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One band. Two very different genres (21 photos)

Three Sault musicians share their love of grind metal and bluegrass

Things got loud at the Oddfellows Hall Saturday night as five bands, local and otherwise, shared a night of punk and metal with an all-ages audience.

Although not the evening’s headliner, Sault Ste. Marie’s estranged grind band Sh*t Liver was definitely a crowd favourite.

Winkstinger, Rotopsy, Jack Spades and Calgary’s The Motherf**kers were also on the bill.

After forming in 2006, Josh Penno (guitar and vocals), Mike Kyle (bass and vocals), and Matt Baic (drums and vocals) moved Sh*t Liver to St. Catharines, Ontario.

“There’s a lot more down there. There’s more of a scene. It’s a hop, skip and a jump to Toronto, Hamilton, and everywhere in that area,” Kyle told SooToday.

“It’s also a lot closer to New York City if these guys ever get passports,” joked Penno.

After six years of plugging away with seemingly little payoff, all three say it’s the love of what they do that keeps them going.

“We work incredibly hard, and we put all of our love and passion into this thing. It’s definitely not money [that keeps us going] because we’re still as broke as we were six years ago,” said Penno.

“There’s always the slight chance that other people like it as much as we do. And I have fun,” Baic told us.

Their love is not isolated to just hardcore music, we discovered.

The young lads also have an affinity for old-timey music.

“Not only do we play in Sh*t Liver, we also play in a bluegrass band because we’re super into bluegrass music for some weird, strange reason,” explained Penno. “It is weird especially now that we’re touring both acts at the same time.”

That second act is Dirtfight.

“Before we met each other, all three of us played acoustic guitar. That’s before we picked our instruments that became the punk rock band that turned into the metal band that turned into the grind band,” said Baic. “We’ve always played acoustic guitar, so… as soon as we adapted a specific instrument each, it just naturally evolved.”

In addition to releasing material as Sh*t Liver, the boys recently released its debut full-length Dirtfight album with Penno on guitar, Kyle on mandolin, and Baic on banjo, with Matt Alvarez on fiddle.

Dirtfight will host a performance tonight (Monday, May 2) at the Gore Street Cafe at 7 p.m. with special guest opener Rihkee Strapp.

The current Sh*t Liver/Dirtfight tour has stops scheduled in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, and more before returning to the Sault for a special live recording session with Six, Two, Oh. on May 29.

Look for Sh*t Liver to be featured in an upcoming episode of Tuned on SooToday.


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Donna Hopper

About the Author: Donna Hopper

Donna Hopper has been a photojournalist with SooToday since 2007, and her passion for music motivates her to focus on area arts, entertainment and community events.
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