Rock ‘n Roll Wine will host its third annual Wine Amplified Festival featuring award-winning, multi-platinum group Gin Blossoms along with special guest Sherwood, Saturday, Sept. 27 at Mandalay Bay Beach. The company will intensify its sexy brand of approachable, high-energy wine tastings by bringing in more than 50 wineries, showcasing more than 120 unique wines, and combine it with an incredible evening of live music. Doors are scheduled to open at 7 p.m. The festivities will conclude at 11 p.m. with the official after-party at Mandalay Bay’s Moorea Beach Club.
Tickets priced at $60 in advance and $65 the day of the show, not including applicable service charges and taxes, go on sale Friday, Aug. 8 at noon and will be sold at any Mandalay Bay box office and at all Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations (select Smith’s Food and Drug Centers, Macy’s West at the Fashion Show Mall and Ritmo Latino). To charge by phone with a major credit card, call the Mandalay Bay box office at (702) 632-7580 or Ticketmaster at (702) 474-4000. Tickets also are available for purchase online at www.mandalaybay.com or www.ticketmaster.com. Fans must be 21 years of age or older to attend and the ticket price includes all wine tasting and live entertainment. In addition, guests will receive a $10 voucher good towards the purchase of many of the featured wines at local Lee’s Discount Liquors and Khoury’s Fine Wines.
“Over the past two years the positive response to our Festival and its unique combination of wine tasting and live concert has been overwhelming. Each year we further solidify this as one of the premier wine events in the country,” said founder Chris Hammond.
Co-founder Sonny Barton agreed, “The customer experience is what we’ve always prided ourselves on and this year we promise to continue this tradition with another roster of rockstar wines and high-energy entertainment.”
The Gin Blossoms rocketed out of the college pop charts and into the mainstream with their 1993 hit single “Hey Jealousy.” Combining the ringing guitar hooks of the Byrds and R.E.M. with a solid, rootsy drive, the band’s breakthrough full-length album, New Miserable Experience, was filled with hits including “Hey Jealousy” and “Found Out About You” pushing the sales of the album to more than 4 million copies. In the summer of 1995, “Till I Hear It From You” became a major radio hit, but was never released as an official single until it was the B-side of “Follow You Down,” the first single from the group’s second album, Congratulations…I’m Sorry. This album was released in February 1996 selling more than 1 million copies worldwide. The band disbanded in 1997 only to reunite in 2001 and tour on a regular basis. Their 2006 release, Major Lodge Victory, was one of the top 10 independent albums of the year with its breakout singles “Learning the Hard Way” and “Long Time Gone.”
Sherwood, an indie quintet from San Luis Obispo, Calif., fits neatly alongside the pop-punk likes of Yellowcard and other post-Green Day acts. Sherwood released its first full length album, Sing, But Keep Going, in May 2005 and began logging extensive time on the road. They eventually attracted the eye of MySpace founder Tom Anderson and became the first band signed to the newly formed independent label, MySpace Records in 2007. The band’s latest album, A Different Light, has been compared to the likes of Jimmy Eat World, Taking Back Sunday and the Beach Boys among others. The album was one of the top 30 selling independent albums of 2007 and has generated more than 13 million plays on MySpace.com.
For more information on Rock ‘n Roll Wine’s Wine Amplified Festival featuring the Gin Blossoms with special guest Sherwood, visit www.rocknrollwine.com or www.wineamplified.com.
