Bands from Distant Lands - Silverlode Edition

[dori_bolger]

Dateline: Landroval 4 June 2013

Weatherstock 5 Preview

Special Silverlode Edition

Mark your calendars for July 20th. That’s when this year’s edition of Weatherstock, the massive music festival, will be taking place on Landroval. Eleven bands from many distant lands will be there performing for your enjoyment in what is certainly the most well attended player run event of the year, typically drawing over 500 audience members.

This year Silcverlode is represented with a band, and some of the awards are based on popular vote at the event, so stop by Landroval and create a character there to vote for your local musicians. Assistance and security will be provided to help low level adventurers make the trip from the Forsaken Inn to Weathertop to enjoy the show.

Further details can be found in the Lotro Forums “Player Run Events” topic. But here are details on a few of the bands that will be performing there this year, including a Silverlode favorite.

My clansman Nellan was passing through Thorin’s gate and noticed a group playing songs for passers-by. Turns out it was “A Rock and a Hard Place”, a band visiting from the distant land of Dwarrowdelf to perform at Weatherstock V this year. The group comprised of Friewin, Winfrie, Jepster, Bruzo, Suidbert, Swaifro and Lanvoc was joined later in the set by Limonita, and according to Nellan a really nice set was played for a rather small audience. On the plus side it seems the band had not yet become aware of their acceptance to perform at Weatherstock, so Nellan was able to cheer them a bit with the good news.

A quick look at the Press kit for the band reveals the following information.

“Hello everyone! We're "A Rock and A Hard Place," a band on the Landroval server of "The Lord of The Rings Online." We are also known on the server of Dwarrowdelf as "The Lords and Ladies of the Strings." We really enjoy playing music, and for some of us, it's the reason we play the "Lord of The Rings Online." We play all kinds of music we like. We hope we get to meet you all in game one day.”

Their flyers go on to note…

“That's right, ladies and gentlemen, A Rock and A Hard Place(Landroval)/The Lords and Ladies of The Strings(Dwarrowdelf) is going to Weatherstock 2013! We hope to see you all there, and we sure are excited to be there! Thanks a bunch Weatherstock officers, we'll make sure to leave a mark no other band has left before! See you all there, and you better be there(Or else we'll smash you with lutes!) We love you guys, and we hope you'll join us for this huge band milestone! Weatherstock 2013 will be AWESOME!!!!

If what I saw was any indicator, those of us who do get to see them will be glad we did!

I have also had some initial contact with the band Don’t Tempt Me Frodo. It seems they are doing some sort of combined effort show with Flock of Smeagols. I’m not quite sure I have a grip on what this is all about just yet, but for now I have at least gathered the following performer roster for DTMF.

“The lineup of players at this point is as follows:
- Chastine (bandleader)
- Mirinaeth (bandperson)
- Aenrael (or other name TBD on Landroval, bandperson)
- Some other guy, not Junes”

Somewhat more comprehensive information was available for Flock of Smeagols as follows from their Weatherstock Application.

“Band Name: Flock of Smeagols
Server: Landroval/Silverlode

Band Leader: Durrann (Dwarven minstrel, of the Iron Hills)

Band Members: Codella Mosstoes (Hobbit hunter)
Aenrael (on Silverlode, name TBA on Landroval
That other guy (new to LOTRO, name TBA for Landroval)

Background Information: Flock of Smeagols was originally a Kinship created on Silverlode server by Mirinaeth. The band has been created on Landroval to play at Weatherstock in Don't Tempt Me Frodo's stead, due to unavailability of most of the same members from last year. As mentioned in the band app, Durrann and Codella are the founders of the Flock of Smeagols band, and the circumstances of their meeting was,...er...special, indeed.

FoS has played two independent, one-ish hour concerts on Landroval within the last month and has made an appearance at both Ales & Tales and the EMS Open Mic. Members have performed as part of Don't Tempt Me Frodo for weddings, server events, private parties, Ales & Tales, Open Mic shows, solo shows, and of course, Weatherstock!

Durrann and Codella are getting more involved in .abc creation and are definitely planning to create an original piece for performance at Weatherstock. We will also likely be working with the lyrical system, and have some fun currently in the works with that.

We've been wanting to do more with event design and creation, but that has been a challenge, as over half of our normal members are in the middle of pursuing higher education, which as we all know, tends to monopolize a person's life, at the time. Good news though folks, there is this grand thing called Summer Break!! Huzzah! \o/

Music style: A little of everything. Our original composition will likely be something more serious and lively, but we aren't beyond doing cheap covers and twisting existing popular songs for our own devious purposes (*foreshadows*). For those that have attended our concerts, you'll be aware that our signature song is "I Ran", which we think is both appropriate and particularly amusing.”

A third band accepted for Weatherstock, and already fairly well known to audiences at Ales & Tales Monday evening concerts is the Runic Knights Orchestra. The following information about RKO has been taken from their Weatherstock application.

“Band Name: Runic Knights Orchestra (RKO)
Home Server: Brandywine
Band Leader: Steeloak (Also Runic Knights Kinship Leader)

Web Site: http://www.rklotro.com


All band members are members of the Runic Knights kinship on the Brandywine Server.

--------------------

The Runic Knights Orchestra
The following band members may attend Weatherstock:

Aadran
Chantillyrose
Grimbori (Grimbori/Hordmod)
Khaladreth (Khalawyn/Alyrwen)
Primrosia (Primrosiah/Hartsing)
Rathinosk (Rathlaer/Rathlam)
RunicKid
Sanforyd (Sanicle)
Steeloak
Yarissa (Belathriel)
Zaxin

Background Information

Founded during beta, the Runic Knights is one of the largest and oldest active kinships on the Brandywine server. The Runic Knights Orchestra was created in 2009 to help make make Runic Knights events more fun for our members, and to serve as ambassadors for Runic Knights to the Brandywine community.

The Runic Knights Orchestra represents the core, the very heart of the Runic Knights kinship.

The Runic Knights Orchestra plays at kinship events, festivals and stages the occasional random concert on the Brandywine server. Over the past couple years, we have also maintained a presence on the Landroval server and members will occasionally stop by to play a random concert or visit at Ales & Tales.

Musical Style

The vast majority of songs in our extensive library (over 800 songs as of this post) were transcribed by RKO members, including Pinoh, Thjalfi, Rathinosk and Khaladreth.

The library covers a wide variety of music ranging from Medieval/Celtic and Classical music to Jazz, Big Band and Modern Rock, Dance and Pop music. We love music, all music.”

Returning after their appearance at Weatherstock IV last year, it pleases me greatly to see the Chosen Few will be with us again this year. Here is some background information about that fine band.

“Bandname: The Chosen Few
Server: [EN-RP] Laurelin

Bandleader : Grymrock Grey - Order of the Divine Brew

Bandmembers:
Babushka - Order of the Divine Brew
Gwestia - Order of the Divine Brew
Merlas - Order of the Divine Brew (Kinchief)
Chryssie - The Grand Order of The Lost Mathom
Tallic - The Grand Order of The Lost Mathom
Nafing - Order of the Divine Brew
Gotilia - Order of the Divine Brew
Uswin - Adventurers of Arda

Background information:
'The Chosen Few' where formed late in 2010 by the kinships 'Order of the Divine Brew', 'Adventurers of Arda' and 'No Strings Attached'. (Grym, Trotgard, Uswin, Chadwick). We then expanded with two more members from 'Durins Folk' (Norgi) and 'Shire Rose' (Amorey). We kept this lineup until last years Weatherstock, but due to people stop playing the game, and other various reasons, we are now in the 2nd lineup for the band.

We have been transcribing our own tunes almost from the beginning, and have now a quite big collection of tunes for all occasions, and we have done a good deal of concerts through the two years with various public balls, birthday parties, anniversary concerts and stuff like that.

We have even played the music for a dwarven transvestite stripper at one occasion.... 0.o.... (dont ask..)

In 2011 we started up the yearly event 'Archet Aid' at Laurelin with five bands present, and last year we had seven bands present. This year, who knows? :-)

Music style
The Chosen Few claims to be a 'barn-dance band' with merry / danceable tunes in the genres of bluegrass / blues / Jigs and some irish/keltic tunes mixed in. We are also known to have the occasional slow tunes for those cheek-against-cheek dances. :-)

Links to media content for The Chosen Few

Our page at Laurelinarchives.org: http://laurelinarchives.org/node/7504 (do a search there for us, and you will find some pictures from events)

Our Archet Aid website: http://archetaid.wordpress.com “


As you can see from these postings, bands are gathering this year from many distant lands, and it is my honor to introduce them to you and give you all a little information about them.

[Avarlothien]

Just for clarification (since it seems like some stuff got lost in translation), Flock of Smeagols is a kinship which was formed by Mirinaeth (one of the founding members of Don't Tempt Me Frodo), and is considered DTMF's sister kinship.

DTMF played Weatherstock last year, but this year there was some question as to whether or not all of the original members could actually make it. Since they can't all come, we've combined the two groups for this event. We are (at least to my knowledge) being billed as 'Flock of Smeagols feat: Don't Tempt Me Frodo.'

To my knowledge, this will be our band lineup:
Chastine
Mirinaeth (or however she's spelling her name these days)
Codella
Falillith

Silverlodeans, we need your help and support. If you have the time (and this is actually a huge time commitment, since it runs pretty much all day), roll an alt and come on in. Believe it or not, this is actually a pretty good time.

Here's some youtube vids from last year to entice you:


(We're from S'lode guys. How could we not?)



We have a website at http://tinyurl.com/StopTemptingFrodoAlready

We have a facebook group as well, if you're into that sort of thing: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dont-...21907397888163