LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Peril And Rhythm & Brews), Plus The Last Of This Year's Rotaryfest Videos!!

Two topic post on this sunny Saturday, which is split in two via the last of the known videos from a major annual concert festival in Sault Ontario, and first, LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (one on SHORT NOTICE with related apology) for Sault Michigan and area. Here's what you should know!

Local hard rock quartet Rhythm & Brews are playing at The Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino TONIGHT, after previously playing there last night! I profusely apologize for the short notice and for missing yesterday's show in our weekend concert previews to date, as while the band has not plugged them on their Facebook page, they were listed via Kewadin's entertainment page for the St. Ignace branch as part of their August dates there. Between how busy the SMS has been this summer and the band's lack of promotion, this weekend fell through the cracks, so I apologize again, and hopefully last night's show was a hit! Notably, this weekend's shows mark Rhythm & Brews' first dates since the passing of guitarist Chris Hubbard's father (and ex-Splitshot/415E bandmate) Tony two weeks ago, and our continued thoughts are with Chris & his family at this difficult time. Hopefully rocking out on stage with friends all around helps a bit!

Rhythm & Brews were last seen three weeks ago at The Rapids Lounge in the Soo, shows that entirely slipped us by for coverage on the SMS, but alas, this band isn't known for plugging all of their shows on Facebook, let alone posting videos from their gigs (you have to be there, I guess!) They last knowingly played in St. Ignace back in March. TONIGHT (and yesterday's) shows are/were 21+ affairs with 9:00 PM start times and no cover charges, and hopefully TONIGHT'S show goes as well as last night's surely did. Apologies again, hopefully we'll be right on top of the next ones!

Next up, Traverse City, Michigan classic metal trio Peril have announced their next two Kewadin Casino concert weekends in the Eastern Upper Peninsula, as per this concert calendar for their August and September gigs that was shared onto their Facebook page last month! Their sister bands Scarkazm and Project 6 (no relation) are also addressed here, but Scarkazm are not scheduled to return to our area until November, and Project 6 rarely play concerts north of the Mackinac Bridge. Peril's next E.U.P. stops will come in two weeks when they rock the aforementioned Northern Pines Lounge at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino on Friday, August 18th & Saturday, August 19th, before heading north to The Rapids Lounge at the Sault Ste. Marie Kewadin Casino on Friday, September 15th & Saturday, September 16th. Fans of Jeff and crew's classic metal and hard rock covers won't want to miss out on these dates!

Kewadin's entertainment pages linked above only address August shows at press time, so stay tuned later in the month for the likely official confirmation of Peril's Soo shows next month (and more). Like with Rhythm & Brews TONIGHT (and last night, apologies again), these are 9:00 PM affairs with 21+ age limits and no cover charges. Visit the above links for more details on these and other upcoming Peril shows in Northern Michigan!

Now, let's finally close out our Rotaryfest fallout today, as I've stretched things into another month, so better wrap it up while July is still somewhat in the rear view mirror! Firstly, I slightly jumped the gun when noting last time that Sault Ontario classic/hard rock cover quintet That's Chester's complete festival-closing reunion set on Stage 1 on the Saturday was uploaded in video form to their Facebook page. Drummer Ric Datson said that they played 16 songs, and that is the amount uploaded as of the end of July, seemingly ending with a three song encore of two April Wine covers followed by ZZ Top's "La Grange". However, as they were getting ready to leave, fan response actually led to a real encore, for which they did Trooper's "Raise A Little Hell". I don't know this if this was the uncounted song or not... perhaps he skipped "La Grange" as it was unrehearsed?

In any event, this cover is well handled by this veteran five-some! While ostensibly a one-off reunion (That's Chester have only played live thrice since Eugene Orlando died in 2015, all at Rotaryfest), nothing I have seen or heard has implied that this was a farewell set, so hopefully this isn't the absolute last time that we see them on stage. Check out their Trooper cover below, and watch their entire Rotaryfest 2023 set across multiple cameras on their Facebook page linked above!

The last known public videos from Rotaryfest 2023 (as of this writing) come from the Friday Night Blues program on Stage 2 by the Art Gallery of Algoma from July 14th. The Sault Blues Society live-streamed 2+ minute-long videos of all five acts for their Facebook page that day, where you can see Rusty McCarthy play his original song "Detroit City", The Steeltown Playboys covering Son House's "Walkin' Blues", reunited prog/blues rock trio The Hyperion Effect playing a song named (I think) "Mustang Woman", Bill Priddle's indie rock cover band All The Tired Horses covering Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Candy", and Smokehouse playing an apparent original song, possibly named "Walk In The Light". All are well shot from a good angle on the grass, and while it'd have been nice to see more fans up front (let alone seeing/hearing each song in full), the clear video and audio quality across the board is nice!

Hyperion Effect frontman Keith Conway also uploaded a video from their set to his solo Facebook page, which features his ending guitar solo from their cover of Gary Clark Jr.'s "When My Train Pulls In", but the video is quite blurry. Nothing hard rock or metal to take in from what was knowingly filmed on the Second Stage on the Friday, but there's a lot of talent and familiar faces from that day, so definitely check them out if you are so inclined at the above links, and look for more news and notes on the site next week! Thanks everyone!