LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Rotaryfest) And What You Should Know About This Year's Format!!

After moving to a virtual format for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rotaryfest is back in person in 2021 from Thursday, July 15th-Saturday, July 17th, but with big (and presumably one time only) changes! With public health guidelines still in effect next month (time will tell if we're in Stage 2 or 3 at that point), Rotaryfest will move from Clergue Park to the parking lot of the K-Mart/Zellers/Lowe's Plaza at the corner of Great Northern Road and Northern Avenue, with a primarily drive-in experience for attendees to help minimize contact. No midway this year, it looks like the primary attractions (50/50 draw aside) will be live music and RibFest, each setting up shop in the Lowe's Plaza parking lot facing Pennington's, each taking up about a quarter of the entire lot (the half closer to Metro & Value Village will be separate from Rotaryfest.) Click here for information on how to attend and what the layout will be. Social distancing measures are being enforced, so make sure to mask up and use common sense when leaving your vehicle.

For this year, there will only be one stage (sponsored by SooToday), but it will feature some original acts, so you could consider this a hybrid in lieu of having a Stage 1 and Stage 2. Presumably out of deference to noise concerns and the drive-in attendance, music will be fed through an FM transmitter rather than typical speakers, similar to what you would find at a drive-in movie, so you'll find out what normally unused FM station frequency to tune into upon entry (and make sure you have a working FM radio!) This year's band lineup is smaller than normal, partially because they're slotting more time between bands to sanitize the stage, so you'll only be seeing 15 bands across the three nights this year. That said, if you consider this to be "Stage 1", nine of this year's acts are newcomers, so if you've ever craved some variety on Rotaryfest's live music stage, you'll certainly have it this year!

Now, who is playing? Starting on Thursday, July 15th, four bands will take the stage, with local acoustic hard rock cover quartet The Wyld Stallyns headlining at 10:00 PM in their Rotaryfest debut and first concert in almost a year, though members played Stage 2 with The Elements in 2018. Nice to see the Speers' and company after a long hiatus, they should have a fun set in store! Local progressive rock veterans Machines Dream will debut their new six-piece lineup at 8:30 PM, marking their festival return after their record-tying five Stage 2 appearances between 2010 (as The Craig West Band) and 2018. Their sister blues rock band Blues Harvest (themselves three time Stage 2 performers) will reunite for their first in-person concert in eight years when they hit the stage at 7:00 PM, while blues/rockabilly quartet The Steeltown Playboys (featuring The Rising Tide's Marshall Jaaskelainen) will open at 5:30 PM in their first ever Rotaryfest set on any stage. 

Intriguing lineup featuring a lot of common talent & a heavy (if unplugged) ending, so Rotaryfest is off to a good start this year! Friday the 16th's lineup does not feature any primarily hard rock acts, but you will be able to see veteran classic rock bands & regular Stage 1 performers Mid Life Crysis and Mustang Heart at 10:00 PM & 8:30 PM, both of whom do cover some hard rock tunes in their vast setlists! The first two acts will include Strait Country (a one-off George Strait tribute led by singer Mark Tarantini) at 7:00 PM and, in his Rotaryfest debut, local country musician Brendan Hodgson at 5:30 PM. Genre fans will want to keep both halves of this lineup in mind!

Saturday the 17th's line-up is the longest as usual, and perhaps due to the pandemic's challenges, there will be no touring headliner. The closing band this year at 10:00 PM will be local southern rock cover quartet Bone Yard in their seventh Rotaryfest appearance (eighth if you count 2020's Virtual Rotaryfest, which Mustang Heart also played.) Their set takes place after the 50/50 drawing at 9:45 PM, FYI. Co-headlining at 8:30 PM are classic rock veterans Obsession in their eleventh Rotaryfest set, and both bands do have hard rock covers in their setlists! The 7:00 PM set will belong to the live concert debut of Jonesy Land, a new punk rock project led by prolific local musician/Tidal Records head Dustin Jones! Not counting his personal Instagram page, this band's primary info so far is on Rotaryfest's schedule, and it confirms that the band is essentially a Jaaskelainen-free version of The Rising Tide.

Specifically, their lineup will feature Dustin (vocals/guitar), Liam Seymour (guitar), and Chris Johns (drums) joined by long time Tidal Records artist Frank Deresti on bass, while Dustin's daughter Jett will provide guest vocals for at least a couple of covers. Jonesy Land's set will otherwise primarily be covers of Dustin's songs with The Rising Tide, The Inner City Surfers, and Toronto's The Conspirators. Yes, we will mention Jonesy Land's debut original single in a post soon, but this is definitely an intriguing project for fans of his! Veteran local folk musician Greg MacLachlan will return to Rotaryfest for the first time since playing Stage 2 in 2010 at 5:30 PM, while young local hard rock quartet The Uncanny Valley will play Rotaryfest for the first time at 4:00 PM! After an eight month public hiatus, it's great to see this promising band back in action, hopefully with more originals for their planned album under their belt!

This will also be The Uncanny Valley's debut appearance with their new bassist, as Brendan Bertrand quietly joined the band earlier this year to replace the already departed Adam Fahrer (see him in Brendan Hodgson's backing band on Friday the 15th). I'm not familiar with Brendan Bertrand musically at all, but hopefully he's got the requisite chops! Veteran classic rock duo Spyder's Web will return to Rotaryfest for the first time in seven years in the 2:30 PM timeslot, a surprising gap seeing as they only missed once between 2004 & 2014! Finally, The Northern Jazz Ensemble will open day #3 at 1:00 PM in their third straight live Rotaryfest appearance, the only band who can say that. This year's Rotaryfest is an all ages family event (of course, you have to be 16 to drive your vehicle!), and entry will be by donation to The Rotary Club of Sault Ste. Marie. For full details on how to attend responsibly, please click here!

Despite all of the social distancing-related adjustments this year, it is great to see Rotaryfest back in person for 2021, and while the Soo is relatively late to the party for a drive-in concert like this given what stage we're at in the pandemic, this should be a fun attraction before we hopefully head back to Clergue Park in 2022! Stay tuned to the SMS and Rotaryfest's online channels for any updates as they roll in, but circle the July 16th weekend on your calendars for a concert experience like no other (locally speaking!), and stay tuned for an all-Sault Michigan post on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Spun & Sunspot) And More On The Return Of Weekly Concerts At Kewadin Casino!!

As we started to get into in Sunday's post, Kewadin Casino is finally bringing back their normal weekly concert schedules at The Rapids Lounge at their Sault Ste. Marie branch and The Northern Pines Lounge at their St. Ignace location, with live music resuming there this weekend! Of course, a return to normalcy in this late stage of the pandemic is further along in Michigan than it is in Ontario, hence why we're seeing new short-term concert announcements in the E.U.P., but there is optimism that once Stage 2 of the Ontario re-opening begins tomorrow, we'll start to see a few show dates turn up on this side of the border, even if they still have restrictions for now. The Kewadin lounges' links above list steady live dates through year's end for both prior Kewadin regulars and relative newcomers alike, including new shows from touring acts like Lansing classic rock band Showdown, Columbus, Ohio R&B outfit NuCorp, Traverse City dance rockers Risque, Detroit blues musician Chris Canas...

...Farwell classic rock quartet Detour, St. John's country outfit The Louie Longoria Band, Marquette rock trio Uncle Ugly, Traverse City electronic/jam rock septet Biomassive, and a few hard rock bands that we will be getting into shortly. Locals hitting Kewadin by year's end include hard rock trio Tarnished (whose shows we covered here on Sunday), classic rock group The American Band, former Insipid Brutality guitarist Tyler Dettloff's solo blues project, country duo Perry/Hatch, rock cover trio Paradise Excuse, and Sault Ontario classic rock veterans Touch of Class, who are one of the very few bands on this side of the border bands to regularly play Sault Michigan gigs in this millennium. Touch of Class aren't booked for Kewadin dates until December, theoretically leaving lots of time to get the border opened... right?! As well, there are two bands playing this weekend that are not listed above, one of which we'll be discussing on the site on Thursday in their own feature, so check back in a couple of days.

The other band is named Frybird, who are scheduled to play The Northern Pines Lounge this Friday & Saturday, with two further weekends booked this summer, but I cannot find anything out about this band. If we hear anything, especially if they happen to play heavier music, we'll let you know!

As for those hard rock concerts, let's start by noting the apparent local concert debut of Madison, Wisconsin hard rock trio Sunspot, who will be playing at The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on Friday, August 27th & 28th! NuCorp & Touch of Class aside, you tend to only hear about Michigan bands playing at Kewadin lounges, but Sunspot are here on a big weekend, as they'll be musical entertainment during this year's Michigan Paranormal Convention, returning to Kewadin Casino that weekend after not taking place in person last year for obvious reasons. I'm not a big paranormal follower, but the Michigan Paracon is a big deal if you are, and they've got some strong guests coming north this year, so visit their Facebook page for fill convention details. Sunspot's songs are all themed around science fiction, the paranormal, and mythical creatures, so they're a perfect fit!

Musically, Sunspot are a hard rock/power pop act, and they have a fun sound and a relatively unique hook to their music (you wouldn't expect a band of this genre to be singing about these topics), so they should draw a solid crowd of convention-goers and general fans alike! As best as I can tell, Sunspot's Rapids Lounge concerts are not explicitly tied to MiParacon tickets (again, see above for details), so general admission for just the band should still be free for 21+ers with a 9:00 PM start time, and of course, please follow any extant public health guidelines and recommendations if needed.

We'll close today's post by noting the long awaited return of Marquette hard rock quartet Spun to the E.U.P., as they will hit The Rapids Lounge one week later on Friday, September 3rd & Saturday, September 4th before heading to The Northern Pines Lounge in St. Ignace three months later on December 3rd & 4th! In case you need a refresher, Spun were the successors to long-time touring favourites Nudge. with that band's final lineup (minus Danzo) forming Spun in time for a run of well received local dates at The Satisfied Frog in 2017 & 2018. Spun had announced shows at the St. Ignace Kewadin this past August (obviously never taking place), so after a surprising three year break, it'll be nice to welcome Spun back to a local stage later this year! Their fan friendly hard rock covers should go over well with attendees, and as usual, these are 21+ events with no cover and a 9:00 PM start time, but be cognizant of potential public health guidelines.

We do have more from Kewadin Casino to address on the site on Thursday, both via a band playing this weekend and two very familiar touring acts making their regional returns later this year, so look for those and much more in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Cheap Trick & Tarnished), And The Return Of Kewadin Casino Lounge Concerts!!

We have a bounty of big updates and show announcements ahead, so let's start cutting some of that down with today's post, which is devoted to LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS in Sault Michigan and St. Ignace! Yes, concerts are good to go in The Great Lakes State, and it's definitely showing with some of the news ahead, so here's what you should know from both a prominent young hard rock band, as well as a huge touring concert later this summer!

Local hard rock trio Tarnished have announced some new regional concert dates for August! The band revealed an updated summer concert schedule on their Facebook page on Thursday, which includes new dates outside of our coverage range in Newberry yesterday and in Grand Marais on July 3rd. Oddly, neither has a listed venue, despite the Newberry gig being on two days notice and never being plugged by the band on Facebook otherwise. In terms of the new dates that are within a one hour's drive of the Soo, Tarnished will now apparently return to The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino on Friday, August 6th & Saturday, August 7th, marking their second weekend engagement there in a four week span! This isn't all for Alex, Nathan, and Josh under the Kewadin umbrella, as the casino has finally announced their concert schedules at their regional lounges for the second half of 2021, as weekly live music will resume in five days!

While not yet advertised by Tarnished, The Northern Pines Lounge's official schedule confirms Tarnished's prior announcement of dates there on July 16th & 17th and August 6th-7th, but they also list Tarnished as playing Friday & Saturday nighters there on September 17th & 18th, so now fans in St. Ignace and area have six opportunities to see Tarnished live in the back half of 2021! Don't worry, Saultites, Tarnished will also make their Rapids Lounge debut at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on Friday, November 12th & Saturday, November 13th, so while dates there are less and further away, you'll get your Soo Kewadin fix of Tarnished in time! Yes, The Rapids Lounge's official schedule is out too and booked solid through year's end. Finally for new Tarnished dates, they will return to The Hulbert House Bed & Breakfast in Hulbert Township for a one-nighter on Saturday August 21st!

Coming one week after they open for Gunnar & The Grizzly Boys there, it's not yet clear whether it'll be an outdoor gig too or indoors, but with the summer still on then, I'd be surprised if they weren't on their proper stage! Assuming it's similar to their Summer Rock Party show there, expect a 6:00 PM start time, and a cover charge or age limit wasn't announced. Meanwhile, the Kewadin dates at both locales are all 9:00 PM events with 21+ age limits and no cover charges. Visit the above links for current and continuing details, and hopefully Tarnished's hard rocking sound proves to be a hit this summer!

 

There is a lot to get to from the Kewadin Casino lounge umbrella, but before we get back there, here's a big outdoor concert hitting the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino on Thursday, August 19th, as Rockford, Illinois hard rock/power pop quartet Cheap Trick play their first local date since July 2019 when they open for Buffalo alternative rock band The Goo Goo Dolls! Of course, readers should recognize both bands, with Cheap Trick being Rock & Roll Hall of Famers off the strength of classic songs like "I Want You To Want Me", "Reach Out", and "The Flame", while The Goo Goo Dolls had steady mainstream success in the 1990s & 2000s with hits like "Name", "Iris", and "Slide", and while I personally feel that Cheap Trick are more obvious headliners, there's a nice swath of music to enjoy for many fans! Yes, this is outdoors, much like 2017's Great White/Lita Ford show there.

 

This concert is sponsored by Glen Arbor radio station Classic Rock: The Bear (yes, formerly heard locally on 97.9 FM), which currently simulcasts to the St. Ignace area via WWSS 95.3 out of Tuscarora Township. You can pick up The Bear in Sault Ste. Marie with the right antenna and/or location, but the St. Ignace locale and Lower Peninsula station sponsor seem like a good way for Kewadin Casino to bring back major touring bands before the Canadian border is opened. If you can't cater to and get ticket money from Sault Ontario, why not aim for rock fans in the tip of the mitt that are able to attend? A 7:00 PM start time is in effect for this concert, which has no advertised age limit, though face masks may be required to attend (check back for further details on that front.) Tickets run for $85 (first 10 rows), $75 (rows 11-30), or $50 (general admission on the lawn), and can be bought at this link, at 1-800-KEWADIN, or at the in-person box office.

I'm not a huge fan of either The Goo Goo Dolls or Cheap Trick, but both bands have a lot of hits to offer, and it's great to see Cheap Trick back in the E.U.P. for their fourth time, at least (having played the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino in 2001, 2014, and 2019), and hopefully this is a great show with great summer weather! Stay tuned for updates if they roll in, and we will have much more from Sault Michigan and the new Kewadin Casino lounge schedule later this week! Thanks everyone!

YouTube Channel Profile Series: skam705's Channel

It's now time for our last monthly feature post of the first half of 2021, namely this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This recurring feature looks at 1-3 YouTube channels that are randomly selected from our subscriptions, in order to promote them and their content for fans and potential subscribers, and to be considered for the series, all must have at least half of their content devoted to local metal, hard rock, and/or punk artists and/or concerts. This month's selection is a doozy, but an extensive doozy for local punk music & extreme sports fans, so here's what you should know!

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skam705's channel (http://youtube.com/skam705)

Owner: 705 Video Magazine founder Fred Kember

Channel Timeline: Launched on August 31st, 2006; Videos posted from the beginning of 2007 until July 1st, 2011

Channel Summary: The official YouTube channel for local concert/extreme sports video diary series The 705 Video Magazine, it features a whopping 122 videos uploaded over a 4½ year period, mostly devoted to live punk & alternative concert footage filmed both locally and in Southern Ontario. Local bands like DDPBB, Downshift, Fuller, The Hangdowns, and Strictly Classified can be seen here, among many others. The majority of the other videos relate to outdoor sports, but local music can be found as backing music, and some other related content was uploaded here, like interviews and B-roll involving familiar acts.
 
Why You Should Watch: If you are at all interested in the local punk scene from the 2000s, the (VII/O/V) channel is absolutely a must watch, capturing dozens of videos from local concerts of the era, even including archival videos that weren't newly shot at the time, though it is daunting to go through all of these unless you were a diehard contemporary concertgoer. Fred deserves all the kudos in the world for the work he put in with his camera during the 705VM heyday, including via the sports videos, and while they haven't put out a new volume since #5 in 2011, visit their Facebook page for new content! Note that this channel does include videos from a number of Toronto-area events (look for videos mentioning 102.1 The Edge or SceneFest, for example), and be advised that no new standalone concert videos were uploaded after the spring of 2009, though clips and backing music from Soo talent were still used in conjunction with sports footage.

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Guttermouth; Cram It Up Your Ass: Easily the most popular local concert (by views) on skam705's channel is when infamous California punk quartet Guttermouth headlined at the former Canadian Nightclub back in 2005, though the videos weren't uploaded there until 2007. Fred uploaded eleven videos from their set, plus a pre-show interview with Guttermouth, and a video of a fan sharing a beer with frontman Mark Atkins, but did not post any of openers Pulley or The Inner City Surfers. I'm not going to get into Guttermouth's divisive lyrics & viewpoints here, but fans are definitely into their lively skate punk sound in these clips, both via original songs & select covers, and while the camera quality hasn't aged well in 16 years, this is suitably raw for a classic punk show! All thirteen Guttermouth videos are easily viewable through the above links, though "Cram It Up Your Ass" is the channel's only video so far to have been viewed over 10,000 times.

 

Don't Talk: No local band was filmed more for the (VII/O/V) channel than 2000s punk cover supergroup Bin Hawdon & The Taliband, who star in 20 videos that Fred shot. With the exception of a Descendents cover at The Oddfellows Hall, these videos all come from their set at the former Foggy Notions (now Coch's Corner) in December 2006, and you can see Mikey, Lucas, Mark, and Aaron covering everyone from The Misfits and NOFX to Operation Ivy and fellow locals The Hangdowns, with their rendition of GG Allin's "Don't Talk To Me" featured here. The quality of these videos is similarly limited in hindsight, not helped by dark lighting, but Bin Hawdon & The Taliband's eclectic setlist, on-stage attire, and sensibilities are on full display across all of these videos, and if you want to see a largely complete set of theirs, skam705 had you covered!

 

 

(705)VM Volume 5 - Nebraska Arms: One of the more obviously local music-related videos from the lead-up to volume 5 of the 705 Video Magazine is this video featuring defunct local indie punk quartet Nebraska Arms playing their original song "I Was A Runner" at The Grand Theatre when they opened for SNFU & EndProgram here in May 2009, though the video proper didn't go up until July 2011, about a year after Nebraska Arms fell inactive. Filmed from a corner angle from The Grand Theatre's balcony, the video feed alternates between the band proper and footage of Josh Kunanec & Jake Trumble snowboarding and skiing. Fitting soundtrack, and Guy (R.I.P.), Wayne, Dave, and Adam sound strong and up-tempo on this familiar original performance! Just a shame that there weren't more fans on the floor. Numerous videos of both SNFU & EndProgram's sets can be seen on this channel as well, but Nepean punk band Snatchback and fellow local openers The Scary Uncles & Operation: Killdozer are nowhere to be found.

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I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! Next month in this series, our random selection has given us the channel of YouTube user RezThrasher, featuring 8 videos from defunct local hard rock quartet Garden of Bedlam, so look for that on or around July 26th, and stay tuned for a new news post of some kind by Monday! Thanks everyone!