By Jerry Fink

Wed, Apr 23, 2008 (2 a.m.)

The hills of Lake Las Vegas will be alive with the sound of rock this weekend from the unsigned bands competing in the first Live Indie Rock Wars.

Thousands of bands competed across North America over the past several months for a chance to win money, recording time and a media promotions package.

The top 20 bands square off Friday on the floating stage at Lake Las Vegas. Judges pick the 10 finalists, who’ll compete there again Saturday afternoon.

The winner returns to open a concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday for headliners Man Automatic, The Speaks and Gone for Good.

There’s also a free Rock & Jock Festival featuring booths, music, games and a paintball tournament. It runs Friday through Sunday.

The judges are A.J. Pero, drummer for Twisted Sister; Don Wolf, vocalist for White Wolf; Sally Stelle, publisher of Vegas Rocks Magazine; promoter Jennifer Lyneis; choreographer Shane Sparks; and Nick Loren, stunt double for John Travolta.

Judges will rate the bands’ performance, stage presence, originality and fan reaction — which could give the eight local bands a leg up.

First prize also includes a two-year $50,000 recording, promotional and management contract, which comes with $25,000 worth of studio recording time, and a media package from Coast to Coast Public Relations and Vegas Rocks Magazine.

The Rock Wars competition is co-sponsored locally by Black Mountain Productions and by bestofbands.com, a Web site dedicated to helping independent artists around the country.

“We were asked to be a judge in the competition, but then so many bands we were involved with are involved we felt it would be a conflict of interest so we stepped down and became co-sponsors,” said Tyler Buhl, co-founder of Best of Bands.

THE BANDS

Ashbury (Las Vegas)

Kil Jaden (Las Vegas)

Left Standing (Las Vegas)

Nous (Henderson)

Parannoyd (Las Vegas)

Theory of Flight (Las Vegas)

The Underground Rebels (Henderson)

Zeusophobia (Henderson)

A.D.D. (Batavia, Ill.)

The Asphalt (Kingman, Ariz.)

BlackBridge (Bowdoinham, Maine)

Bletzung (Austin, Texas)

Highwire Fiction (Phoenix, Ariz.)

Indout (Soledad, Calif.)

Local Stranger (Kansas City)

Magdalene (Tyler, Texas)

Mindefect (Galesburg, Ill.)

Neverwonder (Artesia, Calif.)

Psychostasia (Jalisco, Mexico)

The Warned (Huntington Beach, Calif.)