Mr. Blotto was born in Chicago as an off-night vehicle for musicians who loved each others playing but were in different bands at the time. The only rule was that they would only play what they loved. That philosophy continues today and has led Mr. Blotto into unique musical situations.

Mr. Blotto takes the Jam band asthetic into areas unfamiliar to the standard Jam Scene. They have been known to cover entire albums by Led Zeppelin and the Who as well as perform entire shows of Country and Reggae. Artists as diverse as the Grateful Dead, the Flaming Lips, Willie Nelson and The Velvet Underground have seen their material interpreted by Mr. Blotto in the 2000+ shows the band has performed in the last 15 years, yet covers only pepper the bands hefty catalog of original material stemming from five studio albums and other unreleased crowd favorites.

Nèf is an up and coming Chicago based Jazz fusion band lead by Chicago drummer/Jazz percussionist, Jeremy Joel Warren. The band consists of majority DePaul jazz students and other Chicago native musicians.The meaning behind the band’s name derives from the number nine in the language of Haitian Creole, referring to there being nine original members. This young group of very talented jazz musicians composes and performs many styles of Jazz fusion, pulling from other genres such as hip-hop, blues, funk, latin and so on. Many of their influences include Snarky Puppy, Chick Corea, Weather Report, Stanley Clark and many more.