Get to know the bands

As the Detroit Bar nears its end, the OC Music Awards’ Best Live Band Showcase Series will stop there for a five-band show Jan. 21. The annual live competition will make one more stop in Costa Mesa before the finals — this one Feb. 11 at the Boathouse Collective — but in the meantime, here are the basics on the lineup at the Westside institution:

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Name: Future Fix

How long together: Two years

Home base: Costa Mesa

Style: Rock ‘n’ roll

Sample lyric: “If it wasn’t for the bad luck, I wouldn’t have any other luck at all”

Origin of name: Guitarist Aaron Andersen’s favorite whiskey drink

Event in rock history they’d like to have witnessed: “April 30th, 1977, Led Zeppelin at the Silverdome.” — Andersen

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Name: Gardeners Logic

How long together: 1.5 years

Home base: Huntington Beach

Style: Alternative folk

Sample lyric: “Suppress the man, live long the child / let youth stay near and keep us wild”

Origin of name: Singer-guitarist Ian Bailey came up with it while comparing the band’s craft to a gardener tending to his plants.

Event in rock history they’d like to have witnessed: “There are so many. Seeing Bowie, witnessing the Beatles play the rooftop. Seeing the Smiths play live. Seeing Fugazi play live. So many amazing things have happened.” — Bailey

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Name: Midnight Hour

How long together: Five years

Home base: Tustin

Style: Power pop and acoustic

Sample lyric: “So close that we can feel it / if the music stops we’ll keep on singing / skin and bones and hearts out on the line”

Origin of name: The band wanted “something simple” and reasoned that the midnight hour signifies a new day.

Event in rock history they’d like to have witnessed: “Chuck Berry playing ‘Johnny B. Goode,’ Hendrix at Woodstock, MJ playing ‘Billie Jean’ for the first time ... there’s too many to count.” — lead guitarist Tim Johnson

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Name: Semi Sweet

How long together: Off and on since 2008

Home base: Costa Mesa

Style: Harmony-laden pop

Sample lyric: “Left me in a season / the kind of cold only California knows”

Origin of name: A drummer’s offhand suggestion.

Event in rock history they’d like to have witnessed: “When Justin Timberlake bought Myspace.” — lead singer Cassandra Walter

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Name: Sonny Spectrum

How long performing: One year (in the studio, anyway) as Nick Sellberg’s pen name

Home base: Huntington Beach

Style: Dance

Sample lyric: “Something that we all should think about / too much time is spent that’s not in action / think that something else can make it right / and you’re just waiting for it all to happen”

Origin of name: “Spectrum” signifies a variety of emotions and styles.

Event in rock history he’d like to have witnessed: “I am a huge Beatles fan, so the moment that comes to my mind is their final public performance on the rooftop of Apple headquarters in London, 1969.”