Sunday, June 19, 2016

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Go Skateboarding Day), Grave Party Concert Preview, And More!!

Here's a new news post for your Sunday evening, and with an unusual amount of early-week concert previews to touch on (including a big SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT), we'll lead off there, before closing with some assorted recent notes. Now, here's what you should know!

Local bands will again hit the skatepark at Queen Elizabeth Park outside of The John Rhodes Centre for this year's Go Skateboarding Day festivities THIS TUESDAY! Apologies for the short notice, the event was only announced on Wednesday, similarly to the late announcement of last year's band lineup. Hosted by Tidal Records and primarily sponsored by SooToday, this is the fourth straight year for a local hosting of Go Skate Day, but it's just the second with a major live music component, and it's even bigger & better than ever! Skateboarding competitions, lessons, and demonstrations will be freely offered during the day on TUESDAY, with prizes, giveaways, refreshments, and more also on hand, so be sure to visit the official Facebook event page for full details! As for the bands, an increased and stacked lineup is on hand for this year, and aside from DJ Seith spinning his turntable mixes, it's entirely different from last year's, so who all is playing?

Listed acts include local punk/metal quintet Jack Spades,  post-punk/garage quartet Gnaeus, DJ Seith, alternative/hard rock trio The Din, VM Radio Battle-winning indie rockers K.I.C.K., and rapper Conika, who had to drop out of last year's Go Skateboarding Day activities due to illness. Will she be rapping alongside DJ Seith again? Be at the skatepark TUESDAY to find out! The event page also lists "...and more!" to cap off the band lineup, which implies at least one surprise or special guest, and if there is any public announcements to that effect, we'll let you know (for reference, last year's Go Skate Day featured DJ Seith alongside the inactive Garden of Bedlam, the on-break Pixo Control, and the dormant Caroline Divine.) This year's Go Skateboarding Day is FREE and ALL AGES as usual, and while set times for the bands aren't listed, the event is advertised to run from 3:00 to 9:00 PM, with the skateboarding competition starting at 4:30 PM.

It's great to see Go Skateboarding Day expanding it's local presence in 2016, with a huge band lineup and lots of skate action in store for boarding and music fans alike! You could call this a preview of Rotaryfest's Stage 2 also, as Gnaeus, The Din, and K.I.C.K. are all on that event's lineup next month, plus DJ Seith & Conika played last year (no word yet for this year though, but we'll keep you posted!) Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's a new online commercial for the event from SooToday, featuring brief performance footage of last year's bands! Good promotion for this year's festivities, so make it out to Queen Elizabeth Park on TUESDAY!



Next up, here's one more concert preview for a special Monday nighter taking place TOMORROW NIGHT, as Winnipeg punk trio Grave Party will make their local concert debut with a headlining set at The New American Pub! Rocking out with new songs from their EP "For Dummies" in tow, Grave Party's hard hitting modern punk sound should get fans going at The New A tomorrow, so welcome them east with open arms for what should be a fun show! A wildly varied and slightly condensed local opening lineup will see local goregrind duo Rotopsy co-headlining, as preceded by a trifecta of local rappers, including Mikey Thomas, Miracle Man, and Mike Reed-Lecuyer, a.k.a. Reeder (replacing Phat Boii), who is new to our coverage and not on the poster, but has performed at recent rap events with Mikey. Also, Jacob "Shit Creek Survivor" Quarrell will open the show with some acoustic folk numbers, so come early to check him out too!

Note that sets by Coyote Speedfreaks mainman Chase Wigmore and local death metal duo Brutally Fatal have quietly been removed in the past couple of months for unannounced reasons, but unlike Phat Boii, these acts weren't replaced on the bill. Hopefully the remaining artists fill things out well, including Brutally Fatal members with Rotopsy & Miracle Man! Promoted by Tyler Gibson & Blood Shed Productions, this 19+ show has a $5 cover charge, and will start at 9:00 PM. Visit the official Facebook event page for more on tomorrow's very diverse show, and in lieu of a Grave Party video (I honestly can't find any, they're fairly new), here's Rotopsy live!



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

  • Troubled Mind drummer Mike Vincent has posted three more original songs ("Systematical Satan", "Soulless Sanctuary", and "Screaming Serenity") to his Bandcamp page, and re-recorded his first three to boot! Notably having the letter S first in every word of every title, Mike has confirmed in personal Facebook postings that he is planning to release a debut solo EP, and is working on lyrics for each song, so we'll hold comment on the new songs until release as a result. Give Mike's six studio instrumentals a listen above!
  • We have removed former local record store Mister Disc from our "Other Local Metal Links" due to the quiet deletion of it's Facebook page at some point in the past year. The Todd Gordon-owned establishment was open from 1988-1999, with Todd maintaining a posthumous Facebook page in recent years featuring reminisces of the store and daily song dedications, though it's not clear why the page was taken down. Though the store is long gone, it's disappointing to see the Facebook page go, but continued luck to Todd in his screenwriting career!
  • Barring a sudden burst of activity, we'll move local post punk/grunge duo The Red & Black to our inactive band links on Tuesday due to a year's inactivity. The project from Telephone & Address' Chris Shoust and busker Damjan "Spider Fingerz" Binda hasn't posted on their Facebook page since June 21st of last year to remark on their last minute debut at the IRN-headlined New American show the previous day. Chris & Damjan are talented and creative, and hopefully The Red & Black re-emerge down the road!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates as the week rolls along! Thanks everyone!

No comments: