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!