More Weekend Concert Previews, A New Local Punk Band, And An Archive Interview!!

Before we begin this post, I wanted to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of veteran local journalist and concert videographer Mike Caruso, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 77. You can read his self-penned obituary at this link, which confirms that he is survived by his son Chris, sister Rose, a niece and multiple nephews, and their extended family. There will be no funeral services, but arrangements are entrusted to the O'Sullivan Funeral Home, and donations to the Rotary Club of Sault Ste. Marie in his name would be appreciated. Mike was a mainstay of Sault Ontario news via his association with Craig Huckerby's local news websites (LTVNews, SooNews, Local2, SaultOnline, and FirstLocalNews) over the years, with his camera frequently rolling for articles and features. Mike was an ardent supporter of local music, and he filmed countless bands at nightclubs, charity events, and festivals over the years.

While videos uploaded directly to the news sites are obviously long gone, Mike uploaded dozens of concert videos to his YouTube channel from 2010 to 2020, capturing a wide swath of local musicians in their element, often focusing on veteran cover acts, and he remained supportive even amidst his more recent health issues. Mike also acted in the first six seasons of the local Rogers TV soap opera Tami. My interactions with Mike were largely just brief pleasantries at concerts, but he was a good man who did so much to promote local musicians and the Soo at large, and he will be missed. R.I.P. Mike!

Today's post otherwise wraps up this weekend's concert previews, plus a surprise interview find, and to start, here's our preview of a show from a debuting local band and new addition to our links, namely Dos Amigos! A spinoff/sister band to both The Inner City Surfers and Bookclub, Dos Amigos (whose name and branding is inspired by the movie Three Amigos) feature singer/guitarists Dustin Jones and Mikey Hawdon in another collaborative project. If you're familiar with their other band work (let alone Mikey's acoustic exploits on his uke), you should be right at home here, and they will make their local concert debut TOMORROW NIGHT at The Whisky Barrel! Apologies for the short notice, the show was only announced this week alongside the band's public launch. This new project doesn't have public videos yet, but two "Reels" are circulating on personal Facebook pages, and you can see Mikey & Dustin covering Blink-182 and Bad Religion in them.

What I heard sounds good, and definitely would seem to indicate a lean more into punk than Bookclub tend to play, so definitely track those "Reels" down for a preview of TOMORROW'S unplugged action on Gore Street! Two more shows were announced on personal postings, but I'll wait for public advertising of them before covering them here, unless none is forthcoming, then they'll get the short notice treatment. TOMORROW's debut of Dos Amigos goes down at 8:00 PM at The Whisky Barrel with a 19+ age limit and no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more on Dos Amigos!

Next up, here's the last known local hard rock concert for this weekend, which will see former Haggith/Eclipse frontman Curtis McKenzie make his debut at Beck's Bar TOMORROW! While best known for playing at The Dive since resurrecting his solo project, this will be a prime opportunity for Curt to unleash his hard and alternative rock covers on a new audience and locale, so head to the former Vibe Lounge on Goulais Avenue (near Millie's Mini-Mart) tomorrow to hear some solid covers in a familiar but still new locale! Tomorrow's show is in Beck's 3:00-7:00 PM matinee timeslot, and precedes that night's separate concert from Tex Riviera & The Ride (Curtis isn't "opening" for The Ride, these are separate concerts on the same day, but you can stick around to see both if you choose). Early start aside, this has a 19+ age limit and no announced cover charge. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and for a preview, here's Curt live!

Finally for today, here's a surprise YouTube discovery, namely a video upload of a text interview, and it was with late Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold! This dates back to November 27th, 2004, shortly after the release of their second CD "Pursuit Of The Sun & Allure Of The Earth", and was conducted by "Lockeed" of the old online metal magazine Lunar Hypnosis. Almost two decades later, 'zine founder Joe Mlodik re-published it in video form for his his YouTube channel Joe's Metal Mancave this past September, with music supplied by his Wisconsin-based ambient solo project Noctilucant. The interview is literally screenshotted in from Lunar Hypnosis, and the contrast isn't ideal to read the text even at full screen, but you'll see David discuss the early response to "Woods II", how he described their sound at the time ("summer black metal" is what he called it), the inspiration behind their name, ...

...then-recent band member departures, the launch of his own label Krankenhaus Records, and their 2005 plans, including their unreleased cover of Bathory's "Lake Of Fire", early teasers of "Woods III", and their next lineup additions. As a bonus, three Lunar Hypnosis reviews of Woods' first two CDs are screenshotted at the end, with "Greg B" giving their first two CDs a 7/10 and 8/10 each, and "Steak Eyes" giving "Pursuit..." a 7/10. Not the easiest interview to read visually, but it's great to see someone republish an old 'zine interview like this, let alone on Woods of Ypres, and it's interesting to see how things were going early in Woods' Toronto era with two decades of hindsight! Check it out for yourselves below, and R.I.P. David!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!

Rotaryfest Video Showcase (Part 1!!)

Before we resume the weekend concert preview grind, lets at least start to cover videos from Rotaryfest's music stages from this past weekend! By all accounts, the return of the full (midway aside) summer festival after two pandemic affected years was a hit, if under muggy conditions, and there's a lot of pictures, articles, and videos across the expected social media and news channels online! For videos, the widest breadth of bands filmed is via former SaultOnline correspondent Mike Caruso's new YouTube channel, as he had his camera rolling on all three days, especially Friday! You may recall Mike posting videos of every Stage 1 band (except Fusion for one reason or another) in 2011 & 2012 for his old YouTube channel, as well as selections from later years, but no word on why he launched a new YouTube channel outright. From Mike's 2022 Rotaryfest videos, who and what can you see?

For the Thursday video, Mike filmed all four Stage 1 bands at Clergue Park, but the advertised performance order is not reflected in how Mike laid this out (no word on if there were any actual changes). Local funk/hard rock band The Wyld Stallyns open Mike's video, in bassist Al White & drummer Derek Turner's public video debuts with the band. They & guest saxophonist Josh Norling were filmed covering Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "American Girl" ("Rotarian Girl", if you prefer"), with Christina Speers on lead vocals. While not the hardest rocking cover in their repertoire, it is well performed and the plugged-in, full-band setup is a nice change of pace if you're used to their unplugged quartet gigs! Believe it or not, classic rock trio Flathead Ford go heavier via Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" afterwards (relatively recent cover from what I know of them).

Flathead Ford handle this song alright with good energy, though the vocals aren't as smooth as Freddie's (few are, granted). Rotaryfest regulars The Northern Jazz Ensemble are next with an instrumental performance that I honestly cannot title (jazz music isn't in my wheelhouse), but the talents are on full display, if very stoically! Classic/pop rock cover quarter L!me closed the video and night #1, and their filmed cover is also SMS-amenable, namely their set-opener "Song 2" by Blur. Short choice but always good to make an impact, and Madi's vocals are an interesting take! Solid videos from a good angle, so give all four bands a look below!    

Mike got the bulk of his footage on Friday via this 48+ minute video of that day's six bands! This was uploaded once before but re-posted with edits that you can compare & contrast while the old one is still online, but the songs proper are the same. The immense length is explained by Mike filming two songs from each band rather than one (not sure why, but those bands should be happy!). The opening Friday band on Stage 1 in person and on video are local blues/classic rock cover band Ladies Sing The Blues, who were filmed covering Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools" & Etta James' "The Blues Is My Business", and with Valerie's vocal talents on full display, genre fans won't wanna bypass those! In case the banner didn't give it away, classic rock veterans RPM played next, and Mike shot their set-opening cover of Tom Petty's "Free Falling" plus them doing Bruce Springsteen's "My Hometown". Both are strongly performed and faithfully handled!

Valerie Powley returned to the stage in time for her primary classic/hard rock cover band Obsession's set afterwards, who featured not just teased guest performer Jessica Amadio, but also guest guitarist Dan Belanger, who played with Obsession last year and filled in for That's Chester's reunion sets at Rotaryfest in the late 2010s. Their filmed covers include their set-opener "Everybody Wants You" by Billy Squier and "Roxy Roller" by Nick Gilder, with Jessica on tambourine for the former & singing backup for the latter. I'm unsure if her involvement was just for the weekend gigs or if more will come of it, but she didn't detract from either song, and everyone seemed to be performing at their best on these classic rock staples, so Obsession fans have nothing to worry about! In a rarity for Mike Caruso's Rotaryfest videos, he filmed an original act next, namely local/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith!

He and his Dire Setback/Din alum-bolstered backing band were filmed playing their set-opener "If Ever Comes The Day", plus "MorningStar" from the same album. Very neat seeing Mike play these songs on a local stage with a proper backing band at long last, and if he had to wait 2+ years from the original CD release party plans, look at the stage he got! Yes, I am well aware of his own full-set video from that night, check back on Saturday (I hope). Classic rock veterans Mustang Heart were filmed by Mike Caruso next covering Journey's "Stone In Love" and Honeymoon Suite's "What Does It Take", and Marci & crew do a solid job on these classic rock favourites (having a keyboard really helps for both). Nightfall had hit for the Friday headliners, classic rock veterans Angry Joe & The Growlers, who covered Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" & The Wallflowers' "One Headlight".

Similarly strong and well played renditions to end the Friday bill at Rotaryfest, so definitely give each individual song a listen via the above linked titles! We are far from done with Rotaryfest fallout (I haven't even touched on what Mike shot on Saturday yet), but I must put a pause on this topic until Saturday at the earliest, as another busy concert weekend is imminent. Stay tuned for this previews (and late notice show announcements) in the next couple of days, but check out Mike's Rotaryfest Stage 1 videos from Friday below! Thanks everyone!

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!

Rotaryfest 2014 Video Showcase (Part 1)

Like in past years, Sault Online (formerly Local2) correspondent Mike Caruso was on hand to film some great quality videos of the bands that played at Clergue Park for Rotaryfest, so we're going to feature the hard rock and metal covers from this year's event in two special posts this week! Luckily, Mike filmed every single advertised band this year, which is a slight change from previous years where one or two wasn't shot (including Fusion in consecutive years, oddly.) We'll focus on videos from this past Friday (and one from Saturday afternoon) today, and cover the remainder of the Saturday videos in the second post, so let's get this rolling! We'll first acknowledge the videos that Mike shot last Thursday, and they include Crossroad covering Hank Williams' "Honky Tonk Blues", The Bob Jenkins Band playing a jazz instrumental (title unannounced, but it reminds me of a Vince Guaraldi composition), The Jaztecs covering "The Girl From Ipanema", and Coverfly covering The Mamas & The Papas' "California Dreamin'", so click each link to see those performances!

First for the hard rock videos on Friday is this cover of Aerosmith's "Back In The Saddle" by local cover quartet KT, Kyle, and The Pocket, who we only tend to see at Rotaryfest. It turns out that singer KT Antler and bassist Kyle McKey (who've recently lived in Pembroke) and drummer Ed Young (who moved to Prince Edward Island last year) all came home for the event, which is nice to see on all accounts, especially knowing their talents! This cover (also featuring Kyle's Sailor's Tongue bandmate Blake Jackson on guitar) is probably more reminiscent of KT & Kyle's brief run with the original Turner Up than the rest of The Pocket's set, but it's well performed, and KT's got a great voice! I presume this will be the closest we'll get to a Sailor's Tongue set this year too, as that band only has reunited to play the Second Stage in the early 2010s, and we know that didn't return last weekend. Nicely filmed from great angles though, so give KT, Kyle, and The Pocket's Aerosmith cover a look below!



Next up on Friday was local hard rock quartet Beaumont Avenue (formerly The Suicide Kings), and while that obvious difference paired with the lack of a guest bassist were changes from last year, their talents and chemistry remained the same! Mike filmed the guys covering Guns N' Roses' "Mr. Brownstone" at Rotaryfest, which turned out pretty well, though Mike Gaetano's vocals can be an odd tone on the verses on a first listen. Solid as expected, so check out Beaumont Avenue at Rotaryfest below!



Lastly for the hard rock covers filmed on Friday was local hard rock veterans Stiffler's Mom's rendition of Golden Earring's "Radar Love", which also got the job done in their usual fashion, with Mike Davies' guitar standing out, and Greg Simpson's vocals being a great match on this classic hard rock standard! Nice chemistry also, but after how long these guys have played together, that's a given. Check out Stiffler's Mom's Golden Earring cover below!



The other Friday performances shot include classic rockers Mustang Heart covering Adele's "Make You Feel My Love" and country favourites Thin Ice covering Blackberry Smoke's "Like I Am", so check those out via the linked titles! Among the footage Mike shot on Saturday afternoon, he filmed R&B veterans The Reptiles covering Crowbar's "Oh What A Feeling (What A Rush)", as well as a surprise cover of Neil Diamond's "Play Me" by Rotaryfest stage MC (and Q104 DJ) Jeff McNeice in between bands. I didn't know he had that in him, very solid for the genre! The first of five filmed hard rock covers on Saturday was of the new all-female rock band Domina, whose creative description in the Rotaryfest program didn't tell us much on them, so what do we know? Well, their singer is Obsession's Valerie Powley, so they have absolutely nothing to worry about vocally! Their lineup also includes Shirley Kominos (Spyder's Web) & Patricia Palarchio on guitar, Mid Life Crysis' Lori Reinholtz on bass, and Boogie Fever alum Tracey Hilderley on drums, all of which were credited under stage names in the program.

Domina's cover was of The Headpins' "Don't It Make Ya Feel", which is definitely a hard rock song, and with the vocals Valerie is putting out here, how could it not be? There was a girl power theme for sure on Saturday afternoon (we'll cover The Danger Cats in our second Rotaryfest video feature), and Domina have the talent to make some noise if this is more than a one-off gig, though I'm curious to see if they're essentially an all-female Obsession, and if not, how they'll deviate in sound. Check out Domina below!



The rest of Mike Caruso's videos from Rotaryfest will be touched on either tomorrow or on Friday, and we'll feature hard rock covers from the aforementioned Danger Cats & Obsession, plus Griphook and headliners Michael White & The White, and we'll also link you guys to the other four covers that Mike filmed on Saturday. Give everything a look above, and stay tuned for more soon! Thanks everyone!