Better to get the rest of this weekend's concert previews on the site early given that all involve a show tonight, so those make up the majority of today's post, alongside some new live concert videos from earlier this month! For previews of this weekend's Cory Marks/Silent 9, Generations, and Nostalgic Band concerts, visit yesterday's post below this one. Here's what (else) you should know for the weekend!
We'll resume our previews with Nostalgic Band frontman Tym Morrison's acoustic concert at The Mike Case Memorial Stage outside of The Trading Post TONIGHT! One week removed from a similarly busy weekend for both the band and by himself, tonight's previously announced unplugged matinee will be his third gig at the outdoor stage at 1332 Great Northern Road in this year's weekly summer series there, with this show again preceding a Nostalgic Band show elsewhere, this time a short notice stop at Jay's Piston Broke Pub TONIGHT (as previewed in last night's post). Hopefully fans of Tym's well produced acoustic show and vast setlist get a strong performance tonight before he heads to the west end to keep on rocking! This evening's acoustic matinee has a 7:00 PM start time, no age limit, and no cover, and 9&10 News is calling for sunny weather in the 18° range. Click here for more details, and here's Tym live!
Next up, let's cross the border to Sault Michigan, where local classic metal/hard rock quartet Tarnished will rock The Merchants Bar for one night only TONIGHT! Fresh off of their Cedarville gig this past week, this will be Tarnished's first stop at The Merch (at 108 Spruce Street West) since rocking that same venue for their St. Patrick's Day bash in March. It's always nice to see Tarnished take to the stage in the Soo, and hopefully tonight's show has all the heavy originals and covers you need! If you can't make this one, they'll be back in town at The Rapids Lounge in two weeks. Expect a 9:00 PM start time, 21+ age limit, and no cover charge for tonight, and for a preview, here's some videos from their concert at Snow's Bar & Grill last week, courtesy of the venue's Facebook page! Like they did for Project 906 on Saturday, an uncredited staffer had the (sadly vertical) camera rolling for three live-streams, so what can you see then?
The videos include covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" (with frontman Alex Traynor just singing and not playing guitar), Ratt's "Round & Round" (if obscured by fans on the floor), and as embedded below, Quiet Riot's "Cum On Feel The Noize". The guys sound good on these covers, which are strongly played with clear enthusiasm, and while I wouldn't have filmed these vertically, at least the band is in frame consistently (the "Round & Round" video acknowledged, but you do want fans engaged!) Give Tarnished's new videos a look above and below, and don't miss them at The Merch tonight!
Barring any further late notice show announcements, our hard rock concert previews end this week back in Sault Ontario, as local classic/hard rock cover quartet Soundcheck will return to Shooters Downstairs Lounge for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! The band has not confirmed these shows on their Facebook page at press time, but the venue did via their own Facebook event pages (linked here & here) well in advance, thankfully! This will be Soundcheck's first public date since returning to Goulais River's Community Days two weeks ago (they did not play at Rotaryfest), and their first at Shooters since a one-nighter last month. Interesting how Soundcheck aren't playing all that far away from tonight's Cory Marks show at The Machine Shop, featuring the debuting Silent 9 (featuring ex-bassist Paul Belair, and current bassist Jim Michaud's old Obsession bandmates Jess Amadio & Steve Porco) as the local openers.
Assuming that all goes well for Silent 9, the commonality between the two bands will become less of a novelty as time goes on, but the membership of both bands is absolutely noted! As for Soundcheck at Shooters, expect a 19+ age limit, no cover charge, and a 9:00 PM start time. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Soundcheck live!
We'll close today with another band that surprisingly did not play at Rotaryfest last week, namely local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard! They are on the road for Sudbury gigs this weekend, and don't have a currently announced local concert booked for another three weeks, but we do have some newer concert videos of theirs to check out, courtesy of their Poutine Feast gig at the Ermatinger Clergue National Historic Site on Canada Day. An uncredited representative of the band live-streamed four videos from this outdoor gig to their Facebook page, where Greg, Alex, and Warren were filmed covering Dire Straits' "Sultans of Swing", The Beatles' "Come Together", Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show's "The Cover of 'Rolling Stone'", and as embedded below, Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man". Alas, all four of these were shot vertically, but at least the filmer used zoom often, and the guys sound pretty good on all four covers!
The videos do give a good look at the Poutine Feast stage setup for 2023, and while not overly specific to the festival/Canada Day, it looks more than capable for the bands, and they had a good vantage point of the Old Stone House based on Greg's picture from the stage! Give Bone Yard's Poutine Feast videos a watch above and below!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for more Rotaryfest fallout on the site next! Thanks everyone!
Before we begin this weekend concert preview post, just a heads up that I am well aware of the multi-band concert taking place on the outskirts of the Soo on Saturday. It hasn't been covered on the SMS (yet?) because it is a private event with a private Facebook event page, and while some bands have plugged their involvement on their own, the advertising specifically notes that it is "exclusive" and geared at friends of the promoters, with just 100 tickets available for invited guests. It is a shame that this isn't publically open given who is playing, but hopefully someone has cameras rolling, and it should be safe to at least mention on the site next week!
Now, this weekend's hard rock concert previews are less than Rotaryfest
weekend as you may expect, but there is still a bit too much for one
post, so the previously announced Soundcheck, Tarnished, and Tym Morrison shows will be
in our next post hitting the site tomorrow morning. We'll actually start today with a new local band, namely local classic/hard rock cover quartet Silent 9! Launching publically last week, they are the new band from former Obsession bandmates Jess Amadio (on vocals) and Steve Porco (on drums), now joined by guitarist Ryan Robb (who I am not familiar with whatsoever in prior bands) and former Soundcheck bassist Paul Belair. No media of them is online yet, and despite calling themselves a "multi-genre cover band" on their Facebook page, their website gives a heavy-leaning current setlist with bands like AC/DC, Def Leppard, Poison, Trooper, and Twisted Sister cited, among others.
Not too far from latter day Obsession, I don't believe, if slightly newer skewing for some of the songs, and it will be interesting to see how Silent 9 do live! Their debut concert is this weekend, in the show previewed at post's end, but see above for more on Silent 9, who are now in our links!
Now, let's dive into concert previews, starting with SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS from two different bands, firstly local classic/hard rock cover band Generations, who will rock Reggie's Place for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced by drummer Tony Santoro on their Facebook group on Monday, in the post where they announced guitarist Brandon Ruch's departure. Like he did this past weekend (and at least once back in April), Smokehouse frontman Michael Yurich will fill in with Generations TOMORROW, adding another round of Friday night blues to the proceedings! Their first gig at Reggie's in almost a month, it's not clear why this
is a one-nighter, but Reggie's are hosting a karaoke night on Saturday
instead of a second band, so if that's your thing, keep that in mind!
You can enjoy Generations and Michael's classic and hard rock covers TOMORROW at 9:00 PM with no announced cover charge and a 19+ age limit. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Generations live at Rotaryfest this past Saturday!
Also, new local classic metal cover trio The Nostalgic Band will make their debut appearances at Jay's Piston Broke Pub TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! Again, apologies for the short notice, these dates were only announced via the official Facebook event page on Tuesday, despite their one-nighter at Jay's next week being announced over a week prior. For frontman Tym Morrison, TOMORROW & SATURDAY's shows will mean that he's played at the former Reggie's West three times in a four day span, following his solo acoustic matinee gig there yesterday. If you've missed Tym fronting a plugged in metal and hard rock cover band over the past 7+ years, then don't miss The Nostalgic Band's Jay's debuts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! These are 9:30 PM shows with 19+ age limits and no announced cover charges. See above fore more details, and here's The Nostalgic Band live at Reggie's over their debut weekend!
Now we'll look at two Friday nighters that had lots of advance notice, starting with this weekend's main event in Sault Ontario, as North Bay country rock musician Cory Marks will make his local debut TOMORROW NIGHT at The Machine Shop! Cory has had a lot of Jelly Roll/Hardy-esque crossover success on rock radio in recent years, with "Outlaws & Outsiders" charting in the rock top 15 here and in the States, while getting some big hard rock/metal names to guest some of his original songs, so it'll be interesting to see styles and sounds clash for what should be a high energy, southern fried night of original rock music tomorrow from Cory and his band! He did call into Pickford, Michigan country station Country 105 this morning too, I guess he fits there about as well as Rock 101 nowadays! The aforementioned Silent 9 will make their live concert debut tomorrow as the openers, on quite a big stage!
Yes, Silent 9 have a few country/southern rock songs in their setlist, click here to read up on everything so far. This 7:45 PM and all ages show takes place inside The Machine Shop at 83 Huron Street tomorrow night, and all general admission tickets run for $35 at this link and presumably at the door. Hard rock and country fans should unite to good effect tomorrow night, and it'll be interesting to hear how this show does, so visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's Cory live!
That's all for today, but check back in the morning for our Soundcheck, Tarnished, and Tym Morrison previews! Thanks everyone!
Breaking again from our Rotaryfest fallout today for a post devoted to two big topics: a recent album release, and a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT at the tail end of the summer season, so here's what you should know!
Montreal hardcore punk legends The Ripcordz will return to Sault Ste. Marie when they headline at The Loft at The Algoma Conservatory of Music on Friday, September 1st! Local punk fans will recall seeing the Paul Gott-fronted group in city limits seven times between 2013 and 2019 (and multiple times prior), most recently rocking The Rockstar Bar in November 2019, with the pandemic and their usual local promoter J.D. Pearce's move to Barrie helping delay a return engagement. Hopefully the anticipation after a nearly 4 year wait proves advantageous for The Ripcordz' blistering and fast paced brand of hardcore punk as they help kick off the Labour Day long weekend! Fresh off of their sets at the Northern Vibe Festival the previous weekend, alt-punk trio A Dire Setback (who opened for The Ripcordz here in 2019) and newer local punk/hard rock quartet Far From Fine will open this show, and hopefully they deliver the goods in their Loft debuts!
Picking up the promotional duties for this show is former Destroilet drummer Matt Waples, who opened for The Ripcordz with that band in the early-mid 2010s (both bands were on 2015's "Fed Up!" split too), and kudos to him for taking a swing on promoting a big show like this, let alone at a very fancy and unique venue like The Loft! Unfortunately, this is a 19+ event, while doors open at 8:00 PM on September 1st, and tickets will run for $25 (up from a $15 door charge in 2019), but have not yet went on sale (check here for the link when it goes live). Given all of the changes since the last local Ripcordz date, it will be interesting to see how this goes over, but visit the Facebook event page for full details!
Next up, let's finally talk about local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith's new album "All The Best In All You Do", which was released on Thursday as scheduled in advance of his dislocated knee-abbreviated set at Rotaryfest! Not an ideal way to promote a new album, but certainly unique! You can now buy/stream the album on major streaming services like Spotify, and it is on sale digitally for $10 on Bandcamp, and physical copies are on sale through his label MorningStar Records at this link for the same price on CD and $40 on vinyl. They were also available at Rotaryfest, no word on if copies were brought to sell at The Rad Zone when he was up. As previously teased, Bandcamp sale copies do indeed have bonus songs that, if you believe the e-mail sent to Bandcamp followers, "Spotify and iTunes will never hear", so if you want the complete experience, you have to pay $10 there!
The only physical copies of the album with these songs are the "rose edition" copies sold in DVD cases at Rotaryfest, so if you bought one of those, you're good to go! In order, the extra five tracks are "Unforgotten", "Requiem", a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City", "I'd Do It For You", and "Horizons", and yes, all five will be reviewed when we look at the album on the site later this year. Mike went into detail on the album and its inspiration in this lengthy article from the Morningstar website, which doesn't cover any new ground aside from hyping up the themes, but it does lay the groundwork. Adding to the recent promotion, Mike launched his own mailing list (distinct from what Bandcamp fans get) where subscribers are named "Frequent Flyers", jokingly referencing his day job there. Exclusive offers and freebies are promised, which get better the longer you're signed up!
Mike posted one more lyric video for an "All The Best In All You Do" song onto his YouTube channel on July 8th, this time for "To Be With You", though the aesthetic choices (flower petals, hand-written lyrics, VCR filter) are identical to his prior "Carousel" lyric video. There is a reason for that though, as every (non-Bandcamp bonus) song got the lyric video treatment likewise, but where are the other eight lyric videos? As it turns out, they're all featured in Mike's "album release celebration" video that went live as a scheduled post on YouTube on Thursday! I wasn't sure what this would entail, but the 77 minute video features all of the 10 primary songs with corresponding lyric video in chronological order, plus 40 minutes of album-related banter and context from Mike. Everything is time-stamped in the video description, but note that Mike outlines all the ways to buy "A.T.B.I.A.Y.D." in the introduction, including where to save some cash.
Also in the intro, Mike pre-emptively hypes up how great his Rotaryfest set was, including teasing a planned official live-stream (little did any of us know!), and he shows off the "rose edition" copies for those who didn't attend Rotaryfest. Mike's cat Viking cameos in the introduction for tracks 6-7, while Mike explains what the cover artwork represents & how he became involved with his wife Tianna in the introduction for tracks 8-10. The closing thoughts are just plugs and summative remarks, but note that the "rose edition" copies have fancier lyric booklets and a whole pressed rose! Fun watch to help commemorate a highly anticipated album release, so give it a look below, and look for our review in December!
That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!
Let's continue our fallout from this year's Rotaryfest in today's post, and with public videos and coverage of the two closing bands on Stage 1 (so far) dealt with yesterday, we'll start today with the third-to-last band on Saturday, namely classic rock veterans Mustang Heart! Their third straight and eighteenth overall appearance on Stage 1 (a record for the post-2000 festival format), these videos come courtesy of keyboardist Vito Tassone's solo Facebook page, which he uses to plug Mustang Heart and his own adult contemporary solo music. Five public videos of their set can be seen here, three being shared from relative Connie Tassone Mazzuca's personal Facebook page, where she (vertically) filmed covers of Honeymoon Suite's "What Does It Take", Journey's "Stone In Love", and Styx's "Babe". These aren't badly shot, and the audio holds up, but the vertical angle from this far away isn't ideal.
Vito's other two videos are posted directly to his page, and were filmed by an uncredited attendee from a closer, more central vantage point (and shot horizontally!), with the covers being of "What Does It Take" again and, as embedded below, Mustang Heart's apparent set opening cover of Van Halen's "Jump" (complete with the "1984" instrumental beforehand), which features guitarist Lorenzo Fabbri on lead vocals. While not as hard rock-focused as some of their local cohorts, Mustang Heart deliver a fun time when they take the local stage, and there's a reason why they've only missed Rotaryfest once since 2004, so classic rock fans will enjoy their lively covers linked above & below!
Right before Mustang Heart's set on Saturday evening, fans saw the Stage 1 debut of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations, but while we're on the subject, we have two news items to note from them. Firstly, you may recall that they also played at Jay's Piston Broke Pub on Friday in a one-nighter, but the entire band wasn't idle on Saturday night. Instead, their predecessors Jus' Chillin returned to play that night in their first show since February! This implies that singer Valerie Powley was unavailable for one reason or another that night, so the guys decided to make due and bring their old guise back for a one-off (Tex Riviera from local country cover veterans The Ride was credited as a guest musician for this show too). Hopefully that went well for all involved! Remember, Jus' Chillin were not a hard rock-focused band, Generations (who took over their Facebook group) developed more of that since adding Valerie.
The other big news is that Generations have parted ways with guitarist Brandon Ruch, as announced by drummer Tony Santoro on their Facebook group on Monday. Brandon's exit is 100% amicable and was prompted by "a busy summer schedule and prior commitments", but Tony praised Brandon's work with Generations and noted that he hoped to jam with him again in the future. Brandon had been Jus' Chillin's final guitarist in their last concerts earlier this year, but had sat out Generations gigs in the past, as seen above with Smokehouse's Michael Yurich filling in on guitar at The Esquire Club in April. Michael did the same at Rotaryfest on Saturday (I'm unsure about the Jay's show on Friday), and you can see him with Generations on Stage 1 via three videos shared to their Facebook group courtesy of attendee Angela Wilcott's personal Facebook page!
Her videos include this song with Michael on vocals (I couldn't match the lyrics to anything... maybe it's an original of his?), Miley Cyrus' "Flowers" with Valerie on vocals, and as embedded below, The Tragically Hip's "Blow At High Dough" with bassist Pierre Anthony on vocals. Angela had a nice and close spot to capture Generations and Michael rocking out, and everyone performs strongly, though I'd never have expected to see Valerie sing Miley Cyrus. Give these a watch above & below, and look for a late notice show from Generations in this weekend's concert previews!
The only other public videos that I know of from Saturday's Stage 1 program are from party rock cover quintet Encore's lead-off set, and you can head to their Facebook page to see their covers of Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" and The 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up" (an oddly popular cover choice among local bands). Nothing heavy here, but Encore (featuring ex-Tripod The Dog bassist John Amendola and ex-Obsession drummer Rich Trevisanut) have loads of talent in their ranks! Dipping back to night #2 on Stage 1 on Friday, newer local classic rock cover band The Way Backs posted two videos on their Facebook page of them covering Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and the spiritual song "Down By The Riverside". Definite change of pace, but seeing as this band originated from the local production of the musical Million Dollar Quartet, you know that it wouldn't be quite on par with other bands that day.
We'll close by noting that the uncredited Sault Star photographer got pictures of both Stage 1 band Bookclub and Stage 2 headliner Rusty McCarthy on Friday that you can check out at this link. Solid shots as usual, but it is still kinda odd seeing members of The Inner City Surfers on the main stage (not because they don't deserve it, just for its long-time covers focus). We'll have more from Rotaryfest in the days ahead, but stay tuned for a non-Rotaryfest news post next! Thanks everyone!
Before we begin today's post, I wanted to apologize for missing Sault Michigan hard rock cover quartet Rhythm & Brews' return to The Rapids Lounge at the Soo's Kewadin Casino branchthis past Friday & Saturday in our weekend concert previews.Three weeks removed from their last shows at The Rapids Lounge, these were not announced on the band's Facebook page, and I only heard about them via members' personal Facebook pages after the fact. I am 100% positive that they were not advertised for this past weekend on Kewadin's entertainment page, so they may truly have been short notice, but apologies regardless! I'd have covered them had they gotten any public advance notice, but hopefully they were hits!
Now, let's pause our Rotaryfest fallout briefly to look at some other recent news updates, starting with LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, one on SHORT NOTICE, as Sault Ontario hard rock singer/guitarist Tym Morrison will bring his acoustic solo act to Jay's Piston Broke Pub for the first time THIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the venue only announced that Tym was playing on WEDNESDAY via their Facebook page earlier today. Starting on July 5th, the former Reggie's West began hosting "matinee" concerts at 6:00 PM on both Mondays & Wednesdays to coincide with chicken wing nights, with a different acoustic-leaning performer playing on these evenings to coincide with the promotion (if you are so inclined, wings at Jay's are 85¢ each). In fact, this series started on Wednesday the 5th with Bone Yard frontman Greg Simpson in his first unplugged solo gig since the pandemic began!
I do apologize for missing that on here too, which would have been fun for Bone Yard fans, but this conceit of mid-week evening concerts during Jay's wing nights is very new to me. Country veteran Leslie Cook has owned Mondays so far, while last Wednesday had Soundcheck's Cameron Oliver in a joint country set with Matt Tarantini. THIS WEDNESDAY will see Tym rock out on a familiar night if you recall his Mike Case Stage shows last summer. Hopefully this is a good, if late notice, primer for The Nostalgic Band's debut there next weekend! Expect a 19+ age limit and no cover charge for this 6:00 PM affair. See above for more details, and here's Tym live!
Next up, here's a new show with plenty of advance notice, as St. Albert, Alberta hard rock sextet Sparrow Blue will make their local concert debut on Tuesday, September 12th when they rock Soo Blaster! Sparrow Blue's classic rock-inspired brand of "real thick rock 'n roll" has helped them cross genre lines and attract some strong notices to date, and with their obvious talents, they should turn heads in a couple of months! Local support will come by way of two bands who are certainly no strangers to each other in 2023, namely indie rock quartet Man Feelings and hard/alternative rock quintet Handsome Sandwich, and their devoted fanbases should hopefully come out for this one despite the somewhat unfortunate Tuesday night scheduling! This stop on Sparrow Blue's Outta The Nest Tour has $10 advance tickets at this link and a $15 door charge, while a 7:00 PM start time is advertised, and expect a 19+ age limit. See above for more details!
Let's leap back to Sault Michigan now for some new videos from local blues/hard rock quartet Project 906's show at Snow's Bar & Grill in nearby Cedarville from this past Saturday! These were filmed by a venue staffer and live-streamed to the bar's Facebook page, and while they did the same for Tarnished on Friday night, we're saving those for this weekend's concert previews. The videos confirm that Brian Duford (who guested with 906 when they last played in Cedarville) was back behind the drumkit on Saturday, though if it was due to another conflicting Fake Chow gig for Jason VanLuven, then that band did not publically plug it on their Facebook page. The videos feature Project 906 & Brian covering Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble's "Pride & Joy" and, as embedded below, The Allman Brothers Band's "Soulshine". Sadly, these are both vertically shot, but at least everyone is in frame for the duration!
Everyone sounds good on these covers that do more justice to the blues rock side of Project 906's cover range (at least neither of these is "What If" again!), and vertical aspect ratio aside, the quality is really strong for the video proper. Check these out above & below, and stay tuned for more concert videos from Snow's later this week!
We'll close today with a Sault Ontario video that has slipped us by in our recent coverage of local concert videos shot for Christopher Paci's YouTube channel, mainly because it was uploaded as a "Shorts" video and therefore wasn't lumped with the rest. This comes from the Dayglo Abortions/Random Killing concert at Soo Blaster in May, with Chris posting this brief vertical clip of attendees moshing during Random Killing's co-headlining set. Mosh pits are best experienced in widescreen, but it is fun seeing so many punk fans making noise in the pit for such a big show, and hopefully everyone survived intact! Check it out for yourselves below!
That's all for now, but we'll resume our fallout from Rotaryfest on the site next! Thanks everyone!
After managing to dodge most of the rain in the weather forecast, Rotaryfest is in the books for 2023, and there is a fair amount out about the Soo's summer festival from its music stages! We'll start with Stage 1 bands at Clergue Park on Saturday night, and while a featured touring band hasn't closed the main stage since 2016, it does make sense on paper to start with Winnipeg-based Bon Jovi tribute band Bed of Roses, who had pictures taken by an uncredited Sault Star photographer that you can see at this link, There are also photos by Ron Jokelainen from First Local News, which is the rebranded and relaunched SaultOnline, whose website was abruptly taken down on June 12th despite posting new articles just two days prior, as well as videos of new local cover band Bourbon Blue on their Facebook page. While site staff were vague on the reason for the change, issues with the prior domain host may have been a factor.
Losing years of site content is not ideal whatsoever, and a little transparency in that regard may have been ideal for SaultOnline readers, but First Local News has improved in the ensuing weeks, and hopefully they can pick things up reasonably well! New name's not especially "local" to the Soo though. As for Ron's Bed of Roses coverage, the photos are not on the same quality as The Sault Star's, but you do get more of a write-up of their set, so click here to see everything of his! The only other Rotaryfest coverage there to touch on the music was this article featuring a photo of The Wyld Stallyns' set on Saturday, coincidentally also the Stage 1 band performing in three photos from Alex Flood's coverage on SooToday (he also got one of Stage 2 performers Distich's set). One more news coverage note, as Renegade/Bed of Roses frontman Darryl Clayton was interviewed by The Sault Star!
In advance of Rotaryfest's kickoff, this article by The Sault Star's Brian Kelly went up on Wednesday where Darryl talked about the differences in paying tribute to both Bon Jovi and Styx, what it was like playing live in front of Bon Jovi bassist Hugh McDonald, and how he first got into covering Styx, among other related topics. Good read for fans, and apologies for being late to the party in addressing it here! As far as videos go, we do have some public footage to check out of the closing bands on Saturday, as the ever-prolific Christopher Paci was back at Rotaryfest to film a few bands this year for his packed YouTube channel, including two clips of Bed of Roses' sister band Renegade in their headline set on Friday. I wouldn't say Styx are a "hard rock" band, but you can check out their faithful renditions of "Come Sail Away" and "Mr. Roboto" by clicking there or above, and they had a good turnout!
As for Bed of Roses, Chris filmed three videos of them tackling the Bon Jovi classics "Wanted Dead Or Alive", "It's My Life", and as embedded below, "Living On A Prayer". Chris was nowhere near the stage (a possible consequence of arriving for just the later sets), but he got a good central vantage point and made optimal use of the zoom function. Bed of Roses delivered a solid sound for Bon Jovi fans, especially compared to how the real thing sounded in concert last year, and the crowd was very receptive and eager to sing along, which you love to see! Check out Chris' videos above & below, and stay tuned for more from him soon!
We'll close today with the one-off headlining reunion of local classic/hard rock cover quintet That's Chester (yes, their recent Facebook rehearsal video is also coming soon), as Chris filmed them covering Judas Priest's "Breaking The Law" and as embedded below, AC/DC's "Let There Be Rock". Of course, this set was fronted by original singer Richard Fullerton rather than Greg Simpson, so mid-2000s That's Chester fans were definitely excited. Everyone performs strongly in both clips, and the Chesters get lots of time to rock out and show off during the AC/DC cover, with guitarist Gabe Tessaro (nice to see pause his retirement for a night) even pulling off some Angus Young moves and a nice extended guitar solo! Whether you prefer Ritch or Greg (or even Jim) is a matter of personal preference, but Ritch had strong enthuasiasm and vocals to match on these covers, so check everything for yourselves out above & below!
That's all for now, but look for more from Rotaryfest and elsewhere on the site this week! Thanks everyone!
This will be a very different post for me on the SMS, as I've never seen an event like this happen before in a musician we cover (minor slips or moshpit mishaps, sure), but given how fast this spread on social media for bad and good reasons, I had to cover it on here once we escaped this weekend's concert previews and had enough public facts. Let's get things rolling!
As you may know, local/Barrie alt-hard rock solo musician Mike Haggith was the very first performer on Rotaryfest Stage 1 on Thursday, which also served as the release party for his brand new studio album "All The Best In All You Do", but that wasn't the narrative of the evening for too long. If you were watching in person at Clergue Park or via Facebook live-streams, you'll have seen Mike and his backing band (guitarist Chris Nielsen, bassist Jacob Quarrell, and drummer Brandan Glew) kick off their set with the new album's opening track "All You Do", and they were in the late stages of their second song ("Hot & Cold") when Mike seriously dislocated his knee mid-song! You can see what happened below in Jacob's live-stream for his personal Facebook page, which was shared publically on Kenneth Armstrong's SooToday article about Mike's set, so I assume it's safe to share here (at least one other Facebook video is floating around too).
You can see what happened at the 8:30 mark, and it doesn't look like much, just that his left knee suddenly gave out while he was rocking out with his right foot propped on the drum riser. Mike thought that he caught his heel on a crevice on the stage in a freak accident, and he did not pass any blame or judgment on Rotaryfest's crew, who he praised for the amazing job they did this year (remember, he played on the same stage without incident last year). Mike finished the song while laying on his back facing away from the crowd, and while his left knee looks a little misshapen, it's nothing horrible to look at (initial on-stage reactions were that he broke his leg, but it thankfully was not that serious). Jacob's live-stream above runs out with Rotaryfest staff, paramedics, and the band checking on Mike and assessing what happened, with Jacob reminding us at the end to not actually tell someone to "break a leg" before a performance, as it might come true!
An ambulance was called to bring Mike to Sault Area Hospital, but while still laying on his back surrounded by paramedics (who did pop his knee back into place), he played one more song! The joys of adrenaline, musicians will understand that rush! Mike and the guys played "I've Seen It Before" (not something many of us can say of this set!), and while that video wasn't posted/re-shared publically, Jacob did film it in a second live-stream that you can watch on his personal Facebook page. The abbreviated 20-ish minute set ended with Mike still joking to the crowd, thanking everyone, and suggesting that we do it again next year, and personal postings suggested that if the ambulance didn't arrive when it did, he would have tried to keep playing. All props and kudos to Mike for his toughness and dedication to play on despite a freak injury like this, not all musicians would bother after getting similarly hurt mid-set! I wonder if this is worthy of a song?
The dislocation was not a simple "reset the kneecap and you're good to go" instance like on TV, and Mike is still dealing with the effects of the injury. I won't go into full detail here, as not everything is posted to his solo project's Facebook page or the SooToday article, but he was discharged from the hospital that night, and as of Friday morning, he was "stubbornly up & hobbling around" despite a swollen knee, and it was "not fun to walk". Mike does still plan to play at the Northern Vibe Festival in Ophir late next month, presumably with the same backing band, and if you know Mike well, you'll know that he and the guys put in a lot of work to get this set ready for Rotaryfest to launch the new album in style, only for this to happen. Time will tell how healed up his knee is by August 25th, but they did invent chairs for a reason, and you may recall Dave Grohl (and later Axl Rose) using a fancy throne on stage when he broke his leg on tour!
Hopefully his Northern Vibe set is everything that he and the band were hoping for out of the Rotaryfest set, as the new album (which I will cover on the site next week) deserves attention beyond what a fluke injury going viral could create. That said, it's the press you can't quite make up off the top of your head, and hopefully he sold some extra CDs on Thursday! I'm told they were still being sold after the ambulance left. It is worth noting that Mike's old Din bandmate Tammy Hill had just played her first live concert in four years on Tuesday (with The Steeletown Girls at The Roberta Bondar Pavilion) after she seriously injured two fingers in an accident back in 2019, so this has proved to be an eventful week for Din alumni. Read the SooToday article above (featuring Mike's own remarks via phone) and his Facebook page for more on his Rotaryfest 2023 set, and we'll have more from him on the site next week! Thanks everyone!
