Yesterday, we brought you the news on all the awesome Lollapalooza aftershows set to take over Chicago music clubs this August 5 – 8.

On major aftershow is a Dare2Dream benefit concert at the House of Blues on Friday, August 6, featuring those sometimes electro-dance, sometimes acid surf rockers MGMT, who just rocked a sold out crowd at the Riviera Theatre last weekend. The show will benefit the People’s Music School in an effort to raise awareness of music education within the community, and, additionally, an instrument drive is going on now up until the show. Instrument donations are currently being accepted at the Platform One offices, located at 1467 N. Elston, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Great band for a great cause? Sounds good, eh? Well, it’s about to sound even better as the show is looking for an opening band…and that band could be yours!

Here’s the deal: There’s a Sonicbids contest set up for bands to apply for a chance to not only open the Lollapalooza aftershow, but the winning band will also win $500. Score!

I’m going to assume that most start-up bands these days know what Sonicbids is, but if not, it’s a digital press kit site that lets bands submit their stuff to promoters directly without all the middlemen. Yes, it does cost money to submit your materials to selected performance opportunities, such as this one that’ll cost you $15, but it’s no scam. (Take it from me. My old band won a contest from Sonicbids and played Voodoo Music Festival 2007 in New Orleans on the same day as Rage Against The Machine.)

So, head to Sonicbids.com to sign up and apply. The deadline to submit your electronic press kits is July 23. The promoter, in this case Platform One, will review your band and respond by July 25 or you get your money back.

Finally, if you simply want to see the show and not play, make sure to grab tickets when they go on sale this Friday, June 25, at 10 a.m. at Livenation.com. Good luck to both ticket buyers and band hopefuls!