Wanted: Opening band for Boston Pops. Pays $1000. No drums. Self-defense skills a plus.

Published Jul 31 2009, 08:25 AM by Carly Carioli

The Boston Pops has announced a contest in conjunction with SonicBids to choose an opening band for the Boston Pops/Ben Folds gig in October. Considering the brawl that transpired the last time Ben played with the Pops, we're surprised the opening band isn't a bunch of undercover Blackwater agents playing "Give Peace A Chance." Of course, you can't buy publicity like that. So this year, the Pops are actually adding another pop act -- and guaranteeing that Keith Lockhart himself will be personally reviewing opening-band submissions alongside Folds. (We would love to be a fly on the wall for that -- we kind of imagine it going something like this.) It's not a bad gig, at least in local-band terms: a cool grand ("for travel and hotel accomodations") in exchange for a 25 minute set. (It's an even better purse when you consider that the BSO just laid off a bunch of people.)

Without coming out and saying it, they're pretty much begging for a folk act:

"Selected artist or artists must be able to quickly move on/off-stage and easily carry and plug in their own instruments, as the orchestra and Ben Folds will already be set up on stage. Though artists from all genres will be given consideration, for the logistical reasons previously stated, no full drum-kits are allowed and pianists will have to provide their own keyboard."

But we'd still like to go ahead and nominate Slapshot, on the theory that even an acoustic Slapshot would probably provoke at least two audience fistfights -- because above all, we want to see this year's gig top last year's gig.

What do you guys think? Local bands who could open up for the Pops? And hopefully help protect Keith in the case of a riot?

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Wanted: Opening band for Boston Pops. Pays $1000. No drums. Self-defense skills a plus.

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