Zach Myers of Shinedown acoustic tonight at The Rutledge with special surprise guests!

Big Show, Little Bar

by Jem

This is an edited version of an email I just sent a friend a moment ago and I conceitedly decided I liked the way I worded some of it and wanted to share some thoughts about the "little guys" in the scene. This has been edited to protect the innocent.

"I get it why successful local bands don't want to play smaller venues, but I'm a sucker for a little venue that really wants to do original music but can't get any originals to play there because there except their grandma's cousin's dog's brother's owner to play. And he sucks.

I'm hoping to bring bands in that have earned their keep above and beyond to make to smaller up and comers excited about playing a show that wouldn't be their dream venue because that club won't pay attention to them yet. If they can see that their favorite local band played there then maybe it will raise their enthusiasm a bit.

There is also the stigma that Nashville bands are stuck up and pretentious. Helping out the smaller bars and the smaller bands is certainly a way to help abolish that a bit. Not that some people haven't earned their rights to be proud (in some cases a bit too much). And if you know me I am a grand stander of change for all musicians who have worked their ass off to make good music and are under-appreciated no matter their attitude or perception of themselves or other musicians. I'm just truly sick of bad music and people's unwavering laziness to do anything more than turn a knob on a radio."

That being said people, I love you all and I am looking to start a show series called "Big Show, Little Bar" at least at one small local venue. Maybe more? If any of our stars of the scene would like to play, stop laughing and shoot me a message.

MORE FREE DOWNLOADS

New download cards coming soon, but you can download it now!

www.shutterbuzzphotos.com/awesome

Fantastic Show Tonight!

I'm almost sad I'm working the door for this one tonight, but will try to sneak around to take some pics if at all possible. Hope to see everyone there!

Over 200 Free Songs - Especially for those of us who merely wish we were going to SXSW

by Jem

http://www.spinner.com/2011/02/09/sxsw-2011-free-songs/

Yup, click the link and you get over 200 free songs of new music for you to listen to at your leisure. It's totally true!

Where all the cool kids will be tonight....

by Jem

RSVP here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=194802463881965&index=1

AND.....

The place to be tonight!

by Jem

RSVP here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=206196739394001&index=1 and/or here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=177748998936910&index=1

This is the re-debut of The Lasting, one of my personal favorite bands of all times!

Maiden Voyage & What I Did This Week

by Jenny Jem George

Welcome to what is tentatively called "Rock the Scene". I created this as a place for local promoters and scene supporters to come together and write about the original music scene in Nashville and promote their shows and shows they support. The goal is to have a simple place for people to go in order to learn more about their community and be able to comment openly on their thoughts and feeling regarding the Nashville scene.

Sometimes we will venture outside the scene by commenting on bands that are coming from other towns or maybe a little quip about a road trip one of us has taken to a particularly remarkable venue to see a particularly remarkable show.

None of us revere ourselves as professional writers, but we wanted a place for people to go and check out what we find fun in our scene and who we think you might have a good time seeing. You can say our reviews are simple and our opinions wrong, but that's the beauty of a thriving scene. Saying anything at all.

Anything you want to see here? Let us know and one of us will try to take it on! Have a particularly interesting article that you'd like us to post? We make no promises, but we'd like to see it! Any questions, suggestions and articles can be submitted to outrageousproductions@gmail.com.

Now let's get to it.

I wanted to take a minute to introduce you to The Vicious Guns first of all. They are recent transplants from Canada and create quite a unique sound reminiscent of some of the electro-rock from the 80's and self-described as "new wave/post-punk/new pain/old pain/post-war-apocolypse". I usually don't care for the addition of new genres, but I rather like them when they get longer. I saw them for the first few times before they moved here and I saw them recently at 12th & Porter on Saturday, February 26 and took some pictures. If you get a chance check them out and welcome them to our scene!

I also had the privilege of welcoming back a band from Charlotte, NC, Sugar Glyder. I put the show on nervously at a new bar (to us original music folk) on the west side called "This Bar". It's a small venue, but the staff is extremely friendly and they are currently very supportive of original local music as of 2011!

I was fortunate enough to also hear Hello Kelly for the first time and the kind and talented local legends, Newmatic, graciously hopped on the bill for me too! As a result I'm thinking of starting a series called "Big Show, Little Bar". Thoughts? Willingness to participate? Random stupidity? We shall see.

In the meantime, check out all of these bands and This Bar. Booking contact is Will Floyd at bookthisbar@gmail.com. Booking is done exclusively through email.

I will post pics by the infamous Ron Macaluso soon! I have a few of my own, but I'd venture to say I'll be lucky if they turn out properly. It's a bar more than a venue so the lighting is always a nice challenge in that case.

More to come soon! There are a lot of great upcoming shows this week. See our list of shows on the left hand side and pick 1 or many to go to this week!