Tri State Indie Awards - Your guide to all the action

 
Tri State Indie, your regional source for big announcements, contests, interviews, reviews, and upcoming shows and festivals is ready to kick off the official start of the 2014 music year.  With year-end reviews behind us, the calendar page turns in grand fashion with the "it" function of the year: the fabulous Tri State Indie Awards.  Tri State Indie brings all the bands together to celebrate everything from the previous year, focusing on Philadelphia and the vibrant regional music scene.

This is the third presentation of arguably the best local/regional annual awards show anywhere.  It's a must-attend event.  Unlike the Grammy Awards or other television awards show where people feel a part of the party following along with Twitter or Facebook from your couch.  You must be in attendance to soak in everything great about the Philadelphia music scene.

The main event starts at 6pm with fabulous artists taking the stage between awards.  The Lawsuits, Chill Moody, The Deadmen, Ali Wadsworth, Maitland, Flux Capacitor, Kimpedro's NU Gruv Network, and more surprises.

Where: World Cafe Live - 3025 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (Downstairs Venue) 
Doors: 5pm
Show: 6-9:30pm
Tickets: $20-$50
ALL AGES
PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Can It Possibly Top The 2013 Edition??

2nd Annual TSI Music Award Winners : The Districts

The 2014 line-up looks to impress with the stellar line-up & invite only pre-party.  But can it compare to the 2nd annual Tri State Indie Awards in February 2013?  Looking back at 2013, here's a recap:

Overall the night was a blast.  There was the expected pomp and circumstance, but also with plenty of surprises.  A pre-party sponsored by Vitamin Water started the day early with Aaron Brown, Kuf Knotz, and the Lawsuits.  The main event kicked off at 5pm with the performers bookended by the Ron Gallo Super Group.  

The crowning moment was the realization by near everyone in the crowd how much the Levee Drivers had become rock stars.  August John Lutz II and Kyle Perella were joined by pals Josh Friedman on the drums and Luke Leidy on keys.  August laid it all out doing his best Johnny Cash meets Glenn Danzig, while just exuding his buddy-down-the-street charm.

The night itself was such a fantastic achievement for Tri State Indie and the local scene.  Everyone came to the event with a favorite they were rooting for and someone they wanted to see, but all the fans left with more bands to check out.  I'm ready for more Turning Violet Violet and New Sweden, kicking off the momentum for another great year leading up to the Tri State Indie Awards 3.0.

Why an awards show?   

Tri State Indie, the Swollen Fox, WXPN's The Key and others had all emerged onto the online music scene in the past 4 years.  However there was no official celebration, no award show.  With the robust experience of the Tri State Indie co-owners Rich McKie and Stephanie Seiple-McKie, it would seem the idea was a no-brainer.    Rich, at first thought, "it was a crazy idea" but Stephanie insisted it could be done.  It wasn't meant to be for 2010, just months after creating Tri State Indie in 2009.  Finally the first annual Tri State Indie Awards came in 2011! 

Before Tri State Indie, Rich McKie and Stephanie Seiple-McKie had been constantly involved in the music business.  Stephanie's vast job history includes many roles from working for major labels and spending time on the road managing nationally branded tours. Between moving back to Philly in 2007 and starting Tri State Indie, in 2009 she became the G.M. of the School of Rock national H.Q. where she helped produce the first ever ‘School of Rock National Festival’ and built new curriculums for the future ‘Rock School’.  Where Rich lacks for big corporate experience, he makes up with experience in everything else including drummer, DJ, sales, sound and lighting, design, graphics, photography, video, audio, and more.

Where did you get those cool awards? 

Rich McKie explained to Root Down In The Shadow the long process to make the awards. First, you need to collect a lot of vinyl.  In years past it has taken as much as 6 months to collect the vinyl.  This year, Long In The Tooth Record Store from Centre City Philadelphia gave Rich the hook up with 5 crates of vinyl.  Each award is 4 records thick, bonded together with heavy duty adhesive.  From there each award is cut by design on a CNC machine, to specifications that Rich McKie himself created to mimic the shape of a 45 record adaptor that you would use to play 45's on a traditional turntable.  The final step is being clutched in the arms of the winning bands at the Tri State Indie Awards on February 16th

4 Days Left To Vote!

With just a few days left for the online voting, the event is creating quite a buzz.  So far 56,000 votes have been cast for the 130+ artists and venues up for the 44 awards!   This year, voting is limited now to just 3 weeks of voting, the nominees range from Amanda X to Work Drugs, for awards such as "Indie Folk / American Roots Band Of  The Year", "Indie Philadelphia Band Of The Year", & " Indie Local Fest Of The Year". 

Bands are tweeting and facebooking up a storm to mobilize the fan base.  Voting ends on February 10th 2013, voting is allowed every 12 hours.

VOTE HERE: http://awards.tristateindie.com/vote