PHOTOS
Randy Shemanski
It's two years since the first Steamtown Original Music Showcase and you'd swear event organizers John "Guido" Phillips and Bryan Banks somehow harnessed the power of the Chia Pet, causing the Showcase to grow exponentially.
That first event in 2006 featured 14 local bands at Tink's on Linden Street in Scranton. Now, the Showcase will bring over 90 acts to at least seven different venues over two days in downtown Scranton on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 30 and 31. That's quite a boost from the modest start two years ago.
"It's the most hectic endeavor I have ever endured in my life," Phillips said.
While that might seem to be a statement born out of frustration or disappointment, it's just the opposite. The size of the SOMS makes it arguably the best two-day run of music in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, and possibly the entire 570.
"There's a lot of great things about it that I'm going, 'Wow, I can't believe this.' " Phillips said.
While the showcase will feature over 90 local, regional and national acts, there will also be a handful of clinics held in the Hilton Scranton & Conference Center at 100 Adams Ave.
"My thing that I really want to focus on is the clinics and the panels," Phillips said. "It's such an area of networking and learning experience that bands sometimes get too wrapped up in the fact of focusing on playing a show and they play a show and they just leave. A lot of bands don't stick around to collect e-mails or pass out fliers ... or even just listening to the bigger professionals at these clinics to hear what they have to say."
Clinic speakers include Chad Szeliga, drummer for Breaking Benjamin; Ariel Hyatt, CEO of Ariel Publicity, the top-ranked cyber PR in the country; and Freddie Fabbri, tour manager for Breaking Benjamin.
The music starts at 6 p.m. on Saturday in the Hilton and Molly Brannigans and continues throughout the night. Sunday's music also starts at 6, this time at Molly Brannigans and Whistles.
"Some venues start at 6, some start at like 9:30, some start at 10," Phillips said. "It's just a matter of what's going on at that point. I think you're going to see a lot of the musical diehards will be out early. You're going to see a lot of the flux later in the evening like you normally would."
One-day hopper passes cost $25, while a two-day hopper passes are $40. Clinics cost extra. For more info on ticket and clinic prices, a full schedule of musical acts and other info on the SOMS, visit www.steamtownshowcase.com.
Shadows Lie to cap Showcase on Sunday night at Whistles
With over 90 bands scheduled to play the Steamtown Original Music Showcase on Saturday, Aug. 30 and Sunday, Aug. 31, it's hard to pick just one to see.
But one of the bands you should circle on the schedule as a "must-see" is the alternative rock group out of Manhattan known as Shadows Lie. A rock band featuring a female lead singer (Kira Leigh) is a rarity in the 570, so the band's sound alone will be a refreshing change for local music fans.
"I get a lot of comments like 'I usually don't like female-fronted bands, but I really liked you guys,' " Leigh said in a recent phone interview. "I think it's because I really do give it my all. I kind of just allow myself to be wacky and crazy if I want to. I think a lot of times people are surprised to see a female with a whole lot of energy on stage."
Leigh's energy and striking good looks might make it easy to overlook her voice, but that would be a mistake. Leigh started classical vocal training at the age of 16 (she's 23 now) and studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts, helping her develop a sound which could be described as a mix of Alanis Morrisette with a twist of heavier, edgier vocals similar to Incubus or possibly even Disturbed.
Add in heavy, grinding guitar riffs by Frank Grullon, powerful bass lines by C.T. Tamura, and strong backbeats by drummer Marco Britti, and Shadows Lie has a winning combination.
With influences that range from Bjork to Alice in Chains, the band has two sides - heavier rock and an acoustic/electronic mix - which helps the Shadows Lie span genres and appeal to more fans.
"Tori Amos was a big influence when I was younger," Leigh said. "But also Alice in Chains. Korn. Portishead. Bjork. Crystal Method. Sevendust. A lot of the really heavy, dark rock sounds and also some of the quirky electronic artists are the two things that mostly strongly influence our sound."
The band's debut album, Echoes - an engaging work that showcases the group's diversity - was written and recorded exclusively by Leigh and Tamura, 28, and has been out for just over a year. With Grullon, 27, and Britti, 30, now on board, Shadows Lie is working on a second album, but a busy touring schedule has made it a bit tough to work on new material. This weekend, the band will be in New Brunswick, N.J., on Thursday; Fairfax, Va., on Saturday; Scranton on Sunday; and back home in New York City on Monday.
"We pretty much technically have enough material to make a second album now, but we're still writing," Leigh said. "We want to write a lot of songs and pick and choose. And it's really hard just because we're playing so much. So we're going to, probably around Christmas when everything slows down, we're going to take a month or two off just to complete it, finish writing everything and polish it up."
Even though Shadows Lie has just one album so far, the band sticks mainly to its own original music during shows with an occasional cover.
"We try to throw in at least one cover per set," Leigh said. "Right now, we're doing a cover of Journey's 'Separate Ways.' People usually get a kick out of it. But we really put our own spin on a cover. It's really, really Shadows Lie doing 'Separate Ways.' It's our own flavor, I guess."