After last week’s Road to Roo 2017 City Finals, the month-long, bracket-style battle of the bands competition comes to a close with the State Finals tonight, April 5 at Acme Feed & Seed. Whittled down from an initial 16 local competitors, just one band from Nashville, Creature Comfort, remain standing, and they’ll compete against Memphis winners Airside (who went through a whole local competition on their own) for the chance at a slot at Bonnaroo.
The totally free, 21+ event, which begins at 7:30 p.m. (though you must be present before 9 p.m. in order to have a chance to cast your vote), has been a long journey, and as the final two bands face off, they’ll play longer sets, with a winner determined by votes. You can read more about the contest below, and preview tonight’s final two competitors after the jump.
Spread out across town, the Road to Roo, different from the single-location “Road to Bonnaroo” that took place at Mercy Lounge until 2015, is more of a bracket-style series, and results in one single, state-wide winner, selected over the course of several weeks. For a refresher, here’s a detailed rundown: Both March 1 and March 8, eight locals bands were selected to compete in random order, playing short preliminary round sets for an audience who then vote to select four from each show (or eight total) to advance to the semifinals. The semifinals were March 14 at The Basement East and March 23 at 3rd & Lindsley, and four bands from each preliminary round competed, performing slightly longer sets, in random order. Two bands from each semifinal round, so four total, were be selected by vote to advance to the City Finals, held at The Basement East on March 28. In the City Finals, the four bands were given an even longer set time, and one winner was ultimately selected. After the City Finals, one final final round, the Tennessee State Finals, will take place April 5 at Acme Feed & Seed, where Nashville’s winner will compete against a winner from Memphis (who, presumably, had to battle their way though a similar process), and one of those two acts will be crowned supreme victor, finally awarded a spot at Bonnaroo 2017.
CREATURE COMFORT
AIRSIDE
The Road to Roo’s State Final round will take place tonight, April 5 at Acme Feed & Seed. The show is 21+, begins at 7:30 p.m. (voting ends at 9 p.m.), and it’s FREE.
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