Huge, huge news for The Black Sheep community and Springfield music today! (Okay, not really). We now have Black Sheep buttons! Isn’t that great!? You can find the new buttons along with patches, posters, and sometimes stickers at any Black Sheep show. We will be selling them for fifty cents each.
The buttons were made thanks to Pillow Fight Buttons based out of Champaign, Illinois. If you play in a band that is looking to get buttons made they are the ones to get ahold of! Thanks Chloe!
With summer and warmer weather on it’s way, we plan on becoming more active as a venue and all-ages space and we need your help! We have created a new get involved page for the site. You can find the new page if you hover over the “community” tab.
On this new page we have compiled a list of things that we feel anyone can do to help improve our space. The Black Sheep is ran by a community of volunteers and artists and musicians and we could always use more help to benefit our space and community. There is a long list of things on the new page. The main thing we suggest for anyone looking to get more involved is to come out to our bi-weekly roundtable meetings. The next one is actually today at 4:30 pm! Aside from the roundtable meetings, there still is a long list of things we could use help with that you can find on the get involved page. Go check it out!
For those of you who are not in the loop with the new project that our neighbors over at Skank Skates are taking on, here are a few updates!
Skank Skates and owner George Sinclair recently announced that Skanks will be building a skatepark in Iles Park sometime in the near future. Planning and preparation for this new park has already begun, and helpers have been working for the past few weekends. Here is Skanks original call for help:
ALERT!!! to everyone who say ” call me if you need any help” heres your call….skanks is trying to build a skatepark in Isles park… we just came across a bunch of free construction wood but we need some hands to help pull the nails that are left in them… this means all you kids that come with no money need to come help! we will be cooking out and anyone to help will get a free meal this will be this Sunday April 28th 1pm
Of course Sunday, April 28th has already passed by now, but Skanks is still working on the project and could probably use some help. If you are looking to help out, you can stay updated on the project by following the Skank Skates facebook page. Or you can come to South Town at almost any time and see what George and the gang are up to! We plan on giving updates throughout the course of this new project until the new park is complete. Skank Skates will also be hosting Dumb Fest along with Black Sheep this summer on June 14th and 15th.
Wow look at that! It’s a poster for The Horse Show put on by The Radon Lounge! The Horse Show is a festival taking place at The Refuge Range (not at Radon) on June 15th (yes, we know that it is the same day as Dumb Fest). The Horse Show will be a full day’s worth of music and events- starting at 10:00 am and going to 10:00 pm. Headlining the festival will be Timbre, which is a Nashville-based harpist and song writer. Are you ready for the long list of other bands and solo projects playing? Here we go…
Timbre
We Are Warm
Hushpad
Von Strantz
The Transatlantic
Lauryn Peacock
With You In Mind
Worship Set (local worship minister coalition)
Seth Moorman
Insomniac Folklore
Kevin Schlereth
Brilliant Move
Whew! June 15th will be a huge day for music in Springfield. With this and Dumb Fest, you have no excuse to stay at home that day. You can find a facebook event for The Horse Show right here. And don’t forget to check our Springfield shows page for more listings of shows going on outside of Black Sheep.
Tonight there is a show and that flier is looking pretty grim! It looks like there is a night of punk, hardcore, some grindcore, and maybe a little bit of metal ahead of us. All of that is sure to be a real treat. Starting things off is Soap Scum, a newer punk band featuring members of Don’t Mess With Winkie, Intricate Collapse, and Big Mouth. Then we have Side-Lined from Newton, Illinois. They play an experimental type of hardcore and this show will mark their return to Black Sheep for the first time in a little while. Then on tour all the way from Florida is Denouncer playing hardcore. Last but not least are the villains Scott Blacula. We don’t think they will be partaking in any battle sets tonight, but you never know what might pop up!
If you are in town for May 18th then you are surely in for a treat! We will be hosting another acoustic/folk show with some great acoustic acts. We have Kirk Donely of Springfield rock n’ roll band The Transatlantic playing some acoustic tunes for us all. Then we have Real Live Tigers traveling from Austin, Texas. Real Live Tigers plays country influenced type folk, and is usually a single-piece act but at this show he will be joined by Julie Byrne. The two will be either performing together or doing a split set, it will be a surprise! You can check out some music from Real Live Tigers on the bandcamp player below. Also on the show is another acoustic act- Dan Marissa! Dan is from somewhere outside of Springfield. Opening things up for this show we have Tim Williams of Our Lady. Our Lady will be back from tour at this point.
The show starts at 7:00 pm and admission is $5. You can find a facebook event for the show right here. Also don’t forget to check out what other shows are coming up at Black Sheep on our shows page!
On Sunday, May 5th at 4:30 pm we will be having another roundtable meeting. Since it’s been getting warmer outside we have been taking advantage of meetings and using them as time to get stuff done to improve our space. Check out this list of things we did at the last roundtable meeting. We will be meeting at Black Sheep, and anyone is welcome to come. Even if you don’t have anything to say, come hang out!
Tomorrow afternoon/early evening it’s another episode of Black Sheep Radio! Our very special guest this week will be Josh Catalano from the Springfield rock band Josh Catalano & The Dirty Thoughts. Mr. Catalano will be talking to us about JC&TDT’s new album Give Away The Night which is being released at a show tomorrow night at Bar None. We also may or may not have someone coming in to talk with us about the big show tomorrow night at Donnie’s Homespun featuring Michale Graves, Sunnyvale, and Neon Rebels.
The Black Sheep Radio airs from 4:00 to 6:00 pm on Fridays on 88.3 WQNA fm. You can tune in to 88.3 FM on your radio dial or you can head over to wqna.org and stream the show live. We also have our lovely radio tab set up so that you can stream and download some past episodes of Black Sheep Radio.
There is a show tonight at Black Sheep! It’s going to be a pretty great rock show. Are you a fan of 90s rock? Then this is the show for you.This show will feature the Chicago Hüsker Dü-influenced All Eyes West. Then we have Springfield local “dad-rock” band Nephrons. Then from Bloomington, Illinois will be Werepire Day, playing some 90′s rock. Opening things up we have the newer and younger heavy rock band Yogi Beara. All of that on one show is sure to be a treat.
The show starts at 7:00 pm and is $5. You can find a facebook event for the show right here. Also don’t forget to check out our shows page for what other shows are coming up at Black Sheep!
It’s maybe been a little while since we have added any new pages or features to the Black Sheep site. Today we are launching a new page on the site called “Booking.” The page is fairly simple- we want to guide bands looking for shows in our area and people trying to book shows at Black Sheep in the right direction. We always have our booking email set up as blacksheepcafe.217@gmail.com.
To find the new page just hover over the “About” tab and then click on the pull down bar that says “Booking”. Or you can just click this link.
Dumb Records 