Nashville for Free

Once upon a time I was in Jr. High School and everyone I knew loved loved LOVED Dashboard Confessional. I mean, these guys were just massive, especially in my group of wannabe punk friends. And I can understand why, the singer is dreamy, the songs are catchy and the lyrics are dramatic. That’s probably why they’re still a successful touring band today. They really struck a chord with my generation.

That’s why I’m so excited that our friends from AEG Live offered us a pair of tickets to give away to their March 31st show at the Cannery Ballroom! You know, when Dashboard was at their biggest I would’ve been too young to see them there, but damnit, I’m old enough now, so watch out!

The steps for entering this contest are pretty standard. To be entered into our random drawing all you have to do is comment on this blog post. It’s so easy, you can even log onto our commenting system via Facebook or Twitter!

But, as usual, that’s not all. You can get yourself entered five more times by posting a photo to our Facebook wall. Not just any photo though! You see, Dashboard Confessional was the band that started the whole “emo” movement, so I want to see a picture of your emo moment. It can be an actual picture of you or it can be your face photoshopped onto the emo-est person of all time. As usual, if you make us laugh our asses off we might throw in even a few more points for ya.

Well, what are you waiting for? Enter thyself! I’ll announce a winner next Monday.

-Emily

Congratulations to Nick Floyd, your Ted Nugent-y entry was hilarious and disgusting, and the bonus points undoubtedly helped you win our first contest of the year: a pair of tickets to guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke’s March 16th show at TPAC. Thanks again to AEG Live/The Messina Group for making this contest possible.

As usual (which is why I love you guys), a lot of you sent in some great pictures, and I’d be a fool to not share them with the world, so here they are. As you might remember, the theme was to send in a picture of yourself playing the real guitar, air guitar, or photoshop your head onto the body of a famous guitarist.  There’s even a bonus pic from our contributor Matt Kraatz in there!

So, what’s your favorite pick? Aside from our winner I think I’m partial to the jumps accomplished by Mr. Dan Berrios. How is that humanly possible??

Fans of excellent guitar work – rejoice! Superb guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke is coming to the James K. Polk theater at TPAC on March 16th and thanks to our awesome friends at AEG Live (who you should totally check out because they have contests all the time) we at Nashville for Free have a pair of free tickets to give to one of you guys!

If you’re a guitar nerd at all or like jam bands (he collaborated with Mike Gordon from Phish in 2001) then chances are pretty good you’ve at the very least heard Leo’s work. The guy has been playing professionally since the 1960s and is incredibly respected for his fingerstyles. His music is a mix of folk, jazz, blues, and face-melting awesomeness.

So, you want to win tickets to this show? I don’t blame you, but I need to lay down the rules of the game first.

To Enter:

To enter this contest all you need to do is leave a comment on this here blog post. You can say absolutely anything you want, but we really just want to hear why you like Leo Kottke. We’ve made it easy on you, you can now log in using your Facebook or Twitter account. If you prefer you can comment on our Facebook wall instead.

Bonus Points:

As should be expected, leaving us a comment will get your name put into our magical hat one time, but if you want to have FIVE chances to win you need to do this: post a picture on our Facebook wall of you rocking out on the guitar. By “rocking out on the guitar” I mean it can be a picture of you playing your real guitar, you playing a broomstick, or you even just playing air guitar. Hell, you can just photoshop your face on top of a famous guitarist (we want to see your head on Ted Nugent’s body). Yep, that’s all you have to do to be five times more likely to win than everyone who just leaves a comment.

I have to say though, if you go absolutely all-out and crazy with this picture you might get more than five extra entries. I try to weight it so that more effort = better chances of winning. But seriously, it’ll have to be a freaking special picture for that.

Best of luck to you guys, and please start sending those pictures! I need more entertainment in my life! I’ll pick a winner next Monday, Feb. 28th, so get your pics and whatnot into me before then.

-Emily

Our good friends at AEG Live have given us at N4F a Christmas presents to pass on to one of our awesome followers: tickets to see Lissie at the Mercy Lounge on February 3rd!

She may still be a relative newcomer to the world of music, but both her 2009 EP and 2010 full-length album (much of which were both recorded in Nashville with Band of Horses’  Bill Reynolds) that Paste Magazine called “unbridled, unselfconscious, swirling, head-pounding pop.” She’s toured with Ray LaMontagne, A.A. Bondy, City & Colour, and The Low Anthem and played 10 shows in 4 days at SXSW where she got positive reviews from the likes of Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and Perez Hilton.

Here’s how to enter the tickets, just comment on this blog post, the Facebook page, or tweet at me telling me why you want to see Lissie. If you’re entering on Twitter please be sure to use the hatchtag #LissieN4F!

Good luck! I’ll announce a winner on Thursday, December 23rd sometime in the evening.

-Emily

Here’s a quick recap: my friends at AEG Live hooked me up with some Tim & Eric tickets to pass along to one of my faithful readers. I asked you to enter by commenting on the Facebook page or on the blog, and to make things interested I offered to up your chances of winning if you sent me a picture of you in the midst of some holiday shenanigans.

The response was overwhelming. I got a ton of great pictures, so many that if you didn’t send in a pic, the odds weren’t in your favor at all.

It should then come as no surprise that our randomly selected winner, Dan Schlacter, sent in a picture of him having perhaps a little too much fun at a New Year’s party in 2006. Congratulations Dan! Your tickets will be at will call the day of the show.

Didn’t win? That’s okay, you’re not completely out of luck. There are still some tickets available, but apparently not many, so you might want to get on that. Also, to relieve the sadness you might feel from not winning I’ve included a bunch of the pictures from the contest in this post. Enjoy! Let me know which one’s your favorite!

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

-Emily

As you may have heard, Tim & Eric, those dudes from Adult Swim, are bringing their “Chrimbus Spectacular” (what does that even mean?) to Nashville on December 3rd.

And, with much thanks to my good friends at AEG Live, I have a pair of tickets to give away.

If you’re a fan of the television show then you’re in luck, because I’ve heard that this doesn’t differ too much from that. Just like on TV they’ll have sketches and songs with humor so absurd that you’ll either feel completely awkward or will laugh your ass off (or both). There will even be pre-taped clips from their upcoming holiday special.

To enter to win tickets to the show all you have to do is comment either on this blog post or on the Facebook wall. As always, I’ve thought up a way for you to significantly improve your chances of winning…

Since Tim & Eric are obviously in the holiday spirit I decided that this contest should be as well. To get entered into the proverbial hat FIVE TIMES post a picture to the Facebook wall of some holiday shenanigans you’ve been involved with. I want pics with the Naughty Santa from Grimey’s, pics of you unwrapping a flask that you got for Christmas, a pic of you completely passed out next to the Thanksgiving turkey. Were you that guy who wouldn’t take the elf costume off all night during a Christmas party because you had a little too much egg nog? Post it. Whatever you have, I want to see it. I also love photoshop, by the way.

I’ll announce a winner next Wednesday, so make sure you get yourself entered before then.

Best of luck,
Emily

Jakob Dylan is probably one of the few children of famous rock stars who was able to overcome the shadow of that parent. He found his success all on his own. Okay, I don’t know for sure, maybe there was a little help on the way up, but no one bought his records because Bob Dylan is his dad, that much is for sure. His dad didn’t make his songs hits, Jakob did that all on his own. What can I say, the dude can hold his own in the songwriting department.

But why I am talking about Jakob Dylan? Probably because I have a pair of tickets to see him at Exit/In next week courtesy of AEG and I want to give them to one of YOU!

All you have to do to enter is login to your Twitter account and tweet at me (@nashforfree) OR comment on the Facebook and tell me why you love Jakob Dylan. Maybe you like his blue eyes or his hat collection. It doesn’t matter! Just tell me why you like him and I’ll put your name in the hat! Don’t procrastinate on this one though, because I’m announcing the winner sometime Friday evening (probably while I’m cooking dinner). Yes, THIS Friday.

The show is next Thursday, October 28th, and Dylan LeBlanc is opening! That’s like two Dylans for the price of one (in this case, that price could be FREE).

Happy tweeting.

-Emily

I don’t know what it is, but we, along with AEG Live, just CANNOT stop giving away tickets for awesome concerts! I mean, this is music city, so there are a lot of them. We’ve already done Imogen Heap and Band of Horses, and now we bring you METRIC at the Cannery Ballroom on October 13th!

By now I think that some of you get the jist of what a N4F ticket giveaway means. It’s an easy two step process with a bonus step that does wonders for your chances of winning. We’ve had to make us something pretty, we’ve had you dress up as horses, and we’ve had you get all sexy on the hood of your car all in the name of free rock, and this time is no different. Here are the steps laid out all nice and pretty:

1. Like AEG Live on Facebook. This isn’t something you’ll regret doing. They’re our partners on this giveaway and they have awesome concert announcements, presale info, as well as their own contests all the time. Totally worth it.

2. Metric is Canadian, and we all know that Canadians make some pretty awesome music. So, leave us a pretty comment on THIS POST telling us what you think it is that makes Canadians so good at rocking out. Maybe you think it’s the cold winters or the lumberjacks. Get goofy or be totally serious. We prefer goofy. Also, we love Canadians. Be sure to comment with your first AND last name and leave a REAL email address. Otherwise I won’t know how to contact you and I’ll just pick another winner.

Those two steps are all you have to do to be entered into the contest once. That means your name is the the cowboy hat only one time. However, if you want your name to be in that stetson FIVE TIMES all you have to do is this…

3. BONUS STEP. With all this talk about Canada I think it’s important that the winner of the contest has a working knowledge of Canadian culture (or at least stereotypes), so we want you to send us a picture of you getting Canadian on us. Put on copious amounts of flannel, double fist maple syrup like it’s PBR, cut down a tree (actually, please don’t physically cut down a tree), photoshop a thought bubble above your head that says “eh? eh. EH!” in it. Get creative! If you send me into a laughter-induced coma I might even enter you more than five times. Email the pics to nashvilleforfree @ gmail.com

So what are you waiting for??? Get commenting! Dust off those cameras! I’m randomly selecting a winner on Monday, August 30th, Tuesday, August 31st, so make sure you get entered by then! Good luck!

Update: Unfortunately, Neko Case has canceled her entire tour, which includes the Nashville date. I’d like to apologize to our winner and our participants, we’re pretty bummed too. Keep your eyes peeled for a new contest soon!

As you may have heard, we’ve been trying to give away a pair of Neko Case tickets courtesy of AEG Live. 29 people entered that contest, and a mere 3 of them followed the bonus step to get a serious advantage. Last time our winner sent us an incredible horse picture, but this time the bonus-step followers weren’t quite so lucky. In fact, our winner was a simple commenter named Cara who said her favorite Neko Case song is “Vengeance is Sleeping”. Good choice. Congratulations, Cara!

However, I can’t end this post without giving a shout-out to the three fellows who wanted Neko Case tickets enough to jump on the hoods of their cars and look pretty awesome/ridiculous while doing so. Effrin, Joshua, and Matt, I salute you fellows! I wish I could give you a consolation prize, but we only had one pair of tickets to give away. Better luck next time, good sirs.

Here are some pics of the happy gentlemen.

Now that's what I call Saucy

Closest imitator, for sure

-Emily

PS,
I’m not going to give away too many details just yet, but we already have another contest or two in the works. I hope to see more people attempt the bonus step next time!

The Proud Winner

I’d like to thank everyone who entered the Band of Horses ticket giveaway. I feel like everyone deserved to win (Band of Horses is really important to a lot of people), but there could only be one winner, and her name is Lauren W.

Obviously, the extra points that she got by sending me a picture of herself dressed as a horse really helped her out, and not just because it made everyone at the N4F headquarters laugh. She got entered into the contest five more times than she would have had she just left a comment.

There were actually quite a few people who sent us pictures and videos of My Little Ponies and other horse related things. One dude even had a video where he rode his dog around like a horse (no dogs were harmed in the making if it, I assume).

Again, I have to thank AEG/The Messina Group for being completely awesome.

Here are a few of the other pics.

Amber, N4F loves you too.

Singing My Little Pony?

A story of poverty