Spring Concert approaches, and though the college brings in professional bands to play at this event, student bands get to play as well. Battle of the Bands, the competitive smackdown that determines which student bands get to have this singular honor, has now become an annual tradition. This year’s battle took place third weekend at the Grand.
To make sure that every student band got a chance to show their stuff, the Battle of the Bands was a 4-hour-long musical marathon. It was quickly apparent that the Grand was not like on-campus venues: students over the age of 21 received armbands at the door, and there was a bar inside. The atmosphere was ebullient. When 9 pm arrived, the two MCs emerged from the stage and explained the Battle’s rules. Each band would get twenty minutes to play, enough time for three or four songs. A panel of judges would evaluate them. At the end of the evening, two bands would be selected to play at Spring Concert.
This is the lineup of the bands that engaged in battle:
Hope and Heist
Owen Demke
The Foreverills
Charlie and the Brontsaur
Groove Factory
Menagerie
Noise Cinema
Porch Collective
To Be Announced
JaMAIN Event
The Babymakers
The music that these bands played was a mixture of famous songs and student-written ones, peppy and sentimental, from singing to drums to electric guitar. Some of the audience’s favorites were the vocals of Owen and Carly of Owen Demke, the Yurtle the Turtle song of the Foreverills, and the diverse instruments of Groove Factory. Groove Factory and Menagerie won first and second place in the contest, respectively, and will be going on to Spring Concert later this term.
