Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival Fallout & Videos!!

I'm back from Maniotulin Island, and I have loads of news to get to, but our main story tonight is fallout from the Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival, which wrapped up last night! Loads of stuff from there to get to, but first, an apology on missed shows. Apparently, this past weekend, Marquette hard rockers Nudge played at The Satisfied Frog this weekend for at least two concerts (Friday night and last night), though I can't verifiably prove if they played a "Nudge-coustic" show on Thursday night like they typically do. The band's MySpace page updates frequently to delete past concerts, so I can't check to see if they were there, but their Facebook page lists them, and according to it, the shows went well! Last time I checked their concert listings on MySpace, I'm pretty sure there was no local concerts listed for July, so either these were a late announcement or I didn't look hard enough. My deepest apologies to anyone affected by this slip-up, and I bet the shows were great!

And now, it's time to go over stuff that went down at the Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Summer Festival, starting with SooToday's coverage! Donna Hopper was there on Thursday for the Bret Michaels/Vince Neil-headlined opening night, and took a unique angle with her review by grading Bret and Vince individually on points to determine who had the better set! Donna gave Vince Neil points for his energetic drummer Zoltan Chaney and his performances of Motley Crue classics, but gave negative points for his 20 minute break while his solo band jammed covers. She gave Bret Michaels points for persevering from his major health setbacks and for his Poison classics, but docked him points for wearing a shirt with his own picture on it. Interesting way to review their sets, for more of the point breakdown, and to find out who "won", read Donna's article at this location! There's also 28 photos from their sets online, including some crowd shots, but there are no photos of any of the other bands, entertainers, or events. Reviews of the other nights on SooToday have not been posted as of tonight. SooNews.ca's Tami Fremlin got photos and filmed some segments at the festival for upcoming episodes of a SooNewsTV webprogram called Winging It!, and articles are online of Tami's encounters with Bret Michaels, Henry Winkler, DJ Chef, and the Playboy Playmates! Click on their names to read them! As of tonight, there's nothing else Kewadin Festival-related on there.

The Sault Star also had Kewadin Festival stuff to share afterwards, though only one piece revolves around metal or hard rock bands. Rachelle Labrecque from The Sault Star took a number of photos of Bret Michaels' set and the crowd during it, and there's some good shots, but there's nothing of Vince Neil or anything else from the festival in this album. Still good though, click here to check out her photos! The rest of the articles from The Sault Star so far revolve around Meat Loaf's set last night, including the panic beforehand that he may not perform after cancelling a Detroit concert on Thursday due to his doctor's recommendation. No worries, he performed as scheduled! Head to The Sault Star's official website for more on Meat Loaf, and of course, check your newer copies of the paper for the same articles above in print! Oddly, The Soo Evening News (the major newspaper in Sault Michigan) has had the least Kewadin Festival coverage that I've seen, the only new item I've seen being a photo of the mechanical bull ride. Hey, it's variance from the rest of what we've seen, but that can't be it, can it? I find it kinda odd as well that no major Sault-area news sources covered at least Three Doors Down on Friday, or any of the non-headlining bands, but hey, you take what you can get! If I hear or see anything else come out from the festival, I'll have it here!

And now, to cap off today's post: Videos, but believe it or not, there isn't a massive amount of videos yet. I thought there'd be tons by now, especially considering the bands, but regardless of genre or content, I've only found THREE Kewadin Festival videos as of tonight! YouTube user madmaddy361 uploaded a 10 minute video of the fireworks from one night of the festival, a date isn't specified for which day it was. Nice footage, but I was hoping for more concert clips, especially of the metal/hard rock bands! The only band videos I've seen from the festival (or "RockFest", as it's accidentally labelled) come from YouTube user Jeremy Dolce, who uploaded two concert videos onto his YouTube channel! One is a live video of Three Doors Down playing their song "Superman", and it's got nice quality audio, but the camera work is very shaky. Luckily, Jeremy did get some hard rock video, as he got a clip of Bret Michaels talking to the crowd, thanking them for their support, and sharing some cool possibilities for next year's tour, before starting into "Look What The Cat Dragged In"! Check it out below, and when new videos pop up online, I'll be sure to share with you guys!



I'll leave you guys with that for tonight, but stay tuned tomorrow for more news and updates that I have to get to! Lots of exciting things coming up, plus my next CD review and out-of-town band profiles! Stay tuned!