Sunday, June 29, 2014

New Videos From The Alice Cooper Concert & LemmaFest!!

In what could be our last news post of the month (though this month's CD review is still coming by tomorrow), we're 100% focused on Sault Michigan this morning, as new videos from two recent major events are now online, with one clarifying a new (or renamed) band's sound, if only for one song, so here's what you need to know! (Updated at 10:09 AM)

We'll start with the first new YouTube videos from Friday night's Alice Cooper concert at The Dreammaker's Theater at the Sault Michigan Kewadin Casino, as there's a lot more now online than you might realize! "MissOutDoors" was the first known YouTube user with videos from the show, and believe it or not, she uploaded 29 videos from the concert onto her channel on Saturday! However, I will note that of them, only 8 are longer than 2 minutes (and only three run for over 3 minutes), while another 8 videos are all under 1 minute, including two running for just 12 seconds. Despite the amount of incomplete & abbreviated videos, many do capture readily recognizable songs, such as "Feed My Frankenstein", "Welcome To My Nightmare", "Dirty Diamonds", and this surprising cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall", but be sure to check the above links to see all 29! MissOutDoors had a good central angle to capture everything, plus the on-stage theatrics that have became such a trademark of his sets, but it'd defeat the purpose to spoil them here!

Audio-wise, the songs do sound muffled and they may be hard to make out on the shorter clips, but these are solid videos otherwise, if chopped up a ton beforehand. Alice and company sound on form from other recent gigs, he's held up well! Embedded below is the longest of MissOutDoors' videos (of a straitjacketed Alice singing "The Ballad of Dwight Fry"), but be sure to check out the other 28 above!



The other currently known YouTube videos of the show come courtesy of the YouTube channel of user nottheonlyboy, who has shot concert footage at other E.U.P. events, but as far as I can tell, never in the Soo until yesterday. His videos include "Hey Stoopid", "Poison", "Feed My Frankenstein" and, as embedded below, Alice singing his classics "Hello Hooray" & "House of Fire", though note that his footage of "Hello Hooray" is incomplete. Filmed at a similar angle to MissOutDoors' videos (if more to the left), the audio quality on nottheonlyboy's videos is much clearer and louder, and he got some nice zoomed in shots of the band in action, so Alice Cooper fans should really like these videos! Check them out above & below!



We'll close today with new videos from the fourth annual LemmaFest outside of the Dondee last week, including 26 minutes worth of local alternative/hard rock trio Plastic's set that day! Shot by local filmmaker Wayne Kozeyah and uploaded to frontman Zac Crook's YouTube channel yesterday, this is all of a very nice quality on a largely stationary camera near the stage, but does the music match up? Edited into highlights with dead air between songs clipped out, the songs include covers of The White Stripes' "Ball & Biscuit", Stevie Wonder's "Boogie On Reggae Woman", and Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual", followed by their originals "Be My Angel" & "Butt Touchers" (I think?), and covers of The Misfits' "Return of the Fly" and the previously filmed cover of Thin Lizzy's "Cowboy Song", so click each link to go to the individual songs! Eclectic cover choices, but the guys effectively grunged them up like they did last year, and the excellent video quality doesn't hirt at all, despite some heads occasionally getting in the way! Awesome video, and a good sign for the future, so check it out below!



Finally, we have a video glimpse of the (sort of) new band named Mr. Fister that played at LemmaFest, so what do we now know? They definitely are either successors to or a renamed version of Dirtbag In A Dress (formerly Bucksaw), who were one of only two bands to play at the first three LemmaFests, and their lineup does indeed feature Blind Baby guitarist Bill Ogston, Scofflaw bassist Barney Gravelle, and Chump Change drummer Jason VanLuven (returning to replace Mikey Bishop.) Jason also appears to have taken over lead vocals from the departed Ryan Franklin, as seen in the video below, while Ryan wasn't replaced on rhythm guitar either. I have yet to see either a new page or an update to the old D.I.A.D. page to reflect Mr. Fister (including on if this was a one-off performance or not), but the aforementioned Wayne Kozeyah filmed the guys covering Black Sabbath's "Fairies Wear Boots", which he posted on his YouTube channel on Thursday, so how's this clip turn out?

Well shot from two different cameras (one overhead), the band sounds good on this cover, and while Jason's vocals take some adjusting to, they end up fitting well! I will nitpick about the overhead camera though, as it accentuates the lack of fans up front during this song, but other than that, this is a very solid rendition with nice guitar work, and it's nice to see the guys keeping some ties to all four LemmaFests via their participation last weekend! Check out Mr. Fister below, and I wonder if Wayne got any more videos, perhaps of Nightmare Grin?



That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news this week, plus our review of Mike Haggith's newest EP by tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

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