The moans of the ticketless are still audible in the wake of the Orange Peel’s Smashing Pumpkins brushfire ticket sale, but local bands are already organizing to provide an alternative music … ahem … alternative. For the nine nights the Pumpkins inhabit the Peel, the New French Bar just up the street is planning to host 36 bands — that’s four bands per night — to showcase Asheville’s local talent.
Agrolola frontman James Carson (pictured here) is helping round up acts for the shows, and says the event should not only give locals more than a week of solid music, but also attract the attention of out-of-towners and the national rock media to Asheville’s own bands. The shows will coincide with each of the Pumpkins’ shows on June 23, 24, 26, 27, 29 and 30, and July 2, 3 and 5.
“This just happened really quick,” says New French Bar bartender and music booker Elias Leisring, who says that the event has the blessings of the Peel. Carson, Leisring and other bartenders began putting their heads together soon after tickets sold out for the Pumpkins’ nine-night run. As a tentative list of bands came together, the group realized they could have a monster on their hands. “We just said f—k it, let’s have a festival,” Leisring says.
A list of bands, and the schedule of performances — as well as the name of the event — is yet to come, but stay tuned.
— Brian Postelle, staff writer
OK, so no local bands can submit to part of this, unless they know these folks? Where do they have bands in the NFB?
In the courtyard in the back. it’s pretty cool if the weather’s nice.
please get gfe. they are onsmash.