Sound Seekers by Fateema Sayani is published weekly at OttawaMagazine.com. Read Fateema Sayani’s culture column in Ottawa Magazine and follow her on Twitter @fateemasayani

The Ottawa Rock Lottery is a big ol’ love-in for the local music scene. It’s the community cup of spontaneous music-making that happens annually with proceeds going to charity. The fifth edition takes place this weekend with 25 musicians participating.

It works like this: on Friday night, organizers put the names of individual musicians into a hat. They draw out five names at a time and put those people together to form an insta-band. Over the next 24 hours, those five new bands create a half-hour set of original music to be performed on Saturday night for all to see.

The hilarity, camaraderie, rivalry, shining moments, and flubs are what make the show interesting, particularly to those who see live music often and are familiar with the city’s band-folk. The Ottawa Rock Lottery deck-shuffling allows those people to display talents that may be hidden in their other bands — or perhaps the deadline pressures will be evident. As organizers promise on their Facebook page: “It could be great. It could be awful.” (more…)