Nashville for Free

Our good friends at AEG Live/The Messina Group are always bringing great shows to Nashville, and once again they’ve brought a great contest to us.

Mayer Hawthorne is coming to the Mercy Lounge on Tuesday, May 1st, and we have a pair of tickets to give to YOU. Well, one of you anyway.

To enter just leave a comment on this blog post with the name of your favorite Mayer Hawthorne song. Make sure to leave your REAL email address and, preferably, your real name so I know what name to put on the list. I’ll pick a winner at random.

However, if you want me to place your name in the hat five extra times, there is a little something you can do. To complete the bonus step post a picture of yourself tangled up in strings (in honor of the song “No Strings”) to our Facebook wall. It can be real string, photoshopped, string theory, whatever. Thing is, if you make me laugh I might toss your name in there one or two extra times.

I’ll randomly pick a winner on Sunday night, so get yourself entered!

-Emily

AEG Live/The Messina Group has been particularly kind to us as of late. Just last week they hooked us up with a pair of OAR tickets to give to you all, and now they’ve given us a pair of tickets to see Puscifer next Tuesday, the 28th!

Puscifer is primarily Maynard James Keenan, probably most well-known for his work in Tool and A Perfect Circle. According to Wikipedia (because it’s always a lot of fun to see what the masses think of things) they fall into the ambient, comedy rock, experimental, post-industrial, trip hop genre of music. I honestly cannot imagine that in my head.

To enter the contest leave a comment on this blog post telling me your favorite color. I’ll randomly pick a winner Thursday evening. Please leave your full name as your username so I know who to put on the list. Or I guess just promise to check your damn email and get back to me on that if you win.

As usual, if you REALLY want to win the tickets you can increase your chances significantly by posting a picture to our Facebook wall. A picture of what, you ask? A picture of you holding up the Puscifer demon logo or the Puscifer demo logo thing photoshopped in a picture where it’s attacking your head. Get creative. Everyone who submits a picture gets entered into the hat five more times, but if you make me laugh it might end up being 6 or 7 extra times.

Good luck!

-Emily

When it comes to N4F contests we have a bonus step for two reasons. The first reason is to give people who REALLY want to go a better chance. The second reason is for my own entertainment.

Surprisingly, and for the first time in awhile, the winner didn’t do the bonus step and submit a picture, but a few fine ladies did, and I love them for it. If you didn’t win ticket’s it’s okay, because you’re not completely shut out of the OAR show. You can still get tickets here.

Here are some amazing pics from some true OAR fans:

All I can say is wow. It was our biggest contest ever. You guys left some great comments and sent in some great pictures but there can only be one winner.

And her name is Erin Elliott!

Congratulations Erin, enjoy the Dashboard show! Don’t cry too much, and if you do cry may it be from joy and not a sorrow in your angsty, emo soul.

Again, thanks to AEG Live for making this contest happen. And for all you sad souls who didn’t win tickets, don’t fret! There are still some tickets available but I’d act soon to save yourselves from any heartache. Sorry dudes, when they’re gone, they’re gone. It’s going to be a great show, isn’t it Erin?

As always, for your pleasure and mine, here’s a sample of some of the pictures submitted for the contest:

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

"how much cat food will this buy?"

Surely I don’t need to tell you how much I love entering contests. If there’s even the smallest chance I can get something for basically nothing consider me entered. And if there’s a way I can increase my chances of winning, then look out, because I’m going all or nothing on that stuff.

I don’t know how many of you have heard about Red White and Food, but they’re an organization that’s trying to make it legal for grocery stores to sell wine, something that 33 other states, including my home state of Ohio, allow with no major problems.

I personally think it’s incredibly lame and inconvenient that grocery stores can’t sell wine which, you know, is often used in cooking, so I decided to follow them on the Twitter and forgot about it. Then one day I saw that they were having a contest where they were giving away a $150 gift card to a grocery store of your choice.

The contest was called 33 States in 33 Days, and all you had to do to enter was go to a grocery store in a state where you can sell wine in them and take a picture of the wine in the grocery store. If you were the first to submit for any state you’d get 2 extra entries and, get this, you could send as many pictures as you like and get entered for all of them.

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m from a state where you actually CAN sell wine in grocery stores. So, when I went home for Thanksgiving and then Christmas I took pictures of the wine sections in every grocery store I went to. I did the same when I went to South Carolina to visit family in December. No Kroger or Harris Teeter went unvisited. I must have sent in two dozen pictures.

And lo and behold, it paid off. That’s right, all my shenanigans that involved me weirding out Kroger employees paid off. I just got the gift cards to my grocery store of choice (Harris Teeter, because they sell Hatch Green Chilies) as well as some bumper stickers and other Red White and Food materials that I’ll be handing out to my friends.

Red White and Food is a great organization if you want Tennessee laws involving alcohol to start making more sense. 33 States in 33 Days wasn’t even their only contest in December, so check back to their website or follow them on Twitter for updated info.

Thanks Red White and Food!

-Emily

I think I’ve already said it a thousand times, but I was PUMPED about this contest. The National are one of my favorite bands and I loved that I was able to spread the love around. They’re coming to the Ryman on October 3rd and I was able to score a pair of free tickets AND an autographed poster from the awesome folks at 4AD!

As a lot of you know, my contests are always random draws, and I usually give weight to people who send in picture as opposed to those who just left a comment. However, this time I decided t make the contest picture only, then assign extra weight to those who obviously put a LOT of work into the picture, or ones that made me laugh. I’m sorry if there was any confusion about how I was choosing a winner.

I have to say, most of the pictures that were sent it made me laugh. You all are a creative bunch! THAT’S why I make it a random drawing, because I’d be completely unable to pick which picture I thought was best.

So I put all the names in the hat (some multiple times) and the winner was…Daniel Mark! His picture was incredibly creative, which must have helped him out a little in the probability department, but I also have to give a shout out to Ryan Chavez Richmond, because his picture was just incredible. I really wish that I had more prizes to give away. You can see his picture in the gallery below. His is the first one.

Here are most of the pics from the contest, for your viewing pleasure:

We’ll have more picture contests soon, so look out for them! If you can’t wait for another contest we’re running one on the Twitter right now. We’re giving away a pair of FREE TICKETS to see Guster at TPAC’s War Memorial next Friday. To get yourself entered tweet @nashforfree before Thursday and tell me what you love about Guster! I’ll pick a winner at random on Thursday. Good luck!

-Emily

When I first heard The National I knew that I’d be a lifelong fan. The can go from serious brooding to rocking the hell out in three seconds flat. Those deep, dark baritone vocals over guitar riffs by those Dessner men, it’s indie rock perfection.

So, you can imagine my excitement when I heard that they were coming to the Ryman. I can hardly imagine a more fitting venue for them. The Ryman, with its stained glass, a church for The National’s songs about the lost. Isn’t that what church is for, the lost and disenchanted? My God, it’s perfect.

That’s why I’m so excited to bring this contest to you. I talked to the fine folks at 4AD and they have generously provided me with two tickets to their show at the Ryman AND an autographed poster for one of my lucky followers.

For the contest I’ve decided to switch things up just a little bit. Here are the details:

TO ENTER: Go to our facebook page and post a picture of yourself holding something violet. Bonus points if you’re holding actual violets. If you get creative enough to make me laugh then I’ll give you a few extra points then too. I’ll announce a winner next Friday, September 24th, so make sure you enter before then. Remember, you HAVE to post a picture to be eligible to win. You can’t just leave a comment (thought I wouldn’t discourage commenting).

I just had to say this because The National are also from Cincinnati…GO REDS!