Live music on Hilton Head!

Music is awesome; it evokes emotion, changes moods and can even cure hysteria. But my favorite thing about music is that it goes hand-in-hand with dancing. Turn on some tunes and see all the heads bobbing and hips shaking simultaneously to the beat. This is why I love to go see music preformed live. It is a perfect concoction of quality tunes, amusing people and space to groove.
Thankfully you no longer have to travel very far to go to an entertaining show as The Shoreline Ballroom opened on Hilton Head Island this year. The Ballroom is a newly remodeled state-of-the-art performance center. The theater size stage is surrounded by over 11,000 square feet of space and highlighted by a 56 foot long art-deco styled bar. There is a nice mixture of tables and chairs adjacent to a sizeable dance floor with plenty of additional standing room. I most recently attended a jamboree at this new hot spot with my good friend Drea who is the guru of jam music with somewhere around fifty Widespread Panic shows and even more music festival attendances under her belt.
Last Saturday her and I strapped on our Rainbow sandals and cruised over to The Shoreline Ballroom to take in the musical stylings of Outformation and Col. Bruce and the Quark Alliance. Outformation opened the show to crowd of screaming fans anxiously awaiting Sam Holt, the lead guitarist, to take the first strums of what proved to be uproariously good time. My guru leaned over in between tunes to inform me that Sam Holt began his career as a guitar tech for the late Michael Houser of Widespread Panic and has amazingly similar sounds to that of the legendary guitarist. And right she was, as a first timer to Outformation, I fell head over heels for Holt's hypnotic, confident style. Outformation self described rock, psychedelic, country music provided a perfect entry for the shows headliner Col. Bruce and the Quark Alliance.
Col. Bruce is legendary in this genre of music and is benevolently referred to as the "Godfather of Jam." His music is eclectic and funky and has been called everything including country swing jazz, southern boogie and gospel bluegrass. Born in Atlanta, this southern rocker has toured with music greats and even appeared in the 1996 film Sling Blade. So it was no surprise that Col. Bruce and the Quark Alliance put on an amazing show jamming out to their funky rhythms while we all grooved to their diverse sound.
Kudos goes to The Shoreline Ballroom as they definitely spent the time and effort into finding and showcasing such amazing talent. The Ballroom has even more fun in store for upcoming shows that include the likes of Air Supply and Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band. See you there! p.s. Special thanks go to Drea for inviting me to go with her to such an amazing show...you are truly fantastic!