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If you're shopping this weekend, you may hear one of Omaha's up-and-coming bands while you're out.

And you could help send them to the South By Southwest music festival in March.

Omaha indie pop band Blue Bird is trying to get to SXSW for the first time. The annual festival is known for breaking bands and for seeing some groups get signed with a record label. Even without that, it's a great way for any band to get exposure.

There are many bands I wouldn't have known about without seeing them at SXSW. The festival can act as a sort of preview to music industry professionals on what's to come in the next year or so.

Anyway, the band entered a contest with Maurices, the women's clothing store. The winner gets an all-expenses-paid trip to the festival and a spot performing at an official showcase.

Blue Bird landed in the top four of more than 850 bands that entered. You'll see photos of the band at Maurices stores (there are four in the Omaha area and one in Council Bluffs) and also hear the band's music playing over the store's speakers.

You can vote for the band at the stores and online at mauricesmusic.sonicbids.com.

The band's excited for the contest as well as for its as-yet-unreleased album.

"We've been looking for the best way to put it out," said drummer Rob Mathews. "We sent out to a countless number of labels."

So far, they haven't heard back from many, but they hope to release the album by May with or without label support.

The band plans a July tour and will go to some familiar places as well as new locations.

"We decided pretty quickly into it that we wanted to be known as more than an Omaha band," Mathews said. "There's definitely bands around the country that push harder than we do. But we feel there's an audience out there for us and you just gotta push it a little bit.

"Playing in other markets is just a big part of that. In the age of the Internet, there's a thousand ways to get exposure outside of your hometown, but playing shows is the number one thing that cannot be replicated."

Mathews is right. Performing in front of someone is much more powerful than offering an album stream or getting fans on Facebook. If your music touches someone at a concert, they'll buy your album. Or a T-shirt. And then next time you're in town, they'll bring a few more friends to the show.

Blue Bird, for example, is headlining a huge block party in Sioux Falls, S.D., on July 6. It's helped the band to perform regularly there as well as in Des Moines, Lawrence, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo.

"We've been pretty lucky, especially at the places that are close around us," Mathew said. "We've been able to go back two and three times and they do get better every time and they're close enough that we can get there on a regular basis."