Rotaryfest 2023 Fallout & Videos (Part 2)!!

Let's continue our fallout from this year's Rotaryfest in today's post, and with public videos and coverage of the two closing bands on Stage 1 (so far) dealt with yesterday, we'll start today with the third-to-last band on Saturday, namely classic rock veterans Mustang Heart! Their third straight and eighteenth overall appearance on Stage 1 (a record for the post-2000 festival format), these videos come courtesy of keyboardist Vito Tassone's solo Facebook page, which he uses to plug Mustang Heart and his own adult contemporary solo music. Five public videos of their set can be seen here, three being shared from relative Connie Tassone Mazzuca's personal Facebook page, where she (vertically) filmed covers of Honeymoon Suite's "What Does It Take", Journey's "Stone In Love", and Styx's "Babe". These aren't badly shot, and the audio holds up, but the vertical angle from this far away isn't ideal.

Vito's other two videos are posted directly to his page, and were filmed by an uncredited attendee from a closer, more central vantage point (and shot horizontally!), with the covers being of "What Does It Take" again and, as embedded below, Mustang Heart's apparent set opening cover of Van Halen's "Jump" (complete with the "1984" instrumental beforehand), which features guitarist Lorenzo Fabbri on lead vocals. While not as hard rock-focused as some of their local cohorts, Mustang Heart deliver a fun time when they take the local stage, and there's a reason why they've only missed Rotaryfest once since 2004, so classic rock fans will enjoy their lively covers linked above & below!

 

Right before Mustang Heart's set on Saturday evening, fans saw the Stage 1 debut of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations, but while we're on the subject, we have two news items to note from them. Firstly, you may recall that they also played at Jay's Piston Broke Pub on Friday in a one-nighter, but the entire band wasn't idle on Saturday night. Instead, their predecessors Jus' Chillin returned to play that night in their first show since February! This implies that singer Valerie Powley was unavailable for one reason or another that night, so the guys decided to make due and bring their old guise back for a one-off (Tex Riviera from local country cover veterans The Ride was credited as a guest musician for this show too). Hopefully that went well for all involved! Remember, Jus' Chillin were not a hard rock-focused band, Generations (who took over their Facebook group) developed more of that since adding Valerie.

The other big news is that Generations have parted ways with guitarist Brandon Ruch, as announced by drummer Tony Santoro on their Facebook group on Monday. Brandon's exit is 100% amicable and was prompted by "a busy summer schedule and prior commitments", but Tony praised Brandon's work with Generations and noted that he hoped to jam with him again in the future. Brandon had been Jus' Chillin's final guitarist in their last concerts earlier this year, but had sat out Generations gigs in the past, as seen above with Smokehouse's Michael Yurich filling in on guitar at The Esquire Club in April. Michael did the same at Rotaryfest on Saturday (I'm unsure about the Jay's show on Friday), and you can see him with Generations on Stage 1 via three videos shared to their Facebook group courtesy of attendee Angela Wilcott's personal Facebook page!

Her videos include this song with Michael on vocals (I couldn't match the lyrics to anything... maybe it's an original of his?), Miley Cyrus' "Flowers" with Valerie on vocals, and as embedded below, The Tragically Hip's "Blow At High Dough" with bassist Pierre Anthony on vocals. Angela had a nice and close spot to capture Generations and Michael rocking out, and everyone performs strongly, though I'd never have expected to see Valerie sing Miley Cyrus. Give these a watch above & below, and look for a late notice show from Generations in this weekend's concert previews!

 

The only other public videos that I know of from Saturday's Stage 1 program are from party rock cover quintet Encore's lead-off set, and you can head to their Facebook page to see their covers of Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" and The 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up" (an oddly popular cover choice among local bands). Nothing heavy here, but Encore (featuring ex-Tripod The Dog bassist John Amendola and ex-Obsession drummer Rich Trevisanut) have loads of talent in their ranks! Dipping back to night #2 on Stage 1 on Friday, newer local classic rock cover band The Way Backs posted two videos on their Facebook page of them covering Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and the spiritual song "Down By The Riverside". Definite change of pace, but seeing as this band originated from the local production of the musical Million Dollar Quartet, you know that it wouldn't be quite on par with other bands that day.

 

We'll close by noting that the uncredited Sault Star photographer got pictures of both Stage 1 band Bookclub and Stage 2 headliner Rusty McCarthy on Friday that you can check out at this link. Solid shots as usual, but it is still kinda odd seeing members of The Inner City Surfers on the main stage (not because they don't deserve it, just for its long-time covers focus). We'll have more from Rotaryfest in the days ahead, but stay tuned for a non-Rotaryfest news post next! Thanks everyone!