LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Garden of Bedlam/Rotaryfest), Kewadin Summer Festival Lineup News, And More!!

Man, oh man is this week busy at The Sault Metal Scene! I was planning for mid-week to just be special feature posts, but my news desk is more full than it's been in a couple of months, so I basically HAVE to get a news post in tonight, lest I fall behind on some big stories. So today, I have some major updates from Turner Up, but first, here's some huge long-awaited lineup news for TWO upcoming music festivals! (Check out my newest out-of-town band profiles in the post below!)

Firstly, the lineup for this year's Rotaryfest Second Stage (sponsored by Tenaris Algoma Tubes) has been announced... well most of it, I'll explain in a second. Just like last year, the Second Stage will take place over two nights, this year over July 16th and 17th, and will be held outdoors at Square One of Queen Street East! After a year's absence, metal will return to the Second Stage, as Garden of Bedlam will headline on July 17th at 10:00 PM! This will be the band's first concert following the recording sessions for their new studio album, so this will definitely be a must see concert! As of today, they are the only confirmed metal band, but there are still four open slots for to be announced bands that, oddly enough, will be announced one at a time over the next couple of days. I don't know of who they could be, but keep that in mind! Admission for both nights is FREE and it's definitely ALL AGES!

Now as for the rest of the currently announced Second Stage lineup, here's who to expect: On Friday, July 16th, local prog rockers The Craig West Band (featuring Gates of Winter's Brian Holmes on bass) will open the Second Stage at 5:00 PM, followed by Toronto classical/punk trio RedD Monkey (featuring three Saultites, among them, former Gates drummer Kevin Overton) at 6:00 PM. The Great Bloomers, a roots music band from Toronto, will hit the stage at 7:00 PM, after which local indie band Kalle Mattson (featuring another former Gates of Winter member, drummer Jimmie Chiverelli) will play at 8:00 PM. The headliners for night one will be announced on Friday, they'll begin at 9:00 PM. Night two on Saturday, July 17th will begin at 1:00 PM with local blues rockers Blues Harvest (featuring former Garage Inc. frontman Jake Rendell), followed by a pair of local solo musicians, Catharine Taddo & Greg McLaughlin, at 2:00 and 3:00 PM respectively. Local roots band Porter will be on stage at 4:00 PM that day, followed by another mystery band at 5:00 PM that will be announced on Saturday. At 6:00 PM, local bluegrass quintet The Wild Turkeys will play a set, after which we'll get another mystery band at 7:00 PM who'll be announced TOMORROW. Local funk/blues rockers Big Wheel and the Spokes will be playing that night at 8:00 PM, followed by the last of the mystery bands at 9:00 PM (to be announced on Monday), with Garden of Bedlam capping off the Second Stage at 10:00 PM!

I'll update you guys to the additions as they come in, especially if there's a metal band! Also stay tuned for updates on the First Stage, which curiously has no news yet. Big thanks to Glen Thomas at The Barking Eye for letting me know about the lineup, and for further confirmation, visit the official Second Stage event page!

Speaking of festivals, we've been waiting patiently for news on the opening bands at the Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival, and now we can confirm all of the opening bands for the festival, and yes, there are some local metal bands! All of the new info comes from the official Kewadin festival blog. Nixxon Dixxon will, as I personally hoped, be playing at the festival, which is awesome news! According to their MySpace page, they will fittingly be backing up Bret Michaels and Vince Neil on July 22nd! Remember, they were the short-notice openers for Bret at his last Kewadin concert in March 2008! Also confirmed, in their long-awaited return to the local stage: Clownsack! I don't think they've played a local show since last year's set at the King of the Cage MMA event! Great to finally see them back, maybe we'll hear stuff from their upcoming second album during their set? Time will tell! Also confirmed are a youth group named "Rock Camp". I believe this is a band from Shift guitarist Joey Beairl's summer rock camp through The Guitar Studio, but I can't 100% verify that. If I'm right on my assumption, this will feature young local rock musicians assembling in a new local rock band for an actual concert. Bands like 7/47, Unleashed, and Intrepid have formed from these summer rock camps, so this very well could be a metal group, but we'll have to see!

Also newly confirmed for the festival: Local country singer Paul Perry, and a local band named Elipzis. I haven't found anything to confirm this band's identity or genre, can you help? One more out of town band has been confirmed too, a classic rock band from Lansing named Showdown, who are actually the first band I've come across to confirm they're opening for Meat Loaf on July 24th! These bands join the previously confirmed support bands Finding Clyde, StilrizE, Dannison, and locals Electric Motor Fish on the lineup! Now, which days are they all playing? Some are confirmed, some are not, but here's what I know: Finding Clyde, StilrizE, Dannison, and Electric Motor Fish all confirmed that they would be backing up Three Doors Down on July 23rd on their respective MySpace pages, that we know, so there's likely no new bands to be confirmed for that day. With Nixxon Dixxon confirmed for the 22nd and Showdown on the 24th, that leaves four extra bands for those two days. My assumption would be that the bands will be matched by genre of the headliners, so I'm thinking that Clownsack and the "Rock Camp" group will be on the 22nd, and Elipzis and Paul Perry will be on the 24th. Could be wrong though. I'll keep you guys posted, stay tuned to the Kewadin Festival's official blog for lineup/event news and how to get tickets, and when the schedule is completely finalized, I'll let you guys know!

And finally, there has been a big apparent lineup change in a local hard rock band. Turner Up have parted ways with frontman Todd Killam. This can be confirmed from his absence from the band's lineup and photos on their brand new Facebook page (their old group was deleted.) What happened? Your guess is as good as mine, the band seemed happy and tight and all that, they even jammed a couple tunes with Garden of Bedlam members at their last show at The Canadian Nightclub! Nothing I've heard has implied band tension, so I'm thinking Todd left on his own, hopefully on good terms! He's not even mentioned by name on the new page, just as a "former member", which is odd. Sucks that he left, he's a nice guy and I know he's put a lot of work into Turner Up since their inception! So now, the band are looking to replace Todd with a new singer and apparently have gigs booked throughout the summer. We'll have to see what happens next with Turner Up, I'll definitely keep you all in the loop on that front! Also to note: The band's new Facebook page now lists their genre as "70's 80's Classic Rock." Yet with Todd singing, they played a lot of newer songs too. Change in singer AND musical focus too? Things to thinks about!

That's all for today, anything else would get lost in the shuffle of these big stories. I really SHOULD post more, but I don't want you guys to bypass anything or not notice a story that should be read. I am badly backed up for news, so tomorrow will be another double post day, starting with the debut of our new GarageBand Profile Mini-Series, as we take a look at a local metal project named Recognition. And then later on tomorrow night, I promise there will be a new news post with some more big stories. Stay tuned for all this, and more! Oh yeah, the SMS 3rd Anniversary is in FIVE DAYS!!!!!