LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Rotaryfest Stage 2!!)

After a pandemic-induced two year hiatus, Rotaryfest's Stage 2 will return in 2022, so what should you know about its comeback? Of course, Stage 2-amenable acts were condensed into the 2020 virtual lineup and 2021's drive-in stage at Lowe's Plaza, but it is great to see the full Second Stage back for its fifteenth installment since debuting at Rotaryfest in 2005! If you're familiar with the Stage 2 format after it returned from its 2014 hiatus, it'll mostly be back to business as usual from the mid-late 2010s, with the Second Stage (which they used for the bands at Lowe's Plaza last year) back at its regular Clergue Park location beside The Art Gallery of Algoma. However, for just the second time since the 2015 Stage 2 relaunch, there will be multiple days of music, with the usual Saturday bill joined by a smaller band lineup on Friday, July 15th. Thirteen local acts are scheduled for 2022, so here's what you should know on them!

In a nod to the original Second Stage from 2005-2013, July 15th will be themed "Friday Night Blues", as sponsored by the Sault Blues Society, and while there's no hard rock acts that night, the lineup will pique the interest of genre fans and Stage 2 followers! It will be headlined by accomplished local musician Rusty McCarthy and his backing band at 8:30 PM in Rusty's first solo set on the Second Stage since 2013 and third total, with local blues rock quartet Smokehouse making their Stage 2 debut at 7:30 PM. Blues/folk quartet and four time Second Stage veterans Big Wheel & The Spokes will reunite with some barley soup for the funky-ass soul at 6:30 PM, in their first Stage 2 set since 2011, while online page-less acoustic blues trio The Swamp Cats (featuring Bone Yard's Warren Reville) will play Rotaryfest for the first time as the 5:30 PM openers. As usual, the Friday music is FREE & ALL AGES!

Also, the Sault Blues Society will be taking membership registrations for $25 if this interests you. Blues fans will definitely want to head down to Clergue Park for this solidly talented lineup in just under two weeks' time, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details! As for the Saturday, July 16th lineup, this is basically the continuation of Stage 2 as we knew it from 2015-2019, with an original music-focused lineup of youth-leaning bands, typically leaning to folk and indie genres, but some punk and hard rock stylings are incorporated as usual. Of course, a lot has changed since 2019, pandemic-related or otherwise, so seven of the nine Saturday acts are debuting on Stage 2 this year! Who all can you expect?

The headline act at 8:30 PM is local indie/punk quintet The Northwest in their third Stage 2 set (and first as The Northwest), following support appearances in 2017 & 2019. Still riding high from the release of "All In", this will arguably be their biggest local date of the year, so don't miss out on their skilled original material! Young local classic hard rock quartet The Uncanny Valley (who played on the condensed Stage 1 last year at Lowe's Plaza) will make their official Stage 2 debut at 7:30 PM, while instrumental surf rock trio The Dynowaves will give some seasonally appropriate jams at 6:30 PM. Alternative/punk quartet Handsome Sandwich will precede them with their own varied and hard-to-pinpoint original attack at 5:30 PM, with DJ Seith's hip hop duo project Planet Rock returning for their second Stage 2 set at 4:30 PM, having kicked off the 2019 bill. The remaining Stage 2 newcomers include new local indie rock band The Hollow Heads at 3:30 PM.

I know very little about The Hollow Heads beyond their bio on the Facebook event page, but singer Gabrielle Dumas took part in the Clusterfolk Music Festival's music video series, and the members seem to be around their early 20s. Big platform to launch in front of an audience, hopefully things go well! Fellow Clusterfolk alumni Jupiter Marvelous will bring their pop rock stylings to Stage 2 at 2:30 PM, while another performer at the Clusterfolk concert (but not the videos/album) will precede them at 1:30 PM, namely indie/folk duo Sainte Marie. Punk/alt rock quintet These Magnificent Tentacles will open the day's music at 12:30 PM with their own building profile, and given their experienced lineup, they'll kick things off with a bang! Again, Saturday's Stage 2 music is FREE and ALL AGES, and this all goes down concurrently with Stage 1 closer to the library, so you can easily hop back & forth to see everything if you're so inclined!

Fans of the last five Stage 2s, as well as Clusterfolk and recent Dryer Fire events, will be right at home with the Saturday lineup in two weeks time, and there's a lot of newer talent and established names to take in that day, not to mention with Blues Night the previous evening, so visit the above links for complete details on the return of the Second Stage! That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post on the site next! Thanks everyone!