Musings of a Punk Rock Father

Sunday night, one of the best bands currently performing made their way to Wheaton, IL. Project 86 just released their fifth album, ...And the Rest Will Follow, and I cannot stop listening to it. So I was incredibly excited when I learned they would be playing within 15 minutes of my house.

The show was at the Wheaton Grand Theater, an old movie theater that has been converted into a decent rock n' roll venue. When you enter, you first see a small movie theater, seats and all. I grimaced, thinking I would have to endure sitting in a seat while a heavy, screaming, pummeling band tried to get the crowd excited. Thankfully, that was where some of the merch was displayed, and once I went through the door in the back of the room, I found a very cool looking room with a decent stage, decent lighting and decent sound.

It looked in pretty poor condition, with portions of wall ripped away, exposing brick and whatever else was there in the dark, but I think that works for a rock show. On the downside, the stage sat about six feet away from the crowd, with a steel barricade keeping us from getting close to the band. To me, there's a necessity for the band to be able to reach out and literally touch the audience, and vice versa. Proving my thought, the lead singer for the band Spoken spent their entire set hanging on the barricade.

Project is one of my favorite bands because not only are they heavy, their lyrical content seems to aspire to a higher level than your typical hard-metal-whatever-core band. I appreciate how lyricist/vocalist Andrew Schwab works spiritual content into a song relevant to people of just about any belief.

I just hope that for their next outing they work up a new setlist. As much as I like "Stein's Theme," "The Spy Hunter" and "P.S.," I wouldn't mind hearing a few songs I've never heard live before.