LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Quite Frankly), New Videos, And Much More!!

Today's post got delayed due to some computer maintenance, but within, we have new videos, assorted shorter updates, and leading off, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT for next month!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Quite Frankly will return to DeMarco's Boots & Saddles Roadhouse in Prince Township on Saturday, October 3rd! Fans last saw this talented foursome at this deep-in-the-west end nightclub back in March, but they were active with multiple gigs in city limits through the summer, most recently at Gateway Casino in mid-August. The band did acknowledge that they are "taking a little break this September", so if you're up for the 20 minute drive west or will already be out that direction, keep their Boots & Saddles show in mind for early next month! Linsaey, Frank, Harley, and Joe will take the stage there on October 3rd at 8:00 PM, this is a 19+ concert, and there is no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, and stay tuned for details on Quite Frankly's return to the Soo! 

Next up, here's some new videos, and we'll start with a rare live clip of local ska/crust punk quartet ASDP, courtesy of their Instagram page! As best as I can tell, this comes from their set opening for Danger Box in early July at the private house party venue Unnecessary Noise, and it features Mikhal, Tucker, William, and Ralph covering No Cash's "Kill Yer Parents" (as seen on the paid copies of their debut album "Atom Bombs & Lemonade"). Filmed by "Brad Sux", the video is thankfully both horizontal and of the full song, while also giving us a good look at Unnecessary Noise and a clearly happy & engaged crowd. Honestly, to me, this song sounds better and more impactful live than with the lo-fi studio production. I know Mikhal likes that aesthetic, but if you want to hear Adam Smith Death Parade at full power with no fidelity limitations, live may be the way to do it. Unfortunately, I think ASDP turned off external embedding of their videos, so give it a look above!

Also today, here's a new video from Sault Michigan hard rock trio Crush's Facebook page! Before sharing photos from their downstate gig at Bemo's Bar in Bay City (which looked like it went over well), the guys posted a parody sitcom opening credits video themed after Friends, complete with the theme song. I won't spoil what happens, but it's a loose (if fountain-less) parody of the original intro, with the guys hamming it up in amusingly happy ways. One assumes that the teaser that they're actually working on a sitcom is in jest, but you never quite know with Crush, so give this a watch below!

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

 

• This is more punk-adjacent, but I thought I'd mention that The Speak Easy at Algoma University will be hosting "Panic! At The Drag Show" on Saturday night. While not a proper concert, it will feature local drag performers and an overall emo/scene theme, including a contest for the best dressed attendee and flash tattoos. If only we could get a reunion of The Crossed, Deter, or A Fall From Innocence to really top this off! See above for more on what should be an interesting theme night for drag fans and 2000s emo fans!
• Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9 have shared two different "Stories" on Facebook this week featuring videos of them at both Wolf Fests. The instantly vanishing videos included one of frontwoman Jess Amadio letting the fans sing the chorus of a song at last year's event, while the other saw them covering Walk The Moon's "Shut Up & Dance" at this past Saturday's Wolf Fest II. I really wish that these were permanent videos that I could link to and share here (let alone longer and not vertical at that), but keep an eye out if you see them pop up on your Facebook news feed! 
• Speaking of Wolf Fest, SooToday's James Hopkin was in attendance for Northern Superior Brewing Co,'s second-year fall festival at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion, posting this article about it on Sunday! While not a review of the bands, James noted the "party-like atmosphere", and included photos of the 49th Field Regiment band & The Hustle Brothers' sets among his event photos. The article also has interview remarks with Northern Superior co-owner Jeff DiCorpo, who was optimistic about that day's weather, noted that 3,800(!) people stopped by last year, and that he hopes to expand Wolf Fest to two days. Good article, so give it a read above!

 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

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 ALERS (Fefe Dobson & Greg Simpson), One More Weekend Concert Preview, And New Videos!!

On this Friday night, let's wrap up what might be the last mega busy concert weekend until Halloween season, with a couple of linked unpl... "uncorked" concerts ahead (one a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT), along with another big new show and some newly found live concert videos. With all of that now outlined, here's what you should know!

Just over a week after rocking The Dive, Bone Yard 225 frontman Greg Simpson will return to Beck's Bar for another acoustic matinee concert on SUNDAY! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via Beck's weekly schedule announcement on their Facebook page on Monday, and remember that Greg doesn't have a social media page dedicated to his "Ranting Rockstar" persona/solo act where he can announce shows in advance. SUNDAY'S concert is effectively a re-booking of a briefly advertised show that Greg was supposed to play at Beck's this past Sunday, only to be replaced by Whiskey Hippy for unannounced reasons. Did Beck's err on the date, or did Greg legitimately withdraw/have to reschedule? Regardless, you have another block of "uncorked" southern and hard rock covers in store at the former Vibe Lounge to go along with the weekly euchre tournament!

The Ranting Rockstar will be on stage SUNDAY at 3:00 PM, this is a 19+ concert, and there is no announced cover charge. Visit the above links for more details, we'll have more from Greg this weekend in a bit, and for a preview, here he is live earlier this month!

Next up, local classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9 will play their second show of the fall on Friday, September 18th, when they open for Toronto pop rock musician Fefe Dobson in a FREE concert at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion! We'll have Wolf Fest details when someone firmly posts the lineup outside of "Stories". This show takes place during the third annual Vivid Art Festival (successor to the Summer Moon Festival), a yearly celebration of the arts and culture, and while full details are forthcoming, this concert is the main attraction this year. I could have swore that Fefe Dobson had played here previously, but you may recognize her for hit singles like "Bye Bye Boyfriend", "Don't Go (Girls & Boys)", and "Stuttering", and her early material frequently crossed the pop punk line, with many Avril Lavigne comparisons, for better or worse. If you watched MuchMusic frequently in the mid-late 2000s, this will be a huge throwback!

Also playing this date are Toronto pop rock duo Goodnight Sunrise, who you may recognize from last year's Poutine Feast and 2022's Northern Vibe Festival, and it'll be good to see them back in our area! Presented by Kiss 100.5 (a better fit than 104.3 The Fox when you consider her newer material), this is an ALL AGES and FREE concert at 7:00 PM in three weeks, and it should be a fun mix of pop and rock with (hopefully) agreeable temperatures, so visit the above links for more on this concert!

Next up, let's finish up this weekend's concert previews with a show that had lots of advance notice, as the aforementioned Greg Simpson will be joined by Alex & Warren for an "uncorked" concert with their southern/hard rock band Bone Yard 225 TOMORROW NIGHT at The Water Tower Pub! While all of their shows at this Great Northern Road venue are acoustic in spite of electric bands playing there often, this will cap off their summer season schedule ("end of summer" bash in Echo Bay next month acknowledged), and comes three weeks after their Algoma Tree Services gig, and almost three months after their last Water Tower Pub booking. Hopefully things go well for the guys tomorrow before Greg disembarks and heads west for his Beck's matinee on SUNDAY! If you're curious, the band who replaced Soundcheck tonight (due to them jumping to the full Jay's weekend) was North Channel Sound.

Tomorrow's show at The Water Tower Pub is at 8:00 PM with a 19+ age limit and no cover charge, and if you prefer seeing the guys in local nightclubs, this is your last (scheduled) chance for over a month, so don't bypass this one! See above for more details, and for a preview, I found three new videos of your local 225 at The Water Tower Pub in May 2024! These were shared in the comments of this photo on Bone Yard's Facebook page from earlier that day, and they were filmed by attendee Wanda Wanda. Alas, all three are short and (sadly) vertical, but they include the guys covering Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" (with Alex on vocals), Pink Floyd's "Young Lust", and as embedded below, their staple cover of Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show's "The Cover Of 'Rolling Stone'", as it is the only video to exceed 46 seconds in length. Orientation and duration aside, these videos all suffer from deep/hazy blue lighting, but this isn't an isolated problem re: videos shot there.

If you have to shoot vertically, this was at least optimal to get all three guys in frame, even if Warren is very much in the background. The audio quality isn't bad from what we hear, and these are well handled covers, but you should expect nothing less from Bone Yard after over 15 years. Give Wanda's videos a watch above and below, and apologies for missing them for this long! Videos explicitly posted in/shared to comments can be tricky!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile 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 (Ethereal Tomb), Soundcheck/Separate Wayz Updates, And New Videos!!

I think our backlog is sufficiently addressed enough where we don't have to post twice a day regularly (famous last words), but there's still stuff to cover, new and old alike! For this post, we have new live videos, recent updates from a local weekend cover staple, and leading off, a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, so here's what you should know on this Tuesday morning!

Barrie doom metal trio Ethereal Tomb will return to Sault Ste. Marie for a "DIY garage show" on Monday, September 28th at Unnecessary Noise! Remember, this is the house party venue at a private residence that began being used as a location for select Underground Events SSM concerts this year, so while the address is not publically listed, the show is being publically marketed as a normal concert event at a specific venue otherwise. Fans may recall seeing promoter Mikhal Muto bring Ethereal Tomb to the former Soo Blaster in July of last year, and while this is a smaller scale event, their brand of "Turtle Island street metal" should deliver the sludgy intensity for local fans next month! The local openers will be really varied from the extreme metal to cap off the evening, including ska punk quartet ASDP (fronted by Mikhal, who opened last year's Ethereal Tomb show while still a member of Hails) and young hard rock quartet 5 Dollar Bribe.

This all ages concert has a 6:00 PM start time, admission is $10 or "pay what you can", and as this is at Unnecessary Noise, "ask a punk" for the address (though note that ASDP are the only punk band on this particular bill). Definitely a talented spread of sounds to be had at Unnecessary Noise late next month, so visit the above links for more details!

Next up, let's touch on some recent news and notes from local classic/hard rock cover band Separate Wayz, who have technically been quiet this month as a local concern, but they've been busy in informal and out-of-town ways. On August 8th, a stripped down acoustic version of the band made the 3½ hour drive to Sudbury to perform at Her Northern Voice, a week-long concert festival honouring female singers, with Nicole, Terry, and frequent guest guitarist Travis Sharpe (Terry's Soundcheck/TNT bandmate) performing there at the Grace Hartman Amphitheatre. This is basically why Nicole guested with TNT at the Maddy's Mighty Mutts Family Fun Day here a couple days prior, as it served as a local teaser and warmup. Separate Wayz (+ Travis) played on the penultimate Saturday lineup, where they technically opened for Susan Aglukark, though they were part of the free matinee block before ticketed admission was enforced for the closing acts.

For what it's worth, the Sunday the 9th concert at Her Northern Voice featured a set by Lime frontwoman "Miss" Madii Schomogyi in the identical 2:00 PM timeslot, while Sudbury psychedelic hard rock band The Dirty Mystics (who debuted at The Northern Vibe Festival in 2024) also played that day. Celebrating women in the arts (not just singers) is a fantastic idea, and it's great that so many local and non-local ladies were able to rock Sudbury that weekend! Among various "sneak peaks" (sic), a video from promoters The Sudbury Performance Group was posted on Facebook of Nicole, Terry, and Travis covering The Weeknd's "Blinded By The Light", though it is unfortunately vertical and only 30 seconds long. The side-stage vantage point is sure unique. if not supremely indicative of where they were, but they sounded good here! Nicole also just hit the road again with Soundcheck (Jim & Johnny included) for an "epic crossover" gig.

The five-piece combined band headlined at the Gold Rush National Drag Race in Chapleau (this time 3½ hours north of here) on Saturday, but media and teasers from that trip north did not follow on either band's page. There is big lineup news concerning both groups that I'll touch on in this weekend's concert previews, as Soundcheck have late notice gigs this weekend (with or without this band member, I don't yet know), but visit the above links for more on Separate Wayz & Travis (or Soundcheck & Nicole), and here's the live video from Her Northern Voice!

We'll close this post with some new videos from local space/hard rock duo The Spaceship Opening! As you may recall, the "east end rock n' roll" act (featuring ASDP drummer Ralph Barber) played their first public gig of 2026 at an all-locals concert at Blaster Powerhouse on August 1st, and they began uploading official videos of their set to their Facebook page last week. The guys plan to "post the whole show in bits", and they clearly meant it when they said "the whole show in bits", as the first video features just Andrew and Ralph setting up before their first song! Embedded below is their first song from this set, an original named "Everyone's Gotta Pay", and at press time, they have not uploaded any more songs, videos, and/or bits from the set. This is an instrumental hard rocker that Andrew plays virtually the entire time while facing Ralph with his back to the audience, but the video was filmed side-stage, so it doesn't hurt the home viewer experience.

You don't see a lot of videos from the former Soo Blaster shot like this, so it gives a unique look at the action! I hope this is a fair comparison, but I was reminded a bit musically of Helmet from this performance, and while there were no vocals, it has a spark and a catchy groove, so give it a look below, and hopefully more official videos of this Spaceship Opening set surface!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for a busy slate of mid-week concert previews and more on the SMS soon! 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!

New Original Music & Video Uploads From Tym Morrison!!

It's easy to forget (especially during extremely busy times around the SMS) that local classic/hard rock musician Tym Morrison has original music being recorded and posted to his YouTube channel in between his prolific summer concert schedule. In fact, since we last talked about Tym's new original music in March, he has uploaded sixteen new videos, mostly with new original songs, so let's look at the first ten of them this morning! Just as an advisory note, remember that multiple songs here reflect his Christian faith as well as socio-political issues that, if sufficiently divisive, I won't comment on the lyrics and imagery of (this is not that kind of website). He also does use some AI-generated imagery in the videos, but the music is all originally composed and sung by him.

I won't comment on the AI side of things either, as A. I might misjudge what is AI and what is stock footage, and B. I want to focus on the music, so just a heads up before checking out these videos.

The former Caveman Morrison frontman's oldest of this un-covered batch of songs is "Father In The Sky", a metal song about God that has a good driving riff and melodic softer choruses, and it should please fans of his heavier originals! Next was "Our Evil Ways", which we first heard on Tym's 2006 "Solo Project" CD, where it was one of my favourite songs. Here, it gets a video contextualizing the lyrics around Christianity and modern social and political commentary. "We Will Decide" followed with more classic-inspired metal, and lyrics about how we will decide our future. Tym's existing love ballad "The Reason Why" came next, and in this case, it's double length, with a lyric video of his modern studio recording, followed by him playing the song live in high school in 1992. Tym's voice has held up over the years, as he sounds pretty close to how he does nowadays! Not his heaviest song, but it is still a pretty composition with a good message overall!

The ending caption heavily implies that the second guitarist on the live performance is the late Jeremey Salatuk (later of Wishbone, Lucky 13, and various other groups). Tym stayed in a reflective/romantic mood for his next song/video, "Heart Of Stone", which has a bit of a flamenco touch on some of the guitar work, and while not heavy, fans will appreciate the music (though the vocals are muffled somewhat at points). He returned to topical material next with "9/11", which reflects on the September 11th attacks, and I won't get into the rest of the song/video's viewpoints here (again, not that kind of site). Musically, it's more reserved, slow, and introspective. Things get heavier with "The Evil In Disguise", a hard rocker about what the title suggests, but played with an ominous and darker bent. and I do prefer Tym's metal songs to have more melody than this. Next was "Lay It On The Line", which is an existing original of his and not a Triumph cover.

Lyrically about a failing relationship, this is one of the most accessible songs here for folks who just want a metal/hard rock song without political or religious content, and it's a fun and intense metal track with solid guitar as you'd expect given Tym's skill set! He next posted "Down With The Devil", about a spiritual battle with Satan, and featuring lots of related CGI imagery. Tym's singing is too processed, but the music is sound with a catchy guitar riff and a strong solo! The last of today's videos was a new upload of his original "Suicide Bike Ride", inspired by a real bicycle accident that Tym had in the 1990s, and in this new video version, he adds captions on screen to outline what exactly happened. The text contrast isn't always great, but the context is welcomed, and this is definitely one of Tym's heaviest post-"Solo Project" original songs! Great riff and very pointed singing given that this all happened to him for real, but he will tell the story better than I ever could!

The other six new songs/videos are from the last two weeks, and I hope it will be much sooner to look at those on here as our backlog continues getting cleaned out. Again, I won't comment on what many of these videos touch on in terms of modern social and political issues, but Tym isn't afraid to share what he wants to say. Musically, these show his talents as a composer and singer well, especially when he leans into 1980s-inspired classic metal and hard rock, so give his new songs a listen at the above links, go see him live at Beck's Bar TOMORROW, and because of the rare video of him live in 1992, here's Tym and Jeremey playing "The Reason Why"!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for a new news post later today, including the Krash concert preview! Thanks everyone!