Today's post covers some recent ground from a major summer festival, a band whose album was just reviewed on here, and another summer festival performance, so here's what you should know!
Starting on Saturday afternoon, a slow trickle of updates starting coming in from attendees of the Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir that pointed to major changes to the Forest Stage schedule this past weekend, so what exactly happened? Organizers have not posted an official public statement on their Facebook page, so some of this comes from personal accounts, but props to Spun Out frontman Dean Duguay and Big Finish Band bassist Matt Fronzi for what they shared on social media. As you may recall, this was a rainy weekend, particularly late Friday night and into Saturday morning (granted, a lot of the doom & gloom forecasts on Sunday didn't pan out as badly as projected), but points east of the Soo got hit particularly hard. While the Roost River Stage for EDM performers survived the onslaught from what I am aware, the band-centric Forest Stage was reportedly decimated in that night's rainstorm and was unusable for the Saturday program.
The intense storm hit late in the Friday program and particularly impaired Sudbury-based Tool tribute band Avessel's headlining set, with the band referencing that the night had "an unfortunate end due to the extreme weather" but praised the venue, artists, and vendors. You can see in the video embedded below (of them covering Tool's "Sober" from their Instagram page) that stage equipment was covered in garbage bags, but kudos to them for powering through and still pulling off the Tool sound so well! Hopefully they get an encore in the Soo soon (or at Northern Vibe next year!). With the damage to the stage and sound equipment, folk/country quartet The Golden Scoundrels salvaged the Forest Stage by using their own gear and an impromptu plywood floor "stage" to perform for attendees, and they were joined by three other local acts scheduled on Saturday, including drummer Johnny Belanger's alt-hard rock band Handsome Sandwich, maintaining their five year streak.
Rob Speers' new "party band" The Barbarians (featuring half of Handsome Sandwich) and Mike Haggith & The Big Finish Band reportedly filled out the heavily curtailed bill, with the touring bands, Dark Side Of The Soo, Spun Out, the two rap groups, and Benny's Acoustic Thing all dropping out. Not ideal, especially for Crank Sound Distribution's gear, but thankfully no one was hurt, and props to the Golden Scoundrels for salvaging what they could for fans expecting to hear live bands on Saturday! Fingers crossed that organizers come back stronger than ever for Northern Vibe XI next year, but check out Avessel's Friday night video below, and see above for more on what went down on Poplardale Road this past weekend, good and bad!
Next up, here's the latest from local industrial metal solo act The Realignment Project, who we haven't had talked about much in recent months beyond our "Frustration Sessions" EP review on Saturday, so what has Matt been up to since that came out in April? Unlike with their debut "Afterthought", every song from the new EP has finally gotten the lyric video treatment for the project's YouTube channel, with the last holdout ("Medicated (A Spade Is A Spade)") being embedded below. Matt was already writing new material as of May 17th, and after posting two promotional "Reels" for their first two EPs in the following days, he revealed on their Facebook page on June 2nd that their next EP will be called "War Songs". You can see him tracking some material on a computer from the sessions in this "Reel" posted two days later. On June 16th, Matt indicated that he was trying to write lyrics that day, and a June 18th "Reel" featured a song-in-progress named "Bones And Dust", but I'll hold comment until the full song is released.
Matt was tracking vocals for this EP on July 1st, and he revealed the track listing in the above image on July 7th. Mixing was underway as of July 10th (the day that he wrote the first song for T.R.P.'s fourth EP), and tracking 100% wrapped up on July 13th, but we await further details on the EP. Given the quick turnaround between EP releases (though we've been waiting longer for "War Times" than we had to for "The Frustration Sessions"), this could drop on major streaming services at any point, though due to our 6 month anti-bias buffer period, we won't be reviewing the new EP until February 2026 at the earliest. Stay tuned for updates from The Realignment Project, and here's the "Medicated" lyric video!
Finally, here's an overdue highlight video of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9's set at Rotaryfest Stage 1 on the Friday last month! Uploaded to their Facebook page, this video combines footage shot from multiple filmers (not all vertical but shoved into the vertical dimensions regardless) during their set, and you can see them covering clips of No Doubt's "Spiderwebs", Michael Jackson's "Beat It", Van Halen's "Panama", and Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk". We don't see substantial footage of any one song here (especially not "Panama"), but Jess, Ryan, Paul, and Steve put in a lively and energetic performance in their Rotaryfest return, so check everything out below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next! Thanks everyone!
