Details On Mike Haggith's Full Concert Video From The Northern Vibe Festival!!

As you'll likely recall, local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith's set as the very first act at Rotaryfest's Stage 1 last month was memorable for all the wrong reasons, after Mike severely dislocated his right knee late in the second song of his set in a freak accident. He and his band managed to play one more while he laid on his back surrounded by medical personnel before he was taken to Sault Area Hospital. While the incident garnered Mike lots of unexpected publicity, it wasn't the show that he and the guys had worked so long to perfect, especially as the Rotaryfest set was the launch party for his new album "All The Best In All You Do". Mike had already committed to heading to Ophir for this past weekend's Northern Vibe Festival well before Rotaryfest, and despite his injury, he and the band did indeed make the hour's drive east into the forest for this set. How did that go?

Good enough that Mike filmed the entire set on Saturday for his YouTube channel! This dropped last night as a scheduled post, though he originally planned to live-stream it if he could get data service on Poplardale Road (apparently, he could not). Notably, Mike had suggested that he'd be playing most (if not all) of his Northern Vibe set while seated due to the rehab on his knee, but he did in fact stand up for the entire set, if less animated than he usually is for full band gigs. I'm unsure if this set was verbatim supposed to be what Mike and the guys (Chris Nielsen, Jacob Quarrell, and Brandan Glew) played at Rotaryfest, but the same two songs started both sets, namely "All You Do" leading straight into "Hot & Cold", during which time nothing happened to anyone's knees! "I've Seen It Before" was not played next, rather a surprise cover of defunct local post punk quartet Gnaeus' song "Lovers".

Local bands covering local bands, you love to see it! That was followed by their version of Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City", which is one of five bonus tracks on Mike's new album that you can only get on the limited "Rose Edition" (sold in DVD cases) or via buying the mp3 copy on Bandcamp. That led straight into Mike's own "MorningStar", followed by a cover-ish of Mike & Brandan's old local band The Din's song "Missing". They next played Mike's newer solo song "Love Will Light The Way", which led straight into "I've Seen It Before", which ended their abbreviated Rotaryfest set. One more surprise 2010s local band cover was played next, as Mike and crew tackled indie/hard rock quartet Bizotic's song "Subway Delay", with two original songs capping the set, including "The Nature Of The Times" and "Twist Of Fate", with Mike putting down his acoustic guitar to just sing for the latter.

Notably, Brandan's ex-Re:Born bandmate Elly McWatters joined the guys on backing vocals for the final two songs, just one day before she won Shooters Downstairs Lounge's annual Talent Quest karaoke competition (congratulations to Elly on her victory!). It's hard to say if Mike's Northern Vibe set was exactly what he was going to play at Clergue Park last month before his knee went rogue, but despite the smaller turnout and hour's drive away, this does complete one hell of an unexpected redemption arc! I'd have zoomed the camera out a bit and/or uploaded it in 16:9 ratio, but everyone sounds good on this set with lots of surprise local covers for good measure! I have no clue how Mike's knee felt during this set (he did make a between-song reference to "hobbling around" on it), but if he isn't pain free by now, he sure persevered and used the on-stage adrenaline to not let it openly show to the crowd in Ophir.

While Mike's pre-Rotaryfest teasers of a live album of that set may have been curtailed (and I don't blame him if they were), this likely won't be the last that we see of his Northern Vibe set, as he revealed on his Facebook page that Justine Chalykoff of local filmmaking company Chalykoff Studios filmed "a proper full-length video" of his set. Justine has hit the ground running for band work since last year with work like Man Feelings' music video and multi-camera footage of Brian Tremblay's Rotaryfest Stage 2 set last month, and the quality here bodes well for Mike and crew! Give everything a watch above and below, and stay tuned for more from Mike soon, and weekend concert previews next! Thanks everyone!