Cleveland Lottery League's Free Big Show

Alrighty, the Cleveland Lottery League's Free Big Show is this Saturday at the Agora Theater.  My Lottery League band, BAANTUU, is about 83% ready for our 10 minute rock performance.

You may have seen the flyers, or read about it in the PD, or saw something about it on the Melt blog, or perhaps even have a friend or two performing in the Big Show.  But what's this Cleveland Lottery League thing all about?

On a freezing night back in February, 170 Cleveland-area musicians gathered at the Beachland Ballroom to have their names drawn out of hat and consequently formed 42 random bands.  The only rules being that all bands get a drummer and musicians may NOT have played with any of their Lottery League bandmates before.

 The X-factor is high with metalheads, accordion players, flutists, avant-improvers, shoe-gazers, rock n rollers, and the noise scene all being represented.  BAANTUU has two bassists co-mingling for serious low-end.

These 42 bands then practice for 2.5 months.  It all culminates into one all day performance, dubbed the "Big Show," which is free and happening this Saturday, April 13th, from 2PM to 2 AM at the Agora Theater (it's kind of like the Agora's Grand Re-opening).  Each band gets 10 minutes to play their original music (another rule, no covers), and there's three stages, and it's rapid-fire set-up and breakdown.

In my eyes, the whole thing is totally absurd in a way that can only be described as wholly Cleveland.  Musicians even get their own trading cards!

Beyond the absurdity, the Cleveland Lottery League promotes mixing between the music scenes that often rub shoulders, but never say hello.  It takes us, musicians, out of our self-prescribed comfort zones.  And best of all, new music is made!

The Cleveland Lottery League is something special.  I'll go so far as to say that if it endures (the Lotto is in its third season), it has the potential to be up there with the West Side Market as a cultural entity.

And really the bestest of all, the Big Show is free, all-ages, and open to the public.  This is entirely because of local corporate sponsorship from Melt and Jakprints (slow money principles at work) and a lil help from the non-profit sector.

So, I encourage everybody to drop-by and check it out even if only for an hour (that's approximately four bands).  There's even rumors of a cache of Christmas Ale...