Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Rotaryfest 2024 Fallout & Videos (Part 2!!)

A few days after our first Rotaryfest recap post, here's our second post featuring videos and news coverage from the Sault's Summer Festival! For the known public videos and articles about Stage 1 on Thursday and Mike Haggith's Friday set, click here for our initial post. The Sault Star was present for Friday bands on both Stages 1 and 2 at Clergue Park, and while the photographer wasn't credited, you can see shots from The Luxury and The Rhythm Sections's Stage 1 sets, plus That There Blues Band's set on Stage 2 at this link. The next known public videos from the Friday bands on Stage 1 come from the Rotaryfest debut of local classic rock duo Frankly Speaking, but this wasn't just a normal set of theirs. Festival promotion never even addressed them under the Frankly Speaking name, rather as "Frank & Frank" or "Frankeeproductions", presumably because this was their special themed set known as "Rock On To The Sound Of Change".

In this performance (which is also done for other community events), singer/guitarist Frank Gioia and keyboardist/accordionist Frank Greco paid tribute to rock n' roll history while emphasizing the original musicians' social impact. A 7 minute video featuring highlights of Frankly Speaking's set was shared to the Frankeeproductions YouTube channel, capturing portions of 13 songs (likely every one played that day), but as each clip only runs for an average of 33 seconds, it'd be a lot of text trying to link to each individual portion when you can easily scan the video timeline on YouTube and see the post-production titles thusly. The set did end with two Elton John and Beatles covers each, while hard rock fans will want to see how Frank & Frank handled Rush's "Closer To The Heart" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". Note that there are some typos in the titles, like how the Coldplay song is labelled "Ticking Clocks" (it's just called "Clocks").

I wouldn't have put this video in such a washed out post-production filter, but I gather that the Franks were aiming to have the highlight video look old fashioned given the themes. These minimalist covers are performed with zest and enthusiasm, and the stationary camera is zoomed in tight on the guys so we get a good side view of Frankly Speaking in action, though if you like seeing more of the stage/audience, this may not be ideal for you. Strong stuff, even if I'd rather see full songs in full colour, so check out "Rock On To The Sound Of Change" below!

Friday's other known public videos are of new local funk/pop rock cover quintet The Rhythm Junction, who are basically the side project of Stage 2 band The Eight Seventies, only with Jason Gasparetto swapped out for singer Marisa Valois-Christie and her brother Jacob Valois (as also seen on Stage 2 with his solo jazz band). On their Facebook page, The Rhythm Junction uploaded a video of them covering Blondie's "Call Me", while videos filmed by attendee Aidan Valois (no doubt family) of them covering Haddaway's "What Is Love?" and The Killers' "Mr. Brightside" were also shared there. Alas, all three are vertical, but The Rhythm Junction are talented, and Marisa's smooth voice carries them well, so give them a watch above, and see more from them on Facebook! Now, we'll head to the final day's music on Saturday, July 20th, so what is public from then?

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9's Stage 1 debut set did get some official video footage courtesy of their Facebook page, where you can see their set-ending cover of Guns N' Roses' "Welcome To The Jungle"! Two problems though: It's a "Reel", so I can't embed it here, and it's one of those "Reels", where a normal landscape horizontal video is pillarboxed into the vertical dimensions, rather than cropped to fit, so it's tiny. It's a strong performance with good energy from Jess, but I may never understand why so many Facebook users intentionally limit their videos by making them "Reels". Later on the Saturday program, local country band The Way Backs (featuring two Rhythm Junction members in their ranks) performed on Stage 1, and while not a formal live video, you can see photos from their set in this Facebook upload! It's set to The Highwaymen's "Live Forever", and it does look like everyone had a good time!

Lastly for this post, Sound Of Sting frontman Mike Ferfolia was interviewed by The Sault Star's Brian Kelly in advance of the Toronto-based Police/Sting tribute band's featured Saturday night set, and it's a good interview that explores his musical career and Sting's influence on him, so read the whole thing at this link! Unless belated new media comes out, our last Stage 1 content will be of the final band on Saturday night (which wasn't Sound Of Sting), and we do have some Stage 2 videos and such to look at also, so stay tuned for all of that next month! Thanks everyone!

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