So you may be wondering… what IS Cupcakefest? I’m here to tell you. Cupcakefest is a day of cupcakes and music presented by Sweet Avenue Bake Shop (that’s us!).

This year we will be raffling off awesome prizes and collecting donations for the Liberty Humane Society in Jersey City, NJ. Liberty Humane Society is a shelter in an area that is easy to get to, with plenty of parking and room to grow. The shelter is managed by experts committed to ending animal overpopulation and irresponsible ownership.

So what about the music? Our main draw is a great group of bands who plan on putting on an awesome show for you. All musicians are local to NJ/NY. The bands are:
-Job Well Done [Website]
-Kieran Hobler [MySpace]
-Right as Rain [MySpace] [Facebook]
-Diminishing Returns [MySpace] [Facebook]
-Brian Keith & Kristina Capurso
-Those Mockingbirds [MySpace] [Facebook]

So what about the cupcakes? We’ll be giving out as many free mini cupcakes throughout the day as we can manage. And we’ll also have other cupcake-related activities throughout the day. More details about this as we get closer to the event. Also look out for some cute cupcake-themed gifts through our raffles.

Saturday, June 13th, 2009
2pm-8pm
@ Lincoln Park in Rutherford, NJ (across the street from our shop / across from Rutherford Borough Hall)

So the Sweet Avenue crew took another field trip the other day. This time we went out to see Rhett Miller at Mexicali Blues in Teaneck, NJ which is an awesome funky mexican restuarant/bar/music venue. We’re HUGE fans of the Old 97s, and Rhett Miller, so we knew it would be a great show. We, of course, brought Rhett a box of cupcakes. The cupcakes did have a string attached, however. We asked if Rhett would mind playing “Our Love” and of course he pulled through for us.

The show was pretty great. Mia Riddle opened up for Rhett, and did a quick duet with him on “Fireflies.” The show was entirely acoustic, with no backing bands, so it was really nice and intimate. My personal favorite part of the show was when he stopped in the middle of “Rollerskate Skinny” to ask the crowd if he had sung the third verse yet.

We got a picture of Rhett’s setlist. It was totally awesome to see our name scrawled on there next to our request.

After the show we got to meet up with Rhett. He’s an extremely friendly guy and he said he really appreciated the cupcakes, and was saving “the ones with all the sprinkles” for his kids. The whole show was really awesome, and it was great to meet someone whose music we love as much as Rhett’s.

*Please excuse the blurry photo, it was the best we could get with the very dark lighting!

We came across this post on The Music Slut. They were awesome enough to post a photo of Ben’s setlist from the show the other night. It was totally awesome to see that we got a shoutout next to our song request (Falling)!

Check out the photo below:

Last night we went to see Ben Kweller live at Town Hall in Midtown Manhattan. We were super excited because we got in touch with Ben beforehand and made arrangements to deliver him and his band some cupcakes.

We got to head backstage, thanks to Ben and his awesome crew (thanks, Chuck!) to deliver the cupcakes to Mr. Kweller and chat with him briefly. It’s no secret we’re all big music fans here at Sweet Avenue, so it was awesome getting to meet him, and as you can see, he was pretty excited about the cupcakes!

The show was great. Opening for Ben was Jones Street Station from Brooklyn, and The Watson Twins from LA. We did make a song request from Ben in exchange for the cupcakes, however, and he pulled through by playing “Falling,” so all was good.

One of the best parts of the show was when Ben’s son, Dorian, made his way out on stage to dance along to the last song, “Penny on the Train Track.” Dorian’s dancing and summersaults got pretty much the biggest reaction from the crowd of the night.

All in all, it was a really awesome show. We just want to thank Ben for being awesome to us, and for putting on a great show.

Yeah, I’m still editing video from our One-Year Anniversary Show from this past August! What?! Editing’s hard…. it’s hard work!

The video above is one of the many amazing songs Kieran Hobler performed at our show. It’s a cover of one of my favorite Radiohead songs – Fake Plastic Trees. Kieran is a great friend of mine, and I think he is a great songwriter and performer! You can see the rest of his set online [Vimeo | YouTube | Facebook]

Video provided by: Anthony / Quintano Media
Video edited by: Danielle / Sweet Avenue Bake Shop

Anthony from Quintano Media just got us the footage from our One-Year Anniversary show at Lincoln Park in Rutherford, NJ! Danielle’s spent the last few days and nights getting everything edited together nicely, and we’ll be posting the videos over the next few days. First up is Right As Rain [MySpace | Facebook] from Long Island, who opened our show. The video above is their cover of Paula Abdul’s enduring classic, “Straight Up.” You can see the rest of their set online [Vimeo | YouTube | Facebook]

This show was a ton of fun and we’ll have lots more videos of the other bands shortly. And, of course, we can’t wait for the weather to warm up again so we can put on some more shows. If you’re in a band who’s interested in playing an awesome outdoor show or two next year, get in touch with us.

Here at Sweet Avenue we’re getting ready to celebrate our first full year in the shop, so we figured the best way to do that would be with music! We’re throwing another show in Lincoln Park (across the street from our shop — 153 Park Ave, Rutherford, NJ 07070). It’ll be Saturday, August 23rd, 12-6pm. We’ve got a bunch of great bands lined up:

Right as Rain
Brian Keith & Mike TeeVee
Croft Minor
Kieran Hobler
Alex and the Horribles
…and more to be announced soon!

Check out the event on Facebook! (must be a member)

We’ll have more exciting news to talk about soon, so stay tuned.

And Then There Were Machines performed second at Cupcakefest. They are a five-piece pop punk band from NJ. Their set consisted of all original songs, which can be heard on their MySpace page. Amanda Hansult from The Aquarian had this to say about their set:

Next up was female-fronted punk/rock band, And Then There Were Machines, who just recently finished playing big festival shows such as the Warped Tour and Bamboozle. They rocked it with a set full of upbeat original songs and, though I hate to do it just because I’m sure they’re hearing it from everyone, their lead singer has some pipes on her and I couldn’t help but think of that cute little redhead that’s blasting through everyone’s speakers right now. I’m sure you all know who I’m talking about; I will, though, say that they do have their own unique sound and are definitive in their own style and presence and that the comparison is meant to be a compliment based purely on vocal ability, that’s all (myspace.com/andthenthereweremachines).

Unfortunately this is the only video we have of And Then There Were Machines at the moment, but if anything else becomes available, we’ll link to it here.

We’re finally getting around to posting some of the awesome video from Cupcakefest. First up is Brian Keith’s set. Brian’s set consisted of folksy, alt-country, singer-songwriter covers. Amanda Hansult from The Aquarian had this to say about Brian’s set:

First on stage was Brian Keith, a local musician that brought us a beautiful acoustic set of covers. Though he was onstage alone, he still managed to captivate the crowd and keep all eyes and ears where they should be-on him (myspace.com/brianlapierre).

Brian did a great job of kicking off our show, and we all loved his set. Videos from his set can be seen at your choice of these video sites:

Vimeo (Highest quality)
YouTube
Facebook (Must be a member)