Tonight! It’s our annual Black Sheep Battle of the Bands, which usually takes place in July but here we are in October. This event is incredibly important for us in welcoming a new generation of bands and musicians to our space. Tonight we have six whole acts that are completely new to the Black Sheep stage, starting at 6:00 pm. Here are those bands along with a projected schedule for the night:

9:40 – Puff Puff Poseidon
8:55 – Master Bastard
8:20 – Coop De Grace
7:40 – Rockford
7:00 – 13LISS
6:30 – Hannah Songer
6:00 – Niko Robledo

*note set times may not be exact!

There you have it – a few full bands and a few solo projects all of which have not yet performed at Black Sheep. This again all starts tonight at Black Sheep at 6:00 pm. Admission is $5 for those not playing. Also our panel of judges tonight includes Kyle Noonan (Southtown Sound), Jessica Knight, Nick Demarco (Looming), and DJ Tariq! Two prizes will be awarded tonight to two winning acts – a crowd voted winner will receive a slot on our Black Sheep Holiday Show happening later on in December. The winner from the judges panel will receive a free recorded demo at Southtown Sound.

Find a facebook event for tonight right here. Also check out our shows page for a good look at everything else coming up this fall at Black Sheep.

TWO weeks from today on Saturday, October 14th the Black Sheep Battle of the Bands will be taking place – a little different this year since we are doing things in October instead of in the summer. As usual, two winners will be chosen – one picked from a panel of judges to receive a free demo recording at Southtown Sound recording studio behind Black Sheep. The other crowd voting award will be given a slot on a bigger show coming up later this year, possibly the Black Sheep Holiday Show? We have a whole seven acts lined up this year, here they are:

PUFF PUFF POSEIDON
MASTER BASTARD
COOP DE GRACE
ROCKFORD
13LISS
HANNAH SONGER
NIKO ROBLEDO

There you have it, 3 of those are solo projects and 3 are full bands, one might be some sort of electronic duo(?). ALL of these are new to the Black Sheep stage, which is very cool! Puff Puff Poseidon is based out of Decatur, Coop De Grace is based out of Carlinville, the rest are based out of here in Springfield. (Maybe Hannah Songer is back and forth between here and Bloomington). Let’s all come out and support these new up and coming acts and see what they have to offer!

Since there are so many acts on the battle now, it will be starting at 6:00 pm. Admission for those not performing is $5. Find a facebook event for this one right here. Also be sure to check out our shows page for a look at what else is coming up at Black Sheep this fall.

Some of you may have noticed that we skipped The Black Sheep Battle of the Bands this past summer, as we usually host the event at some point mid-July. That’s because we are so dang busy all of the time and this year it snuck up on us, so we have pushed things back to the fall!

We are looking NOW for high school and college aged bands or musicians performing original music in or around Springfield!! If this could be you or if you have any leads on potential acts, please get ahold of us at blacksheepspringfield@gmail.com! Performance times can range anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes, and of any genre!

As usual, two winners will be chosen – one picked from a panel of judges to recieve a free demo recording at Southtown Sound recording studio behind Black Sheep. The other crowd voting award will be given a slot on a bigger show coming up later this year, possibly the Black Sheep Holiday Show?

Start time is 6:00 pm for now – depends on the number of acts we have sign up! Admission for non-performers is $5. All ages of course! Find a facebook event for our battle of the bands right here. Also check out our shows page for a look at everything coming up at Black Sheep this summer.

Whoops, our little recap of the Black Sheep Battle of the Bands that happened one week ago from yesterday is a little bit overdue! We are sure some of you have been waiting to hear about the results from the battle. Well, this year we definitely had the most bands participating in the battle- seven whole bands, and all of them showed up and played! We have nothing bad to say about any of the performances- all of them were great! And our judges loved them all too! Let’s take a look at our winners:

First place in the crowd voting contest went to Stems! Looks like they will be playing Black Sheep Fest 2016 on August 6th as a result.

First place in the judges voting went to Skunkworks! Looks like they will receive a free recorded demo by Mario Cannamela.

A third place prize was awarded to Kail, who will be getting a guest spot on Lincoln’s Legends Podcast.

Thanks again to everyone who came out and participated in the battle this year! See you all at Black Sheep Fest 2016 if not before then!

This is a great and fun weekend at Black Sheep! Last night we all danced and watched robot wolves play keyboards, and tonight is the annual Black Sheep Battle of the Bands! Tonight we have seven whole bands lined up, starting at 6:00 pm. All of these bands are newer and feature younger members who are high school or college age, or even younger. We are kicking things off with the five-year old dream punk band, Statues of the Dead. Let’s take a look at that lineup and set times:

SPOOKY POO (9:20)
BRING ON THE FALL (8:45)
SKUNKWORKS (8:10)
STEMS (7:40)
KAIL (7:15)
GADGET (6:40)
STATUES OF THE DEAD (6:15)

For those of you attending, you will get a voting slip along with admission. At the end of the night there will be a winner announced for crowd voting (to receive a slot on Black Sheep Fest August 6th) and a winner announced for judges voting (to receive a free recorded demo). Our judges panel tonight includes Jeremie Bailey, Ayo Abitogun, Clare Frachey, and Kat Tuttle.

The show tonight starts at 6:00 pm and admission is $6. You can check out a facebook event for this one right here. Also be sure to check out our shows page for a look at what else is coming up this summer at Black Sheep.

Last night marked the third annual Black Sheep Battle of the Bands since we have been doing the battle as a consecutive annual event (there was also one held in the very early years of Black Sheep being around). Last night we only had a total of three bands perform after two of the acts dropped off. Regardless, a lot of fun was had. Our judges for the night are pictured above.

As for the results of the battle, the crowd voting went to the metal band Abyss. Abyss will now be playing at Black Sheep Fest 2015 happening in just less than two weeks on July 25th. The winner of the judges voting ended up being Space Alpacas. This means Space Alpacas will be recording a free demo at some point coming up in South Town Studio right behind Black Sheep.