Win FREE TIX to SPAC’s Battle of the Bands on Friday

Summer’s here, and it’s time for SPAC to start cranking up the tunes.

The Saratoga summer season officially begins on Friday with a double-barreled blast – Ray LaMontagne with Brandi Carlile and the Secret Sisters on the amphitheater mainstage at 7:30pm, and the second annual Saratoga Performing Arts Center Battle of the Bands in the Spa Little Theater at 6pm on the same night.

The SPAC Battle of the Bands is actually something like a mini-music fest, where concert-goers can hear a wide range of musical styles from glam to jam, from blues to bluegrass, from hip-hop to alt-rock. The 10 competing bands will each have 10 minutes to perform their original music onstage in the final round of the competition on Friday. Here are the finalists:

Don’t Look Down – pop/rock – Fishkill
Eastbound Jesus – bluegrass/rock – Greenwich
Head Band Jack – folk/bluegrass/Americana/blues – Saratoga Springs
High Peaks Band – jam – Saratoga Springs
Jonny Rose and Broken Glass & Cigarettes – glam rock – Albany
MaryLeigh & the Fauves – blues/pop – Saratoga Springs
Probing Digit – pop/rock – Saratoga Springs
Stuck On Stupid – modern/classic rock – Albany
The Garden Variety – rock/hip-hop/reggae/dance – Queens/Albany
The LateShift – alternative/rock – Albany

The grand prize winner of the battle will be determined by audience response, as well as a panel of judges – moe. drummer Vinnie Amico, Blue Note Records talent scout Talia Billig and WEQX-FM DJ Jason Irwin. Audience response will count for 60% of the deciding vote in determining the grand prize winner, with the remaining 40% based on judges’ evaluations. The event will be hosted by Dani Stein.

Tickets for the finals are $15, and also include free admission to the official after party at Putnam Den in Saratoga Springs featuring the Stone Revival Band.

BUT WAIT JUST A MINUTE… What’s this? A pair of FREE TIX? That’s right, we’re giving away FREE TIX to a lucky Nippertown reader! To enter the contest, just post a comment below. Please leave your email address, too. We won’t publish it, but we’ll use it to contact you if you win. The winners will be selected at random and notified on Friday morning. Good luck! Congratulations, Chris!