LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Mourning Wood), More Weekend Concert Previews, And New Video Finds!!

As promised, here's our last weekend concert preview post for this weekend, tackling Saturday night shows including a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT! To round things out, we have some archive video discoveries for you punk fans, so here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Mourning Wood will rock The Rednecks Saloon TOMORROW NIGHT as an afterparty for the well-advertised Garth Brooks tribute show that they're involved in! Apologies for the short notice, the Rednecks show was only announced via it's official Facebook event page earlier this week (though it at least got a public announcement, unlike last week's Reggie's Place shows.) Rocking the former Nicolet for the second time in three weeks, TOMORROW'S show is basically an epilogue to local country musician Mark Tarantini's anticipated Garth Brooks tribute concert at The Tech tomorrow, in which the members of Mourning Wood will perform backing music, though the tribute show itself is not advertised as a Mourning Wood concert. For full details on that event, visit this link, especially if you love country music! Afterwards, Mark will rejoin Mourning Wood as a guest performer for some jamming at Rednecks, so keep this in mind!

While this will likely be similar to the band's country-themed Rotaryfest set last year that Mark guested on, I imagine it won't be wall to wall Garth Brooks like at The Tech, but what exactly will they play? Be at Rednecks TOMORROW to find out! This is a 19+ event with no announced cover charge and a 10:00 PM start time. Check the above links for more details, and here's Mourning Wood (and Mark) live last year!



Next up, here's the last currently advertised hard rock concert going down this weekend in the area, as local alternative hard rock trio The Din will return to LopLops Lounge TOMORROW NIGHT to open for local/Toronto indie rock musician Jesse Merineau! The second of two shows tomorrow from this fast-rising band (joining their afternoon Gnar-BQ skatepark set), The Din will rock LopLops for the first time since May's Sulfur City concert, and will be reunited with Jesse for an unofficial rematch of this year's Speak Easy Battle of the Bands, where Jesse and The Din finished first and second respectively. Though not a metal artist, Jesse is a skilled singer/songwriter, and don't bypass him tomorrow, especially as this is both his first headlining concert and his last announced show before hitting the studio to record his debut CD! His personal Facebook page notes that he'll be playing with a full band, with Caroline Divine bandmates Brendan Fitzgerald and Devin Williamson tagged in the post alongside guitarist Mitchell Nielsen, so I imagine they're filling things out a'la the Speak Easy Battle.

For what it's worth, Caroline Divine frontman Anthony Marcello apparently moved to Ottawa for college this summer, hence his absence from this show, but as of this writing, I can't confirm if Caroline Divine are still a functioning band outside of backing Jesse up, and if so, if Mitchell replaced him. We'll let you know if we hear anything, but good luck to Anthony at school! Tomorrow's LopLops show (promoted by Jackson Reed at Ears & Eyes) is a 19+ event at 9:00 PM with a $5 cover charge. This should be a fun show for genre fans & those who have gave in to The Din, so visit the Facebook event page for more details, and here's The Din live!



Finally for today, here's some new archive video finds from inactive local punk quartet The Inner City Surfers! These come courtesy of YouTube user kierpaso, who appears to be based out of Prince Edward Island, as his videos are mostly from the province, with around 10 videos coming from Surfers performances there during their 2007-2008 tours. Half are from shows at the former Brennan's Pub in Charlottetown, but the other five are post-show, middle-of-the-night jam sessions that frontman Dustin Jones & bassist Brad "Example" Lacell (on acoustic guitar) held at kierpaso's kitchen, a.k.a. "Beater One". The jam videos are mostly of John Prine covers ("Souvenirs" x 2, here & here, "All The Best", and "In Spite of Ourselves") while one is of Bill Houston's folk song "The King of White Otter Lake". Though you get a sense that the guys are tired (Dustin in particular), these are well done covers, and it must have been cool to get to see them play all to yourself! Check out those covers above, especially if you love John Prine!

kierpaso's other five videos are from the concerts proper, but be warned that these are all black & white clips (or more accurately, black & bluish-gray.) Two come from October 2008 in what was apparently the last show ever at Brennan's Pub, where The Inner City Surfers covered The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and The Ramones "I Wanna Be Sedated", both notably with drummer Mikey Hawdon trading places to sing lead vocals. Fun covers with a nicely packed crowd, and the guys make The Stones work for them in particular, so don't bypass them, particularly if you love Lion Ride, The Fairmounts, et al! The other three come from their April 2007 concert in Charlottetown, P.E.I. (the same show that preceded the 4:00 AM jam clips), where The Surfers covered "Satisfaction" with Mikey singing too, Poison's "Fallen Angel", and as embedded below, their original song "Here's To The Days".

Though I'm not sure why it took me this long to find kierpaso's channel and share his videos here, these are a nice window into The Inner City Surfers' touring heyday, and despite the lack of colour, they have solid sound and nice close angles of the band in action! If only he'd filmed more of their originals... check out "Here's To The Days" below, and stay tuned for more!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes next week, and we might just see you guys TOMORROW at the Gnar-BQ! Thanks everyone!