Before we begin this post, just a heads up that former Rising Tide/Steeltown Playboys bassist Marshall Jaaskelainen's obituary was posted on SooToday on Friday, shortly before our scheduled auto-post written the previous night went up. Marshall is survived by his father Harry, two brothers and two sisters, a niece and nephew, and other extended family members. His funeral service will take place tomorrow at 5:00 PM at the Northwood Funeral Home, and the family would appreciate donations to The Summit. As for his celebration of life at Northern Superior Brewing Co.'s Tap Room last night, SooToday's Darren Taylor was in attendance for it, posting this article featuring a handful of photos of the event, and it looks like a packed house, which is wonderful to see! The article features remarks from Marshall's siblings Rachel (who organized the event), Heidi, and Byron, as well as his former bandmates Jay Case & Lindsay Pugh, and his friend Kate Mulligan.
Marshall's brother and long-time bandmate Sheldon (who has lived and worked out of town in recent years) was unable to attend, but hopefully we'll see him back home when able. It sounds like the celebration of life was a huge hit to pay homage to Marshall as a musician, friend, family member, and all around good person, and I do hope that tomorrow's services go similarly well for everyone who loved and miss him. R.I.P. Marshall!
Today's post otherwise looks at recent live videoens from a local cover band, but first, here's an upcoming show that crosses our radar (if not a traditional "concert"), as The Musical Comedy Guild of Sault Ste. Marie is hosting a local stage production of the musical Rock Of Ages next year! To be held at the Sault Community Theatre Centre from April 28th-May 1st, this is being presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals, and will be directed by Andrew Stuetz, who is best recognized in our coverage as the annual MC for Rotaryfest Stage 1 but has a large background in local theatre. Audition info is still to come, but if you're not familiar, Rock Of Ages is a jukebox musical themed around 1980s hair metal, AOR, and arena rock songs, which ran on Broadway from 2009-2015 and received a film adaptation in 2012. This should be an interesting change of pace, so follow the Guild for continuing updates!
The back half of this post is devoted to local classic/hard rock cover sextet Headrush, who have a bunch of new videos to look at, mostly via their new YouTube channel! While launched in June, they only uploaded videos to it last month, all six coming from their Friday night set at Rotaryfest Stage 1 in July (a rare public concert set from them this summer, as they took the season off from bar gigs). Capturing about half of their set on the familiar pop-up stage at Clergue Park, Headrush were filmed covering Prism's "Spaceship Superstar", AC/DC's "Whole Lotta Rosie" (featuring a woman apparently named Rosie dancing on stage!), Journey's "Stone In Love", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Sun", Foreigner's "Double Vision", and as embedded below, Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time". The uncredited filmer was right up in front of the stage and got some really nice quality footage on all fronts, including on the stage at a few points!
The guys were playing at dusk, so thing look that tiny bit more impressive for lighting and ambiance, and everyone sounds good, with John Anderson hitting some strong high notes (mercifully, that weekend's severe wildfire smoke warnings lessened enough to not throw a wrench into the Friday program). Give Headrush's new Rotaryfest videos a watch above & below!
Lastly, the other new video was actually shot by local concert regular and supporter Audrey Marshall for her personal Facebook page before being shared publically, but not by the band. As you may recall, Headrush played their first bar gigs of the fall at The Esquire Club this weekend, and Audrey filmed this video of their encore, where they welcomed former Mustang Heart keyboardist Vito Tassone to guest on a cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"! Frank Mannarino switched to rhythm guitar as a result. The video only runs for 80 seconds, and it is reasonably tight to the stage, but what Audrey shot looks and sounds good, and it is neat to see Vito on stage with a full band again, so give this a watch below!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS this week! Thanks everyone!
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