Most Of Local2's Rotaryfest Main Stage Hard Rock Cover Videos!!

With some Tesla videos likely forthcoming (and who knows if more Shinedown videos turned up), let's keep things rolling with a showcase of videos from Rotaryfest's main stage at Clergue Park last weekend! As has become a recent trend, Local2's Mike Caruso was on hand to film almost all of the bands for Local2's YouTube channel, exploiting some multiple camera angles and good weather for some great clips! Posted last week, Mike filmed all of the bands from all three days except Coverfly (though they're featured on non-Rotaryfest videos on the channel), and the odd absence of Fusion videos didn't maintain, as I believe Fusion broke up in the past year. Note as well that Mike also filmed a handful of Second Stage bands (though not Sailor's Tongue), and each video features 15 second opening and closing titles crediting the videos as part of a series named "Everything Sault with Mike Caruso", although there's no host segments or features connecting them as such. The videos are also all letterboxed, yet the post-effects aren't, so why is there a letterbox at all?

By my count, Mike filmed 6 hard rock covers at this year's Stage by local bands, and I've saved two for another post to both keep this one from getting too long (conveniently, both videos features a cover of the same band, hence why I'm holding those ones.) Now, let's look at the first 4 hard rock/metal covers from this year's First Stage at Rotaryfest, and check the above links for the non-metal/hard rock covers filmed for Local2, and check out our Oddzfest 2013 Metal Mash-Up review in the post below this one!

We'll go in chronological order starting on Friday, July 19th with local party/cover rock quartet Obsession, as their filmed video was a cover of Heart's "Barracuda"! Mike credited this as their first Rotaryfest appearance "in their present form", and like the past videos of Obsession that I've seen, they have a lot of talent , and Valerie Powley's vocals are impressive and rangy as ever! I've never seen Obsession live, but I remember regretting not coming early for their Toystock set, and I'll have to make a point of seeing them one of these days, as they can definitely pull off some entertaining hard rock renditions when the time calls for it! Note as well that Mike added some post-effects to this video, including some kind of sparkle/brighness effect on the members from the closer camera, and the video fades out before the song fully ends. Check out Obsession rocking "Barracuda" at Rotaryfest below!



Also on the Saturday night was co-headlining local hard rock band The Suicide Kings, whose Local2 video features them covering Three Days Grace's "Animal I Have Become"! This is one of the songs that they played with guest bassist Brandon Uhl (ex-Limelight), so how did he fit in? Pretty well, and I like the fuller sound with Steven Flint & Mitch Sirie sharing guitar duties, but this song isn't a great fit for Mike Gaetano's vocal range, which is odd considering how good his higher register singing usually is. Solid stuff all around though, and this is a good preview of The Suicide Kings' planned quintet expansion and full-time bassist search, so check out The Suicide Kings & Brandon Uhl covering "Animal I Have Become" below!



We'll close this post with the Saturday, July 20th lineup, starting with this video of local classic/hard rock quartet Griphook covering Billy Squier's "Lonely Is The Night"! Featuring guitarist Brian Oja on lead vocals, his range suits the track well, and the guys all seem to have this cover down pat with a good energy and rock sensibility, and hopefully there's more video floating around from their shows last weekend (including 3/4ths of Griphook's turn as The 7 Year Itch later that night.) Note as well that this video also cuts off slightly before the song's actual end. Check out Griphook's "Lonely Is The Night" cover below!

The last video for today comes immediately after Griphook's set, and it's of local classic rock cover quintet Mustang Heart covering Bon Jovi's ballad "Thank You For Loving Me"! (You may remember that their Local2 video last year was a cover of Van Halen's "Jump", so a hard rock cover isn't unheard of for them.) Interspersed with images of happy couples and weddings, and some crowd waving action, it's a solid rendition of the original, and Lorenzo Fabbri's deep clean vocals work well, but fans of Bon Jovi's old hair metal stuff probably won't take to it as much. Check out Mustang Heart's Bon Jovi cover below, stay tuned for another Mustang Heart hard rock cover in an upcoming post, and click here to see Mike Case's Rockers covering another Bon Jovi song ("Who Says You Can't Go Home") on the Friday lineup! Even if it's a country track, the students did a good job!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes this week, including hopefully some Tesla fallout, more Rotaryfest videos, and much more! Thanks everyone!