LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Dos Amigos), Plus New Mike Haggith & Reeves Videos!!

Before we begin this news post, just a heads up that yesterday's Led By Zeppelin concert at The Sault Community Theatre Centre was cancelled due to "a medical emergency" from one of the band members, as per guitarist Rob Micoli on their Facebook group. The band hopes to reschedule and come back here soon, and I assume you'd contact the SCTC for refunds at point of purchase (no idea if they will honour tickets bought for yesterday's show at the makeup date). Very disappointing news, but hopefully the band member gets well soon! Now, here's some new videos and related news and notes, starting with a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!

Local acoustic punk duo Dos Amigos will make their debut at Paint & Decor Studios at 826 Queen Street East on TUESDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was first announced on the studio's Facebook page on September 1st, but a combination of this not being a typical local concert venue and Dos Amigos' own patchy-at-best social media promotion led me to only hear about it late last week. Band members did acknowledge it in Facebook "Stories", but it's not even on their Instagram page. Paint & Decor Studios (located at the former Mr. Sudz/Autoways building behind the Old Stone House) is a store first, but they have been ramping up their offerings since Benjamin Moore moved to the west end earlier this year, with craft nights & workshops, a cafe/bar, and other special events, one being a Taco Tuesday theme night. $18.98 reservations are required, but this includes tacos with custom toppings, and you can drink and paint too if so inclined.

The idea of including tunes with the tacos & good vibes feels very new, and a punk act isn't who my mind would do to first given the setting, but hopefully Mikey & Dustin continue their Wolf Fest (with BookcluB) momentum well on TUESDAY! This special event takes place at 5:30 PM at Paint & Decor Studios, and there is no stated age limit. It'll be interesting to see how this dip into the concert pool goes, but Dos Amigos' punk covers should be a good pair for a Taco TUESDAY! See above for more details, and here's the Amigos live!

Next up, local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith has posted a full multi-camera concert video from his and The Big Finish Band's Northern Vibe Festival set a couple weeks ago onto his YouTube channel! As he did in 2023 & 2024 (obviously not last year following the severe thunderstorm damage), Mike had multiple cameras set up to film the set from lots of angles, and then edited them together in post-production, but this time, he prefaced the 45 minutes-long set with an explanation of the technical difficulties that they ran into on Poplardale Road in Ophir on this Friday night. The set itself was already delayed a couple of hours due to power issues at the rebuilt Forest Stage, implying that they didn't begin their set until 10:00 PM (I don't know how else the sets were juggled otherwise, but they were initially the middle band before The Rhythm Junction and Sunday & The Broken Hearts at 10:00 & 9:00 PM). 

Mike acknowledged three big technical glitches during the off-the-grid festival, with the first one occurring following their first song, "The Best You Never Had", when their tuning pedals stopped working, leading to a four minute break between songs to get them working again. The gang resumed the set with covers of The Din's "Give Me A Reason" & "Missing", but at the end of Mike's own "Carousel", guitarist Chris Nielsen broke strings on his guitar, leading to technical issue #2. Mike's yet-to-be-recorded originals "I Really Hope This Gets To You" and "No Love" are next, but on the latter song, they lost power to the amplifiers for just over a minute (you can catch this at the 29:53 mark). Mike is not one to stop a song once it has begun, as anyone who saw him dislocate his knee at Rotaryfest in 2023 will be aware, so they kept going with an acapella vocal and drum performance, plus some amusing vocal harmonizing to replace the guitar between verses.

A fun way to keep thing going in spite of one more glitch, and props to Mike and crew for keeping things rolling in spite of everything in the bush last month! The set concluded with "Hot & Cold", "An Act Of Strength", and "MorningStar". The footage used includes full-set video of the whole stage (zoomed in late), a drumcam video of Brandan Glew, and some mobile footage of songs from midway through the set courtesy of Riverside Stasis/ex-Jack Spades bassist Rob Speers. Oddly, the colours are very washed out for the main video but often too deep for the drumcam, but the audio quality and editing are excellent, and it's great to see Mike & crew in good spirits on the big stage again, so watch the whole Northern Vibe set below!

Finally for today, here's the latest from newer local hard rock quartet The Reeves' Facebook page! The guys are fresh off of "our 2nd show" (again ignoring Toystock last year) at The Art Hub At Spring last week, and they posted a bunch of photos from the event to Facebook, as well as a video that was quickly deleted for unannounced reasons. No word on if it will resurface, but we do still have a video to share. Before their actual second concert (at Rotaryfest), the program had teased that their Stage 2 set would have songs from their planned 8-song debut album, and while they haven't firmly confirmed those plans on social media, they "started cooking up our first batch of songs" on Tuesday at The Loft at The Algoma Conservatory of Music. Interestingly, they were recording the new music with aforementioned Dos Amigos singer/guitarist Dustin Jones alongside Frank Deresti.

I say "interestingly" because they weren't at Dustin's own Mission Control Studios. A case of using the most professional location with the best producers, or will this only be for the vocal recording? In any event, a 25 seconds-long vertical video was uploaded featuring (I believe) guitarist Steve Edwards tracking vocals with Dustin at the controls. It's way too soon to be commenting on the song in progress, but it's good to see The Reeves quickly working in studio, so give this new video a watch below!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS this week! Thanks everyone!

Downtown Street Party #3 Info, New Live Concert Videos, And More!!

I hope everyone's Labour Day long weekend is starting on the right foot! Today on the SMS, we have new live videos from three different acts plus some related updates, but first, here's early info on what to expect for a downtown concert event later this month!

Initial details on the third and final Downtown Street Party for Queen Street East in 2026 have been announced via You Belong SSM's Facebook page! We already knew that it would take place on Thursday, September 17th on a closed section at the western end of Queen East from Dennis Street to Gore Street (bus terminal onward), and things will likely be similar in scope to street party #1 from June, as there's no doubling up due to forest fire smoke cancellations. Expect family entertainment, a kids zone, a vendor market at Queen & Tancred, businesses open along the way, beverage gardens, and much more, and the likely cooler temperatures will appeal to many as well! Live music will return, but unlike the last two parties, organizers have yet to make a distinction on where specific artists are playing, other than saying that there will be two stages, one per block. Local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith is the only SMS-amenable act confirmed here.

Mike (presumably with his Big Finish Band) will be joined somewhere that day by country singer/guitarists Brian Tremblay and Jeffrey Wright, jazz group The Hustle Brothers, Dustcovers frontman "Just" Tom Peer (who played with Mike & crew on The Canopy last month), "and more". I'm not calling this as a concert yet, as I don't have a firm location for where everyone is performing, but keep things in mind over the next couple of weeks! For the record, no artists announced for this party were scheduled for the cancelled July party, so that musical lineup was sadly a complete wash. Visit the above links for current details on the last street party!

Next up, here's some recent live concert videos, starting with a video of Toronto-based Kiss tribute band Destroyer's headlining concert at the first annual Prince Fest last week! This was filmed by Mike Blair of 705Live Sound Co., who were running sound for the festival outside of DeMarco's Boots & Saddles Roadhouse in Prince Township that night. The not-quite 1 minute long video sees Destroyer playing the Kiss classic "Rock & Roll All Nite" with an uncredited special guest helping on vocals. A comment on the Facebook upload suggests that he could be named Frank but I can't confirm anything beyond that. How Frank(?) got to sing on stage, I don't know, but it's a solid cover for what we do hear! I wouldn't have done the "pan from the soundboard to the stage" thing that Mike likes doing though, as it gave too much away about crowd levels in the field. Give 705Live's Destroyer video a watch for yourselves below!

Also today, here's the latest updates from local alt-hard rock band Riverside Stasis, who may be remaining a quartet following Liam Dinsmore's departure, as their Facebook page's description now calls them "a a four piece indie, blues/pop rock band". We'll let you know if they add a new second guitarist though! The Handsome Sandwich/HeadFirst successors announced via this vertical video from The Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir that they now have official t-shirts on sale, and you can see the band opening the box of shirts to sell for the first time there. No word on if using The Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" as backing music was a hint to anything, but the black shirts feature the band's new logo in white. Given where the river flows in the logo, it does look like "Riverside Stassis" to me, but buy yours at their next shows! The band has also confirmed last month's venue announcement that they'll be opening for The Lazys at Blaster Powerhouse on October 9th!

This adds to what should be a fun night of varied hard rock stylings next month, and The Lazys are very much a known commodity on Canadian rock radio, so click here for more on this concert! Lastly from Tea and the guys, they uploaded their first ever live concert video onto their new YouTube channel on Wednesday, which sees them playing their new original song "Run" at Northern Vibe. Filmed by the aforementioned Mike Haggith, he moved around a lot to get lots of distinct and close angles of Riverside Stasis from all angles on the Forest Stage. Chorus is slightly repetitive, but this is a harder rocker than "The Fool" was, and a really strong video of the full song, so check it out below, and stay tuned for more from Riverside Stasis!

Finally for today, this is a new live video that I considered using for recent concert previews, but seeing as the venue that uploaded it opted to include hard-coded captions in post-production to promote concerts that only happen there, I opted to just share it in a normal post. As you may recall, classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison played two solo headlining acoustic gigs at The Up & Down Lounge on Second Line West a month ago, and for gig #1 on July 31st, the bar/indoor golf lounge's Facebook page shared this video of Tym covering Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?". Like with the Destroyer video above, this doesn't quite hit 1:00 in length, but the biggest issue is that it's way too zoomed out, complicated by Tym sitting as usual for his solo dates. If you zoomed in to focus on Tym and not the lounge interior, you could even completely crop out the unnecessary caption!

Video choices that I wouldn't have made aside, Tym does well with this CCR classic, so fans of his solo unplugged concerts will appreciate it! The Up & Down Lounge have been cagey at best when plugging who has played at their recent Thursday evening concerts, but we'll let you know if hard rock shows get firmly announced there, and give Tym's promotional video from last month a watch for yourselves below! 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS next month! Thanks everyone!

A Newly Discovered Mike Haggith Performance Video, ASDP Updates, And More!!

Before we begin this post, I wanted to apologize for a missed concert in our weekend concert previews, as local classic/hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison played at the Fraternal Order of Eagles Club's summer barbecue party/open house yesterday. Click here for details on the all ages festivities. It's been a while since Tym has played a regular nighttime show at Aerie #3991, and while he didn't plug his involvement on his solo project's Facebook group, I do apologize for missing what looked like a fun event! I'd have covered it had I known! Now, here's some new videos and related updates from three acts who played at a major concert festival this weekend!

While we await the teased full-set video from his Northern Vibe Festival return yesterday, local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith has a new long-form video to check out, but not from his own channels. When I was getting the link for his 2024 Northern Vibe video for our festival preview post last week, I stumbled across a 30+ minute acoustic set that he recorded for Underscored Sound, a acoustic performance-based webseries that records VH1 Storytellers-style sets from artists at the Canadian Musicians Co-operative headquarters in Barrie, in association with LiveBarrie and Alex Ciprian Media. Artists pay to appear and receive high quality copies of their sets in multiple formats. Mike was the 10th performer in season 1 of this series back in August 2024, with all five songs later being uploaded as separate videos (plus some vertical "Shorts") to the Underscored YouTube channel if you're so inclined.

I don't recall Mike mentioning his Underscored appearance at all, possibly because it was aimed towards Barrie and Southern Ontario at a time when we were focused on Northern Vibe and summer concerts here, but better late than never! The performance begins with Mike introducing himself and setting up his backstory, before introducing his first song "MorningStar" from 2020's "If Ever Comes The Day". He follows that up by tackling "Of Cars & Criminals" from 2015's "The Warinside", which is mildly surprising as it A. predates his modern Thompson/Barrie output, and B. was cut from The Din's live album "Technically Live" two+ years prior. Mike then reflects on his personal life and how it influenced his next song, "Back Away Slowly" (also from "If Ever Comes The Day"), followed by the title track of his 2021 album "Bridges". This acoustic showcase ends with "Brand New Day" from his not-yet-released 2025 album "Frequent Flyer".

The reason why there's only five songs is also why I compared it to VH1 Storytellers and not MTV Unplugged, as Mike outlines the personal inspiration and stories behind each song performed here, and Mike is candid about his life and the events that informed his music! The Soo does come up for the first few introductions. There's no interviewer or host, just Mike talking to the viewer, and the audio and video quality is excellent, including three different stationary camera angles. Really good stuff, even two years late, so fans of Mike's acoustic work will want to check out his Underscored set below!

Next up, we do have a public video to share from the Northern Vibe Festival in nearby Ophir this weekend! I'm expecting more in due course, especially with many musicians only coming back on the grid from the Poplardale Road bush today, but the festival went off without any weather-related glitches, and thank goodness for that! A festival representative filmed this video of Timmins pop punk band Saving Bambi covering Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' "Bad Reputation" on the rebuilt Forest Stage for their Facebook page. Alas, it's 39 seconds long and vertical (why accentuate the lawn like this when you can flip the phone sideways?), and this cover may be a slightly obvious pick for an all-female punk band, but what we do hear is lively and well performed, and it's great to see the Forest Stage looking refurbished and strong after the 2025 storm. Give Saving Bambi's video a watch below, and stay tuned for more from the festival when it goes live!

Finally, here's some updates from the subject of this month's album review from this morning (and another Northern Vibe act), local ska punk quartet ASDP! Apologies for only mentioning these after the fact (out of town or not), but checking Instagram is still not second nature for me, and the band still doesn't have Facebook. Last week, Mikhal, Tucker, William, and Ralph took their first ever road trip for shows out west, when they headlined at Shooters Bar in Kenora on August 21st, before heading to Winnipeg to play at the Sargent Skate Jam at the Sargent Skatepark the next day. Click here for more info and the posters of both concerts. As far as I can tell, an AI-generated skateboarding amplifier did not headline the Skate Jam, but it did feature Winnipeg punk quartet Shit Happens, who you may recall from headlining at the still-closed Distraction in March 2024. I do apologize again for not mentioning these at the time, but I hope the gigs went well, especially given the 12+ hour drive to Kenora alone!

A public video from their westward trip has surfaced though, but not from the band proper. 90 minutes east of Kenora, the guys stopped in Dryden, where they met the Christian musician Mr. World Peace at a 7-Eleven there (the idea of Northern Ontario having 7-Elevens still surprises me). The short & vertical video sees him and ASDP members doing a "World! Peace!" call & response in the parking lot. Kudos to both Mr. World Peace and ASDP for giving each other some exposure, so check this clip out below, and stay tuned for more from ASDP on the SMS likely next month!

That's all for now, but will we have one more post before August is done? Stay tuned either way, and thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Northern Vibe Festival XI!!)

The full daily lineup for the band-centric Forest Stage at the eleventh annual Northern Vibe Festival was finally announced on their Facebook page this past Friday, so here's two big LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS! Apologies for the short notice, Northern Vibe routinely announces the full schedules on short notice, though at least they do it now, unlike in the early 2020s (note that the EDM/DJ-centric Roost River Stage lineups had not been posted at press time). After five years curated by former Frightlight/Jack Spades frontman J.D. Pearce, the curator baton of the Ophir-based concert festival was passed to Golden Scoundrels/ex-Shit Liver frontman Josh Penno, and luckily, the weather gods appear to be welcoming him, as the forecast looks much better this weekend than it did last year, when a severe thunderstorm wrecked the Forest Stage overnight, rendering it unusable on the Saturday and forcing a number of band dropouts.

The Forest Stage has been rebuilt, and organizers, staff, and vendors are ready, with Josh cobbling together a whopping sixteen acts this weekend, which is the most ever for a Forest Stage lineup post-pandemic (and no one has dropped out!). With all of that said, who all is rocking Poplardale Road at the old Hempfest stomping grounds this weekend?

Starting with TOMORROW'S shorter band lineup, the 10:00 PM headlining slot (in a mild surprise) will go to local funk rock cover quartet The Rhythm Junction, with their set following the annual fire lighting ceremony at 9:45 PM. Newer blues rock cover quintet Sunday & The Broken Hearts will co-headline at 9:00 PM, while tomorrow's only returning act plays at 8:00 PM, namely local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith (presumably alongside The Big Finish Band). Mike and crew have played each of the last three Northern Vibes, but they were among the acts who salvaged a set on plywood after the Forest Stage's destruction last year, so it will be good to see Mike's hard rocking originals back on the stage proper! Local blues singer/guitarist (and mayoral candidate!) Josh "The Preacher" McNally will take the stage alongside his Jackleg Band at 7:00 PM, while alternative hard rock band Riverside Stasis will open the festival at 6:00 PM.

Featuring members of HeadFirst and The Barbarians from last year's Northern Vibe, they're used to kicking off a local summer concert festival this year, having also done so at WestFest, and while Raine & Anthony got their set in before the storm really wreaked havoc, Tea and Rob will like being back on The Forest Stage proper! We'll detail admission specifics at post's end, but 9&10 News is calling for 13-20° temperatures and clear skies throughout the band program TOMORROW, and if you're arriving at the festival grounds early, the nice conditions will be present all day. Visit the above links for more on the Friday bill, and here's Mike Haggith & the gang live at Northern Vibe two years ago! You can guess why they didn't film last year's set.

Now to the larger SATURDAY lineup, and after splitting some touring acts on both days last time, this year's four touring acts are all backloaded on this day's bill, so hopefully the forecast holds up! Headlining at 10:00 PM is Flint, Michigan ska punk band The Write-Ups (the first American band to play at Northern Vibe), with this being their second local gig in a four month span. Things clearly went well at The Speak Easy for them to get a callback so soon, so don't miss out if you love ska punk original action! Josh Penno's own folk/country quartet The Golden Scoundrels will co-headline at 9:00 PM in their third straight year at Northern Vibe, with country singer/guitarist and former Way Backs frontman Jeffrey Wright kicking off the country nighttime block at 8:00 PM. All-female Timmins pop punk quartet Saving Bambi will make their local concert debut in Ophir on SATURDAY at 7:00 PM.

Newer Sudbury hard rock quartet Pressure Event will play our neck of the woods for the first time at 6:00 PM, preceded by local ska punk quartet ASDP (whose debut album will be reviewed on the SMS by Monday!) at 5:00 PM. Rappers take the Forest Stage for the two sets prior, including Sudbury MC Ronin705 (a late replacement artist at Northern Vibe in 2021) at 4:00 PM and local rap collective Soundsxvad at 3:00 PM, with the merger of Sound Syndrome and Fvcksxvad returning after playing the Friday bill last year. Like last year, there is a "bingo break" slotted in the SATURDAY afternoon (I don't know if last year's happened in spite of the Forest Stage damage or not), but this is dependent on volunteer availability. Have your dabbers ready just in case for 2:00 PM? Solo artists will kick off the music on day #2, including local/Peterborough folk singer/guitarist Michelle Moran at 1:00 PM.

The opening two acts will get half-length sets, including late addition & Steel Rock alum Darius McRae at 12:30 PM and a solo set by Josh credited as "Pen Pen Happy Fun Time" at 12:00 PM. Still don't quite get that name (I'd go with Quarter Scoundies myself). Following an expectedly calm forecast overnight, 9&10 News is calling for partly-to-mostly cloudy skies on SATURDAY with a high of 25° and a low of 16°, but this is going up too soon for an hourly forecast for the evening and beyond. Of note for campers, rain is expected on Sunday, but that is always the wake up/tear down day and has no scheduled bands. See above for more on the SATURDAY Forest Stage program, and for a preview, here's The Write-Ups live!

Outside of the bands, visit the festival's Facebook page or website for the full list of DJs playing on the Roost River Stage, even if the schedule isn't out (yet?) Notably, among the arts and culture vendors in Ophir this weekend will be magician Ryan McFarling, who was a scheduled Forest Stage performer in 2023 but was just present on the festival grounds for other years. Northern Vibe XI will have camping encouraged as usual, so click here for the ground rules re: what to expect if you're spending a night or two, and how to respect the space and prepare for being off the grid. Online ticket sales ended on Wednesday, and organizers can't guarantee availability of passes at gate, but this is a 19+ event, and early bird full-weekend passes had been on sale for $125, so keep that in mind re: what chancing admission on-site would cost. If you're up for a weekend rocking out in the bush, this will be a hell of a way to end the summer, so hopefully you have your tickets!

With weather forecasts on Katrina's, staff's, performers', and vendors' side, hopefully everything goes off without a hitch after last year's rather hitch-laden band schedules (too bad Avessel haven't came back for a drier second go-around yet), so visit the above links for full details on this year's Northern Vibe Festival and its band schedules TOMORROW & SATURDAY, and weekend concert previews for the Soo and EUP resume next! Thanks everyone!

Rotaryfest 2026 Fallout (Part 4), Plus More From Soo Lens!!

Today's post finally sees us put our recent coverage of an annual summer concert festival to bed (famous last words), with a chaser of photos from a photography company who wasn't just present for this event in 2026. Here's what you should know on this Sunday afternoon!

Let's wrap up our Rotaryfest fallout coverage today, after only a month+ after the Sault's summer festival ended for 2026! When we left off this past Monday, we only had three Stage 2 bands left to acknowledge public videos from, but alas, I don't believe external videos from Eden Plague's set were uploaded by the band (not counting Johnny's update video during Brendan Hodgson's set) nor other attendees with public channels or pages. Stay tuned for more from the former Bear Hunters in the fall! Moving to the co-headliners, indie/country rock quartet Eli Russell & The River Fools did post a highlight video from their set to their Facebook page, as filmed by former Chunks of Manh/Soo Fighters bassist Max Ambeault. The video quality here is really nice, which makes the vertical orientation, short runtime, and lack of raw audio just as disappointing. What we get is solid with some nice views of the crowd though!

Still, I can only imagine what all Max shot for raw footage at Clergue Park last month, but click here to see Eli & crew in action regardless, if for 35 seconds! We'll finally close our Rotaryfest Stage 2 fallout by looking at this year's headliners, namely death metal trio Pillory, who drummer Bret Shuttleworth captured the entire set of via a stationary camera mounted beside 705Live Sound Co.'s tent, with the full video then being uploaded to his YouTube channel. In their last concert before a teased break to write for their next album, this 37 minutes-long set features Bret, Robert, and Devon playing their usual "End Of Small Sanctuary" intro track before diving into "Specimen Of Egotism", "Abhorred Apprehension", "The Curse Of Eternal Sickness", "The Angst Of Existence", "The Passing", their newest song "No Beyond", "A Drop Of Shame In An Ocean Of Guilt", and "The Stalker", before closing with a cover of Death's "Pull The Plug".

The resolution isn't super high, but everything sounds nice and brutal with a solid crowd turnout near the front of the stage, and it's still something of a trip to hear death metal on the Second Stage! Note the colour changing Pillory logo in the top left, but it's not in an intrusive place. Also, don't be too picky about the slightly crooked camera angle, remember that the tripod was mounted on the lawn. Give Pillory's entire headlining set a watch below!

Finally(?) from Rotaryfest, Bret just uploaded one more video from Pillory's set to his channel, featuring an attendee's footage of them playing "No Beyond" and "A Drop Of Shame In An Ocean Of Guilt", albeit with dead air removed in between. Note that Bret said in the description that this video was of "us debuting our two newest songs", even though "A Drop Of..." has been played live multiple times before last month. The video quality is much crisper, aided by the filmer being close to the stage, but the audio is definitely more muffled, so keep that in mind. Not a bad video of their recent material regardless, so give it a watch below!

To end things, we'll close today with a page that we alluded to in this past Monday's Rotaryfest post, namely local photography company Soo Lens, who snapped photos of Zed's headlining set on Stage 1 last month, but they actually debuted at Rotaryfest last year. Across photos and highlight videos (with dubbed audio in post in all cases) on their Facebook page, you can see their photos from Billy & Elton: The Legends, Bourbon Blue, and Who Made Who's 2025 Stage 1 sets, a number of performers at last year's Northern Vibe Festival (including HeadFirst on the Friday, multiple local bands on the salvaged replacement stage on Saturday after the storm, and a Roost River Stage DJ), September 2025's My Son The Hurricane concert, Mike Haggith's "Under A Moonlit Sky" concert at The Downtown Plaza, Afrofest at Soo Blaster, Silent 9 at Bon Soo's opening ceremonies, and Stones & Crows at Beck's Bar in June.

Soo Lens' photography is excellent and captures some great (if largely vertical) shots from the above concert events, which are the bulk of their content so far. Highlighting them in videos is a novel way to increase exposure beyond just individual photo albums, but remember, Soo Lens' videos are mostly slideshows with dubbed over audio rather than raw concert audio. A common opening lets us see their owner's arm outstretched pointing the camera at the stage, which still leaves me wondering what kind of videos they're filming with the second camera, and if there's anything there worth sharing. See above for more from Soo Lens, look for them at future local concerts, and here's their "Under A Moonlit Sky" video!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for a new news post on the SMS tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Aneurysm), Another Brimley Battle Of The Bands Video, And More!!

Our backlog is almost cleaned out, so to continue towards that goal, here's another news post to check out tonight, including one more video from a battle of the bands last year, some assorted shorter updates, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month, so here's what you should know!

It's been two & a half weeks of putting this show off amidst our severe backlog, but its number has finally been called, as Winnipeg-based Nirvana tribute band Aneurysm will make their local debut on Wednesday, September 23rd at Beck's Bar! The first Nirvana tribute in the Soo since The Pixo Control's one-off turn as Like A Pisces over a decade ago, this show actually has more in common with the Rush tribute concert at Reggie's in July 2022, in that the tribute band is the sister group for a touring original band who will be playing the opening set as themselves. In this case, the band is Winnipeg "nu grunge punk n' roll" quartet The Bloodshots, who alone would be an intriguing headliner here with their up-tempo melodic, yet in your face original sound that blurs genre lines, but they do Nirvana justice in available media, so fans of grunge and alt-rock should have a blast, work/school night scheduling acknowledged!

This concert will have a 9:00 PM start time in "Saulte Ste. Marie", it is 19+, and it will have a $10 cover charge (as best as I can tell, there won't be advance ticket sales). If you can swing a Wednesday nighter in late September, this should deliver the goods for Nirvana fans, let alone The Bloodshots' own entertaining originals, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details on all of next month's action!

Next up, I wanted to wrap up our look at Dafter, Michigan singer/guitarist Molly Escherich's videos from her sets at the Superior Whitefish Festival in Brimley, as we haven't talked about her "Music In The Park" acoustic set last year! Molly's solo unplugged sets don't lean as heavy as what she plays in bands (perhaps understandably), but she does throw in some hard rock covers in unplugged settings. Before she and The Other Guys played an abbreviated 10 minute long set in that evening's battle of the bands, Molly played a more standard 40 minute set in the afternoon, which was prefaced by the announcement by her mother Tiffany that she had won a major scholarship award for middle/high school music students, allowing her to afford the tuition at the Interlochen Academy For The Arts. She begins her second year there next month, and of course, belated congratulations to Molly on her success as she furthers her musical career and education downstate!

The actual set begins 5+ minutes in with covers of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band's "Still The Same", Radiohead's "Creep", and Eddie Rabbitt's "Drivin' My Life Away", before playing her own original song "Will This Last Forever". After tackling Cat Stevens' "The First Cut Is The Deepest" (perhaps the Sheryl Crow version?), Molly next plays her own original "Cheap Cologne" (which she played with The Other Guys in the battle later on), before finishing out with covers of Zach Bryan's "Something In The Orange", The Doobie Brothers' "Listen To The Music", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain", and Coldplay's "Yellow". If you're curious, all songs here except the four from "Creep" to "The First Cut..." were played in Molly's Music In The Park set this year. Also, only five songs here were clipped out as indivdual YouTube uploads, so use the links above to see everything.

I'm thinking that the other six didn't get singular uploads to minimize on banter with people off-stage and/or false starts/minor flubs, but for a then-13 year old who had just received extremely exciting news about her further education in music, I'm not inclined to be judgy. Molly performed well here, and covered a lot of musical ground in this set, so give her full 2025 acoustic Superior Whitefish Festival set a watch below!

Finally, here's here's three assorted shorter Sault Ontario news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

 

• A bonus 16th act has been added to the Northern Vibe Festival's Forest Stage lineup this weekend, namely Darius McRae, a teenage acoustic singer/guitarist who you may recognize from local theatrical productions and from performing in Superior Heights Collegiate's student rock band Steel Rock at Rotaryfest Stage 1 in 2024 & 2025. How will he sound on his own? Be in Ophir this coming weekend to find out! The full two day schedule has been released, but as it's now short notice for us (as usual for this event), stay tuned for our extended Northern Vibe preview next week!
• In yet another example of a local band posting a Facebook "Story" that I can't embed or link to here, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Quite Frankly shared a brief vertical video of them covering The Arrows' "I Love Rock N' Roll" (well, the Joan Jett version) at last week's Outspoken Brewing concert. Actually, the show took place outdoors beside Outspoken, which is honestly for the best, as the space for concerts inside is very small, hence why you more hear of acoustic solo artists and DJs there. Hopefully the concert went well for the band and fans, even if I truly don't like the idea of "Stories"!
• Underground Events SSM posted a "Things To Do In The Soo" events listing on their Facebook page on August 15th featuring upcoming concerts from them and other promoters, even ones that haven't been formally unveiled yet. Of note, the second SOOpfest fundraiser will indeed be on September 19th (bands and location to be announced), and there will be a "mixed bill" Thanksgiving weekend concert on October 9th followed by a "metal show" on October 30th. If they're listing them without info, the latter two must be from Underground Events SSM too, so stay tuned for details on both!

 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS next week! Thanks everyone!

More New Videos & Related Updates From The EUP, Plus A New Live Video Of The Gambit!!

Here's another news post as we continue staying busy on the SMS this weekend, and it just so happens with our backlog clearout that we have a heavy focus on Sault Michigan and/or the Eastern Upper Peninsula again today. This includes a follow-up to recent coverage from a local battle of the bands and local musicians' involvement in an indie film premiering later this month, but we are capping things off on the Canadian side for a new live performance video. However, we'll start south of the border, so here's what you should know on this Sunday morning!

While featuring the video yesterday of Molly Escherich's Music In The Park set at last month's Superior Whitefish Festival, I realized that a video from last year's battle of the bands at this Brimley-based festival was also uploaded to her YouTube channel! While the Dafter-based teenage singer/guitarist led The 8th Fire to second place in year #2 of this battle, and she led Molly & The Other Guys to victory at 2024's Lake Superior State University Battle of the Bands (more on this year's soon), the two battle runs bookended an off day for Molly as a local battle competitor. Molly & The Other Guys were revived with a mostly new lineup for 2025's inaugural Superior Whitefish Festival battle, but with five competing acts (four guaranteed prizes), Molly & crew surprisingly finished in last place. Possibly because of this, the video is now unlisted on YouTube, but it was publically shared to her Facebook page at the time. 

For this set, Molly was joined by returning Other Guy Nathan Webber (ex-Tarnished/Exit 808) on guitar, alongside bassist Destini Smith (who guested with Tarnished at the previous year's LSSU Battle) and Molly's brother Cayd on drums. Cayd was a very late replacement for About:Blank drummer Kade DesArmo (what are the odds on the similar first names?), stepping in that same day for his first ever appearance as a drummer in a live concert. Things started with a full band version of Molly's original song "Cheap Cologne", before Molly put down her guitar for a cover of Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band's "Old Time Rock & Roll". and then picked up a tambourine to cover Paramore's "Hard Times". This was actually the entire set, and as Molly explained on her Facebook page at the time, they wanted "to give the band some stage time" despite the lack of rehearsal and the drummer change, so the set was heavily pared down from the expected 45 minute runtime.

The 10 minute length will likely explain the lack of a podium finish last year, but I did notice timing issues during the set, and to me, they picked two covers that would have suited having a second guitarist present (Molly or otherwise). Still, they did perform well and likely would have won cash had they played a full set! This would end up being the swan song for any version of The Other Guys, with The 8th Fire becoming Molly's new full-band concern last month, let alone her heading to Interlochen last fall, but she has a bright future ahead, and Nathan, Destini, and Cayd are talented musicians too, so give Molly & The Other Guys' 2025 battle set a watch below!

Next up, let's stay in the EUP by heading north to Sault Ste. Marie for... the premiere screening of an indie horror movie? On Saturday, August 22nd, Lake Superior State's Arts Center will host the premiere of Yooper Frankenstein, a locally-filmed and produced horror movie by local filmmaker Dave Cairns that was shot here from mid-2024. The movie will be screened twice that evening at 7:00 & 9:00 PM, and the movie will definitely be R rated for violence, adult content, coarse language, and disturbing scenes (it is a horror movie, after all!). Teasers from the shoot have been shared to the movie's Facebook group and across multiple YouTube videos, one embedded below, but why is this relevant to SMS coverage? Well, look at who is soundtracking the movie, namely Viscera frontman "Blind" Bob Quinn, X's & Y's/ex-Life's Eclipse guitarist Jason Mills, and ex-Half Stupid/Plastic frontman (and former Crooked Music owner) Zac Crook!

Blind Bob also has a small acting role in the film proper, and Zac is the film's music director. Zac and Jason have shared songs from the film to YouTube, and while what they have shared so far is atmospheric and feels inspired by 1980s horror classics, there will be some level of metal music, as heard in the teaser below from YouTube user gothicsoldier (listen to those drums!). A locally made horror movie in Sault Michigan is sure intriguing, and they've certainly put the work in over the past two years, but will this be horror's answer to Escanaba In Da Moonlight? See above and below for more on Yooper Frankenstein and the premiere in two weeks! 

We'll close this post with a rare live video from veteran Sault Ontario punk supergroup The Gambit's Facebook page! As you may recall, they played their first public concert set since Rotaryfest Stage 2 in 2024 on August 1st when they opened for 5 Dollar Bribe on an all-local bill at Blaster Powerhouse. This was just their fourth show period since changing their name from The Sick Sons in 2022, and given their stacked lineup and original material, it's a shame that they don't play more often. This video captures the last 2 minutes of what I believe to be a new original song named "Searching For A Signal" (if it's a cover, I don't know the original at all), and while the audio levels are too loud and staticy as filmed, it's an upbeat punk rocker that fits in line with members' past bands! Good stuff, and hopefully we're not waiting until 2028 for The Gambit's next gig, so give their new video a watch below!

That's all for now, but there should be at least one more post on the SMS later today! Thanks everyone!

New Videos From Mike Haggith, Molly Escherich, And The Floor Between Us!!

As our slow clear-out of the backlog continues, here's a new news post on this Saturday afternoon that takes us from the EUP to Southern Ontario before finally coming home to Sault Ste. Marie, but we'll start in Michigan with another recent full set video, so here's what you should know!

In a follow-up from our coverage of last month's Superior Whitefish Festival battle of the bands in Brimley, Michigan, you may recall that there was a separate Music In The Park concert before the battle featuring acoustic-leaning performers. One was 8th Fire frontwoman Molly Escherich just hours before she led her new band to a second place finish, and like with the main band, her solo matinee set was shot in full for her YouTube channel! I have been more selective with acoustic singer/guitarists in our band links in recent years, as for metal, hard rock, and punk, it doesn't play in as well for song choices, and anyone with a guitar can play a set live and call it a day, but what does a 56 minute set of Molly's entail in 2026? In performance order, the 14 year old Dafter native covered Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band's "Still The Same", The Eagles' "Take It Easy", Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", ...

...The Doobie Brothers' "Listen To The Music" (which The 8th Fire covered in their battle set), Carole King's "It's Too Late", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" (briefly), and "Have You Ever Seen The Rain", before playing the original song about the perfect boat day with her dad that led off The 8th Fire's battle set. Covers resume with Noah Kahan's "The Great Divide", The 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up", Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive" (also covered by The 8th Fire that night), another attempt at "Proud Mary" that was more successful than previously, Zach Bryan's "Something In The Orange", Coldplay's "Yellow", and Little Big Town's "Boondocks", before Molly ended her set with two more original songs named "Cheap Cologne" and "Always Known". Molly definitely has some other hard rock covers in her back pocket from past solo gigs that I want to look at in the future, but her solo set is definitely more varied.

Regardless, she is a very talented singer and guitarist who is still rapidly improving (being at Interlochen will help in that!), and for her age, she has an ease about her on stage and a good audience rapport already! If you saw her battle set with The 8th Fire, the three common songs from Molly's solo set (one being an acoustic solo performance too) will either be an interesting contrast or feel redundant, but remember that a lot of early festival attendees didn't stay for the battle, or vice versa. Good stuff, and with a dash of the hard rock to come that night, so give Molly's Music In The Park set in Brimley a watch below, and we'll have more from her soon!

Next up, let's head north of the border (and yet still south) to Barrie, Ontario, where local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith returned to Athletic Kulture Stadium there on July 4th to sing "O Canada" at a Barrie Baycats baseball game! Now competing in the renamed Canadian Baseball League, the Baycats welcomed Mike to sing the anthem at games in each of the past two seasons, though rain delays got in the road of his original 2024 bookings. For Mike's game this season, he sang before Barrie's clash with the Hamilton Cardinals on the Fourth of July, and regrettably for the home team and fans, the Baycats lost 8-1. As always though, the game was live-streamed on Barrie's YouTube channel, and if you want to just check out Mike's performance, he is introduced by the PA announcer at the 7:42 mark. Mike sings well, as you'd expect given his talents and pedigree!

I just wish the game went better for the Baycats, but they are in fourth place in the nine-team league, which would guarantee them a playoff spot if the season ended today, so best of luck for a strong run over the rest of the CBL season. Give Mike's performance (and the game) a watch below!

Finally for today, I wanted to mention the local comedy/art rock band The Floor Between Us, who have came up sparingly in our coverage in recent years. If you're not familiar with them, their lineup features one-time Soo's Got Talent finalist Colin Gasparelli on vocals & guitar alongside singer Ivy-Rose Morrison, Stones & Crows bassist Nicholas Gingras, and Spaceship Opening/ASDP drummer Ralph Barber (an "Andrew M." played keyboards for them once too). Their music is very eclectic, experimental, and has more in common with a lot of 1960s pop rock and bands like They Might Be Giants than heavier styles, but there's a joie de vivre and clear sense of humour across their original music, so I do recommend checking out their material on maior streaming platforms to see what you think! However, they do occasionally cover some songs that cross the SMS' radar in concert.

The Floor Between Us are fans of the English anarcho-punk band Chumbawamba, best known for their one mainstream hit "Tubthumping", which they have covered live (here they are playing it unplugged at a Korah talent show featuring Ralph's ASDP bandmate Mikhal Muto on cajon). However, they haven't just gotten up again after being knocked down, as they covered their 1994 b-side "The Day The Nazi Died") at one of their Sault Theatre Workshop fundraiser concerts in November. More of a politically charged folk song that would definitely fit an English pub (complete with Nicholas on added percussion), this is well performed with sharp lyrics, so give it a watch for yourselves below!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS shortly! Thanks everyone!