No offense to Jah Roots, who always jam it out for their annual 4/20 concert downtown, the big show from the weekend was the GO Music Awards’ Best Band rock-off onstage at Rock ‘n’ Ribs Saturday afternoon. Hot Box won with what we’re told (we arrived just as the band was wrapping up) was a blistering, dynamic set. They were first to go up, followed by a blistering, dynamic set by Trash Angels; a blistering, dynamic set by McGill; a blistering, dynamic pie-eating contest; a blistering, dynamic set by Sweetwater Abilene; and a blistering, dynamic set by the Verbs. You’ll find a plethora of pictures from four of the five bands’ sets (sorry, Hot Box. We got there late) on the Flickr page link to the left.
We’re only half-kidding with the “blistering, dynamic” descriptions. Each of the five bands brought its “A” game, which was fantastic to see. They all seemed to take the event quite seriously. Even the pies did. But the highlight of the afternoon might have been Tim “Angry Panda” Meano, who finished runner-up in Friday night’s Springfield Air Guitar Championship and performed a one-minute microshow for the crowd before award announcements. When asked about why he was so winded after his performance, which didn’t involve much standing around, Tim replied, “I used to be fat.” Now we know. The best way to work off those pie-eating-contest pounds? Freak out to Van Halen’s “Eruption!” (Okay, that wasn’t the song Tim used, but it’s what we came up with. We might need coffee.)
Anyway, congratulations to all the winners. There’s more fallout from the GMAs on the way. Stay tuned.
