Photo by Roy Mata

Bright Light Social Hour, the band that beat out 1,500 other The Sound and the Jury contest bands for the honor of playing the Dell stage at the Austin City Limits music festival, took that stage at 11:45 a.m. Friday and began playing to a sparse early festival crowd.

People passing by gravitated over to the field to watch the band, drawn by the music. By the final two songs, the field was packed and the crowd was cheering.

“It’s their energy that’s making people come over here,” said 24-year-old Martin Gilliam, one of the bodies in the crowd. “I never heard of them before, but they’re good, and I like them. I’d buy a CD.”

Gilliam’s comments are a testament to The Sound and the Jury contest idea – take a thousand or so unknown bands, let people vote by Internet on their favorite and give that band a once-in-a-lifetime chance to jumpstart a music career.

BLSH boasts two Westlake High School graduate members, singer and bass player Jack O’Brien, who graduated in 2003, and singer and keyboard player AJ Vincent, who graduated in 2005.

Dell started the contest three years ago to celebrate independent spirit, said Dell ACL liaison and Davenport Ranch resident Susan Kittleman.

“We like to celebrate people’s passion and music,” she said. “So much music is heard online these days. This band got over 11,000 votes, earning them the spot at the festival.”

The 24-year-old O’Brien was one of the founders of BLSH five years ago. He describes the band’s music as funky Indie rock.

We want to give it some soul again,” Vincent said.

O’Brien and Vincent, fresh from their performance onstage, were still a bit awestruck at their participation in the festival. They just won the final nod from Dell at a contest at Antone’s late Tuesday evening.

“We’ve been coming to ACL for years, and now we are playing it.” O’Brien said. “Most festivals play only the artists who are selling the most records. But ACL does it right – they work to get the best artists.”

“They get all kinds of bands,” 22-year-old Vincent added. “They know not everybody wants to hear the same kind of music over and over.”

Along with the ACL gig, BLSH won $1,500, a Dell Studio XPS laptop and the use of a publicist for the weekend.

The band starts a tour in November and will soon be recording a full-length analog CD.

Will the music be what the band likes to do best – catchy autobiographical clips?

“We always write the music that comes from us naturally,” O’Brien said.

The band is focused on putting together play dates for the upcoming tour and finding the financing to record that album.

“We want it full length, well produced and well funded,” O’Brien said.

Both band members are well aware that they are at the heady start of their career, and they seem to have a good idea how they want it to progress. Where will they be in 20 years?

“We want to be like the Rolling Stones, still putting on shows, but putting them on because we love the music and not because we’re hungry,” Vincent said.