Videos by American Songwriter
It’s been a while since Bruce Springsteen has had an opening band, but Cleveland’s Hey Monea! has earned the right, coming out on top in the Hard Rock Rising international battle of the bands competition.
Of the 12,000 bands who entered the competition, Hey Monea! won the opening slot on the main stage of the Hard Rock Calling Festival held in London on July 14, 2012. The group will be playing alongside headliner Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, John Fogerty, Lady Antebellum and Tom Morello.
Hey Monea! set itself apart from everyone else in the competition through their crafty use of social media-based marketing. The group engaged their fans to vote through various social media including song downloads for votes, laptop voting stations at every live performance and a YouTube campaign where the band would perform stunts according to their decided voting goals.
Singer Danny Monea sums up Hey Monea!’s attitude best; “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel with our sound here. We love rock n’roll and that’s what we play. We’re just happy we get to do what we love and make people smile along the way…” Its that carefree rock and roll attitude which make Hey Monea! the perfect openers for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
Listen to the band’s “The Ballad Of Moonbeam Swiner” below.
2 Comments
Leave a Reply