Acts duke it out at Battle of the Bands
If you go:What: Battle of the BandsWhere: Schine UndergroundWhen: Tonight, 8 p.m.How much: Free, tickets available at Schine Box Office
A basement, a few college kids, some guitars and free tickets.
While the basement in this case is Schine Underground, Battle of the Bands brings the feel of an old school tournament back to the Syracuse University music scene tonight at 8 p.m. – uniting reggae, rock, fusion and solo artists.
The event’s host, the Music and Entertainment Industry Student Association (MEISA), narrowed the contest down to the five bands that will battle it out for the chance to open MEISA’s spring 2009 concert and earn bragging rights for the next year.
Each band is composed of all SU students, and many are playing together for the first time.
Jeff Warner, a freshman in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, along with Erica Scarano, a sophomore music education major, will perform solo acoustic acts first and last respectively.
Native Informant, an experimental reggae band, will play second. The band has its own horn section, complete with a flutist, trombonist, trumpeter and saxophonist. Troop K will play next, preceding the fusion band Excuse Me Gunman.
‘The bands are relatively new,’ said Kaitlyn Moore, a junior television, radio and film major and vice president of MEISA. ‘This is the first time people will get to hear from most of these musicians, so it’s a great showcase for them.’
Ethan Rothschild, a junior communications and rhetorical studies major and president of MEISA, plans to showcase his own band at this year’s event.
Rothschild formed Troop K after he returned to campus in August, about the same time he and Moore began planning the event.
‘This is straight-up rock ‘n’ roll, man,’ Rothschild said. ‘All of the bands are great musicians.’
MEISA posted flyers and advertised at this year’s Juice Jam festival to foster interest in the event. The group hopes to draw in a bigger crowd than at last year’s Battle, which had a turnout of less than 100 students.
For freshmen like Brad Biederman, the Battle of the Bands is a great way to find out what the Syracuse music scene is made of, even with a small crowd.
‘Concerts like this build school spirit,’ Biederman, an entrepreneurship major, said. ‘Even better, we get to know local musicians and bands.’
Rothschild and Moore distributed free tickets at Juice Jam in an attempt to get the word out to new students.
‘Once I said ‘free tickets,’ I couldn’t keep the freshmen back,’ Rothschild said. ‘We ran out pretty quickly.’
While the Juice Jam crowd may have gotten first dibs on tickets for this year’s show, tickets are available at the Schine Box Office.
‘These are college bands, but they’re of a professional level,’ Rothschild said. ‘They’re ready to rock your socks off.’
Published on September 16, 2008 at 12:00 pm
