So, around march, my band (nashville based high school rock band) decided to try out for a Battle of the Bands at Rocketown in Nashville. there were around 35 bands trying out, and the venue narrowed contestants down to 11 bands. we were one of them.
so, may 2nd, last saturday, we went to the finals. everyone drew numbers out of a hat to determine order. we got first. just our luck, right? obviously, we didnt
want to go first, but we eventually convinced ourselves that it wasnt as bad as we thought. we were the only ba d that got to soundcheck (lack of time) and people would remember the first few and last few bands, but probably not the ones in the middle. i was content.
showtime rolled around, right before the host walked up on stage to introduce us, some punk kid pulled the fire alarm. everybody was evacuated from the whole building. not to worry, though, because that gave the people running late enough time to get there.
now, keep in mind, every band, in order to play, had to sell at LEAST 50 tickets for the venue. so, do the math. we had 550 guaranteed plus almost every band went back for more tickets to sell. total, we probably had 700 people there that night. of course, everyone was coming to see their friends play. so not everyone was there when it started.
we rocked the house with our two song limited set. the first song, 'tides' is more chill and relaxed and got the crowd interested. then, we played our heaviest song 'life left between'. the ending has a crazy cool metal part and the sound and lights guys did their job to make it look and sound like we were professionals. it was incredible.
the end of the night came. we knew we would place top 3 at least. 60% of the vote was crowd only and 40% was judges votes. needless to say, we won first prize. i was speechless.
we, as the winning band, got to choose from three different prize packages.
1. 50 tshirts with your band design free from zambooie merchandising. plus, they would put your shirt on the site for 30 days.
2. $400 gift certificate to journeys/converse for the whole band to split.
OR
3. 2 eight hour sessions at Dark Horse Studios...
we took the recording. duh. we need an EP.
if you crunch some numbers, Dark Horse has an average rate of 800 an hour.
we get 16 hours.
800x16=12,800
yes. 13 thousand dollars...for free
i visit the website daily and drool over the pictures and the list of recording artists that go there.
darkhorserecording.com
i love to brag about it, even though its awful.
if you wanna hear my music,
www.myspace.com/abovethesunmusic
videos of BOTH songs are on a blog on ^that site.
we havent gone it yet. the studio has to find a slot for us sometime in the coming months. its a busy place to say the least.
my rant is over. carry on.
