Rotaryfest 2015 Concert Video Showcase (Part 1)

With a lot of Rotaryfest fallout to get to on the site, let's not keep things waiting, so here's our first all-video post relating to this past weekend's music entertainment, but check out some other non-Rotaryfest news in the post below this one! We'll start with the videos shot by Sault Online correspondent Mike Caruso, who filmed the vast majority or all main stage bands each year, with all uploaded to his YouTube channel in the last couple days, so what should you know from them? All filmed on two alternating camera angles (one stationary at center stage, one manually controlled by Mike on the stage's left), these generally all come from the bands' opening 2 songs. Starting chronologically on Thursday, the videos include jazz veterans The Bob Jenkins Band playing this song with vocals (whose title that I couldn't verify), country quartet Crossroad's cover of Merle Haggard's "Workin' Man Blues", and Elvis Presley tribute artist Larry Tschekalin playing "That's Alright" & "Rubberneckin'", the only act that Mike uploaded two videos of.

The last Thursday videos were of classic rockers Flathead Ford covering Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats' "Rocket 88", and the first hard rock cover from Mike's YouTube channel, classic rock cover sextet Coverfly tackling Led Zeppelin's "Rock N' Roll" during their headlining set! Not a bad rendition, with Janet Brown's voice fitting the song's range nicely, and everyone knows the song pretty well, though Mario Naccarato's backing vocals don't really add a lot here. Solid though, so give Coverfly's Led Zeppelin rendition a look below!



Moving to the Friday lineup, Mike's videos include classic rockers Obsession covering The Eagles' "Heartache Tonight" and the next video we'll feature on here, hard rock cover quartet Griphook covering The Arc Angels' "Living In A Dream". A bit of a throwback (at least in style) of Joel & Dan's old band 100 Gran, they put a hard edged spin on this early 1990s blues track, and everyone holds up their end of the bargain! Check their video out below!

The next two Rotaryfest videos were of songs that later saw attention from early Saturday bands, including classic rock favourites Mid Life Crysis covering The Mamas & The Papas' "California Dreamin'" a day before Long Shot tackled it, and country quartet Summer Thunder covering Darius Rucker's "Wagon Wheel" (which seems to be very popular around here lately) the night before Mourning Wood covered it. Friday's lineup closed with the return of classic/hard rock cover quintet That's Chester in a break from their recent Tommy preparation, but did they tackle songs from this fall's local production of the classic Who musical? Of course, and while the band hasn't posted or shared any of this publically, there are personal Facebook videos floating around showing That's Chester performing with numerous members of the Tommy cast on stage, so that must have been a nice sample of what's to come in November at The Machine Shop!

They didn't just cover The Who though, as Mike filmed the guys covering Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back In Town", and while the lighting is very smoky for this one, it's nice to hear That's Chester again after their lengthy stretch away from the public stage, and they don't appear to have lost a step! Give That's Chester's Rotaryfest video a look below, and click here for full details on the Tommy production in November!



The last video we'll touch on for this post comes from Saturday's lineup, of openers Mourning Wood (with guests Mark Tarantini & Scott Infanti) covering David Lee Murphy's "Dust On The Bottle", fitting with the country-only theme of the first half of their set. If you prefer Mourning Wood's classic/hard rock sound, this might not be for you, but it's well done for the genre, and Mark is a natural country frontman! Give their video a look before, and stay tuned for more from Saturday and other channels soon!



There are also summative videos of the Thursday & Friday lineups that you can check out here & here, but they just collect clips of the full videos Mike already posted, so they're best seen if you want a quick recap of the day's events (no word on if one for Saturday is coming though.) We will touch on the rest of Mike's videos and clips from other filmers in the coming days, but his footage is excellent once again with great visual and audio quality, so check them out above or via the linked titles! That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile tomorrow! Thanks everyone!