New Videos From Three Local Acts, Plus Summer Festival Cancellations!!

Let's dive into a full news post as we continue year #13 at the SMS! This post is mostly devoted to new videos from three local hard rock acts from the last little while, but we're ending things on a somewhat sour note with a trio of postponed summer concert festivals. Here's what you should know!

Local hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison's 26th live-streamed concert took place on his YouTube channel on Thursday, and after last Tuesday's show surprisingly went off scot-free with a full run-time, will the good vibes persist here? "Starting Soon" card aside, the video begins about 16 minutes in with Tym covering Frozen Ghost's "Dream Come True", Toto's "Love Isn't Always On Time", Berlin's "Take My Breath Away", Supertramp's "Breakfast In America", an improvised version of The Village People's "Y.M.C.A.", and Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love", before hitting a run of songs where two instrumentals (this jazz number and this lengthy song) bookend a cover of Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You". Afterwards, Tym tackles The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", Simon & Garfunkel's "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)", and an original song possibly named "Someday", which surprisingly ended the show.

Tym explained that he was "worn out... in the hot sunstroke weather", and given how he looked in the video and how humid the temperatures were last week, I don't blame him in the slightest for stopping halfway through. Kudos to him for playing as long as he did! Fun set with lots of setlist standards and newer cuts, though that instrumental run may not be to everyone's preference, and we just heard the Frozen Ghost and Berlin covers in the previous stream on Tuesday. Give Tym's newest at-home concert a watch below, and look for his next installment tomorrow!



Next up, local party metal trio The Apocalypse Afterparty shared their first video in two months on their Facebook page on Saturday, which sees the band covering MGMT's "Kids" in their jam space, with the Stanghettas apparently joined by Miranda Siegrist on the second bass (there has not been a statement on if she replaced Alice or if she's just filling in.) Note the minimal attire, which I chalk up to last week's awful humidity. Raw and intense performance that will definitely appeal to existing A.A. fans, though the camera work can be a little unstable. Give this one a watch below!



Also today, here's the remaining new video from Sault Michigan hard rock quartet Project 906's Facebook page that we didn't acknowledge in our post on Saturday, namely a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song"! An audio recording posted as a video on Thursday (with some images from popular movies), this cover is well done, but Billy's vocals do sound like they are straining to hit high notes at times. Give this new 906 cover a listen below!



Finally for today, here's three assorted shorter news items, all related to COVID-19 festival cancellations on the summer concert calendar, alas. As usual, these are in alphabetical order by event name:

• After teasing the possibility in April of holding a postponed and downscaled Rotaryfest next month in Sault Ontario, the Rotary Club of Sault Ste. Marie has officially cancelled this year's community summer festival outright, as per local news media like SooToday over the past week. However, organizers have indicated that they will hold a virtual concert of some kind for local musicians to take part in, effectively replacing the two Clergue Park stages for 2020. What form will this take, and when? See above for more details!
• On June 23rd, the fifth annual Rudyard Musicians Festival was officially postponed to next year, as per the event's Facebook page. The Sault Michigan-area event is a fundraiser for Rudyard Area Schools music programs, and had sparingly featured hard rock bands like Project 906 and The Karstens on their varied lineups. Hopefully organizers are back better than ever next summer!
• Similarly, the 20th annual Sugar Island Music Festival will not take place next month, as per their Facebook page earlier today, with organizers citing the "need to keep our community and our people safe", and that "it would be irresponsible" to hold it this year, but they will be back in 2021. While not a hard rock haven, there's usually at least one heavier act out on Sugar Island each year, most recently Tarnished and their predecessors Banned on an annual basis. Again, I hope next year's festival is a huge success!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site shortly! Thanks everyone!