Tym's ongoing run at Gliss to continue unabated through next month (and beyond), with April dates scheduled twice weekly on April 5th & 6th, 12th & 13th, 19th & 20th, and 26th & 27th. Keep these supper-time shows in mind at this popular Spring Street restaurant next month, plus tomorrow & Saturday's March-closing gigs as well, for more strong entertainment! As well, Tym has two traditional nighttime shows next month at different frequent venues of his, both on Fridays, including at The Roadhouse Bar & Grill on April 5th and at Room 21 on April 19th.

Tym's busy schedule is always welcome to see, so keep these shows in mind if you're up for some hard rocking unplugged covers this spring! If he is returning to Mark's Breakfast Plus or elsewhere next month, then those gigs haven't been publically announced yet. Tomorrow's, Saturday's, and next month's Gliss shows all have 6:00 PM start times and no stated age limits or cover charges (but mind the locale), while the Roadhouse & Room 21 shows are 19+, at 10:00 PM, and have no cover. Visit the Facebook event pages linked here, here , and here for more details, and here's Tym live!



Next up, Tym does have one more show this weekend, as he's opening for new-ish power rock band Re:Born in both acts' Soo Blaster debut TOMORROW NIGHT! A precursor to Re:Born's set opening for The Killer Dwarfs at the same venue next month, this will be the Project 421 successors' first concert of 2019, just their fourth total, and their first public appearance since Elly McWatters replaced Robert Nevitt as their new lead singer last fall. Headlining a warm-up gig is a great way for Re:Born to shake off the stage rust, so prepare for a classic metal cover and original blast tomorrow at the former Woolco/NCO building on Queen Street East! Remember, their set will be as a four-piece due to guitarist Frank McGillivray's out of town work commitments. Of course, the aforementioned Tym Morrison is opening in a rare supporting appearance at standalone non-charity concert, and his unplugged hard rock covers should set the tone well tomorrow night!

A 9:00 PM start time is in effect for this 19+ concert, which will have a $5 cover charge. If you love old school hard and classic rock with an increasing slate of original tracks, you'd be well served by going to Soo Blaster tomorrow to see Re:Born's return after over 5 months away! Visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's Re:Born live!



In a brief detour to the Eastern Upper Peninsula, fans can see Traverse City, Michigan classic metal trio Peril back at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! These shows were originally advertised as taking place at the St. Ignace Kewadin via this concert calendar in January, and if this wasn't a typo, a reason was not publicized for the concerts' relocation. Marking their first Soo Kewadin stops of 2019, Peril's hard rocking brand of classic covers always a welcome sight when they travel north, fans should give Jeff, Adam, and Brooks a solid welcome back this weekend! No word yet on shows in the second quarter of 2019 or beyond for Peril, we'll let you know when they're confirmed, but their sister band Scarkazm will be in the Soo in May.

Tomorrow & Saturday night's concerts have 9:00 PM start times, 21+ age limits, and no announced cover charges. In spite of the mistaken/outdated venue listing from January, Peril should put on a great show both nights in Sault Ste. Marie, so keep tomorrow & Saturday's shows in mind, and stay tuned for word on when Peril will return to St. Ignace! Visit the above links for more details, and here's Peril live!



Finally for this weekend's hard rock concert previews, we'll head back to Sault Ontario, where Windsor-based Kiss tribute band Destroyer will return for a well anticipated headlining concert THIS SATURDAY NIGHT at The Canadian Nightclub! Last seen locally in May 2015 (with their planned July 2017 gig here cancelled on late notice), Destroyer's well regarded brand of Kiss tribute action has proven to deliver the auditory and visual goods across Canada, and if you're up for a night of authentic Kiss action, you know where to be on Saturday! The local openers will be local hard rock cover quartet Griphook (who opened for Destroyer here in 2015), ending a nearly two year-long stage hiatus of theirs dating back to Rotaryfest 2017. It's great to see Joel, Brian, Dan, and Tony back after far too long, but how much stage rust will Griphook have after the long layoff? Head to The Canadian on Saturday to find out, and hopefully there's much more to come from!

Admission for this 19+ concert is a flat $15 at the door, which is cheaper than in 2015, but that event did have discounted advance tickets, so take that for what you will. A 10:00 PM start time is advertised, and if you're a loyal Kiss Army member, you won't want t miss out on Destroyer's first Sault Ste. Marie gig in over 4 years! Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Destroyer live last month!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates, plus this month's CD review in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: Tiff107's Channel

It's now time for this month's YouTube Channel Profile, our monthly feature to spotlight 1-3 YouTube channels whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk artists and/or concerts, in order to promote them to current readers encourage views and new subscriptions! This month's randomly selected YouTube channel features solo performance clips from a talented local musician, so here's what you should know!
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Tiff107's Channel (http://youtube.com/tiff107)

Owner: Prolific local punk/metal guitarist Tiffany "Spades" Stocco, currently known as the frontwoman of Stegadeth, Coral Fang, and Poison Girl, as well as a guitarist with Jack Spades, and formerly with T-Rex Manning & Pools of Booze.

Channel Timeline: Launched on January 26th, 2006; Videos posted from December 2010 through October 2018

Channel Summary: A personal use channel that predates Tiffany's full-time emergence into the local punk & metal scenes, a total of 32 videos have been uploaded here, almost all focused on her own solo guitar covers of various metal and punk songs (with gear details often given in the descriptions), though two originals with vocals also made the cut. The channel's only non-musical video features Tiffany and a friend skating outdoors at night back in January 2011, months before her debut with T-Rex Manning.

Why You Should Watch: Fans of Tiffany's work in local bands in the 2010s would be well served to check out her channel, as her musical progression is very welcome to see throughout, and long-time fans of hers will recognize some familiar cover choices along the way! The channel is still actively used too, if not as frequently as she did in 8 or 9 years back. However, Tiffany has not posted any live videos of her various local bands here, but between YouTube and Facebook, most have footage elsewhere.

Our Recommended Videos To Check Out

Teenage Depression: As part of a prolific swath of initial video uploads in 2010 & 2011, Tiffany posted a couple of solo performance clips featuring her playing guitar as well as singing original lyrics, predating her lead vocal debut with Stegadeth by over 5 years. Alongside "Simple Person" (which is more rock-based), featured here is "Teenage Depression", which is markedly softer and more personal in nature. Compared to her live punk singing (which I often wish had more projection and confidence), her vocals here are surprisingly effective, giving a raw, melodic, and emotional feel that really suits this song. It'd be interesting to see Tiffany revisit these early originals!



I Only Wanna Be With You: Volbeat guitar cover: The most popular video on Tiffany's channel (with over 3,700 views), this is a 3:00 AM cover of Volbeat's version of the Dusty Springfield classic "I Only Wanna Be With You", as filmed in October 2012. Likely a reflection of her Volbeat cover work with her 2012 T-Rex Manning side project Pools of Booze, the audio quality is mixed at best, but if you can pick out her playing over top of the original track, you'll see that she had a solid grasp of this cover overall! Tiffany also covered Volbeat's original song "Pools of Booze" (where the above band's name originated) earlier that same month.



Bad Religion:Sinister Rouge: Video uploads have slowed down in recent years, but Tiffany's recording quality and guitar talents have both went up as the years have progressed. One of her more recent covers from February 2017 is of Bad Religion's "Sinister Rouge", a live staple in Stegadeth sets, so fans will know already that she has this classic of theirs down pat! The backing audio is a little muffled, but it accentuates Tiffany's playing as a result, and it's a highlight of her channel's more recent content!


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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around April 26th with a look at multiple channels, as the first one that we randomly chose only has 9 videos from the same album, so I would only source two videos from it for the profile proper, and one more channel was added to fill it out. As such, we'll be looking at the YouTube channels of users malaise666 (featuring most of Woods of Ypres' last CD) and Angela U (featuring a Treble Charger concert video from 2015), so look for these next month, and for more news and notes soon! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison), The Tea Party Concert Preview, And New Videos!!

As promised, here's those mid-week concert previews on this Monday morning, but to go along with them, I have some videos to share from a recent metal concert. Now, here's what you should know, starting with SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!!

Local hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will return to Mark's Breakfast Plus at the Market Mall for the first time this year with special matinee concerts TODAY, TOMORROW, and WEDNESDAY! Apologies for the short notice, these shows were only announced via their Facebook event page on Friday. A frequent venue for Tym Morrison's acoustic solo gigs since Mark's opened in 2017, Tym is known for typically playing at this west end diner on early weekday bookings, but these will actually be his first public shows there since last June. I'm surprised he didn't play there more often when Gliss was relocating, but it's great to see Tym back at a familiar locale TODAY, TOMORROW, and WEDNESDAY, even on late notice! As usual for his Mark' Breakfast Plus gigs, expect these to have early 4:00 PM start times with no announced cover charges or age limits, but mind the locale. See above for more details, and here's Tym live a few years back!



Next up, here's a preview of a huge concert with lots of advance notice, as Juno nominated Windsor hard/world rock trio The Tea Party will return to Sault Ste. Marie THIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT at The Machine Shop! Following their successful free concert at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion last July, the band behind such hits as "Psychopomp" & "The Messenger" are back for another show full of hard rocking songs from their long career, including their new single "Black River", and hopefully there's a strong turnout for Jeff, Stuart, and Jeff's return to the Soo on Wednesday! Joining The Tea Party as openers (though only quietly acknowledged in local advertising) are Winnipeg southern rock quintet The Proud Sons, whose country-inflected original sound will prove an interesting contrast on Wednesday, but they have the talent and musicianship to go around nicely! Presented by Cabin Media, this is unfortunately not a free and all ages concert like last year, with tickets running for $40, but they are still available!

You can buy tickets at this link and presumably in-person/at the door, attendees must be 19 or older, and a 7:30 PM start time is advertised. After a 19 year wait for The Tea Party to rock Sault Ste. Marie ended last summer, it's great to see them back so soon, and hopefully they deliver another skilled and fan-friendly set on Wednesday! Stay tuned for updates and hopefully some local news coverage, and here's The Tea Party in the Soo last year!



We'll close today with some new concert videos shot by the ever-generous Christopher Paci (who also filmed the above Tea Party video), as he was in attendance for Saturday night's OZbourne concert at The Canadian Nightclub, filming 11 videos that night for his YouTube channel. Kudos to Chris as usual, he goes above and beyond when he's at a show regarding filming the bands! Regarding the headliners, Chris filmed the Winnipeg-based Ozzy Osbourne tribute band covering Black Sabbath's "War Pigs", "Paranoid", "N.I.B.", and (part of) the song "Black Sabbath", plus five of Ozzy's own solo songs, namely "Bark At The Moon", "Flying High Again", "Crazy Train", "I Don't Know", and as embedded below, "No More Tears." Generally, OZbourne deliver the goods on these videos for Ozzy fans in music and presentation, and Chris got a nice close view of the band too, so fans should enjoy these clips! Give them a look above & below!



Lastly, Chris also filmed two videos of opening blues rock cover trio The Paul DellaVedova Band on Saturday, and it's clear that Paul & company are fans of Paul Rodgers & Simon Kirke, as their filmed covers are of Bad Company's "Rock & Roll Fantasy" and, as embedded below, Free's "All Right Now." Nice to see the guys break out some hard rock classics for the occasion, and while Chris wasn't as close to the stage as he would get with OZbourne, you get some good angles on these solid covers! No, I don't know if the stage setup with the speakers behind metal barriers on the floor is permanent or just for this concert. Give Paul's videos a look as well!



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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (K-Man & The 45s, Dopethrone, And Soundcheck), And More!!

Before we dive into some mid-week concert previews tomorrow, here's a stacked news post for your Sunday afternoon, and it includes a bunch of LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for the coming months, plus early details on a returning charity concert. Here's what you should know!

Montreal "slutch metal" quartet Dopethrone will make their local concert debut when they rock The New American Pub on Monday, May 20th (a.k.a. Victoria Day!) A prolific band whose sound combines elements of doom, sludge, and stoner metal, Dopethrone's slow, grinding, and bass-heavy brand of metal should find a strong audience later this spring at The New A, so be sure to check them out to see what they have in store in this stop on their Trans Canadian Tour! Local/St. Catharine's grindcore trio Shit Liver will play in their hometown for the first time in over a year when they take the stage on May 20th, and their explosive crust & grind originals will always be welcomed back by their Saultite faithful, so don't miss their return in two months! The other advertised band is actually local doom/sludge metal trio AlgomA, who will be making their first live appearance since the "Trading Faces" split release concert at The New A in October 2017. I'm not entirely sure why AlgomA took such a long stage hiatus, but it's great to see Boyd, Kevin, and Jamie back at it after a 19 month wait!

Promoted by AlgomA's own promotion agency Six, Two, Oh., this special Monday night concert has a $10 cover charge and a 19+ age limit, and a 9:00 PM start time is advertised. If you live grind and sludge metal, and can swing seeing a 19+ concert on a work/school night, this will be appointment viewing, so visit the official Facebook event page for full details on Dopethrone's Victoria Day show here!

Next up, this isn't all for touring Montreal bands in the Soo this year, as ska-punk fan favourites K-Man & The 45s will play their seventh local concert since 2013 on Thursday, June 6th when they rock The Rockstar Bar! After surprisingly not playing in Sault Ste. Marie at all last year, K-Man and company will finally return for their first show here since October 2017, and their first local gig at The Rockstar Bar since 2014. With a new album release to support, their high energy reggae & punk fusion sound will be welcomed by local fans at any time, and might there be a "Ska-Mones" segment again? The local support act will be online page-less punk quartet The Cover-Up in their first announced concert since the Joni Radford benefit, and they should add a strong compliment to the proceedings in June! For the first time in their local bookings, this year's K-Man & The 45s concert is promoted by (Choose) Maxx Entertainment as part of their working agreement with the venue.

This 19+ concert has doors open at 9:00 PM, and admission is $10 in advance or $15 at the door, with tickets available in advance at The Algonquin Hotel's front desk, one would assume. It is odd to see K-Man & The 45s playing here in the summer, especially after their annual run of fall gigs locally from 2013-2017, but with their reputation and talent, this show should be another hit, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details!

Lastly for today's new concerts, let's add a handful of summer concert weekends to our concert listings courtesy of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck! With shows now listed on the site through July's Go North Music Festival, I'll roll in June and July local concert weekends from the Mourning Wood successors today, all as advertised on this 2019 concert calendar, so when can you see them then? Two concert weekends are booked in those months at Reggie's West, where Soundcheck will return on June 7th & 8th and then on July 5th & 6th. Meanwhile, they will return to The Esquire Club for concerts on June 28th & 29th and then on July 12th & 13th, so if you're in the west end of town, you have a few solid options to see Terry, Travis, Paul, and Glen this summer! Note that they will be playing a private function of some kind on July 27th, while we'll approach public shows from August and beyond in the future.

As usual for Soundcheck's concerts at these venues, expect 19+ age limits, no cover charges, and 10:00 PM-ish start times at all four dates. This veteran quartet delivers a fun set full of hard and classic rock hits at any of their concerts, and these should be no different, so visit the above links for more details, and look for them in the Soo next month at The Esquire Club!

Finally, here's some preliminary details regarding the fourth annual Sky's The Limit fundraiser concert, which takes place on Thursday, May 9th! Once again, this Algoma Family Services-promoted concert will return to help raise awareness and funds for mental health as part of Children's Mental Health Week, and youth performers will again donate their time for the cause! After three years at The Tech's auditorium, it's apparent closure has forced a venue shift for The Sky's The Limit IV, and it will now take place at the auditorium at Korah Collegiate & Vocational School at 636 Goulais Avenue. This won't be optimal if you don't live in the west end, but given the high involvement of students, it makes sense to bring it closer to what many of them know! Much like past headliners, this year's featured headliners are graduates from last year's support lineup, namely the pop rock quintet Lime, featuring recent alums of Mustang Sally.

Young pop singer Tianna Legacy will also return as a performer, but the remaining opening roster will be determined via private auditions for acts aged between 14 and 24 (not 29 this year) on April 17th & 18th, so visit the official Facebook event page for full details. The concert proper remains $5 or $20 for families of 5 or more, it's absolutely ALL AGES, and a 6:00 PM start time is advertised. I don't know if we'll see any hard rock or punk performers this year, let alone if it will be announced in advance, but stay tuned for updates, and see above for more details on how to attend or audition!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for some special mid-week concert previews and more tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (The Go North Music Festival & West Of Hell), The Ozbourne Concert Preview, And More!!

As promised, we're capping off this weekend's hard rock concert previews today, but to fill things out, we have a pair of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the coming months, and leading off, a surprise band discovery from about 14 years back, so here's what you should know!

While this will hardly make up for the 50 or so bands removed from our band links earlier this week (thank you, Myspace), we do have a newly discovered band to add to our defunct Sault Ontario band links, namely Nowhere Fast! A young all-female alternative/punk trio that was only visibly active for a brief period from April-May 2005, their lineup was comprised of singer Andrea Crofts, guitarist/bassist Rhiannon "Rhi" Jones, and drummer Jess Walls, none of which I'm familiar with from other local bands. No word on if "Kel" in the band's sole picture is a former band member or a nickname of Andrea's, as I don't know any members personally. Their Tripod page is inconsistently detailed (only Rhi has a full biography or thank-yous here), and their sole blog posting isn't musically related, but they had a clear sense of humour throughout available posts. Nowhere Fast had planned to write original songs, while covers were listed from bands like Switchfoot and Rise Against to Edwin McCain and Sarah MacLachlan, among various others.

I have no way of knowing how Nowhere Fast would have sounded as a live band, and Rhi's shared band roles indicate that they may have still needed to add a full-time bassist before then anyway, but an all-female band was a local rarity in the mid-2000s, and it would have been interesting to see where they would have went! Give them a look at the above links!

Next up, here's a pair of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, starting with the first true concert of 2019 from local metal promoters Six, Two, Oh., as Vancouver death metal quintet West of Hell will make their third local concert appearance on Wednesday, April 17th when they headline at The New American Pub! Last seen over 5 years ago at The Oddfellows Hall, this show will take place during their Infidels Tour of Canada, and their melodic brand of extreme metal will still be well primed for face melting next month! Fellow Vancouver metal quintet Expain are joining them for this tour, and they'll be bringing their own explosive blend of progressive thrash metal to the The New A as well, so be sure to check them out! Local openers will surprisingly include local cybergrind solo project Malignant Neoplasm (led by C.T.W.'s own Tyler Gibson.) I can't recall if Malignant Neoplasm have ever had a formal live concert set, so I'm curious to hear how their noise attack translates live!

The surprise opening act will be local rapper Conika, who may seem like a major outlier on an concert billed as having "1,000% Metal", but she is a talented MC, and Six, Two, Oh. are no strangers to booking musically disparate acts on the same bill. Hopefully she sets the tone nicely! A $5 cover charge is in effect for this 19+ concert, which has a 9:00 PM start time. Visit the official Facebook event page for full details on what should be a brutal night of extreme metal intensity, and stay tuned for potential updates!

Also newly announced, local Celtic punk quintet Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide will hit the road for Richards Landing on nearby St. Joseph Island (45 minutes southeast of Sault Ste. Marie) to take part in the third annual Go North Music Festival on Saturday, July 13th! As far as I know, The Tide are the first punk, metal, or hard rock band to ever play at this one-day festival, and with their folksier Celtic side, they should fit in well! Held at the Centennial Grounds at 1511 Richards Street (previously the site of Cornfest), this family-friendly event will feature food vendors, craft beer, local artisans, children's activities and entertainers, and overnight camping, so be sure to visit the official website and/or Facebook page for full non-musical details. The diverse musical lineup will also include Toronto alt-folk band Birds of Bellwoods, Juno-winning local country singer Crystal Shawanda, Toronto indie rock quintet Sun K, Toronto folk singer/songtwriter Skye Wallace, ...

...London rock singer/guitarist Sarah Smith, Hamilton indie rock quartet Another Crush, and local indie rock solo artist Jesse Merineau & his solo band, with The Rising Tide listed as the festival openers. Tickets run for $30 until March 30th, $40 in advance afterwards, and $50 at the gate, while youths 13-18 in age can get in for $15, and kids 12 and under are FREE. You can buy tickets and camping packages at this link or at regional merchants to be announced. Sounds like a fun time, especially if you love folk and indie rock, and hopefully Dustin & company set the tone well in Richards Landing this summer! Visit the above links for complete current details!

Finally for today, let's wrap up this weekend's hard rock concert previews, as Winnipeg-based Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath tribute band OZbourne will make their Sault Ste. Marie debut TOMORROW NIGHT when they rock The Canadian Nightclub! 8 years removed from Blizzard of Ozz's show at the same venue, we can finally take in some more touring tribute action with OZbourne, whose sound is faithful in sound and visual appeal to satiate any Ozzy fan, so be sure to give them a look before you head to The Canadian tomorrow! The local openers are blues rock trio The Paul DellaVedova Band (replacing The Bearded Lounge) in a rare support appearance from them at a non-festival, and while they may not be your first thought as openers for an Ozzy tribute, remember that Paul and company have some hard rock songs in their setlist, and blues music was a big influence on Black Sabbath, so they should deliver strongly to kick things off!

Moved up to tomorrow from it's original March 29th scheduling, this 19+ concert has a likely 10:00 PM start time, and admission will be $15 at the door. If you love Ozzy and/or Sabbath, you'd be well served to check out Ozbourne tomorrow night, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Ozbourne live!



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

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Alex Traynor) & Most Of This Weekend's Hard Rock Concert Previews!!

It's now time to dive into another batch of metal and hard rock concert previews in the Sault Ste. Marie area! Due to the amount, I am holding our preview of Saturday night's Ozbourne concert for tomorrow's post, so don't worry, it is coming! Now, let's tackle the other heavier shows this weekend , starting with some LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, one on short notice!

Banned fronman Alex Traynor will play a solo concert TONIGHT at The Signatures Lounge at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, as part of a slate of shows there that's new to our concert listings! Apologies for the short notice, we only learned of TONIGHT's show after adding Alex's solo project to our full coverage on Friday. If you're familiar with the Kinross singer/guitarist, you'll know that he plays solo acoustic gigs both locally and in his current Mount Pleasant homebase separate from his Banned gigs, and this includes a number of appearance at The Signatures Lounge, a more intimate venue separate from The Rapids Lounge at the Soo's Kewadin branch, which hosts solo performers on Thursday nights and karaoke on Friday. As such, Alex will be at The Signatures Lounge TONIGHT as well as on May 2nd, September 5th, and November 21st for four quarterly shows there. All were confirmed via the schedule on his official website earlier this year.

Note that Kewadin Casino's newly redesigned website does not list Signatures Lounge concert dates at present, nor does it elaborate on Alex's advertised St. Ignace Kewadin gigs scheduled between September 18th & November 21st, which I can't see running nightly for that whole 2 month stretch. Stay tuned for confirmation where needed! As best as I can tell, TONIGHT's Signatures Lounge show and the three others are 21+ gigs with no cover charge, but concerts there all have a special early start time of 6:00 PM. Alex's skilled musicianship should go over well in this setting, so see above for more details, and here's his "Crazy World" music video!



Next up, let's head to Sault Ontario, where local acoustic hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison has another busy weekend ahead, including solo matinee concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY at Gliss Restaurant, sandwiching his return to Room 21 for a traditional nighttime concert TOMORROW NIGHT! There's not much new you can say regarding his long-term arrangement at Gliss, but his unplugged hard and classic rock covers should find another solid audience on Spring Street tomorrow and Saturday evening! As for Room 21, this is Tym's first show there in over a month, and his last nighttime show of March 2019. This should provide fans at this upstairs nightclub with lots of solid entertainment tomorrow, so don't miss out there either! The Gliss shows are 6:00 PM events with no stated age limit, while the Room 21 show is 19+ and a 10:00 PM, and none have a cover charge. Visit the event pages linked here & here for more details, and here's Tym live!

 
Also this weekend, let's head to The Water Tower Pub, where local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck are scheduled to play for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Last seen two weeks ago at The Reggievelt, this will be Soundcheck's first Water Tower Pub show in over a month, and it continues with the venue's usual scheduling pattern of having different bands nightly, hence why they're not playing there on Saturday. Terry, Travis, Paul, and Glen's chemistry-laden brand of fan favourite covers should provide a solid soundtrack for fans and Water Tower Pub regulars alike, so don't miss out on all of tomorrow's action on Great Northern Road! A 9:30 PM start time is in effect, you must be 19 or older to attend, and there's no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Soundcheck live!



Finally for today's concert previews, we'll go to The Rockstar Bar, where a double header of local tribute band action goes down THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! A sequel to a show that these two bands played here in December, the headliners will be new local Tool tribute band Parabol in their third live concert set and first under the Parabol name. This faithful and talented group should have another great set of Tool classics in store for fans on Saturday, so if you missed them last year, don't miss John, Steve, Al, and Anthony this time out! Local funk/hard rock quartet The Elements will play support as a Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute band for the night, taking on the temporary name Scar Tissue for the occasion. The guys have a good handle on Chili Peppers hits, and they should kick the night off right this weekend! Note that guitarist Jesse Cook is no stranger to local Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute bands, having drummed for Sikamikanico in 2007 & 2008.

A presentation of (Choose) Maxx Entertainment, this concert has a 19+ age limit, $5 cover charge, and a 9:00 PM start time. Should be a fun night of hard rock and metal covers from these skilled veteran groups, so visit the above links for more details, and here's Parabol live!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for our Ozbourne preview and more tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

MySpace's 2003-2015 Song Deletions, And How This Impacts The Sault Metal Scene

Today, I wanted to address the recent news that broke concerning the apparent loss of songs posted to MySpace between 2003 & 2015 due to a "server migration project." Many international news sources have been covering this story in the past few days (BBC News is one example), with varying degrees of skepticism as to MySpace's motives and handling of the content, and estimates say that up to 50 million songs have been lost as a result. As someone who frequently visits and researches social media pages featuring local bands, I know first hand that this isn't a shocking development for a couple of reasons. In recent months, readers will recall that we had acknowledged the demise of PureVolume and CBC Music's independent band page services, and neither was actively used by current local bands as it was. MySpace was very much in the same boat, as newer social media websites and applications have taken precedence in this regard.

As well, I know first hand that the media players on MySpace haven't worked in months and months, appearing to show musicians' uploaded songs, but never playing them, so I think that their "server migration project" is not a new development. Truth be told, local band pages that I have visited on MySpace today mostly look how they did before the news broke. Many photos still load, but videos don't appear to, and songs are apparently lost, despite appearances. When MySpace first had it's major layout overhauls in 2013, I backed up band pages that I could in a text document for research purposes, but alas, I am too late in 2019 to back up music, unless they can re-locate material from the server migration. With a couple of exceptions, MySpace was not a going concern for current local bands hoping to promote themselves in the mid-late 2010s, but this news does force me to make some noticeable changes to our band links.

A number of the local metal, hard rock, or punk artists that we linked on the SMS via MySpace were primarily because of their song postings, and if there's no described or substantive photos there, or official pages on other sites, I can't justify keeping them linked on here, as I only link to bands whose official page still has music, videos, or useful band information. If you see MySpace links on the SMS after today, it's either an oversight, or I felt they had enough content to remain listed.

For this reason, I am reluctantly removing these acts from our inactive Sault Ontario band links: The 12 Gauge Ready, Andrew Angelic, Bankshot, Bill Satchels, Bin Hawdon & The Taliband, The Bottom Half, Brad Example & The Role Models, Brendan Christie, Dark Salvation, Divinity Collapsed, Dreamscape, Eden Plague, Face First, Faithless Sin, Fitswitch, The Fury, Glunk!, Good Morning Gorilla, The Hangdowns, The Harsh Heads, The Joe Falco Experience, Lee Maines, Nite Wulfe, Out Of The Mouth Of Babes, PYSS, Room 206, Sneaky Pete, Squirrelboy & The Smiling Giraffes, and When They Fall. For Sault Michigan, I have removed these acts: A Shade of Light, BlisteringBane, Deprecor, From The Ashes Of Angels, Gentlemen's Bet, The Grape Slushies, Mike Libertoski, Monkey's Uncle, Mugwort, Orb, Outshined, Riot! By Night, Savage Roar, Self Control, The Slackjawed Rats, and Weed.

I also dropped Mitch Sirie's solo act The Sorrow Fields from our active Sault Ontario links, as Mitch surprisingly doesn't have an active online page for them elsewhere, but this is still an active project.  Regarding our "Other Sault Ontario/Michigan Metal Links" sections, I didn't have to remove anything there, aside from Sault Michigan's Klusterfunk Studios, best known to readers from Clownsack recording albums there. Also, I have replaced Scofflaw's link with their Facebook page, and if any of the above bands have an official, self-created page that I locate on another service, I'll definitely bring them back (Wayback Machine/Oocities archives, fan sites, news articles, and YouTube channels don't count.) Of course, there are some MySpace pages that remain linked, but this is predicated on no more deletions or "server migrations" causing any losses of data, or perhaps even an artist deleting their old page intentionally. We'll keep you posted when/if anything is found or learned.

While MySpace is still alive, it's a shell of it's former self, and any changes the site made in 2013 to make the service more music friendly just served to strip away anything that made it interesting for musicians before then. I can count the local bands who actively maintained their MySpace page in the mid-late 2010s on one hand (Destroilet is a good example), but even their page's songs don't work. In The Sault Metal Scene's earliest days, MySpace was our most important source of local band pages, and while Facebook would supercede it by the turn of the 2010s, it remained an important resource until band profiles were wiped out in 2013. The customization options, friendly culture, and wide footprint of 2000s era MySpace made my early Sault Metal Scene work so much easier, and I can still remember how much a profile's "Top 8" friends could create a rabbit hole trip to even more relevant bands and projects. For reference, here's what's left of The Sault Metal Scene's MySpace page.

I wish MySpace had warned users in advance that their old materials may be deleted, which would have gave me time in 2017 or so to back things up, but what's done is done. Hopefully everyone out there has backed up their media on MySpace (or just never deleted it), but if my hand must be forced into cleaning up our band links, at least things are more current and relevant for content across the board. Check the above links and your preferred news outlets for more on MySpace in 2019, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS soon! Thanks everyone!