Medicine Bow Heats Up

On Saturday, the Virginian Hotel was the venue for the Midwinter Meltdown which featured seven bands from Laramie. The Meltdown was the brainchild of Jeff Deloe a year ago. Deloe left Laramie this year for Washington and Mike Vanata, Rose Curtis and Keaton Elsasser picked up the torch to keep the music event alive for its second year.

Vanata was involved in last year's event by filming a documentary on how it was pulled together and the outcome.

He said there really was no other site considered to have the event.

"This place is infamous for being receptive to hosting parties and concerts, starting with the Battle of Old Wyoming," Vanata said. "The Virginian is the perfect place to throw a party in the middle of winter."

Several hundred people were in attendance at the event to listen to the bands. The Virginian had all its rooms sold out and the restaurant and bar were full, in addition to the capacity crowd in the annex where the bands were playing.

"Here in Wyoming, we love our music and we love our bands," Vanata said. "We need this meltdown in Medicine Bow."

"All of us love Wyoming and Medicine Bow epitomizes Wyoming," Elasser said.

Vanata said he is happy to come to the Virginian because of the support he gets from the owners.

"Vernon Scott is an absolute joy to work with on this event," Vanata said. "He is a promoter's dream as it were, helping us out with scheduling and making it happen."

"We are really happy to be here," Elsasser said. "We really wanted to keep this event, that Jeff started last year, going."

Vanata said all the bands came from Laramie although attendees came from all over the state.

"I don't know why exactly, but Laramie seems to be the epicenter of the Wyoming music scene lately," Vanata said. "We love the mix of Carbon County and Albany County supporting musicians. Not only Vernon here, there is also Chris Shannon of Saratoga who is involved with helping bands get their music out at The Yard in that town."

Vanata said the bands are helpful in pulling it all together. He said they know what they need to do to get ready.

"It is like second nature to them," Vanata said.

The bands and musicians that played at the Midwinter Meltdown were John Poland, The Woodpile, J. Shogren Shanghai'd, Redbush, Ten Cent Stranger, Elk Tongue and Peculiar Patriots.

"The community of Laramie has been outstanding in their support, from the attendees to businesses that lend support," Vanata said. "The bands we got to come here are just amazing and makes me proud of Wyoming music."

"The talent in Wyoming is staggering," Elasser said. "It is great people are getting to listen these musicians and I like we are building the music scene from the ground up. We are more pure than a lot of states around us."

"We think Medicine Bow is perfect for these type of events," Vamata said. "We are hoping to do this every year as long as we have these great Wyoming bands to feature."

Vanata and Elasser are convinced Wyoming will continue to produce great bands and the music scene will only get better as time goes on.