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> Kansas City promoter touts festival, Club Wars, Cover Wars all this weekend
By JJ Duncan
RockKansas.com
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The Sound and the Fury won Club Wars II in 2002 and they will play the Kansas City Rock & Metal Fest Friday at the Beaumont. Pictured from left, Jay Kassen, bass; Nathan Russell, drums; Jeff Wood, guitar and vocals; Aaron Ogle, lead guitar.
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Ask Jim Kilroy his title and position and he'll tell you he's the King of Metal -- this weekend he's out to prove it.
He doesn't wear stage make-up, spit blood, sleep with buffet lines of groupies or even play in a band, but Kilroy fills an indispensable role in Kansas City's hard rock scene. He's been promoting Kansas City shows for 20 years and this weekend his Club Wars, its off-spin Cover Wars and the Kansas City Rock & Metal Fest will all happen over a three-day period that has Kilroy up to his ears in rock shows.
"I like ideas that are over the top," he said. "I want the things I do to be more than just a show, I want it to be an event."
Leading off the weekend will be the Kansas City Rock & Metal Fest. Friday night the event will cover four Kansas City Clubs with three to five bands in each club and a cover that will buy admittance into all the shows. It will continue into Saturday night with a show at El Torreon. Get complete festival info and line-up here.
Saturday, the Grand Emporium in Kansas City will host a Club Wars Qualifier featuring Black Attic, Mortimer Skroon and This Alibi. The winner of each qualifier night will move on to the semi-final rounds. Kilroy said more than 60 bands entered in this fall's Club Wars XIII.
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Friday, Sept. 23
Kansas City Rock & Metal Fest @ The Beaumont, The Hurricane, The Grand Emporium, Davey's Uptown :: 9 p, 21+ (18+ ath the Beaumont), $8 in advance/ $10 day-of (wristband for Friday shows) :: More Details
Saturday, Sept. 24
Kansas City Rock & Metal Fest (continues) feat. Vermilion Sky / Burning Existence / Full Power / Sick With It @ El Torreon :: 8 p, all-ages, $7
Saturday, Sept. 24
Club Wars Qualifier Round @ The Grand Emporium :: 8 p, 21+
Sunday, Sept. 25
Cover Wars Finals @ The Grand Emporium :: 7 p, 21+
Online
For information on Club Wars and Cover Wars (including registration and prize info) visit: www.clubwars.net.
The Sound and the Fury MP3::
 Bullet Factory
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Finally, Sunday night will be the finals for Cover Wars, Kilroy's Club Wars spin-off featuring only cover bands. This is the first time Kilroy has done a Club Wars spin-off, but with all the interest, he said he's thinking about creating more. Voodoo Kitchin, X-Ray Glasses, Nervous Rex and Lost Dog will compete for the Cover Wars crown Sunday at the Grand Emporium.
It sounds incredibly busy, but Kilroy said he's used to it and Club Wars has been good to him.
"Club Wars has been fairly profitable for me," he said. "It was a lot of work to get it started, but now it's up and running so it's not that difficult to put together a new war because ... well because I'm the King of Metal."
All egos aside, Club Wars does provide some of the most lucrative prize packages local bands could hope for. The idea is that the $50 entry fee required of each band is justified by the final first-place prize of $1000 cash, recording time at Kansas City's Chapman Studios and a $500 gift certificate to Guitar Source in Overland Park. This summer's winners, the Leo Project won the added prize of opening for Slipknot, Sevendust and more at Freakers Ball in Kansas City Oct. 22 at the Kansas City International Speedway.
Kilroy said he'd like to add opening slots for national acts as prizes more often.
"Part of it is just making it all a big deal," he said. "The bigger and better the prizes, the more bands that will want to be in Club Wars. The winner from this summer will play at Freakers Ball and that got a lot more good bands into it."
To get to that prize, bands must toil through the ranks of shows Kilroy has set up, winning at least four four-band battles to make it to the end: preliminaries, qualifiers, semi-finals and championships. After a band wins a Qualifier round, it is at least guaranteed its entry fee of $50 back.
Kilroy said word of mouth and the internet have kept Club Wars going and even though there's always a some complaining over who the rightful winners are, Kilroy said he's confident in the process.
"A lot of times if you get on the Banzai message boards you'll see people get on a certain band about how another band should have won," he said. "I try to run it as fairly as possible and for the most part I think the ultimate winner each time has been the best around. Whatever controversy there has been hasn't been enough to stain Club Wars."
Previous Club Wars winners Flak and the Sound and the Fury will play at the Beaumont Friday as part of the Kansas City Rock & Metal Fest. Kilroy said he isn't worried about having a festival spread over four clubs because each band often brings its own set of fans.
Kilroy thinks of his Club Wars events as great ways for new talent to get recognition and said he likes making a big deal out of the winners.
"A lot of people bag on Wes Scantlin from Puddle of Mudd, but it just shows that you can get signed out of Kansas City," he said.
JJ Duncan can be reached at (785) 295-1100 or at jj.duncan@cjonline.com
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