West Music Staff Blogs

On June 27th, the West Music store in Marion held it's first ever Weststock concert. The purpose of this outdoor concert was to give young, amateur bands a place to play and gain some performance experience.

9 bands filled out an application and submitted a CD of some of their best songs. Each band was given tickets to sell to this event. The bands received half of their ticket sales back in the form of a West Music gift card and the band with the most ticket sales also received an additional $100.00 gift card. The bands could also sell promotional items of their own. Hy-Vee was there providing food and drinks.

The bands ranged in ages from 10-45. Some bands have been playing together for a few years and others only a few weeks. Styles ranged from Christian rock to heavy metal. The best thing about the day was how talented every band was, even though most of the musicians were teenagers who hadn't been studying their instruments for very long and had trouble finding places to practice and perform. The kids formed their bands on their own, ran their own rehearsals, and chose their own songs. Some bands even wrote their own music! How many kids do you know that can do all of that?

The day began at 10:00 a.m. with our first band The Dave Paris Group. This was one of our older and more experienced bands. They kicked the day off with some hard rock music. The band to follow was made up of high school students and had the cool name of Helforstout. Another high school group followed, EXKALABRR and they blasted some heavy metal. Quarter Life Crisis was up next playing a little bit of everything. Pearl, another metal band and our Weekend Warrior band, was still together and came by to play some more for West Music. Reclaimation calmed things down a bit with some Christian music. They were the best dressed band with their female vocalists in prom dresses and tennis shoes. Rock band The Jesterz brought everyone's heartbeat up again and Piraxis was our last metal band. The final band of the day was Red Ink, another group of high school students who were writing their music during algebra class!

Luckily, for everyone involved the rain stayed away until the last band performed and all of the equipment was inside. The bands had an infectious energy and they ran, danced, and jumped around the stage while performing. Definitely no wallflowers there! All-in-all, it was a fantastic day that West Music will be sure to repeat every summer.