That new artists are the lifeblood of any city’s music scene is a fairly obvious statement. There are many amazing musicians in Greater Cincinnati who are established talents and who have large fan bases and multiple Cincinnati Entertainment Award nominations and wins under their belts. But they had to start somewhere. Everyone was a “new artist” once.
That why New Artist of the Year is always one of the more interesting categories in the CEAs. It’s a chance to honor some of the music-makers in the area that might someday become one (or more) of the scene’s leading lights. And, given Cincinnati’s notoriety for often pumping out musical acts that are genuinely unique, it also gives CEA-watchers and CityBeat readers a chance to explore some of the new and interesting music being made right in our own backyards.
This Saturday’s Best New Bands showcase at Bogart’s (2621 Vine St., Corryville, bogarts.com) ups that ante and gives local music lovers a chance to catch, live and in person, all of these talented, singular performers under one roof. The 2015 showcase features all of this year’s CEA nominees for New Artist of the Year, who you can read about over the next few pages. The nominees — rockers Honeyspiders, Electronic band Prim, Country/Rock singer/songwriter Noah Smith, modern Americana band Elk Creek, Pop Punk trio Leggy and Avant/Electro Pop artist Dream Tiger — will be joined by four other superb new area acts for the showcase: Near Earth Objects, Harbour, JetLab and Kate Wakefield.
Saturday’s Best New Bands showcase begins at 7:30 p.m. and will feature performances on Bogart’s main stage as well as on a side stage, keeping the music running non-stop all night. Admission is just $5 (that’s 50 cents a band!).
You can find out who scores the New Artist of the Year trophy (and who wins in all of the other categories) on Jan. 25 at the 18th annual Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, which takes place at Covington’s Madison Theater. Tickets are available in advance through cincyticket.com. Showtime is 7 p.m. and the event is open to all ages.
This article appears in Jan 7-14, 2015.
