LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Mourning Wood), Speak Easy Battle Of The Bands Results, New Videos, And More!!

We've been busy in recent days on the SMS, so let's keep things going today with SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS, new videos from two bands, some related updates therein (including an apology for a missed show), and yes, the final results for last night's second fan-voted battle of the bands, so here's what you need to know!

Local classic/hard rock cover veterans Mourning Wood will return to Reggie's Place on Queen Street East TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT, after just playing there last night! Apologies for the short notice (and obviously for missing yesterday's show), band members only announced the gigs last night via their personal Facebook pages, again continuing their trend of not plugging Reggie's Place gigs publically through the band's own Facebook page. According to drummer Glen Thomas' personal Facebook posting about the shows, last night's was as a trio sans Steven Flint and Paul Belair, with Havadder/3 Day Millionaires bassist Travis Sharpe filling in, and he'd be a natural fit given that he and Terry Eaton were former bandmates in Carbon Black many years back. As best as I can tell, the full lineup is playing TONIGHT & TOMORROW, so if you're up for some late notice classic, hard, and country rock, head to the original downtown Reggie's this weekend!

There's no announced cover charges, 10:00 PM-ish start times, and 19+ age limits for this weekend. See above for more details, apologies again for missing yesterday's show (we'd have plugged it had we have known!), and for a preview, here's some new Mourning Wood drum-cam concert videos! As uploaded to Glen's YouTube channel a few weeks ago, these join YouTube postings of their INXS and Wild Cherry covers from last month that we had previously shared via Facebook copies. The new videos are of Mourning Wood covering REO Speedwagon's "Take It On The Run" at The New American Pub, and as embedded below, ZZ Top's "Tush" from their latest Rockstar Bar show (and apologies for erroneously crediting the Wild Cherry cover as being from The New A originally, it was from The Rockstar Bar show too.)

Thanks to a GoPro being mounted on Glen's head for filming, these remain shaky like before, and Terry's vocals can be muffled, but it's nice to get some more unique angles of Mourning Wood in action, and the effectively add some grit to both! Give these new drum-cam videos a look above and below, and don't miss them at Reggie's TONIGHT & TOMORROW!



Next up, we have the final results from last night's second annual Speak Easy Battle of the Bands, so who won the fan-voted second year battle at Algoma University? Here are the podium finishers!

1st Place: Jesse Merineau

2nd Place: The Din

3rd Place: Eclipse

After all finishing outside of the top 3 last year, Jesse Merineau, The Din, and members of Project 421 (as part of Eclipse) have all pulled a 180° turn to claim the top 3 spots in this year's field, and of course, huge congratulations go out to Jesse for winning the battle's $400 top prize in his second try! It must have helped having Caroline Divine as a backing band for his set, with that "divine" intervention filling out his songs for his upcoming solo EP "That Night", and hopefully Jesse rides the momentum here and in Toronto! The Din's runner-up total is their best in a battle of the bands yet (and it matches Mike Haggith's 2013 Rockstar Bar Battle finish with the band Haggith), so the $200 prize will be a nice feather in their cap going into the VM Radio Battle finals on March 23rd! As for Eclipse, a third place run for this relatively new band is pretty good, and it gives Curtis McKenzie and Daniel Horton their best battle finish since Haggith's aforementioned 2013 battle run, but we'll have to see if they can maintain or improve on their $100 win when they face K.I.C.K. in next week's VM Radio Battle semifinals!

Also, we can confirm that new local pop/hard rock quartet Heavy Head did not play at the Speak Easy Battle, with members confirming in Facebook conversations that being "not ready for the competition" and scheduling conflicts for singer Mike Gaetano both factored in to their withdrawal. Disappointing, but hopefully we see them back at it soon, and hopefully the other performers (Aldous, Bryan Brown, Jack Spades, and Pillory) rocked it last night! Aside from personal postings & this great photo album from Id Iota's Christian Lemay, we're awaiting public media from the battle (perhaps from Sault Online), so stay tuned for more fallout from this battle when it comes in, and congratulations again to Jesse, The Din, and Eclipse!

Finally for today, here's the latest from Speak Easy Battle runners-up & VM Radio Battle finalists The Din (well, for non-battle related news), so what have we missed from Mike, Tammy, and Brandan lately? Well, in terms of their acoustic show at The Gore Street Cafe last week, label PaperClip Productions recorded the whole thing, and a CD copy was left at the laundromat for their music rotation. A picture of the setlist was also shared on their Facebook page, which indicates they played 10 originals or Mike Haggith solo songs, as well as 4 covers, with their entire VM Radio Battle semifinal set being among the playlist that night. Future public availability of the set was also teased, so we'll let you know when it turns up in some form! A prior Facebook post also noted that an additional late notice performer played with them and Stereo North that night, namely Morgan Steele, a local country/pop musician who you may have seen in a recent incarnation of Mustang Sally.

Morgan's talented for her genre, and hopefully she got a good reception of her own last week! Given that the show apparently had a great turnout for the ongoing Fishbowl Festival, hopefully things continue on the up & up! Lastly, the band shared this video onto their Facebook page on March 2nd of Mike and Tammy playing an acoustic version of "A Drive Through The Peninsula" during what appears to be a recent Gore Street Cafe open mic night, with Mike playing a tambourine in lieu of the bass. Well performed, but loose and informal (complete with a coffee break), so give it a look below, and don't miss The Din at The Canadian for the finals in two weeks!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next! Thanks everyone!