New Band Pages: Animals With Human Names

Posted on September 4, 2017 by blacksheepspringfield

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Hey, happy Monday everyone! Thanks to all who came out to our roundtable meeting yesterday to discuss the future of Black Sheep and the future of live music as we know it. Let’s start the week off with another featured band/project – this one has been around for a while, shame on us for taking this long to get a page up! This is Animals With Human Names – the hip hop project of Jim Whitehead also in Say Something, Statues of the Dead, and numerous other bands throughout the ages through pretty much all of Black Sheep’s twelve years of being a venue. Head over to the newly created band page right here to find out more about the project and hear some tunes. And be on the lookout for some AWHN shows here in the future.

Check out any of our 55+ current band pages on our site right here. Do you play in a band or are a solo musician in Springfield that has not yet set up a page with us? We would love to hear from you! Send us an email to blacksheepspringfield@gmail.com and we will work with you to get something set up.

Noesis: “Sin Splitter EP”

Posted on September 3, 2017 by blacksheepspringfield

Today we bring you some new local music from Central Illinois metalcore band Noesis. The band released a new EP, Sin Splitter earlier this summer before they embarked out on a tour to the west coast. You can stream that 5-track release on the player embedded below.

Noesis do not have any shows currently lined up at Black Sheep.

Videos: It’s Me: Ross at Black Sheep 8-9-17

Posted on September 3, 2017 by blacksheepspringfield

Today we bring you a video of one of the greatest bands of all time performing on our very own Black Sheep state last month. That is “It’s Me: Ross” the band from Columbia, Missouri. No one was at the show so we are sharing this video with all of you so you can almost experience the same live music concert experience from your very own couch. The song is called “I Got The Blues” which comes from the band’s second full length album you can find in its entirety right here. Find the video on the player below. The show was also with Rella, Bottom Bracket, and Special Death.

Also check out our vids/pics page for a good amount of live performances caught on video at The Black Sheep from over the years.

Black Sheep Roundtable Meeting Tonight

Posted on September 3, 2017 by blacksheepspringfield

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Yes, with our most recent announcement a week or so ago about us entering a difficult time, and the front page State Journal-Register story, a lot of you may have a lot on your mind. It’s been a minute since we have hosted a Black Sheep roundtable meeting, but here we are having one tonight at 7:00 pm. You can expect about an hour of this to be solid meeting points, and maybe around another hour of discussion and things fizzle off around there. Here’s what you can expect tonight:

Us reiterating the position we are in right now. We will be happy to further explain to all of you interested a breakdown of our operating costs and how much we need to make per show to keep up with them.
The importance of coming to shows.
We’ll also be more than willing to explain our show booking process in depth, especially to those who are interested in starting to help set up shows. This is a process we are open to hearing details to fine-tune, but not necessarily something we are wanting to completely change.
If you want to come with ideas, that is great and we will listen to them all, but also not the main point of us having this meeting.
Further discussion on what YOU can do to get more involved or help improve our space.

The State Journal-Register: “All-Ages Music Club Facing A Dark Time”

Posted on September 3, 2017 by blacksheepspringfield

Wow, it looks like things are really getting serious for The Black Sheep and the times we are in because today we made the front page of local paper The State Journal-Register with an article titled “All Ages Music Club Facing A Dark Time.” The article was written by Steven Spearie, who interviews co-owners Brian Galecki and BJ Pearce as well as NIL8 frontman Jeff Williams about Black Sheep. Pick up the Sunday paper at a gas station near you today for $3 or find the article online right here. From the article:

“We have a history, a culture in Springfield, a community that’s been around and we have stories to tell that can last a lifetime,” contended Pearce. ”(Black Sheep) is going to be around if people choose to attend shows.

“It’s a spot unlike anywhere else in the Midwest.”

We will also be holding a roundtable meeting inside Black Sheep at 7:00 pm tonight to further discuss topics going on in the article, and what’s next for us in these dark times.

September 23rd at Black Sheep: Brandon Austin, HILGY, Jermaine Bollinger

Posted on September 2, 2017 by blacksheepspringfield

Today we have another release show to tell you about for a local artist happening at Black Sheep. It’s happening this month on Saturday, September 23rd and will be the release show for Brandon Austin, who is a solo R&B performer. Brandon is releasing a CD called “Beauty in Ordinary Things” which is already out on iTunes and all of that good stuff. The show at Black Sheep will be the official release. You can check out the official music video for one of those tracks – “The Only One” on the player directly below this post. One of the other artists opening up the show is “HILGY” also from here (?). Then we also have Jermaine Bollinger opening things up.

This one starts at 7:00 pm (doors at 6:30), and is $5. Check out a facebook event for the show right here. Also check out our shows page for a list of everything we have coming up at Black Sheep this fall.

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Small Man: “Demo”

Posted on September 2, 2017 by blacksheepspringfield

Oops, we may be a tad late to the game on this one again but today we bring you a new demo from a new Springfield-Toronto straight-edge hybrid group called “Small Man.” Featuring members of bands Mace and Pryss. You can stream that new four-track demo from Small Man on the player below. The demo is being released by Prescience Tapes, local cassette label. You can expect physical copies of this release to appear at some point inside Dumb Records. Head over to the Prescience Tapes bandcamp to download the demo at your own price.

Small Man does not have any live performances lined up in Springfield or anywhere announced right now, but be on the lookout for some more Small Man in the future.

Jenny Sawyer / NPR Illinois: “Springfield’s DIY Scene Before Black Sheep”

Posted on September 1, 2017 by blacksheepspringfield

Rachel Otwell of NPR Illinois is continuing a series featuring different thoughts and reflections of our most recent Black Sheep announcement on the current state of the venue, show attendance, and things we are currently struggling with. The most recent piece is one written by Jenny Sawyer – show go-er in Springfield from 2001 to 2005 about shows and venues during that time. Check out that full piece along with a few photos of that time right here. From the article:

I have mostly fond memories of this time growing up in the scene, but there was always a presence at these shows that unnerved me, and on several occasions even made me question whether or not it was safe to be there. There were a small group of individuals I came to know as the neo-Nazis. They typically sported white shirts, steel-toed boots and shaved heads. They used intimidation and threats of violence to carve out a space for their rhetoric in a scene that would have otherwise felt inclusive.

It was obvious that they made people extremely uncomfortable, but no one seemed willing or able to confront them. I certainly didn’t feel able to, being a shy petite teenage girl. There were a few incidents that I witnessed or had recalled to me by friends. Words were thrown around, kids were chased, bats were wielded. In what I’ve never been able to determine was an accident or not, I was once shoved over a table at the edge of a mosh-pit by one of them. Unfortunately, their presence at shows went mostly unchecked but over time they started to show up less and less.

Looming: “Queen”

Posted on September 1, 2017 by blacksheepspringfield

Springfield / Pittsburg hit band Looming released a second single from their upcoming album Seed yesterday via New Noise Magazine online. You can check out that song called “Queen” on the player streaming below, or the full article from New Noise Magazine right here.

Seed is being released by No Sleep Records and is officially out on September 29th. We very recently announced the official release show for the album happening at Black Sheep on Monday, October 2nd along with Screaming Females, Street Eaters, and Choir Vandals. Better get your tickets for that now if you haven’t already. Looming also released another single, “Down” through Brooklyn Vegan off of the album earlier this summer.

Black Sheep Roundtable Meeting This Sunday

Posted on September 1, 2017 by blacksheepspringfield

Welcome to September! With our more recent announcement last week that things over at Black Sheep are looking rough in terms of show attendance and we are not sure how much longer we can keep up with things, a lot of you have a lot of things to say. We felt that Rachel Otwell of NPR Illinois summed up a lot of feelings us as the owners of the venue have as well about the state of things for us right now, and we also did our best to answer some FAQ’s that might be coming to fruition after our original announcement.

This Sunday, September 3rd at 7:00 pm inside of Black Sheep we will be holding a roundtable meeting open to the public. We are not necessarily interested in holding a meeting where an audience only throws out suggestions at us on how to change things. Instead, we are more focused on reiterating how things are looking for us right now as a venue, to answer any questions you may have about that, or further the discussion. We also want to reiterate that our space is a community-driven one, and that we are here for everyone who wants to set up shows or events.