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The Chosen Few
If you’re a local band without much of a fanbase, gigs are usually limited to any corner bar that will let you plug in an amp, often for no pay. If you’re lucky, a few people might even show up. Bars aren’t readily open to under-age musicians, and without enough eyeballs in the crowd, an all-ages venue like the WOW Hall is out of reach.
Until now. As a former general manager of the WOW Hall, promoter Cindy Ingram knows how hard it is for local bands to get a shot at playing there. She created a website, EugeneChosen.com, in which people could vote by email for local bands who have never played there, and the four highest vote-getters would get to play. Out of more than 60 bands and votes from more than 14,200 unique email addresses, Eugene has chosen, and the winners are: The Killer Wails, Lyckwyd, Half Shark Half Jesus and Sons of Confusion. Ingram also created a contest for the sexiest tattooist (Chris 51 of Area 51) and piercing artist (Josh Bryant from High Priestess).
“It’s so abundantly clear that in this town bands want to play the WOW Hall,” Ingram says. “It’s a nice venue, it sounds great, it has a level of prestige, so I wanted them to have a chance.” Ingram says local bands are reporting more hits on their MySpace pages, presumably from interested music fans poking around online.
A handful of bands who weren’t top vote-getters in Eugene Chosen still won, in a sense, because they were able to get the attention of the WOW Hall and get a gig. Ingram says, “There’s a dozen bands that wouldn’t have been able to play the WOW Hall if it wasn’t for this.” Eugene Chosen bands play at 7:30 pm Saturday, May 16, at WOW Hall. $8 adv., $10 door. Free if you dress like Blinky or Vektra (characters from the Eugene Chosen site) — Vanessa Salvia
