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!

Rotaryfest 2026 Fallout (Part 3!!)

Proof positive that our news backlog (combined with new stuff) was large: it took almost two weeks for our third Rotaryfest fallout post for 2026! When we last left off with the Sault's summer festival at Clergue Park almost two weeks ago, we had the last four bands on Stage 1 on the Saturday to look for videos of, plus all of the Saturday bands on Stage 2. I couldn't find official or public videos from Just J&M or BookcluB's sets, so we next flash forward to this year's featured Saturday touring headliners, namely London-based Led Zeppelin tribute band Zed, who I found a video of from local professional photography company Soo Lens' Facebook page. Note that the pinned photos at the top of their feed are from last year's Rotaryfest, but I do have to add some videos from here to our backlog. Now, while some of Soo Lens' past concert videos have actual video footage, this is primarily a highlight reel of photos.

The audio is a clip from "Million Cash" by rappers Connor Price & Armani White, albeit slightly pitched up, which may explain why Facebook didn't content match it.  Soo Lens' owner's musical preferences aside, this is a peculiar song choice for a Led Zeppelin video, but you get some really nice photos of singer Shaun Sanders here (albeit not the rest of the band), plus the unique angle of seeing video of their arm holding the camera taking photos mid-set. I wonder if they actually filmed anything substantial with the separate video camera? We'll have more from Soo Lens hopefully soon, but give their compilation of Zed/Shaun photos a look below!

Next up, barring some really belated or well hidden public videos, our Stage 1 videos conclude with Seldom Seen SSM's last video from the festival, which was of closing Saturday band The Sidekicks! As I noted when I rolled them into our full coverage, The Sidekicks are historically cagey when it comes to hinting at what they play in concert (be it live media or hints at their setlist range), but Seldom Seen SSM's administrator had a front row spot on the lawn for their cover of The Tragically Hip's "Little Bones", which singer/drummer Tracey Hilderley noted was "a tribute to a tribute". This is presumably a reference to local Hip tribute band The Luxury, who dropped out of their planned closing set on Rotaryfest Saturday for publically unannounced reasons (hence why The Sidekicks were promoted from the Friday evening lineup). Even without a rhythm guitarist, Tracey, Steve, and Dan had a good handle on this song, and Tracey's vocal range adjusted well!

The big issue with this video is that it's tiny, as Seldom Seen SSM did the thing where a horizontal video is uploaded in vertical dimensions with severe letterboxing, which also affected their video of The Jay Scali Band covering Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" during the Friday Night Blues program on Stage 2. Apologies for missing that two weeks ago, but it's an interesting take that really accentuates the blues part of its name! Just a shame about the rain here, the skies weren't Rotaryfest's friend this year in multiple ways. Give Seldom Seen SSM's Sidekicks video a look below, and click here for photos of the above two bands, Zed, and Mellowship Slinky last month!

We now enter the home stretch of our Rotaryfest 2026 fallout, namely the Second Stage beside the Art Gallery of Algoma! The Reeves and Brendan Hodgson didn't post any public videos from their sets on social media that I know of, but I did find one video of Brendan and his band live, even if they weren't the focus. While their 3:30 PM set was ongoing, Eden Plague drummer Johnny Belanger starred in this vertical update video for the former Bear Hunters' Facebook page, where he noted the uncertainty over if anyone would even be playing that day due to the lingering air quality concerns, but confirmed that they would still be on at 6:30 PM as scheduled, while also showing off the crowd levels at this point in the day. Between Johnny talking and my limited country music knowledge, I couldn't make out what Brendan and the gang were playing, but give this unique teaser a watch below!

While curiously not credited as being filmed at Rotaryfest, local folk singer/guitarist M.D. Dunn did post a video from his set onto his Facebook page, which sees him playing his mid-1990s original "Got War (If You Want It)", which he no doubt dusted off given the political climate. Good energy and strong yet melodic vocals that fans of Mark's will enjoy, so don't bypass this one! We'll close this Rotaryfest fallout post with a video shared to new local blues/hard rock trio Stones & Crows' Facebook page, which captures their jam of the end of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird", which was the outro to their cover of The Steve Miller Band's "The Joker". While this was a combined 9+ minute song, I had to leave during the "Freebird" jam due to juggling seeing a half hour each of all bands on both stages, so does this video show the ending that I missed? Nope, but Spencer & Nicholas are rocking out for all its worth, and you love to see it!

Personally, I'd have filmed more of this jam, even if you still clipped out "The Joker", but a selling point of the 2:28-long video may be the vantage point, as Stones & Crows' camera was mounted on the stage behind an amp, pointed at the audience (and Spencer's back). While you can't see Anthony at all, this angle really shows off the waterfront views that Stage 2 bands in the "Redirected" era have, and luckily, the Saturday bands could enjoy it without severe forest fire smoke or rain getting in the way! Check out Stones & Crows' video from Stage 2 below, and stay tuned for our preview of their late notice (to me) concert on Saturday! 

Barring belated or undiscovered public videos from Stage 1 or early Stage 2, we just have three bands left to address from Rotaryfest 2026 on the Second Stage, so look for all of that hopefully before the month is up, and stay tuned for much more news and notes on the SMS this week! Thanks everyone!

The Next Local Battle Of The Bands, The Body Lens Concert Preview, And More!!

With some big news as of late, let's tackle a big new story to lead off this post, which could well turn into a local concert alert in time pending who signs up, while we also have a mid-week concert preview and a new video to round things out. Here's what you should know!

An increasingly rare battle of the bands will take place in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan this July, though the stakes and scope are bigger than you may expect. Hosted by Kewadin Casino, the battle will be held on two nights (Wednesday & Thursday, June 12th & 13th), and while it will take place at The Dreammaker's Theater, the winning band will receive the local opening slot for the newly announced Great White concert at the Manistique Kewadin branch on July 27th! For clarification, this is the original version of Great White, not the Jack Russell-led version that played St. Ignace in 2017 (there are two concurrently active versions of the band a'la LA Guns.) And yes, I did say the Great White show was in Manistique (2 hours west of the Soo), but Kewadin is targeting this battle towards bands who live near all 5 of their casinos, which means that acts from the Soo, St. Ignace, Hessel, Manistique, and Christmas, or surrounding areas are free to compete if they can make the trip

Entitled the "Rock Me Battle", bands who wish to compete must submit a performance video to the Facebook event page. Six bands will be selected, and four songs (including at least one original) will be performed by each band. It's not clear how the two day structure will be handled (three bands each night? Eliminations after night 1?), but we will let you know if Kewadin clarifies. In lieu of judges, a fan vote will determine the winners, but uniquely, the vote will be decided by concert attendees and likes on the Facebook event page linked above, with online voting ending on Friday, June 21st. Alongside the Great White opening slot, the battle winners will also recieve guaranteed bookings at The Rapids Lounge in Sault Ste. Marie and The Northern Pines Lounge in St. Ignace next year, so keep that in mind if you'd like to play at Kewadin's E.U.P. nightclubs in 2020. Luckily given the weekday placement, each night of the battle starts at 8:00 PM, and this is presumably a 21+ event, as usual.

Admission will be $5, which will get you entry to both nights and a +1 credit for online voting. Despite the mid-week scheduling, a battle of the bands stretching out to the Central Upper Peninsula in both band pool & final prize definitely helps set it apart, but who might we see compete in June to open for the "Once Bitten Twice Shy" legends? Might we see some bands from Munising, Newberry, or maybe even Sault Ontario along with the 5 Kewadin locations? And what kind of hard rock/metal acts will jump in? Stay tuned for updates as they roll in, and see above for more details!

Next up, here's our preview of a special Wednesday concert in Sault Ontario TOMORROW NIGHT, as Lethbridge, Alberta post-punk quintet Body Lens will play one of the first concerts at local concert promotion agency Dryer Fire's seasonal pop-up venue at 128 Bruce Street! Playing an artsy/garage rock-influenced sound with a punk attitude and some gothic touches, Body Lens' unique sound should attract a diverse fanbase tomorrow, so definitely give them a look to see what they bring to the table! Debuting local "dungeon synth" band Hot Goblin will open the proceedings tomorrow, though nothing has came out publically on this group, we'll let you know if anything pops up. As mentioned above, this concert is taking place at Dryer Fire's eponymous temporary location downtown, and will serve as a summer replacement for Nicole Dyble's 2018 bookings at the M.S. Norgoma.

It's great to see Nicole find a new location for the summer season, temporary as it may be, and hopefully lots of great events hit Dryer Fire in the coming months! As well, Trenton-based mobile bookstore Samson Books will be on site selling their wares, so keep that in mind if you love to read.  This ALL AGES concert has a $10 cover charge and a 7:00 PM start time. Visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Body Lens live!



Finally for today, here's a new commercial for the Dopethrone-headlined concert at The New American Pub on May 20th, courtesy of openers AlgomA's YouTube channel yesterday! The first upload on their channel since 2017, the 47 second commercial features text information on the show proper, plus video clips of the headliners, AlgomA, and fellow openers Shit Liver, including footage of an AlgomA show at The Oddfellows Hall that A. is sadly dated, and B. isn't immediately familiar. The commercial closes with a suitably edited image from the poster for the film Maniac. Well done promotion while it lasts, so give it a look below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and updates on the site in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Body Lens), West Of Hell Concert Preview, And Much More!!

(Review note: Links on this post exclusively go to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Blogger links except one, which was changed to an Amazon link as a precaution. If that wasn't it, I fear that this may have been a false positive, as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Blogger are all active sites that I use frequently on this blog, and I do not intentionally post malware links in my posts. If I missed something, I'll be happy to address it according to Community Guidelines if someone tells me what the offending link(s) is/are.)

Here's a new news post to check out on this Tuesday evening, and it includes a new concert video of sorts, a new compilation album release, and a preview of a special Wednesday night metal concert, but let's lead off with a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month at an unexpected locale!

Lethbridge, Alberta post-punk/art rock quintet Body Lens will make their local concert debut on Wednesday, May 8th when they play at local concert promotion agency Dryer Fire's new summer pop-up venue at 128 Bruce Street! A throwback in ways to Gnaeus with their indie-tinged post punk sound, Body Lens' sound isn't too aggressive, but it has enough punk attitude to go around while also harbouring some darker goth influences, and they should be a good fit for a Dryer Fire-hosted event! A new local "dungeon synth" project named Hot Goblin will open this concert, who I know nothing on, hopefully we can fill in some blanks at some point. In lieu of the former Gore Street Cafe and the soon-to-be moved M.S. Norgoma, Dryer Fire owner Nicole Dyble will open her own temporary venue near The Farmhouse Collective on Saturday, May 4th, and there are more concerts coming there over the summer season, while vendors like Oosik Records will be on hand for events.

I like the idea of the temporary summer space for Dryer Fire events, and while they only infrequently book punk and hard rock concerts, this should be an interesting run to see if this leads to a longer stay and/or permanent location elsewhere! Click here for details on the grand opening. As for May 8th's Body Lens show, it has a $10 cover and a 7:00 PM start time, and it is an ALL AGES event (no word on what "notaflof" means though.) Visit the official Facebook event page and the above links for more details!

Next up, here's our preview of a special mid-week metal concert TOMORROW NIGHT, as Vancouver death metal quintet West of Hell will return to the Soo when they headline at The New American Pub! This will be West of Hell's third concert appearance in Sault Ste. Marie, and their first in over 5 years, so their brutal and melodic originals have been a long time coming for their fans, and they should be ready to melt lots of faces at The New A tomorrow! Fellow Vancouver metal quintet Expain will bring their own thrash-laden brand of original music to the stage in their own local debut as the direct openers, and extreme metal fans should take to them nicely in the lead-up! A diverse local opening roster will include the apparent live debut of Blood Shed Productions cybergrind solo project Malignant Neoplasm, who were previously known for their studio demo output. I'm very surprised they're playing rather than C.T.W., but this should be an interesting set!

Despite event advertising saying that this show has "1,000% Metal", the opening act is local rapper Conika, who's no stranger to being a musical outlier on an otherwise rap-free concert. She's a skilled MC and should set the tone well tomorrow! Promoted by Six, Two, Oh. in their first concert booking of 2019, tomorrow's concert has a 19+ age limit, $5 cover charge, and 9:00 PM start time. Visit the official Facebook event page for more on this extreme metal Wednesday night blast, and here's West of Hell live!



Also today, we have a new compilation album release to take note of from a prominent artist, namely local/Thompson, Manitoba solo musician Mike Haggith, though in this case, it's the soundtrack to the film he contributed to! As you'll recall, songs from Mike and his old local band The Din comprised the official soundtrack to the Windsor-shot independent film Ashes of K, with Mike's involvement announced in 2017, preceding it's premiere last year, but the soundtrack was only released through Mike's Bandcamp page yesterday. The 11 song soundtrack features all of the tracks from his 2015 solo album "The Warinside" except "The Snake", "Candy Is A Hooker's Name", and "Of Cars & Criminals", plus 4 songs from The Din's 2016 debut CD "Give In To The Din" This does include both the solo and Din versions of "A Drive Through The Peninsula", as both are in the movie. The Ashes of K soundtrack is available at the above links on a "name your price" model.

As this is a compilation, it does not jump Mike's unreviewed & future studio albums in line for CD review consideration on the SMS, but if you really want to see our thoughts on the 11 songs, check out our reviews of "The Warinside" & "Give In To The Din", both written shortly their initial releases. It's great to see the soundtrack finally on sale/to stream, but might Ashes of K get a local screening at some point? See above for much more, and stay tuned for updates on his new album "Bridges"!

Finally for today, let's close up our coverage of Soundcheck drummer Glen Thomas' new live videos from his YouTube channel, as the last of the 11 recent uploads is the 15 minute compilation of live clips that he has (mostly) posted to YouTube already. As such, you get a lot of bang for your buck here, but if you prefer full videos, visit Glen's channel. The compilation begins with Soundcheck and then-drummer Scott McLurg at the Wawa drag races last August, with the 2nd-5th songs from their regular cover medley, including Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", Metallica's "Enter Sandman", Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time", and Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer", albeit cut off. The compilation continues elsewhere with concerts featuring Glen behind the kit, including covers of Alanis Morissette's "Ironic" at The Esquire Club, Kenny Loggins' "Footloose", Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", and John Mellencamp's "Wild Night" at Toystock, and Keith Urban's "Somebody To Love" at Reggie's West.

The big scoop here is a previously unseen clip of Soundcheck covering Def Leppard's "Hysteria" (with Travis on lead vocals) at The Esquire Club, courtesy of a vertical cell phone camera angle at a crooked angle. Visuals aside, the cover is well done and melodic, if a little slow, and it's worth a special look! The video closes with their previously seen cover of Greta Van Fleet's "Highway Tune" at the Reggievelt. There's a lot to take in here, so if you want a sampling of Soundcheck at the top of their game, give this video a look below, and see most covers in full on Glen's channel!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews and last month's poll results soon! Thanks everyone!