This past weekend at The Bread Sheep Birthday Party and Event Hall™ we had one show and that was to celebrate the birth of our dear friend, Activator Magazine who has been going one year strong as of this month. We have a good variety of genres represented at the anniversary show, some karaoke, and the performance of a brand new Springfield band called “Snuff Rider”. Carol Weems of Activator took plenty of photos, which you can see all of on the Activator Magazine facebook page. And if you like what you see there, maybe consider checking out the Activator Magazine patreon page where they are always posting photos of shows and much much more hot and exclusive content. Find some other photos of the show this past Saturday below.

We still can’t get over how magical last Thursday night was when we had the once in a lifetime opportunity and the planets aligned so that original Jamaican ska band The Skatalites could perform an outdoor concert in the heart of our downtown. This morning we are bringing you a collection of photos taken from that night (doesn’t look like any videos have really surfaced, sorry)! We’ve compiled a flickr photo album of 45 photos that you can check out right here. Photographers include Brian Galecki (Dumb Records), Carol Weems (Activator Magazine), and Adam Nicholson (Sala). Check those out there or a few above and below. There are a couple of opening act TaQsem as well.

The Skatalites on June 6th was one concert in a ten-part series – the next one happening tomorrow night (same place, same time) with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra Brass Band and Nashville Harpist “Timbre“. For the full list of concerts coming up on the block, go to the Levitt AMP Springfield website.

For those of you who have not seen, tonight we bring you a collection of photos taken at the final final Black Sheep show which took place on Friday, December 28th of last year (one month ago now)! All of these amazing photos were taken by Ryan Capranica. Bands include Soap Scum, Looming, Rockford, and Hannah Songer. There are 180 photos total! You can see them all on our newly created flickr album right here. Also a few above and below. Our beloved friend Gordon Chang also caught the full video of all four sets from the night, which you can find all of streaming on his youtube channel right here.

Check out our vids/pics page for more photo albums taken over the years at Black Sheep.

Today we are bringing you some photos taken from Black Sheep Band Lotto 2018, which was just last night (wow that was quick, wasn’t it)!? There are 27 photos total, check a few out above and below. Last night all seven bands that were drawn took the stage in some form or another (which might be the first time in Band Lotto history that that was the case). Band Lotto Band #3 “EGGMAN” also made Band Lotto history by being the first band to show up to the show with a physical release of recorded material which was a limited run of 25 lathe cut records. The record was “Record of the Night” pictured below.

Go check out all of the photos from last night right here. Check out our shows/vids page for more photos taken over the years at Black Sheep. Gordon Chang was also taking video last night and you can probably expect those videos to turn out soon. Activator Magazine was also there taking more photos, so there are more on the way!

Tonight we are bringing you a few photos that were taken from Black Sheep Fest 2018 which happened earlier this month on August 11th. This was the 11th Black Sheep Fest we have held at our venue, highlighting local music in Springfield (wow)! Check out a few photos above and below, or head to our facebook photo album here, or our flickr album here. These were taken by Brian Galecki. Activator Magazine’s own Carol Weems also took a good amount of photos which you can find on the Activator Magazine facebook page here. And of course our hero Gordon Chang is BACK at recording videos after a year-long break, with videos of most of the full sets from the fest which you can find on his channel right here. Check out a list of photos and videos from past shows and fests at Black Sheep on our vids/pics page.

Today we bring you a few photos from our 12 year anniversary show we had for Black Sheep this past weekend! We could not have asked for a better turnout, crowd, or vibes from this year’s reunion show. Thank you to all who came out! Bands Bottom Bracket and Stick People both performed their release shows. Prowess performed with an exercise machine from the future on the stage. Check out a few of those photos below, and head over to our “12 Year Anniversary Show” album on flickr to view them all.

Also head over to our vids/pics page to see more photos from over the 12 years at Black Sheep.

We could not have asked for a better celebration of the Black Sheep 10-year anniversary last weekend on the 18th! Thank you to all who came out and to all of the bands that played. The lineup for the show was Looming, Our Lady, Soap Scum, Unicon Communications, and a surprise band that we’ll call the “10-Year Super Ska Band” ended up playing, doing covers of many different ska bands from Black Sheep’s 10 year history.

Today we have photos from that show. We would like to thank photographers Heiu Luu, AJ Francis, and Miles Fowler. You can check out a handful of those photos above and below, or head over to our Black Sheep 10-Year Anniversary Album on flickr for hundreds more. Also check out our vids/pics page for groups of photos from other big events of the past.