LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Project 421 & Mourning Wood), More Updates, And A Christmas Surprise!!

Merry Christmas, everyone! And yes, Happy Holidays too if you don't celebrate. We have a Christmas present to round out this post, but first, here's some recent musician searches and LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for the holiday season (including a SHORT NOTICE one), so here's what you should know!

Local classic/hard rock cover quartet Mourning Wood will host a special Boxing Day jam night concert at Reggie's West TOMORROW NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, this show was only announced via the official Facebook page last night. Apparently a delayed replacement for local blues rock veterans' Mojo weekly Thursday jam night (presumably cancelled due to Christmas Eve commitments), this is the first publically announced jam night hosted by Mourning Wood since their Rednecks Saloon jam nights ended in the spring, but the format will be very similar, with them as the house band rocking out as usual, and extra performers are welcome to join in and bring their instruments & talents! If you're familiar with Mojo's jam nights, this should also be fun, if not as blues-heavy, so keep it in mind for your Boxing Day plans TOMORROW NIGHT! And no, they're not listed for a concert at Reggie's West (the former Roosevelt Hotel) tonight, as far as we can tell.

This 19+ concert has no announced cover charge and an earlier start time of 9:00 PM. For more details, visit the above links! It's nice to see Mourning Wood breaking out their jam night concept again (they definitely know a wide range of songs to help with that), so don't bypass this show if you want some plans TOMORROW NIGHT, and don't miss their New Year's Eve show at Rednecks next week either! Here's the guys live earlier this year!

Next up, the previously teased New Year's Eve concert at The Rockstar Bar is indeed still on (despite the deletion of two prior Facebook event pages), as local classic metal quintet Project 421 will end 2015 on a heavy note as headliners there on Thursday, December 31st! Replacing the usual New Year's Eve show from pop rock cover veterans Cherry Crush for unannounced reasons, this show comes barely a week after their Christmas-themed show from Wednesday night, and will be similar in scheduling and tone to that and their 2 year reunion show, complete with new (and still online page-less) local nu-metal band Eclipse opening once again, but in lieu of The Elements, young local glam/power pop trio Caroline Divine will make their Rockstar Bar debut (I believe) to end 2015, and it's neat to see them spreading their wings further! Promoted by Project 421 bassist Daniel Horton (and curiously not through the PaperClip Productions label), Eclipse will open at 10:00 PM, followed by Caroline Divine at 11:00 PM, and Project 421 on at midnight to kick off 2016 in style!

Given the New Year's trappings, there will be an increased cover charge of $10 in effect next week, and you must be 19 or older to attend. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! This sounds like another solid concert, and definitely a good and heavy way to finish off another year, so keep this one in mind when planning your New Year's Eve festivities! (Also, just as a reference note, Wednesday's Project 421 concert was moved downstairs to The Algonquin Pub due to a booking conflict, as per event page postings. Hopefully it went well despite the move!)

Also today, here's three assorted items from the Musicians Wanted Facebook group, which we haven't touched on in the last while, so who all is looking to find musicians to fill out a band or jam with? As usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

• Local musician Al Blais is looking to start a band, and is open for auditions. He didn't specify any further details, but personal postings indicate that he does like metal bands. If you're interested in getting more info, message Al at guitargawd666@hotmail.com or via his Musicians Wanted group post from December 12th!
• Redundant/Elements bassist James White is looking for a guitarist to join a grunge cover band that he's working on launching, that would cover primarily bands from the Seattle scene of the early 1990s like Nirvana & Pearl Jam. There's already some interest, but if you want to throw your hat into the ring, message James at this link or via his Musicians Wanted group post from Sunday!
• Bear Hunters guitarist Mitch Sirie is looking for a piano or keyboard player that would be interested in playing rock and/or metal. Presumably, this references one of his long gestating solo projects like The Sorrow Fields, but he didn't elaborate on details. If you're an interested pianist, message Mitch at this link or via his Musicians Wanted group post from December 12th!

Finally for today, I wanted to have a little Christmas present for you guys, especially given my recent concert hiatus due to family health concerns, so today, we have defunct local punk quartet Proposition 86's self-titled album from 1998! Arguably best remembered today as the first major band from late Woods of Ypres frontman David Gold (who drummed for Proposition 86 during his high school days), I was able to borrow a copy of the cassette tape from The Rad Zone's Paul Muncaster last month (huge kudos, Monk!), and I made mp3 copies and scans of everything for personal use, and now, as a Christmas upload for readers courtesy of our YouTube channel! Also featuring singer/guitarist Gord Jones, lead guitarist Paul Michael Stos (now of The Billy Bastards), and bassist Steve Zuppa (later of Downshift), Proposition 86 recorded this tape with producer Keith Davis at Full Scale Audio and released it independently through their own Knutsford label, and it's obviously now out of print.

Featuring 10 songs ("A Bloody Day", "Execution Style", "The Permanent Solution", "Release", "Unfold", "Lies", "Inferior", "Another Lost Cause", "Scapegoat", and a hidden bonus cover of Under The Influence's "Whoa"), you get some solid skate punk from the late 1990s local scene here, and while it's a far cry in tone from Woods of Ypres, fans of Steve's later bands will be in familiar territory! Now, is a review of the "Proposition 86" cassette tape imminent on the SMS? Probably not, as precedence goes to new CDs, but in a month with nothing new to cover, this could very well fit in, especially if we can tie it in with a Billys concert! Check out Proposition 86's album above, and here's track #1, "A Bloody Day"!



That's all for today, but I do hope everyone has a merry Christmas, and stay tuned for much more as the month & year winds down! Thanks everyone!