January 2012 Tour: Day 11

1/19/12: Waka Winter Classic @ George's Majestic Lounge, Fayetteville, AR


What the Waka Winter Classic is all about:


The Waka Winter Classic is a battle of the bands, in which the winner gets to play at the Wakarusa music festival in late May. It's a huge four day festival in which famous regional and local bands play. It's a really huge honor to win, and is excellent exposure for new up and coming bands. The competition isn't really judged, though. The winner is determined by ticket numbers. Each person who buys a ticket to enter the winter classic gets to vote by writing their band of choice on the back of the ticket and turning it in. The tickets are counted, and the band with the most votes wins. Though one would like to think that those attending the winter classic would wait until the end after seeing each band to choose which they think performed the best. However, most of those attending already had their minds made up in advance as to who they were voting for. So, it's more of a popularity contest than an actual judged battle of the bands. But I guess Waka wants the band who will help sell the most tickets.


The Sweets and I were very excited going into the Waka Winter Classic. We had a heart-to-heart earlier that day, and a really good practice too. We went on second, and played one of the best performances in Candy Lee and the Sweets history. The sound @ George's was amazing. The crowd was really digging our sound, and gave us lots of energy. We had an amazingly good time up on that stage. Some really great bands have performed on that stage, (I personally had seen Punch Brothers and Umphrey's McGee on that stage) so it was an honor for me. On our last song, "Sweet Music," Emily threw some taffy that Dan's partner, Laura, had given us, out in to the crowd. It was so much fun! A few people took some really great pictures of us too!

1 Oz Jig

Cadillac Jackson

We thought for sure the winner of the winter classic  would be 1 Oz Jig, who we were surprised had not already been booked at the festival. However, the winner ended up being Cadillac Jackson, a band I had not previously heard of before. They brought a lot of people out. The did some kind of hip-hop, jam band/ fusion music.


Though we did not win, playing at the Waka Winter Classic was a valuable experience for us. I was happy that this was my last performance while in Fayetteville. It was nice to play to a large crowd, and feel confident in our performance. The crowd dug us, and I know we earned some new fans. It's only up from here! Candy Lee and the Sweets are only going to get closer and tighter as a band, and our buzz is only getting louder!

Candy Lee and the Sweets!!!
Photos taken by Live Edits Lab
More photos from this event can be seen @ https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.348981785131116.97961.248831435146152&type=1

Some photos that David took on the iphone: