SNOT To Play First Show In 10 Years Tonight In Santa Barbara

The reunited lineup of the legendary Santa Barbara metal/punk rock hybrid SNOT — featuring original members Mikey Doling (guitar),John "Tumor" Fahnestock (bass),Jamie Miller (drums) and Sonny Mayo (guitar) along with the group's latest addition, former DIVINE HERESY vocalist Tommy Cummings (a.k.a. Tommy Vext) — will play its first show in 10 years tonight (Wednesday, August 20) at Velvet Jones on State St. in Santa Barbara where the band started. Doors are 8:00 p.m. First 100 get in for free, $10 after.

SNOT recently posted a new song, "The Band Plays On", on its official MySpace page.

The band has secured a deal with the TKO booking agency (BUCKCHERRY, FEAR FACTORY, HELMET, MOTÖRHEAD, MUDVAYNE, THE CULT) and plans to go into the studio this winter to record a new album for a summer 2009 release. In the meantime, SNOT will play a number of shows, including a fall 2008 tour of the United States supporting DEVILDRIVER.

SNOT disbanded in 1998 following the death of the group's lead singer, Lynn Strait. Lynn died in a car accident in December 1998, putting an end to a career that generated considerable promise but only one studio album, the 1997 Geffen Records release "Get Some". Also killed was the band's mascot Dobbs, Strait's dog who adorned the cover of SNOT's debut album. The band had been writing material for its sophomore CD and had completed 10 songs at the time of Strait's tragic passing. As a memorial to Strait, SNOT eventually decided to release those tracks, with lyrics and guest vocals provided by a host of stars from the alt-metal community. The resulting album, "Strait Up", was a fitting tribute from Strait's peers and friends, featuring members of LIMP BIZKIT, KORN, SLIPKNOT, SEVENDUST, (HED) P.E., COAL CHAMBER, SUGAR RAY, SYSTEM OF A DOWN, SOULFLY, and more.

In an exclusive interview with BLABBERMOUTH.NET conducted on July 12, 2008, Mikey Doling stated about the band's decision to reform, "Well, a lot of things kind of came together. I had a band called INVITRO, we were on tour with SEVENDUST [which at the time featured Mayo on guitar], and we played Anaheim [on April 5, 2007], and all the SNOT guys showed up to the show. And we hadn't played together in 10 years. Before the show, we all looked at each other and said, 'Hey, you wanna do a song?' And the singer [Jeff Weber] of my band INVITRO knew one of our songs. So they jumped up on stage, took over the instruments with myself and Jeff, and we played 'Stoopid'. [See photos at this location. —Ed.] And it sounded great, and it felt good, man, to play with each other. You know, we're brothers — straight-up brothers. And that happened, and we were like, 'Cool.' We didn't think anything of it. I think it just kind of sat in the back of our minds after that — like, that was really fun to play together again. And, of course, it did start coming to the 10-year point [of Lynn's death], and out of respect for Lynn Strait, my best friend in the world, we just didn't play together for 10 years — we couldn't do it without our brother. But we started kind of talking about it — we all got free time. Sonny left SEVENDUST and INVITRO is taking a hiatus. And Jamie was in the mood to play drums again and Tumor was free, and we said, 'Hey, let's just throw a jam.' We just wanted to jam out, for fun, just to play with each other. And it sounded really good, and then we just said, 'Fuck it. Let's book a few shows.' As far as finding a vocalist, we were like, 'Well, who's gonna sing for these shows?' So we started trying guys out. We tried some really cool dudes out, and Tommy Vext became available, 'cause he left DIVINE HERESY, and he came out and jammed with us and, fuck, it just sounded so good and it was so fun, we decided to go ahead and go with it — in complete respect for our fallen brother, for our friend Lynn, 'cause I know there's gonna be a backlash about it; I know people are gonna be pissed off, and I understand that — I totally understand that — and God bless 'em for loving Lynn so much; we do too. But we really wanna play together, man. SNOT really got discovered after we were done. And that really meant nothing to us, 'cause first and foremost we miss Lynn more than anything in the world, but we wanna play again, we wanna play together, and we found a really cool dude to sing and help us out. He's not taking Lynn's place in any way. He's helping us out so the four of us can play together."