What a great night of music! I really feel like a lot of the bands got to play in front of entirely new audiences that were unfamiliar with them.

A quick rundown:

The Roundups: Several comments from people that I got were how they had found there "new" favorite band. I find this ironic because The Roundups have probably been around twice as long as any other band on the bill.

Jessica Benge: Everyone was asking about buying her CD. She really pulled out the stops. I had gotten an email in the weeks before the show from a fan of another prominent (and also very talented female singer) complaining that I should have chosen the other singer for "best pipes." After trading several emails back and forth, she admitted that she had never actually heard Jessica. I challenged her to come out and see the show and if she was dissappointed in my choice after hearing her that I'd buy her a drink. She said she would show, but if she did she never introduced herself. My guess was that after Jessica's performance, she would have had a lot of humble pie to eat. Jessica and her band kicked ass.

Original State of Mind: The first impression I had when I saw them six months ago was that they had the ability to get people out of their seats and up to the stage to shake there ass a bit. This so rarely happens at Birdy's and I was glad to see the same thing happen again when they took the stage. They did well and were real troopers for continuing on, considering they lost there lead guitarist three weeks ago.

Stereo Deluxe: I've said so much about these guys I don't even know what else I can add. Someone please mail me a thesaurus so I can find new words to use in place of " awesome," " terrific," "catchy," "polished," and "Un-fucking-believable."

Emerson Rose: They had what is usually considered the death slot on the bill, going on at almost 1 AM. No fear though--they brought everyone out of their seats and rocked out an extra-long set keeping the crowd there until Mike had to pull the plug. If you don't have their new CD yet, I suggest buying it and getting in a muscle car and jamming while you tool around the backroads. It's scary good.

I'm attaching a link to a slide show of the evening's pics. The music you hear is brought to you by the thesaurus-busting Stereo Deluxe.