The Return Of The Halloween Party, New Treble Charger Videos, And More Rotaryfest Fallout!!

Here's another packed news post for your Tuesday afternoon at the SMS! Along with long overdue coverage of some Rotaryfest videos, and new footage from a prominent local band's recent our of town gigs, let's kick things off with an upcoming fall concert that, while lacking a venue as of this writing, should be a great time like usual, so here's what you should know!

Local concert promoter J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween Party will return on Saturday, October 31st! Listed as his 11th annual Halloween show (though 2005's wasn't officially branded in the series until last year), this will be the first to be presented through Tidal Records since J.D. began working with the local record label, and will return to it's usual Saturday night placement after being on Friday last year so it could (like this year) fall on Halloween night. This year's lineup is a bit of a throwback to 2008, as all three bands will be tribute bands, or at least bands adopting that theme for one night, so who all's playing? The listed headliners appear to be Toronto extreme metal quartet Caym in their second show of the year, and if all goes according to plan, they'll play a Metallica tribute set, which should be interesting! Also, this will mark the third time in four years that an out of town band is headlining this annual Halloween party, so keep that in mind as well.

The presumably local openers are listed as Misfits and Rancid/NOFX tribute bands, and while we can assume that J.D. will front the former like he did in 2008, will they be one-off tributes or renamed versions of existing local bands (like Redundant's 2012 turn as The Brews?) We'll keep you posted if there's confirmation! Notably, a venue is to be confirmed for this year's event, but for reference, two of the last three were at The Algonquin Pub,. This year's party will be a 19+ event with a $10 cover charge and 10:00 PM start time, and a costume contest is likely also, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and stay tuned for more info on the venue, bands, and more as it all rolls in!

Next up, here's some new videos from local/Toronto indie punk quartet Treble Charger, courtesy of recent out of town gigs that they've played! Apologies for not acknowledging them on the site, they slipped us by when announced, but remember, priority for the SMS is on local events. Two come from YouTube user Mike Maracle's channel, courtesy of (I believe) their show in Belleville on July 9th when they headlined this year's Canadian Independent Music Festival. One video is a summary video of clips from their set as set to the studio version of "American Psycho", which is well put together, but embedded below is a formal concert video of the songs from their encore. Featuring their memorable tracks "Red" & "American Psycho", I like the angle and stage lighting for this performance, but the audio is very staticy, and Mike did apologize for the shakiness of the actual video. Still, give these new Treble Charger clips a look above & below!



The other video comes from Treble Charger's outdoor set on Canada Day in Kitchener, also of the guys playing their early hit "Red". On one hand, this video (from YouTube user Angela Uttley's channel) is very clear, stable, and easy to watch, but on the other hand, it's only 20 seconds long. Still, nice to see Greig, Bill, and company rocking out again, and hopefully they're back home for more shows in the near future! Give this one a look below too!

Finally for today, here's, at last, our final major Rotaryfest stage coverage from local news media, courtesy of videos from Local2! Remember, Local2's video host doesn't allow external embedding. One of the videos (posted on July 20th) is a summary video of Rotaryfest events set to pleasant background music and featuring remarks from Sault Ste. Marie Rotary Club president Rod Stone, and it features brief clips of Second Stage performers Gnaeus, The Pixo Control, and Caroline Divine (sans their own audio.) Also, the returning Stage 2 was the focus of the newest episode of Tuned with Donna Hopper, as posted on Saturday, so what should you know about that? Focused on an interview with new Second Stage director Chelsie Parayko, she talks about the return of the all-original stage, the response to this year's installment, why it was moved from Queen Street to Clergue Park, the chances that it will be back for 2016, and how bands were chosen.

In terms of specific info, Chelsie cited an attempt to get more young people to Rotaryfest as a reason for Stage 2's return, and specifically acknowledged redirecting the stage to Clergue Park to get it closer to the rest of the festival, without addressing the Downtown Association debate that would have forced the move anyway (also, nothing she said implied this was a temporary change.) The band selection process she outlined was interesting too, I wonder if that will recur next year? Informative video, albeit without much audio of the bands, so give it and more a look at the above links!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and concert previews in the coming days! Thanks everyone!