BEST LOCAL ACT

APOLLO SUNSHINE

Runners-up
1) Darkbuster
2) Street Dogs
3) Dear Leader

To say Apollo Sunshine have skyrocketed to success would be stretching the temptation to equate the Berklee-bred band’s hard-earned accolades with some sort of stratospheric journey. It’s only a slight rhetorical exaggeration. They’ve developed a hard-earned, road-tested reputation as one of the most engaging psych-pop bands on, well, the planet. Suffice it to say that since 2004, when they took home Best New Band honors, they’ve made waves far beyond the confines of the Cambridge club scene. “It’s been really all over the place for us,” says frontman Jesse Gallagher. “It has been getting bigger or better, but for instance, we’re playing with Matisyahu [at the Best Music Poll concert] and we think, ‘Great, that’ll be a sweet show!’ But the reality is that the minute we get off stage we’ve got to get immediately in the van and drive to the next night’s show in Chicago. You get these opportunities, but then your life is even more crazy.”
_By Jonathan Perry