Enjoy The Massacre joined together as the name “In Dying Dreams” in March of 2005. After a year of touring and playing local shows as In Dying Dreams, the band decided a new musical direction and new band name was needed. In 2006 they adopted the name “Enjoy the Massacre”, the band started out with their careers playing on the road, selling t-shirts and other merchandise away from home. Enjoy the Massacre was founded with the goal not only to create heavy aggressive music, but to add harmony and other instrumentation to create a unique sound not heard in today’s musical groups. Enjoy The Massacre constantly strives to become a successful band by combining talents not created by one person alone, but all of the 5 members combined. Enjoy The Massacre also draws musical inspiration not only from Hardcore music, but from other genres of music as well, such as Punk, Metal, Hip Hop, Southern Rock, Progressive Rock, etc. Another aspect that makes Enjoy The Massacre stand out from other groups is the intense stage performance that they deliver, no matter how many in attendance. Enjoy The Massacre will always deliver the same aggressive live show every time. It has been said Enjoy The Massacre’s stage show is unmatched and the energy at a show is contagious, arousing music lovers from all musical backgrounds. With breakdowns, hip-hop beats, and metal influenced parts, it is very easy for any music lover to get into Enjoy The Massacre’s music. ETM has always had the reputation of working very hard to achieve success, and has come a long way from having nothing in hand, to becoming one of Midwest America’s most celebrated bands. Enjoy The Massacre’s debut cd “In Time You Will Understand” is out now on Duckphone Records.
Chicago performance art group Environmental Encroachmnet (EE) uses circus theatrics, live music and costumes to create unique entertainment environments, parades, processions, shows, artist marching band encroachments and art happenings. .. EE combines a costumed marching band with multi-media stage performance antics including dancers, hooping, juggling and skits. EE wants people to interact, be a part, be curious, dance, play. ..
ENVIRONMENTAL ENCROACHMENT
Chicago-based performance art group Environmental Encroachment (EE) uses circus theatrics, live music and costumes to create unique entertainment environments, parades, processions, shows, punk artist marching band encroachments and art happenings.
EE combines a costumed marching band with multi-media stage performance antics, including dancers, hooping, juggling and skits. EE encourages people to interact, be a part, be curious, dance, play.
EE can expand to the size of your event – stage shows, mobile experiences, children’s shows, Holiday events, street busking, tactical comic encroachments, festivals, rituals, ceremonies, vaudevillian skits, electric and acoustic music jams, funerals and births.
Erick Deshaun Dorris (“EDD”) is a musician based out of Chicago. He was most recently involved in the soul-rock band, The Bored of Education, and is a member with the educational-theater company Barrel of Monkeys. His music has been described as Soul, Jazz, Baroque and “show-tunes on crack”.
I grew up on a farm outside St. Louisville, Ohio. At 22, I rode out with a beat up van and $200, bound for Chicago. I met Kilian Sweeney there. In the winter of 2009, we formed 3 Tons with Dan Smykowski and Ivan Stankowicz. We built a muscled sound with country roots and the hard drive of the city.
There is no irony here. Just, straight ahead songs from a transplanted country boy.
-Erin Edmister
ERIN EDMISTER AND THREE TONS
Erin Edmister has been hollering lyrics and strumming his acoustic guitar through the American Songbook and his striking original songs since 2014 at Bernice’s Tavern, in Bridgeport.
It was at this highly esteemed dive bar that Edmister, and long time guitarist/collaborator, Kilian Sweeney, first encountered Joey Werner’s pounding drums and Brian Tredup’s sultry bass. Soon, the four fused their original sounds together to create a rocking country ruckus: Erin Edmister and Three Tons.
With this new line-up and a fresh record out in January 2018, this group will surely charm you with vibrant harmonies, lively tunes, and a hell of a good time!
Eske is a 4 piece that started in the fall 0f 99’ Lou and Migs met while doing time at Farragut H.S. Brian and Rob met there a few years later. we played our first show February 2001, the rest is history.
A HARD DEDICATED BAND GOING THROUGH THE TOUGH TIMES IN LIFE AND STILL MANAGING TO PUT OUT GOOD MUSIC AND PLAY SHOWS CLOSE OR FAR…AND AFTER THE UPS AND DOWNS WITH BAND MEMBERS THAT ARE DEDICATED AND THE NON DEDICATED ONES WE APPRECIATE AND RESPECT YOU FOR THE HELP..
EMPIRES
“A big, multifaceted, tower-of-power sound” and “inspired by the independent spirit of 90s grunge, Empires’ music takes the urgency and emotion of that era and reboots it for a new generation.” – Rolling Stone
[Empires has] set about doing this right. It’s a sentiment reinforced by these sterling alt-pop tracks boasting delicious symmetry of texture and tension. The 20 minutes Empires deliver on BANG makes a strong case that given the current music landscape, bands would be best off releasing EPs of their best songs while the material’s still fresh… – Alternative Press
“Layer U2’s early anthemics and The National’s moody swing, ladle on copious amounts of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s fuzz buzz and add dashes of Catherine Wheel and Modest Mouse. Cook under stage lights until they and you are completely done.” – CityBeat
“All ethereal and doomy like the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club or the Black Angels, but with a little bit of My Chemical Romance snarl thrown in for good measure” – MTV
Earth Crisis is an American hardcore punk band from Syracuse, New York, active from 1989 until 2001, reuniting in 2007. Earth Crisis’ chugging riffs and barked declarations served as the mouthpiece for the global vegan straight-edge movement throughout the ’90s, detailing the ideas of animal and human liberation, environmentalism, drug-free living, and personal empowerment through hardcore song.
Formed in 2008, Earthen Grave is a six-piece Chicago metal band that marries the sounds of metal past and future with a sweaty, pummeling live show. Bassist Ron Holzner served a 15-year sentence with Chicago doom legends Trouble and Rachel Barton Pine brings her frightening classical chops to a relatively new instrument, the Viper. Finding groups like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Saint Vitus, Trouble, Pentagram, Candlemass and Slayer to be common influences, the band wrote and played shows around Chicago for the first half of 2009, culminating in the release of the “Dismal Times” EP in June. Featuring three original songs that meld classic, crunchy doom and NWOBHM vibes with a solid dose of thrashy bludgeoning alongside covers of two choice doom classics by Pentagram and Witchfinder General, the EP was hailed by critics as “astounding, ” and “pure, head-banging bliss” (MaximumMetal.com).
One of the most original and energetic acts around today, ekoostik hookah is the nucleus of a family drawn to its lucid, improvisational treatment of psychedelic rock ’n’ roll, blues, funk, jazz and bluegrass layered with rich harmonies. Born early in 1991 in a smoky basement bar, the band has been continually evolving, cultivating a sound that has perked the ears of contemporaries and attracted fans who travel miles to hear them play.
The Ohio-based band began jamming during weekly open-mic nights when vocalist/keyboardist Dave Katz, lead guitarist Steve Sweney, bassist Cliff Starbuck and guitarist/vocalist John Mullins had full-time gigs with popular bands. The ensemble quickly found a following and began this odyssey when a stranger who heard them at a party bankrolled a trip to the studio to record Under Full Sail. By the end of recording, band members had committed themselves full-time to ekoostik hookah. Drummer Eric Lanese joined in 1993. Since then, the band has undergone a few changes in personnel, including the departure of Starbuck and the addition of bassist Phil Risko and the departure of John Mullins and addition of guitarist/singer/songwriter Eric Sargent in 2010. ekoostik hookah has always independently handled every aspect of its growth.
ekoostik hookah has played in more than 30 states at venues including New York’s Wetlands Preserve, Chicago’s House of Blues, Cleveland’s Nautica Stage, Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse, Boulder’s Fox Theater, Columbus’ Promowest Pavilion, Cleveland’s House of Blues, LA’s Whiskey a Go-Go and San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. In 1997 hookah was invited to play at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ekoostik hookah played its first international shows in June 1999 in Negril, Jamaica. Since then the band has traveled to the Netherlands in 2003 and back to Jamaica almost bi-annually, bringing their fans along each time.
Though intense live energy fuels this band, hookah fans have snatched up more than 100,000 copies of its eight releases: Under Full Sail (1991), Dubbahbuddah (1994), an untitled, two-disc live set (1996), Where the Fields Grow Green (1998), Hookahville Spring ’98 (1998), Sharp in the Flats (1999), Seahorse (2001) and Ohio Grown (2002).
Hookahville, the band’s home-thrown festival featuring two nights of music and camping in Ohio’s green hills, has been called by fans and critics the best music festival in the Midwest. The biannual happening began in 1994 as a camp-out in Dave Katz and band manager Jeff Spencer’s backyard. Growing steadily, it has since been held at different venues on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. The attendance for Hookahville Spring ’00 exceeded 15,000. Hookahville allows the band to create its ideal “no hassles or bad attitudes” playing environment and share it with many fine live acts. Ratdog, David Crosby, Arlo Guthrie, David Grisman, Dickey Betts, Jazz Mandolin Project, The David Nelson Band, Willie Nelson, The Wailers, P-Funk, Robert Randolph, Little Feat, Ralph Stanley, Ricky Skaggs, Blues Traveler, Yonder Mountain String Band, Leftover Salmon and many others have played on the Hookahville stage.
