It would be hard to give a negative review of five bands that beat out over ten thousand others to be chosen to play in the 1995 TicketMaster Music Showcase. Suffice it to say that all five of the bands that played the showcase at People’s Bar and Grill on Wednesday night were excellent. If that is enough for you, read no further. The rest is merely aesthetics.

All of the bands that were chosen to play in the nationwide showcase sent demo tapes, with two recorded songs, to the TicketMaster Music Showcase headquarters last May. The purpose of the showcase is for recording industry representatives to scope out new, unsigned talent from across America.

“This is NOT a battle of the bands,” Scott Kaye of KFMG, and Master of Ceremonies for the showcase, was quick to point out several times during the show.

Living Proof, a 7-piece hailing from Omaha, started the show. Lead singer “Sister” Mary Francis gave a fabulous performance lyricizing music that was a potpourri of funk, country and rock and roll.

“We’re like genre hoppers,” Francis said of the variety of musical styles that influence the band’s music. “Because there’s four or five different writers. I guess we are every publisher’s dream, and perhaps a record company’s nightmare …”

The entire band was energetic and got the show off to a great start. Songwriter and lead guitarist Dan Silman did an awesome duet with Francis that really knocked the audience out.

“We have a wonderful time,” Francis said. “It’s fun doing original music.”

After an acceptably short changing of drum sets and equipment, Attica Finch took the stage. This Des Moines-based power quartet played good old-fashioned frat boy rock’n’roll with a punk rock flavor and an almost Celtic nuance.

Band members are fairly certain that Attica Finch will be breaking up in the near future. “Unless we win this, we are done as a band,” Kim said.

The third band to play was the locally renowned Tazband, a blues quartet from Des Moines. Composed of Taz on guitar and vocals, Paul Tompson on drums, Bryon Martins on keys and Scott Sutherland on bass, the band played a number of very melodic and intelligently composed songs. It was good to hear a blues band that

didn’t rely on shredding guitar licks over generic 12-bar blues to impress the audience.

Some feedback problems plagued Taz’s guitar toward the middle of the band’s set. Other than that, Taz seemed like he couldn’t be happier, while Sutherland seemed to be irritated about something the whole time he was playing.

“The Tazband has been a unit since about 1986,” Sutherland said. “This is the first time we have entered the contest.”

Sutherland has only been playing bass with the band since February of this year.

Hard rockers, Drasbury, from Des Moines, played next. The music wasn’t really metal, although that is probably a close approximation.

With Skynyrd-like harmonies and a driving beat, Drasbury succeeded in getting the crowd into mosh-mode.

The band was composed of Shannon Christy on vocals, Jeff Banks on guitar, Ben Lehl also on guitar, Steve Green on drums and Mark Donovan on bass.

The Accidental Sisters, a Des Moines five-piece, finished off the show. The band consisted of Deb Daniels on bass, Matt Willson on drums, Sam Miller on lead guitar, Lloyd Miller on saxophone and Leon Harrison on vocals.

This band sounded a bit like Led Zeppelin with a saxophone. Simply put, it was fairly raw all-out rock’n’roll.

When asked about the origin of the band’s name, Daniels replied, “Well it was kinda like an accident, really…” Say no more.

Harrison was very pleased with the organization of the show and TicketMaster’s treatment of the musicians.

“This was a good deal tonight,” Harrison said. “Everybody got a little exposure. I thought the spirit here was really good.”