Rock on
Students who weren’t at this year’s Battle of the Bands missed out on quite a show.
Rock, reggae, solo acoustic and piano performances brought in a much larger crowd than last year’s event – more than 100 students in all.
The Music and Entertainment Industry Student Association (MEISA) hosted the event, which was held at Schine Underground Wednesday night. The winner, sophomore music industry major Erica Scarano, won the opportunity to open for MEISA’s Spring 2009 concert.
The show started off rough with a trying performance by Jeff Warner. Warner, a freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences, didn’t get much love from the crowd for his Dashboard Confessional-like sound, but the three songs he performed were a smooth beginning for what was to come.
Three-week-old reggae group Native Informant took the stage second.
With a totally different sound than Warner’s slow acoustic, the jazzy, upbeat all-sophomore band captivated the audience in the Underground.
Native Informant’s eight musicians tuned their unconventional instruments for their performances long before Warner took the stage.
The performance wasn’t quite what the crowd anticipated – with no singer or lyrics and an ensemble complete with a flutist, trumpeter, trombonist and keyboardist. But once saxophonist Michael McNeill-Martinez broke into his solo, the crowd cheered and clapped enthusiastically for the first time during the night.
‘They’re very clean; I could just roll with the music,’ said Wyatt Wolfram, a senior economics major and guitarist for the band Excuse Me Gunman, a competitor at Battle of the Bands. ‘It’s amazing that they’ve only been together for three weeks.’
Excuse Me Gunman played third and brought a new energy to the night.
Lead singer Scott Hunter, a senior television, radio and film major, rocked the stage, bringing the audience in as he walked into the crowd during his second song.
Battle of the Bands was Excuse Me Gunman’s first performance since December 2007, and the group’s first show with its new lead singer. The grunge style shifted the chill mood left from Native Informant to a loud and intense one.
‘We’re obviously here because we want to play,’ Hunter said. ‘But we want to win.’
It was solo artist Scarano who would take home the first place prize. Scarano started her performance a bit out of key, but made up for it with her final songs, which were both acoustic guitar and piano solos.
‘My first song sounded like s***,’ Scarano said to a friend after the show. ‘I didn’t expect to win because I didn’t think a solo artist could win Battle of the Bands.’
Scarano’s final song, titled ‘Boys are Crazy,’ that she wrote about her roommate’s inability to connect with a guy, stole the crowd and the judges.
‘She moved her audience; they were completely engaged,’ said Nicole Milano, a sophomore music industry major and judge for the event. ‘It was original – it had a lot of herself in it, and that’s what made it so special.’
Judges Teddi Lopez and Amy Zubieta agreed that Scarano’s clarity of pitch, musicality, originality and stage presence warranted first place.
Ethan Rothschild, MEISA president and guitarist of the band Troop K, disagreed with the judges’ decision.
‘I think the horn-band (Native Informant) should win,’ Rothschild said before the judges delivered their decision.
Wolfram agreed, suggesting that the all-female judging panel was partial to the music written about relationships with men gone wrong.
‘I didn’t get to see as much of her (Scarano) set as I would have liked,’ Wolfram said. ‘It’s possible that it wasn’t really fair, but she was pretty good.’
Most of the audience left before the winner was announced, so this year’s Battle of the Bands wasn’t just about the battle for many audience members.
Troop K performed during the middle of the night, but not as competitors. Since Rothschild is president of MEISA, his band was not allowed to compete for the title.
Covering The Foo Fighters’ ‘Learn to Fly,’ along with some of its own songs, Troop K got more attention than any band preceding or following the group. The clean-rock style got audience members on their feet, close to the stage and rocking out.
After Troop K finished, fans shouted ‘one more song’ toward the stage.
Though the audience didn’t get that additional song, the night was full of a diverse and engaging selection of music.
‘This is a jumping-off point for our band,’ Rothschild said. ‘We just came to play, and the entire night was awesome.’
Published on September 17, 2008 at 12:00 pm
