Newcastle Brown Ale (one of my favorite beers, by the way) is hosting an essay contest to find the answer to this question–“Which artist (band or solo performer; active or no longer performing) is/was the best live performer and why do you think so?”–with the winner getting an insanely killer prize in my opinion.
A panel of Newcastle execs (???) and Spin representatives will do the judging, and the winner and a friend will be given special access, tickets, and spending money to eight (count ’em, eight!) major music events this year. The first event will be the Reading Festival in England, and the other seven events haven’t been named yet (they’re probably still working to procure the PR deals to put that in motion). The chosen winner will have a special music blog setup at Newcastlebrown.com to promote the event parnerships and whatnot, all while experiencing eight major music events for free.
You can submit your essay here, and they ask force you to keep it between 250 and 400 words. I think they’re expecting a pretty big submission rate…
Don’t worry, folks. I probably won’t submit anything. I know you’d be worried and all, though. You know, because I’ve got the skills necessary to win this beast of a contest. The skeeeelz.
I have to wonder how many submissions they’re going to get for Grateful Dead, Phish, Dead, Phish, Dead, Phish, Jerry, Trey, Phish, Dead, Jerry, Trey, Trey, Trey, Jerry…
My vote? After next Saturday night, I expect that it’ll be the Secret Machines. If you asked me three years ago, I might say Phish. If you asked me seven years ago, I might have said the Vandals. My iPod has been telling me lately that it should be Spiritualized. But what about the band that I’ve seen the most, Umphrey’s McGee? I’m pushing 20 shows on that front, so shouldn’t I do a writeup about their dual-guitar assault and how no one can match the skills of the entire band combined? Something like that? Oh man, the ideas are just flying…
Maybe I’ll submit ten essays under ten different names and see which one the Spin editors would like the most? Something indie-ish?
Feel free to drop your own personal picks in the comments; it’s always a great topic to discuss if nothing else…
“Dude, Santana is totally better than Jackson Browne.”