MAMA View
By Middagh Goodwin
How time flies when you are having fun. It is MAMA time again, X-Fest is over and voting has started for the Modesto Area Music Awards. There are 23 Categories, including Latin (new this year) and Punk and Reggae which were added last year. I am sure you have all been flooded by requests to vote from many of your friend’s bands (remember to look through all the nominees, because you can only vote once and you do not want to miss a friend or family member who has been nominated.) Team MAMA put in the hours to narrow down the nominees and I hope you will make it a point to go out and catch as many as you can at one or more of the great area Venues/Restaurants and Cafés that host Live Entertainment.
You can always catch the heavier bands playing on Yosemite Street at The Other Place, Spinnakers or Yosemite Lanes. Catch Jazz and Blues acts downtown at the Barkin’ Dog or up in Stockton at Mile Wine. Grizzly Rock in Turlock does a little bit of everything and has some Alt Rock shows coming up in September. Looking for some good punk/rockabilly or metal shows check out Rebels Whiskeyhouse in Stockton. Café Deva and Queen Bean both are home to Alt/Indie and Americana. Café Deva will be hosting the Second Annual Brew MAMA celebrating the nominated Comedians on Oct 3rd. Head out to Oakdale or up to Jamestown, because the Cow Track and Gypsy Shack are both great places to catch live music. Ceres is home to the Workshop and has been hosting Metal and Hardcore shows for years. The Partisan in Merced is one of the gems of the area and RC is great to all the bands and patrons alike.
You can catch many young talents and seasoned players working on new material or old favorites at any of the areas Open Mics. Queen Bean (Sun), Blackwater Republic or Cowtrack (Wed), Empresso (Thurs), every 4th Monday at the Boardroom and many other locations around the 209.
There is no excuse not to catch some great live entertainment in the 209, so many great local and touring bands playing just about any night of the week. Cover charge for most venues range from free to $5-10. Many spots do food or drink specials to make things even more affordable to go out. You are the Academy: your votes choose the winners, so spend locally and support the places that give us all a place to play or see great entertainment.
Voting will end Sunday, October 18th and all the winners will be announced on Tuesday, October 20th at the MAMA Awards Show at the fabulous State Theater. This is a formal event and is broadcast live www.modestoview.comso you can watch the action at home and see if your favorites win.
9-2 Grizzly Rock-Boy on Guitar (Alt Rock), Buffalo Buffalo (Alt Rock)
9-5 Windmill Cove Bar&Grill-Fortress (Youth)
9-5 The Other Place-Nothing But Losers (Metal), 17Ten (Metal)
9-5 Knickerbocker-Broke Down Wasted (Punk), The Creepoids (Punk), KDN (Rock)
9-5 Barkin’ Dog-Jeramy Norris & the Dangerous Moods (Blues/Jazz)
9-5/19 Mile Wine Co.-Wendi Maxwell & Tres Hot Jazz
9-10 Barkin’ Dog-Randy Mandy Band (Americana)
9-11 Rebels Whiskyhouse-Erin Odessa & Covelo (Pop Rock)
9-12 Spinnakers Dying Image (Metal), Sworn to the Black (Metal)
9-25 CCHC Carnival-Big Earl & the Cryin’ Shame (Blues)
9-25 Grizzly Rock-The Great West End (Alt Indie)
10-03 Café Deva-Brew MAMA
