Prom night is coming about three months early to Northgate Tavern on Saturday night. Prom Date, an indie dance quintet and one of Baton Rouge’s most talked-about bands, will share the stage with a couple of the area’s newest – Della and The Acadias. Prom Date is fresh from a year that included a victory at the LSU Battle of the Bands contest in October and a No. 2 ranking in 225 Magazine’s list of The 5 Most Intriguing Baton Rouge CDs of 2009 for its demo. ‘They’ve got such a great blending of styles, and – when I’ve seen them – they are so dynamic,’ said Colette Burke, French and English junior, whose brother is in the band. With a rising local profile and an opening gig at Groovin’ on the Grounds in March, Prom Date continues to win new fans with its dynamic and danceable live show. ‘Their shows are definitely a different experience,’ said Robert Brown, physics freshman. ‘It’s a pretty cool show and a lot of fun.’ Despite the band’s indie leanings and dance rhythms, defining Prom Date’s sound is difficult, even for Prom Date’s own keyboard player and guitarist, David Fuller. ‘We definitely have some alternative and ’80s influences in our music, but it’s not something we worry about too much,’ Fuller said. ‘We just love to entertain.’ Two of South Louisiana’s freshest bands, Della and The Acadias, will bring their own flair to complement Prom Date’s high-energy set Saturday. Della is a duo of LSU seniors Laura ‘Della’ Smith, pianist and vocalist, and Trey Boudreaux, double-bass player. As music majors, both have deep roots in classical sounds and traditional music composition. ‘There is certainly a lot of traditional songwriting and compositional aspects to our sound, but we’ve tried to incorporate some different aspects, like bluegrass, to our live shows, as well,’ Smith said. The Acadias, who are only in their fourth month of official existence, is an indie-folk quartet with a different twist. The foursome assimilates Louisiana roots music into its sound with interesting results. ‘We try to bring a lot of different instruments, like banjos – think Sufjan Stevens style – into our stuff,’ said Blake Stephens, vocalist and guitarist for The Acadias and a former writer for The Daily Reveille. ‘It’s a challenge to translate that live, but a lot of our songs are very instant and catchy,’ Stephens said. In a short time, the quartet has already recorded a demo and played three live shows, honing its sound in the process. ‘When we were first starting out, there was a little more folk to it, but lately there’s a singer-songwriter vibe with a pop twist that we’ve started to adopt more,’ Stephens said. While dissimilar in style, the bands profess to enjoy their differences and find common ground in their approach to live shows. ‘It’s really odd for us to be playing together in some sense,’ Fuller said. ‘But really all three bands will get your feet tapping, get you dancing and make sure that the show’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun.’ The show begins at 9:30 p.m., and the cover is $5. Follow Chris Abshire on Twitter @TDR_cabshire. ____ Contact Chris Abshire at [email protected]