When bands play Wired Wednesdays at Doc Holliday’s Saloon and Grill, they aren’t just performing, they’re auditioning.
Wired Wednesdays are a free live music night that showcases local bands, whether they are newcomers or long-timers, Doc Holliday’s front-of-house manager Jeff Mudrak said.
Bands who put on a good show may also get the chance to open for bigger regional or national acts at the Live Wire concerts at Clazel Theater.
Pat Pickering, a bartender at Doc Holliday’s and talent scout and overseer for Wired Wednesdays, said the shows are like an “incubator” for Live Wire acts.
Mudrak said he and Doc Holliday’s owner Ammar Mufleh, who also owns Clazel, came up with the idea for the Wednesday night shows before the bar even opened.
They saw the event as way to take the concept of Live Wire and make “something accessible and free to the public,” Mudrak said.
The first Wired Wednesday took place Jan. 21, the night after Doc Holliday’s opened.
Pickering said the shows were a way to promote local bands.
“We have so much talent in our backyard,” Pickering said.
Part of this promotion includes marketing.
“We’re trying to help them in terms of marketing their sound,” Pickering said.
He said Doc Holliday’s does this by recording the performances and uploading them to SoundCloud.
Though Doc Holliday’s is a county bar, bands from any genre are welcome to perform.
Wired Wednesdays has seen everything “from solo acoustic to a full-on rock cover band,” Pickering said.
Sophomore Amanda DeLong got involved with Wired Wednesdays when Doc Holliday’s came to WBGU-FM looking for student volunteers in February. She mostly works on marketing and finding new bands.
DeLong said there are four student volunteers total who help get the word out about Wired Wednesdays and the bands that play.
Wired Wednesdays is about giving smaller bands a way to make themselves visible, DeLong said.
“This is just giving more opportunities to perform in front of people,” she said.
Mudrak agreed that these opportunities were important.
“We want to give everybody an opportunity to play,” he said.
The Wired Wednesdays Facebook page has played an integral role in finding bands.
“We have a lot of people post through that and I have a lot of people come in and talk to me after the shows,” Mudrak said.
Mudrak encouraged bands interested in playing Wednesdays to contact Doc Holliday’s through the Facebook page.
Wired Wednesdays are every Wednesday from 8:30-11:30 p.m.
Pickering said this may change to an earlier time with warmer weather so attendees can use the bar’s patio.
