Tuesday, June 27, 2017

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Rotaryfest Stage 2) & Lita Ford/Great White Concert Videos!!

Today's news post at the SMS is devoted to two topics: Videos from a recent major concert, and a huge LOCAL CONCERT ALERT relating to a portion of Sault Ontario's annual summer festival, so here's what you should know on this Tuesday morning!

The lineup for the twelfth annual Stage 2 at Rotaryfest has been announced via it's official Facebook event page, so what should you know about this year's all-original second stage action? For a third straight year, Stage 2 will be held at the "redirected" stage beside the Art Gallery at Clergue Park as a one day event on Saturday, July 15th, but the lineup has been expanded from 7 bands to 8, so who can you look for in three weeks' time? Mostly a new lineup, with only three returning bands from last year, and none from lineups prior to then, including indie rock artist Jesse Merineau headlining at 8:00 PM! It's good to see the 2016 Speak Easy Battle winner back on stage after the cancellation of his Canadian Nightclub show this weekend, so look for him with a full band in his Rotaryfest debut on the 15th! Last year's headliners K.I.C.K. will play the same 7:00 PM timeslot this year with their own indie rock originals, while hard/alternative rock trio The Din are the highest slotted heavier band at 6:00 PM in their own Rotaryfest return.

Indie/punk quintet Northwest will debut on Stage 2 at 5:00 PM (fresh off of theirs and K.I.C.K.'s LopLops show the previous night), while fellow local punk standouts A Dire Setback will do the same at Clergue Park during the 4:00 PM set. Alt-hard rock quartet Id Iota will rock the 3:00 PM set at the Second Stage for the second straight year, while former Pixo Control frontman Mike Mikus and company will play their penultimate local concert before Mike's big move at 2:00 PM, with him saying farewell later that night at LopLops with Id Iota opening, so keep Stage 2 in mind if you're underage and want to see him before he heads east! Opening at 1:00 PM on July 15th are All Us Others, a new all-female singer/songwriter duo signed to Tidal Records, though I don't know their specific genres or much else beyond their Instagram page. See what they have in store next month at Stage 2!

As usual, Stage 2 is FREE & ALL AGES, and is once again curated by Chelsie Parayko, and be sure to visit the above links for full details on this year's lineup. While maintaining the youthful alternative path of the "redirected" era, this year's Second Stage lineup is also largely different from 2016 and completely different from any prior year, so there's lots of variety, talent, and relatively new blood to take in on July 15th! Stay tuned for more updates, as well as the covers-only Stage 1 lineup reveal, when they roll in!

We'll close today with the only public videos that I've located from Saturday night's Lita Ford/Jack Russell's Great White outdoor concert at the Kewadin Shores Casino in St. Ignace, Michigan! These come from YouTube user Annette Chandler (co-organizer of the local hydrocephalus charity walk Troy's Trail), who you may recognize as a filmer of February's Pop Evil concert in Sault Michigan. On Saturday, she filmed one video of each band, including this video of Lita Ford playing her biggest solo hit "Kiss Me Deadly", so what can we glean from it? Performance-wise, she still sounds good, and the band has the chops for the material, so there's no problems there! In terms of the setting along Horseshoe Bay, I really can't judge, as the videos were both taken during nightfall, and I can only really see the stage and lighting with any clarity, but hopefully the outdoor stage was set up well for fans and bands alike! Give Lita's video a look below!



Finally, here's Annette's video of Los Angeles hard rock veterans Jack Russell's Great White covering Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten, Twice Shy", which was their biggest chart hit and most recognizable song. The video's better lit than on Lita Ford's, which helps visibility beyond the stage a tiny bit, but I wish the videos would have zoomed in a little bit to counter attendee heads. Still, this version of Great White sound solid, even if only 20% of the lineup from their 2009 Kewadin gig was back this month, and the crowd get prime opportunities to sing along! Give their video a look below, and kudos to Annette for filming these, hopefully someone has more!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates soon, plus this month's CD review! Thanks everyone!

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