For 96 hours during the fall, Nashville by and large belongs to those of us involved in the local music scene. Next Big Nashville is our time to be in the spotlight, to network and have lotsa good times in the process, enjoying the spoils of corporate-sponsored open bars and swag bags. From Wednesday through Saturday, we own this town.

For most of us, NBN is an event we can all rally around, even if our band didn't get picked to play or our company was passed over to host a showcase. It is an entity that is greater than the sum of its parts. Utilitarian by design, we all benefit from NBN's continued growth and stability.

If nothing else, the festival has forged a connection between our scrappy little music scene and the government and corporate institutions that do, in fact, run this town. These partnerships and sponsorships are key to the long term health of the event. As the economy continues to strengthen, I can only hope that Next Big Nashville will see a surge in its financial partners - both in number and in wallet size - to ensure it becomes a premier event for years to come. Because without such support, some of us little guys would be out in the cold.

This year, we here at Lake Fever Sessions were fortunate enough to co-sponsor a showcase with our muck-raking brethren from Nashville Cream. With a lineup that featured tight sets from How I Became the Bomb, Non-Commissioned Officers, Tristen, Elle Macho & Bad Cop, the event was a success and warrants being shared.

For this installment of Lake Fever Sessions, we're getting outside of the confines of Lake Fever Productions and bringing you our first live, on-stage experiment. The fine folks at Mercy Lounge were kind enough to let us film the first few songs of each set, while FOH guru Chris multi-tracked the noises coming from the stage. The results? Well, we think they speak for themselves.

Thanks to Steve Haruch and his team from Nashville Scene/Nashville Cream for being our co-sponsors for this event and to J.M. Wilkins and everybody from Next Big Nashville for making this happen. A huge shout out to Mercy Lounge's Chris Wilhelm for tracking the audio and to our pal Brandes Holcomb for checking levels and grabbing a camera. And of course, many thanks to all the bands for making music worth documenting.

-Joe Baine Colvert