BRIDGEPORT — An international battle of the bands is underway and a noisy South Side four-piece punk outfit has made it to the final round.
Lights Over Bridgeport is hoping to earn a spot at Groezrock 2015, Belgium's enormous multi-day punk festival, but the band needs enough votes to beat out the 30 others who've made the cut.
Casey Cora explains how you can help these guys win:
They are the only band from North America to have made it this far.
"We've never even dreamed this big. We never imagined we'd have the opportunity to travel across an ocean and play our music. ... We'd be repping the South Side in Belgium. That's pretty insane," said John Hamlin, the band’s founding member, vocalist and guitar player.
Hamlin said playing at Groezrock — with its crowd of 40,000 — would cap an intense year of touring the Midwest and writing songs for a forthcoming release.
It would also be the band's biggest gig ever. A raucous show at Chicago's House of Blues that drew some 1,100 fans would be the closest second.
Only one of the band's members, guitarist Miko Ramirez, lives in Bridgeport, where much of the band's songwriting gets done. The band took its name while watching a ballgame at U.S. Cellular Field.
Hamlin, drummer Kevin Jamroz and bassist Kurt Miller all live in Indiana.
All of their energy is now geared toward winning the contest, which is made possible by an online voting. The voting started Monday and continues through Feb. 17. Instructions on voting can be found here.
"It's hard to believe this is real, that we're the only ones [in America]. ... I haven't been getting much sleep," Hamlin said.
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