LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Scarkazm, The Sky Pilots, And Tarnished), And One More Concert Preview!!

A SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT fell into my lap, so let's dive into a mostly all-Eastern Upper Peninsula post on this Saturday morning (not Sault Michigan, everything here is taking place or was filmed in other towns). Along with a Sault Ontario concert preview, we do have more upcoming EUP concerts that were recently announced, so here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock cover band Tarnished will return to The Lakeside Lounge at Bay Mills Resort & Casino in Brimley for another acoustic concert TONIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, I just heard about it this morning, but Bay Mills had first confirmed the gig on their Facebook page on Monday. TONIGHT's still-short notice gig will be Alex & Josh's second straight Saturday nighter at the Brimley casino's newer acoustic-amenable lounge, and while I don't know if this was always scheduled or if they're a late fill-in, hopefully they get a solid turnout for their 1980s-leaning rock covers once again! Remember, their acoustic shows do not have Chris or Ron present, we'll let you know when the full band announce new dates. Everything goes down TONIGHT at 8:00 PM with a 21+ age limit and no cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and here's (half of) Tarnished live!

Next up, The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino has updated their band schedule through the end of November via their entertainment page! Of course, it's just the St. Ignace branch, as The Rapids Lounge in the Soo is expected to close at month's end to make way for the construction of the new sports bar and water park. Kewadin have taken the extra step of noting genres for bands playing there on their entertainment pages though, which is long overdue, though very general, as they often don't get more specific than "rock & roll" as a descriptor. Just to clarify, Timberline and Uncle Ugly don't cross our "hard rock" line from what I've seen and heard, though they do have occasional covers. A band that does though kicks off the month on Friday, November 6th & Saturday, November 7th, namely Munising classic/hard rock cover quintet The Sky Pilots, in their first local appearance since rocking the St. Ignace Kewadin in May.

Always good to see former Swayze Train/Electric Motor Fish singer Melissa Strand in our area, and hopefully they have a strong turnout next month for their hard rock-leaning cover selection! As usual for Kewadin lounge gigs, these will both be at 9:00 PM with 21+ age limits and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details on The Pilots' return!

Meanwhile, The Northern Pines Lounge are booking some very familiar faces for the American Thanksgiving weekend, as Traverse City metal trio Scarkazm will play their last EUP shows of the year at The Northern Pines Lounge on Friday, November 27th & Saturday, November 28th! Of course, their sister band Peril is rocking out at the soon-to-close Rapids Lounge tonight, so now Yooper fans know your last chances to see either band before 2027. Scarkazm's hard hitting originals and covers should go over well next month, so don't miss out on all of the action in St. Ignace then! Same as for The Sky Pilots three weeks prior, these shows are at 9:00 PM, have no announced cover charges, and you must be 21 or older to attend. Visit the above links for more details, and don't miss Jeff leave the drumkit to front Peril tonight in the Soo before The Rapids Lounge as we know it closes next month!

Finally for today, here's one more weekend concert preview for Sault Ontario, as local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will set up shop at Reggie's Place TOMORROW for another Sunday matinee concert! The third of six scheduled concerts on the batch Facebook event page for his late 2026 dates at the Queen Street East nightclub, this is one of two Sunday matinees ahead for Tym in October, with a return coming on October 25th, though note that Reggie's Facebook page hasn't publically confirmed any of Tym's recent shows there. If you're up for a fun afternoon of classic and hard rock favourites from this talented local musician and former Caveman Morrison frontman, head to Reggie's for the Thanksgiving Eve music! This is a 19+ event at 2:00 PM with no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Tym live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Dos Amigos), Plus New Mike Haggith & Reeves Videos!!

Before we begin this news post, just a heads up that yesterday's Led By Zeppelin concert at The Sault Community Theatre Centre was cancelled due to "a medical emergency" from one of the band members, as per guitarist Rob Micoli on their Facebook group. The band hopes to reschedule and come back here soon, and I assume you'd contact the SCTC for refunds at point of purchase (no idea if they will honour tickets bought for yesterday's show at the makeup date). Very disappointing news, but hopefully the band member gets well soon! Now, here's some new videos and related news and notes, starting with a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!

Local acoustic punk duo Dos Amigos will make their debut at Paint & Decor Studios at 826 Queen Street East on TUESDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was first announced on the studio's Facebook page on September 1st, but a combination of this not being a typical local concert venue and Dos Amigos' own patchy-at-best social media promotion led me to only hear about it late last week. Band members did acknowledge it in Facebook "Stories", but it's not even on their Instagram page. Paint & Decor Studios (located at the former Mr. Sudz/Autoways building behind the Old Stone House) is a store first, but they have been ramping up their offerings since Benjamin Moore moved to the west end earlier this year, with craft nights & workshops, a cafe/bar, and other special events, one being a Taco Tuesday theme night. $18.98 reservations are required, but this includes tacos with custom toppings, and you can drink and paint too if so inclined.

The idea of including tunes with the tacos & good vibes feels very new, and a punk act isn't who my mind would do to first given the setting, but hopefully Mikey & Dustin continue their Wolf Fest (with BookcluB) momentum well on TUESDAY! This special event takes place at 5:30 PM at Paint & Decor Studios, and there is no stated age limit. It'll be interesting to see how this dip into the concert pool goes, but Dos Amigos' punk covers should be a good pair for a Taco TUESDAY! See above for more details, and here's the Amigos live!

Next up, local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith has posted a full multi-camera concert video from his and The Big Finish Band's Northern Vibe Festival set a couple weeks ago onto his YouTube channel! As he did in 2023 & 2024 (obviously not last year following the severe thunderstorm damage), Mike had multiple cameras set up to film the set from lots of angles, and then edited them together in post-production, but this time, he prefaced the 45 minutes-long set with an explanation of the technical difficulties that they ran into on Poplardale Road in Ophir on this Friday night. The set itself was already delayed a couple of hours due to power issues at the rebuilt Forest Stage, implying that they didn't begin their set until 10:00 PM (I don't know how else the sets were juggled otherwise, but they were initially the middle band before The Rhythm Junction and Sunday & The Broken Hearts at 10:00 & 9:00 PM). 

Mike acknowledged three big technical glitches during the off-the-grid festival, with the first one occurring following their first song, "The Best You Never Had", when their tuning pedals stopped working, leading to a four minute break between songs to get them working again. The gang resumed the set with covers of The Din's "Give Me A Reason" & "Missing", but at the end of Mike's own "Carousel", guitarist Chris Nielsen broke strings on his guitar, leading to technical issue #2. Mike's yet-to-be-recorded originals "I Really Hope This Gets To You" and "No Love" are next, but on the latter song, they lost power to the amplifiers for just over a minute (you can catch this at the 29:53 mark). Mike is not one to stop a song once it has begun, as anyone who saw him dislocate his knee at Rotaryfest in 2023 will be aware, so they kept going with an acapella vocal and drum performance, plus some amusing vocal harmonizing to replace the guitar between verses.

A fun way to keep thing going in spite of one more glitch, and props to Mike and crew for keeping things rolling in spite of everything in the bush last month! The set concluded with "Hot & Cold", "An Act Of Strength", and "MorningStar". The footage used includes full-set video of the whole stage (zoomed in late), a drumcam video of Brandan Glew, and some mobile footage of songs from midway through the set courtesy of Riverside Stasis/ex-Jack Spades bassist Rob Speers. Oddly, the colours are very washed out for the main video but often too deep for the drumcam, but the audio quality and editing are excellent, and it's great to see Mike & crew in good spirits on the big stage again, so watch the whole Northern Vibe set below!

Finally for today, here's the latest from newer local hard rock quartet The Reeves' Facebook page! The guys are fresh off of "our 2nd show" (again ignoring Toystock last year) at The Art Hub At Spring last week, and they posted a bunch of photos from the event to Facebook, as well as a video that was quickly deleted for unannounced reasons. No word on if it will resurface, but we do still have a video to share. Before their actual second concert (at Rotaryfest), the program had teased that their Stage 2 set would have songs from their planned 8-song debut album, and while they haven't firmly confirmed those plans on social media, they "started cooking up our first batch of songs" on Tuesday at The Loft at The Algoma Conservatory of Music. Interestingly, they were recording the new music with aforementioned Dos Amigos singer/guitarist Dustin Jones alongside Frank Deresti.

I say "interestingly" because they weren't at Dustin's own Mission Control Studios. A case of using the most professional location with the best producers, or will this only be for the vocal recording? In any event, a 25 seconds-long vertical video was uploaded featuring (I believe) guitarist Steve Edwards tracking vocals with Dustin at the controls. It's way too soon to be commenting on the song in progress, but it's good to see The Reeves quickly working in studio, so give this new video a watch below!

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

Downtown Street Party #3 Info, New Live Concert Videos, And More!!

I hope everyone's Labour Day long weekend is starting on the right foot! Today on the SMS, we have new live videos from three different acts plus some related updates, but first, here's early info on what to expect for a downtown concert event later this month!

Initial details on the third and final Downtown Street Party for Queen Street East in 2026 have been announced via You Belong SSM's Facebook page! We already knew that it would take place on Thursday, September 17th on a closed section at the western end of Queen East from Dennis Street to Gore Street (bus terminal onward), and things will likely be similar in scope to street party #1 from June, as there's no doubling up due to forest fire smoke cancellations. Expect family entertainment, a kids zone, a vendor market at Queen & Tancred, businesses open along the way, beverage gardens, and much more, and the likely cooler temperatures will appeal to many as well! Live music will return, but unlike the last two parties, organizers have yet to make a distinction on where specific artists are playing, other than saying that there will be two stages, one per block. Local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith is the only SMS-amenable act confirmed here.

Mike (presumably with his Big Finish Band) will be joined somewhere that day by country singer/guitarists Brian Tremblay and Jeffrey Wright, jazz group The Hustle Brothers, Dustcovers frontman "Just" Tom Peer (who played with Mike & crew on The Canopy last month), "and more". I'm not calling this as a concert yet, as I don't have a firm location for where everyone is performing, but keep things in mind over the next couple of weeks! For the record, no artists announced for this party were scheduled for the cancelled July party, so that musical lineup was sadly a complete wash. Visit the above links for current details on the last street party!

Next up, here's some recent live concert videos, starting with a video of Toronto-based Kiss tribute band Destroyer's headlining concert at the first annual Prince Fest last week! This was filmed by Mike Blair of 705Live Sound Co., who were running sound for the festival outside of DeMarco's Boots & Saddles Roadhouse in Prince Township that night. The not-quite 1 minute long video sees Destroyer playing the Kiss classic "Rock & Roll All Nite" with an uncredited special guest helping on vocals. A comment on the Facebook upload suggests that he could be named Frank but I can't confirm anything beyond that. How Frank(?) got to sing on stage, I don't know, but it's a solid cover for what we do hear! I wouldn't have done the "pan from the soundboard to the stage" thing that Mike likes doing though, as it gave too much away about crowd levels in the field. Give 705Live's Destroyer video a watch for yourselves below!

Also today, here's the latest updates from local alt-hard rock band Riverside Stasis, who may be remaining a quartet following Liam Dinsmore's departure, as their Facebook page's description now calls them "a a four piece indie, blues/pop rock band". We'll let you know if they add a new second guitarist though! The Handsome Sandwich/HeadFirst successors announced via this vertical video from The Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir that they now have official t-shirts on sale, and you can see the band opening the box of shirts to sell for the first time there. No word on if using The Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" as backing music was a hint to anything, but the black shirts feature the band's new logo in white. Given where the river flows in the logo, it does look like "Riverside Stassis" to me, but buy yours at their next shows! The band has also confirmed last month's venue announcement that they'll be opening for The Lazys at Blaster Powerhouse on October 9th!

This adds to what should be a fun night of varied hard rock stylings next month, and The Lazys are very much a known commodity on Canadian rock radio, so click here for more on this concert! Lastly from Tea and the guys, they uploaded their first ever live concert video onto their new YouTube channel on Wednesday, which sees them playing their new original song "Run" at Northern Vibe. Filmed by the aforementioned Mike Haggith, he moved around a lot to get lots of distinct and close angles of Riverside Stasis from all angles on the Forest Stage. Chorus is slightly repetitive, but this is a harder rocker than "The Fool" was, and a really strong video of the full song, so check it out below, and stay tuned for more from Riverside Stasis!

Finally for today, this is a new live video that I considered using for recent concert previews, but seeing as the venue that uploaded it opted to include hard-coded captions in post-production to promote concerts that only happen there, I opted to just share it in a normal post. As you may recall, classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison played two solo headlining acoustic gigs at The Up & Down Lounge on Second Line West a month ago, and for gig #1 on July 31st, the bar/indoor golf lounge's Facebook page shared this video of Tym covering Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?". Like with the Destroyer video above, this doesn't quite hit 1:00 in length, but the biggest issue is that it's way too zoomed out, complicated by Tym sitting as usual for his solo dates. If you zoomed in to focus on Tym and not the lounge interior, you could even completely crop out the unnecessary caption!

Video choices that I wouldn't have made aside, Tym does well with this CCR classic, so fans of his solo unplugged concerts will appreciate it! The Up & Down Lounge have been cagey at best when plugging who has played at their recent Thursday evening concerts, but we'll let you know if hard rock shows get firmly announced there, and give Tym's promotional video from last month a watch for yourselves below! 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS next month! Thanks everyone!

A Newly Discovered Mike Haggith Performance Video, ASDP Updates, And More!!

Before we begin this post, I wanted to apologize for a missed concert in our weekend concert previews, as local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison played at the Fraternal Order of Eagles Club's summer barbecue party/open house yesterday. Click here for details on the all ages festivities. It's been a while since Tym has played a regular nighttime show at Aerie #3991, and while he didn't plug his involvement on his solo project's Facebook group, I do apologize for missing what looked like a fun event! I'd have covered it had I known! Now, here's some new videos and related updates from three acts who played at a major concert festival this weekend!

While we await the teased full-set video from his Northern Vibe Festival return yesterday, local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith has a new long-form video to check out, but not from his own channels. When I was getting the link for his 2024 Northern Vibe video for our festival preview post last week, I stumbled across a 30+ minute acoustic set that he recorded for Underscored Sound, a acoustic performance-based webseries that records VH1 Storytellers-style sets from artists at the Canadian Musicians Co-operative headquarters in Barrie, in association with LiveBarrie and Alex Ciprian Media. Artists pay to appear and receive high quality copies of their sets in multiple formats. Mike was the 10th performer in season 1 of this series back in August 2024, with all five songs later being uploaded as separate videos (plus some vertical "Shorts") to the Underscored YouTube channel if you're so inclined.

I don't recall Mike mentioning his Underscored appearance at all, possibly because it was aimed towards Barrie and Southern Ontario at a time when we were focused on Northern Vibe and summer concerts here, but better late than never! The performance begins with Mike introducing himself and setting up his backstory, before introducing his first song "MorningStar" from 2020's "If Ever Comes The Day". He follows that up by tackling "Of Cars & Criminals" from 2015's "The Warinside", which is mildly surprising as it A. predates his modern Thompson/Barrie output, and B. was cut from The Din's live album "Technically Live" two+ years prior. Mike then reflects on his personal life and how it influenced his next song, "Back Away Slowly" (also from "If Ever Comes The Day"), followed by the title track of his 2021 album "Bridges". This acoustic showcase ends with "Brand New Day" from his not-yet-released 2025 album "Frequent Flyer".

The reason why there's only five songs is also why I compared it to VH1 Storytellers and not MTV Unplugged, as Mike outlines the personal inspiration and stories behind each song performed here, and Mike is candid about his life and the events that informed his music! The Soo does come up for the first few introductions. There's no interviewer or host, just Mike talking to the viewer, and the audio and video quality is excellent, including three different stationary camera angles. Really good stuff, even two years late, so fans of Mike's acoustic work will want to check out his Underscored set below!

Next up, we do have a public video to share from the Northern Vibe Festival in nearby Ophir this weekend! I'm expecting more in due course, especially with many musicians only coming back on the grid from the Poplardale Road bush today, but the festival went off without any weather-related glitches, and thank goodness for that! A festival representative filmed this video of Timmins pop punk band Saving Bambi covering Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' "Bad Reputation" on the rebuilt Forest Stage for their Facebook page. Alas, it's 39 seconds long and vertical (why accentuate the lawn like this when you can flip the phone sideways?), and this cover may be a slightly obvious pick for an all-female punk band, but what we do hear is lively and well performed, and it's great to see the Forest Stage looking refurbished and strong after the 2025 storm. Give Saving Bambi's video a watch below, and stay tuned for more from the festival when it goes live!

Finally, here's some updates from the subject of this month's album review from this morning (and another Northern Vibe act), local ska punk quartet ASDP! Apologies for only mentioning these after the fact (out of town or not), but checking Instagram is still not second nature for me, and the band still doesn't have Facebook. Last week, Mikhal, Tucker, William, and Ralph took their first ever road trip for shows out west, when they headlined at Shooters Bar in Kenora on August 21st, before heading to Winnipeg to play at the Sargent Skate Jam at the Sargent Skatepark the next day. Click here for more info and the posters of both concerts. As far as I can tell, an AI-generated skateboarding amplifier did not headline the Skate Jam, but it did feature Winnipeg punk quartet Shit Happens, who you may recall from headlining at the still-closed Distraction in March 2024. I do apologize again for not mentioning these at the time, but I hope the gigs went well, especially given the 12+ hour drive to Kenora alone!

A public video from their westward trip has surfaced though, but not from the band proper. 90 minutes east of Kenora, the guys stopped in Dryden, where they met the Christian musician Mr. World Peace at a 7-Eleven there (the idea of Northern Ontario having 7-Elevens still surprises me). The short & vertical video sees him and ASDP members doing a "World! Peace!" call & response in the parking lot. Kudos to both Mr. World Peace and ASDP for giving each other some exposure, so check this clip out below, and stay tuned for more from ASDP on the SMS likely next month!

That's all for now, but will we have one more post before August is done? Stay tuned either way, and thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Northern Vibe Festival XI!!)

The full daily lineup for the band-centric Forest Stage at the eleventh annual Northern Vibe Festival was finally announced on their Facebook page this past Friday, so here's two big LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS! Apologies for the short notice, Northern Vibe routinely announces the full schedules on short notice, though at least they do it now, unlike in the early 2020s (note that the EDM/DJ-centric Roost River Stage lineups had not been posted at press time). After five years curated by former Frightlight/Jack Spades frontman J.D. Pearce, the curator baton of the Ophir-based concert festival was passed to Golden Scoundrels/ex-Shit Liver frontman Josh Penno, and luckily, the weather gods appear to be welcoming him, as the forecast looks much better this weekend than it did last year, when a severe thunderstorm wrecked the Forest Stage overnight, rendering it unusable on the Saturday and forcing a number of band dropouts.

The Forest Stage has been rebuilt, and organizers, staff, and vendors are ready, with Josh cobbling together a whopping sixteen acts this weekend, which is the most ever for a Forest Stage lineup post-pandemic (and no one has dropped out!). With all of that said, who all is rocking Poplardale Road at the old Hempfest stomping grounds this weekend?

Starting with TOMORROW'S shorter band lineup, the 10:00 PM headlining slot (in a mild surprise) will go to local funk rock cover quartet The Rhythm Junction, with their set following the annual fire lighting ceremony at 9:45 PM. Newer blues rock cover quintet Sunday & The Broken Hearts will co-headline at 9:00 PM, while tomorrow's only returning act plays at 8:00 PM, namely local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith (presumably alongside The Big Finish Band). Mike and crew have played each of the last three Northern Vibes, but they were among the acts who salvaged a set on plywood after the Forest Stage's destruction last year, so it will be good to see Mike's hard rocking originals back on the stage proper! Local blues singer/guitarist (and mayoral candidate!) Josh "The Preacher" McNally will take the stage alongside his Jackleg Band at 7:00 PM, while alternative hard rock band Riverside Stasis will open the festival at 6:00 PM.

Featuring members of HeadFirst and The Barbarians from last year's Northern Vibe, they're used to kicking off a local summer concert festival this year, having also done so at WestFest, and while Raine & Anthony got their set in before the storm really wreaked havoc, Tea and Rob will like being back on The Forest Stage proper! We'll detail admission specifics at post's end, but 9&10 News is calling for 13-20° temperatures and clear skies throughout the band program TOMORROW, and if you're arriving at the festival grounds early, the nice conditions will be present all day. Visit the above links for more on the Friday bill, and here's Mike Haggith & the gang live at Northern Vibe two years ago! You can guess why they didn't film last year's set.

Now to the larger SATURDAY lineup, and after splitting some touring acts on both days last time, this year's four touring acts are all backloaded on this day's bill, so hopefully the forecast holds up! Headlining at 10:00 PM is Flint, Michigan ska punk band The Write-Ups (the first American band to play at Northern Vibe), with this being their second local gig in a four month span. Things clearly went well at The Speak Easy for them to get a callback so soon, so don't miss out if you love ska punk original action! Josh Penno's own folk/country quartet The Golden Scoundrels will co-headline at 9:00 PM in their third straight year at Northern Vibe, with country singer/guitarist and former Way Backs frontman Jeffrey Wright kicking off the country nighttime block at 8:00 PM. All-female Timmins pop punk quartet Saving Bambi will make their local concert debut in Ophir on SATURDAY at 7:00 PM.

Newer Sudbury hard rock quartet Pressure Event will play our neck of the woods for the first time at 6:00 PM, preceded by local ska punk quartet ASDP (whose debut album will be reviewed on the SMS by Monday!) at 5:00 PM. Rappers take the Forest Stage for the two sets prior, including Sudbury MC Ronin705 (a late replacement artist at Northern Vibe in 2021) at 4:00 PM and local rap collective Soundsxvad at 3:00 PM, with the merger of Sound Syndrome and Fvcksxvad returning after playing the Friday bill last year. Like last year, there is a "bingo break" slotted in the SATURDAY afternoon (I don't know if last year's happened in spite of the Forest Stage damage or not), but this is dependent on volunteer availability. Have your dabbers ready just in case for 2:00 PM? Solo artists will kick off the music on day #2, including local/Peterborough folk singer/guitarist Michelle Moran at 1:00 PM.

The opening two acts will get half-length sets, including late addition & Steel Rock alum Darius McRae at 12:30 PM and a solo set by Josh credited as "Pen Pen Happy Fun Time" at 12:00 PM. Still don't quite get that name (I'd go with Quarter Scoundies myself). Following an expectedly calm forecast overnight, 9&10 News is calling for partly-to-mostly cloudy skies on SATURDAY with a high of 25° and a low of 16°, but this is going up too soon for an hourly forecast for the evening and beyond. Of note for campers, rain is expected on Sunday, but that is always the wake up/tear down day and has no scheduled bands. See above for more on the SATURDAY Forest Stage program, and for a preview, here's The Write-Ups live!

Outside of the bands, visit the festival's Facebook page or website for the full list of DJs playing on the Roost River Stage, even if the schedule isn't out (yet?) Notably, among the arts and culture vendors in Ophir this weekend will be magician Ryan McFarling, who was a scheduled Forest Stage performer in 2023 but was just present on the festival grounds for other years. Northern Vibe XI will have camping encouraged as usual, so click here for the ground rules re: what to expect if you're spending a night or two, and how to respect the space and prepare for being off the grid. Online ticket sales ended on Wednesday, and organizers can't guarantee availability of passes at gate, but this is a 19+ event, and early bird full-weekend passes had been on sale for $125, so keep that in mind re: what chancing admission on-site would cost. If you're up for a weekend rocking out in the bush, this will be a hell of a way to end the summer, so hopefully you have your tickets!

With weather forecasts on Katrina's, staff's, performers', and vendors' side, hopefully everything goes off without a hitch after last year's rather hitch-laden band schedules (too bad Avessel haven't came back for a drier second go-around yet), so visit the above links for full details on this year's Northern Vibe Festival and its band schedules TOMORROW & SATURDAY, and weekend concert previews for the Soo and EUP resume next! Thanks everyone!

Rotaryfest 2026 Fallout (Part 4), Plus More From Soo Lens!!

Today's post finally sees us put our recent coverage of an annual summer concert festival to bed (famous last words), with a chaser of photos from a photography company who wasn't just present for this event in 2026. Here's what you should know on this Sunday afternoon!

Let's wrap up our Rotaryfest fallout coverage today, after only a month+ after the Sault's summer festival ended for 2026! When we left off this past Monday, we only had three Stage 2 bands left to acknowledge public videos from, but alas, I don't believe external videos from Eden Plague's set were uploaded by the band (not counting Johnny's update video during Brendan Hodgson's set) nor other attendees with public channels or pages. Stay tuned for more from the former Bear Hunters in the fall! Moving to the co-headliners, indie/country rock quartet Eli Russell & The River Fools did post a highlight video from their set to their Facebook page, as filmed by former Chunks of Manh/Soo Fighters bassist Max Ambeault. The video quality here is really nice, which makes the vertical orientation, short runtime, and lack of raw audio just as disappointing. What we get is solid with some nice views of the crowd though!

Still, I can only imagine what all Max shot for raw footage at Clergue Park last month, but click here to see Eli & crew in action regardless, if for 35 seconds! We'll finally close our Rotaryfest Stage 2 fallout by looking at this year's headliners, namely death metal trio Pillory, who drummer Bret Shuttleworth captured the entire set of via a stationary camera mounted beside 705Live Sound Co.'s tent, with the full video then being uploaded to his YouTube channel. In their last concert before a teased break to write for their next album, this 37 minutes-long set features Bret, Robert, and Devon playing their usual "End Of Small Sanctuary" intro track before diving into "Specimen Of Egotism", "Abhorred Apprehension", "The Curse Of Eternal Sickness", "The Angst Of Existence", "The Passing", their newest song "No Beyond", "A Drop Of Shame In An Ocean Of Guilt", and "The Stalker", before closing with a cover of Death's "Pull The Plug".

The resolution isn't super high, but everything sounds nice and brutal with a solid crowd turnout near the front of the stage, and it's still something of a trip to hear death metal on the Second Stage! Note the colour changing Pillory logo in the top left, but it's not in an intrusive place. Also, don't be too picky about the slightly crooked camera angle, remember that the tripod was mounted on the lawn. Give Pillory's entire headlining set a watch below!

Finally(?) from Rotaryfest, Bret just uploaded one more video from Pillory's set to his channel, featuring an attendee's footage of them playing "No Beyond" and "A Drop Of Shame In An Ocean Of Guilt", albeit with dead air removed in between. Note that Bret said in the description that this video was of "us debuting our two newest songs", even though "A Drop Of..." has been played live multiple times before last month. The video quality is much crisper, aided by the filmer being close to the stage, but the audio is definitely more muffled, so keep that in mind. Not a bad video of their recent material regardless, so give it a watch below!

To end things, we'll close today with a page that we alluded to in this past Monday's Rotaryfest post, namely local photography company Soo Lens, who snapped photos of Zed's headlining set on Stage 1 last month, but they actually debuted at Rotaryfest last year. Across photos and highlight videos (with dubbed audio in post in all cases) on their Facebook page, you can see their photos from Billy & Elton: The Legends, Bourbon Blue, and Who Made Who's 2025 Stage 1 sets, a number of performers at last year's Northern Vibe Festival (including HeadFirst on the Friday, multiple local bands on the salvaged replacement stage on Saturday after the storm, and a Roost River Stage DJ), September 2025's My Son The Hurricane concert, Mike Haggith's "Under A Moonlit Sky" concert at The Downtown Plaza, Afrofest at Soo Blaster, Silent 9 at Bon Soo's opening ceremonies, and Stones & Crows at Beck's Bar in June.

Soo Lens' photography is excellent and captures some great (if largely vertical) shots from the above concert events, which are the bulk of their content so far. Highlighting them in videos is a novel way to increase exposure beyond just individual photo albums, but remember, Soo Lens' videos are mostly slideshows with dubbed over audio rather than raw concert audio. A common opening lets us see their owner's arm outstretched pointing the camera at the stage, which still leaves me wondering what kind of videos they're filming with the second camera, and if there's anything there worth sharing. See above for more from Soo Lens, look for them at future local concerts, and here's their "Under A Moonlit Sky" video!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for a new news post on the SMS tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Soundcheck & Dos Amigos), A Concert Cancellation, And Related Updates!!

Before we get into this weekend's concert previews, just a heads up that tonight's Angelmaker-headlined concert at Blaster Powerhouse has been cancelled. Local promoters Heavy North Entertainment finally confirmed on Tuesday that it wasn't taking place, though Angelmaker quietly dropped the show from their tour routing at some point between July 15th and 31st, and H.N.E. hadn't promoted it on social media since July 8th. As well, tickets never went on sale for the local date, and the search for local opening bands had no public follow-through. A reason for the cancellation wasn't announced, but note that Heavy North Entertainment haven't hosted a concert since late last year, though company head Tyler St. Amour has played occasional solo concerts in recent months. It is worth noting that North Carolina deathcore band Larcenia Roe were tapped to replace Disfiguring The Goddess on tour, which was quietly confirmed in the local advertising. 

The cancellation is very unfortunate, especially as local promotion was hyping this as "the ultimate metal concert", but the lack of postings about the show for over a month was a tell that something was up, and even with no tickets to refund, Heavy North should have announced the cancellation well sooner than they did. Hopefully nothing too serious happened with Tyler or the bands, and that Angelmaker, Ingested, and Larcenia Roe try again here down the road, as deathcore fans were interested in coming out!

This post otherwise dives into the first half of this weekend's concert previews, and we'll look at this weekend's Stones & Crows, Peril, Tarnished, and Viscera shows in our next preview post due to this being a busier stretch. Today's all involve LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, mostly SHORT NOTICE ones, and we'll start at Northern Superior Brewing Co., where local acoustic punk cover duo Dos Amigos will play at their on-site Tap Room TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the band only confirmed this show via their Instagram-only schedule poster last week, and Northern Superior have not corroborated this booking on their own social media at press time. No major frills or tie-ins that I am aware of TOMORROW, but fresh off of their Canopy gig with BookcluB at the Downtown Street Party tonight, hopefully Mikey & Dustin deliver some solid unplugged punk favourites in the Tap Room!

Note that I am well aware that Northern Superior are teasing the return of Wolf Fest at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion on Saturday, September 12th, complete with a promotional video featuring Trish Rainone in character as Jan from Jan's Not Movin!, but we await an official announcement of the lineup and other events in three weeks. TOMORROW'S Dos Amigos concert is at 8:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge, and if you can't make it, they have three shows in three days next week. See above for more details, and here's Dustin & Mikey live at The Tap Room!

Finally, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will rock Jay's Piston Broke Pub TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT, and they'll also return to The Water Tower Pub on Friday, August 28th! Again, apologies for the short notice on TOMORROW & SATURDAY'S concerts, they were first announced via this AI-generated events calendar for this week on Jay's Facebook page (Soundcheck have not posted on their own Facebook page since early May). While ostensibly a normal weekend now that the guys are back from their Chapleau road trip, this weekend's shows come fresh off of the news that they are parting ways with bassist Jim Michaud (a.k.a. "Jimmy Sweetz"). The news was revealed on their sister band Separate Wayz' Facebook page on Tuesday, where their singer Nicole Thibodeau confirmed that Jim is amicably retiring from both groups, and "band line up announcements for both bands (are) coming soon". 

Best known for his near two-decade run as Obsession's bassist, Jim replaced Paul Belair in Soundcheck at the beginning of 2023, and he had been a constant presence in Terry Eaton's plugged in cover rock bands ever since, including Separate Wayz and the short-lived Guilty Party. What's unclear is who is playing bass at Jay's TOMORROW & SATURDAY... is Jim hanging on short term? Will they debut the new bassist this weekend? Will there be a temporary fill-in, or even no bassist? Regardless, hopefully Jim enjoys time away from the live grind, and if he is definitely retiring from bands, he will be missed! For the record, next week's Water Tower Pub show was announced via that venue's August concert calendar, and it is a one-nighter as usual there (Bone Yard 225 go "uncorked" there next Saturday). These are all branded as Soundcheck-only gigs and not "epic crossovers", but of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that Nicole won't pop in.

Terry, Travis, Johnny, and ?????'s Jay's Piston Broke Pub shows are at 9:30 PM, next Friday's Water Tower Pub concert is at 8:00 PM, and all are 19+ with no cover (though I somehow doubt that Soundcheck all wear fedoras and look alike nowadays, based on Jay's AI poster). Visit the above links for more on all three new Soundcheck dates (TOMORROW & SATURDAY included), best of luck to Jim in the future, and here's Soundcheck live!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for the rest of this weekend's hard rock concert previews either tonight or early tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Ethereal Tomb), Soundcheck/Separate Wayz Updates, And New Videos!!

I think our backlog is sufficiently addressed enough where we don't have to post twice a day regularly (famous last words), but there's still stuff to cover, new and old alike! For this post, we have new live videos, recent updates from a local weekend cover staple, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, so here's what you should know on this Tuesday morning!

Barrie doom metal trio Ethereal Tomb will return to Sault Ste. Marie for a "DIY garage show" on Monday, September 28th at Unnecessary Noise! Remember, this is the house party venue at a private residence that began being used as a location for select Underground Events SSM concerts this year, so while the address is not publically listed, the show is being publically marketed as a normal concert event at a specific venue otherwise. Fans may recall seeing promoter Mikhal Muto bring Ethereal Tomb to the former Soo Blaster in July of last year, and while this is a smaller scale event, their brand of "Turtle Island street metal" should deliver the sludgy intensity for local fans next month! The local openers will be really varied from the extreme metal to cap off the evening, including ska punk quartet ASDP (fronted by Mikhal, who opened last year's Ethereal Tomb show while still a member of Hails) and young hard rock quartet 5 Dollar Bribe.

This all ages concert has a 6:00 PM start time, admission is $10 or "pay what you can", and as this is at Unnecessary Noise, "ask a punk" for the address (though note that ASDP are the only punk band on this particular bill). Definitely a talented spread of sounds to be had at Unnecessary Noise late next month, so visit the above links for more details!

Next up, let's touch on some recent news and notes from local classic/hard rock cover band Separate Wayz, who have technically been quiet this month as a local concern, but they've been busy in informal and out-of-town ways. On August 8th, a stripped down acoustic version of the band made the 3½ hour drive to Sudbury to perform at Her Northern Voice, a week-long concert festival honouring female singers, with Nicole, Terry, and frequent guest guitarist Travis Sharpe (Terry's Soundcheck/TNT bandmate) performing there at the Grace Hartman Amphitheatre. This is basically why Nicole guested with TNT at the Maddy's Mighty Mutts Family Fun Day here a couple days prior, as it served as a local teaser and warmup. Separate Wayz (+ Travis) played on the penultimate Saturday lineup, where they technically opened for Susan Aglukark, though they were part of the free matinee block before ticketed admission was enforced for the closing acts.

For what it's worth, the Sunday the 9th concert at Her Northern Voice featured a set by Lime frontwoman "Miss" Madii Schomogyi in the identical 2:00 PM timeslot, while Sudbury psychedelic hard rock band The Dirty Mystics (who debuted at The Northern Vibe Festival in 2024) also played that day. Celebrating women in the arts (not just singers) is a fantastic idea, and it's great that so many local and non-local ladies were able to rock Sudbury that weekend! Among various "sneak peaks" (sic), a video from promoters The Sudbury Performance Group was posted on Facebook of Nicole, Terry, and Travis covering The Weeknd's "Blinded By The Light", though it is unfortunately vertical and only 30 seconds long. The side-stage vantage point is sure unique. if not supremely indicative of where they were, but they sounded good here! Nicole also just hit the road again with Soundcheck (Jim & Johnny included) for an "epic crossover" gig.

The five-piece combined band headlined at the Gold Rush National Drag Race in Chapleau (this time 3½ hours north of here) on Saturday, but media and teasers from that trip north did not follow on either band's page. There is big lineup news concerning both groups that I'll touch on in this weekend's concert previews, as Soundcheck have late notice gigs this weekend (with or without this band member, I don't yet know), but visit the above links for more on Separate Wayz & Travis (or Soundcheck & Nicole), and here's the live video from Her Northern Voice!

We'll close this post with some new videos from local space/hard rock duo The Spaceship Opening! As you may recall, the "east end rock n' roll" act (featuring ASDP drummer Ralph Barber) played their first public gig of 2026 at an all-locals concert at Blaster Powerhouse on August 1st, and they began uploading official videos of their set to their Facebook page last week. The guys plan to "post the whole show in bits", and they clearly meant it when they said "the whole show in bits", as the first video features just Andrew and Ralph setting up before their first song! Embedded below is their first song from this set, an original named "Everyone's Gotta Pay", and at press time, they have not uploaded any more songs, videos, and/or bits from the set. This is an instrumental hard rocker that Andrew plays virtually the entire time while facing Ralph with his back to the audience, but the video was filmed side-stage, so it doesn't hurt the home viewer experience.

You don't see a lot of videos from the former Soo Blaster shot like this, so it gives a unique look at the action! I hope this is a fair comparison, but I was reminded a bit musically of Helmet from this performance, and while there were no vocals, it has a spark and a catchy groove, so give it a look below, and hopefully more official videos of this Spaceship Opening set surface!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for a busy slate of mid-week concert previews and more on the SMS soon! Thanks everyone!