On March 6, 2008 Terminal 5 in New York City held the biggest independent music event of the year, The 2008 Plug Independent Music Awards. The award show celebrates musicians outside of the mainstream airwaves. Many of the nominated artists included Les Savy Fav, Jesu, Lil’ Wayne, Digitalism, Band of Horses, Arcade Fire, Hot Chip, Iron & Wine, and many others. The event was hosted by comedian Patton Oswalt. The performers for the night included St. Vincent, Dizzee Rascal, Jose Gonzalez, DiVinci, ‘our stage contest winners’ The Form, White Denim, and Impact Award honoree Nick Cave performing with The Bad Seeds.
There were several interviews done with artists such as The Form, female artist of the year winner St. Vincent, Jose Gonzalez, and Dizzee Rascal. The Form talked about how great it is to be an independent artist, St. Vincent talked about the award win, Jose Gonzalez discussed his new record, and Dizzee Rascal talked about the hip-hop community in the independent side of the industry.

Terminal 5 was packed and the audience was off their feet when the performers hit the stage. White Denim sounded like a fun jam band with gang vocals during their performance. The Form’s performance was very mellow. This four piece band had intricate harmonies with smooth chords transitions. It is clearly evident by St. Vincent’s performance why she won the female artist of the year award. Her voice is very relaxing to listen to and her band, which included a violinist contributes to the soothing sound heard throughout Terminal 5. St. Vincent is a master of the guitar, making harmonics come out of the guitar which are not typically heard. Fans cheered loudly when the performance was done. Jose Gonzalez hypnotized the audience with his acoustic performance. Gonzalez has a mastery of finger plucking on the acoustic guitar and he has a beautiful voice. He is an extremely talented independent artist who has been up on the rise in the past two years. Dizzee Rascal is not the typical artist for several reasons; he is from the UK and during his performance he did not sing along to a backing track. Those two elements are the big reasons why his performance was so captivating. DiVinci’s performance was mash up of various rhythms and beats making his performance very unique. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds performed the song “Tupelo” a six and a half minute song that engaged the crowd the entire time. They got the best crowd reaction of the night.

Various awards were handed out throughout the night by various artists. Some of the other winners included Animal Collective for best indie rock album of the year for the album “Strawberry Jam.”

Overall the 2008 Plug Awards was a great success and the award show will continue to honor independent artists in the years to come.

+Shanna Delaney