Photo: Getty

Like the Democratic nominee himself, Otep have been relying on first time voters this summer. As recent winners of Rock the Vote and MySpace’s DemROCKracy contest, which kicked off on July 1 and encouraged bands with MySpace pages to have their fans register to vote, Otep was awarded a spot on the bill of Rock the Vote’s Ballot Bash tonight, joining Fall Out Boy, N.E.R.D. and Jakob Dylan on stage at Denver’s Elli Caulkins Opera House.

The contest awarded a spot on the bill to the band registering the most fans using their online voter registration tool. “We got involved about 48 hours before the contest ended. It was pretty intense,” Otep, the band’s front-woman and bold anti-war lyricist told RollingStone.com. The band registered 532 voters in two days. In 2008 alone, Rock the Vote’s online voter registration tool has helped over one million young people secure their spots at the polls, with an expected two million 18-29 year olds registered by the time November rolls along.

It’s fitting that Otep, an anti-Bush, socially conscious band who have been speaking out against the war since it’s start in 2002, and whose MySpace page boasts a “Countdown to Bush’s last day,” should take the grand prize. “I’ve always been naturally politically minded,” Otep says. “I tend to like to stand up against what I see as unfair and evil — especially something that is glaringly unjust. I don’t know how to separate art from life.”

Since 2004, Otep has called for the end of the Bush/Cheney administration at nearly every show. But the band’s not all talk: last year, they recorded their entire album in New Orleans to help out the city’s economy. “It’s the trickle down effect of the Bush administration. When we were there, we were blown away by what wasn’t happening,” she says. “The devastation of the area. The FEMA trailers sitting in enclosed parameters, like internment camps.” The band is also involved with the environmental organization Carbon Rally, and has worked with Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Rock the Vote’s Ballot Bash will kick off the Democratic National Convention and a dynamic week of late night shows in Denver, leading up to Obama’s speech on Thursday.

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