Tonight at the Great American Music Hall, five bands — Dynamic, Joel Streeter, Weather Pending, French Cassettes and The Dandelion War — will perform for a panel of judges and Bay Area music fans as a part of the Bay Rising Battle of the Bands. The music ranges from indie to hip hop to electronic, so it should be an eclectic event.

Eleven bands started the competition, and only one will win and claim more than $10,000 in prizes (which includes a five-day recording package at Yonas Media West Recording Studio, 1 day of mixing/mastering by award winning engineer Charles Stella, manufacturing of 1,000 CDs from Copy Cat Media and 2 months of artist development from Fuze Management).

Bay Rising seeks to discover and promote great, unsigned musical talent that exists in the Bay Area. Bay Rising consists of two components—the music competition occurring at the Great American Music Hall and the Bay Rising Music Expo, which also takes place tonight at ArtHouse on Mission.

The Bay Rising Music Expo, a free networking/community building event for Bay Area musicians, will occur from 5:30-7:30. A panel of music-industry experts will discuss how independent artists can promote their music in a DIY culture. Participants will have the opportunity to win some shwag, such as a guitar from Guitar Center. The expo will also feature other companies such as BMI, InGrooves, Performer Magazine, SonicBids, The Owl Mag, Bands Of The Bay.com, Zazzle Music, CopyCats Media, Community Musician, Charles Stella Mastering, Cutting Edge, Listen to.me, Pyramid Media, GC Pro and FizzKicks.

Tonight’s show starts at 8pm and costs $10 in advance or $15 at the door.