Battle of the Bands occurred on Friday, December 6 from 6:00 to 9:00 P.M. in the PAEC. Tickets were sold at $15 but freshmen got in for free. It was a successful fundraiser in hopes of lowering prom ticket costs for the senior class.
Seven different bands performed, including Paradox, Secret Monument, Kik, Pigeon Bus Driver, Kitty-Korner, Stereo Etiquette, and Alien Fingers. Three judges were invited to determine the winners including Abby Gennet, Brett Scallions, and Doug Robb. All the judges have had prior experience with performing in their bands that have gone on to win major awards. Secret Monument ended up winning the Battle of the Bands with Kik, and Paradox being runner-ups.
All the bands sacrificed time after school to practice and prepare. We interviewed Cooper Poulos, a keyboard player, who played with Pigeon Bus Driver and Alien Fingers, and how practices were organized: “For Pigeon Bus Driver we only had two rehearsals to prepare two songs. The songs we were going to play were announced and we all learned them separately. We rehearsed about a week later and again two weeks after that, three days before the performance.” Cooper Poulos also told us that one of his bands even went out of their way to rent practice rooms at another venue to practice for 2 hours from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. He also mentioned that some of the bands rehearsed more than that, like his other band, Alien Fingers.
Cooper also gave an insight into the two types of bands that played and how their practices were different: “There are two types of bands that performed for Battle of the Bands. There’s the type that formed to play for it and the other is a band that was created before the event that played their original songs at Battle of the Bands. The one created for Battle of the Bands will rehearse a few times before but won’t after the event. The bands that formed before the event will just rehearse to jam with each other during their normal rehearsal time.”
All the bands were split up between two rooms that they shared backstage. Before getting on stage all the players were excited and nervous. Cooper responded by saying, “It’s this weird combination of I’m scared out of my mind and I’m the most jacked up that I’ve ever been. You get an adrenaline rush that can’t compare to anything else, and you get addicted to it. I still felt nervous, but whatever was going to happen I knew I did the best to my ability. We were messing around backstage to distract ourselves.”
Once on stage, all the bands were getting ready to start playing, with the adrenaline at its peak. All the bands had a 10-minute limit on stage so most of them chose to do 2-3 songs for their performance. Cooper Poulos, was part of the opening band and he commented: “It’s really difficult to get the audience interested when you’re the ones warming up the whole event. However, it didn’t go too bad. We just let the adrenaline take over and had fun.” He also said, “ We knew we weren’t going to win so we just went up there to perform.”
After the performance, a lot of the players reflected on the Judges’ reactions, their playing, etc. When asked if their band could have done anything better, a student replied, “We could have practiced more. I felt like more rehearsal was necessary, especially with stage presence. Anyway, there’s no limit on how much you can rehearse. Overall I think we did well, it sounded good, and it was a super fun, memorable event.”
The audience and judges enjoyed the event very much. When asked, an audience member said “It was super fun watching all the bands, especially my friends, perform. Secret Monument played the best and it was my favorite band.” A player in one of the other bands said “Secret Monument deserved the win. You could tell they were a band that had been playing together for some time. Their communication on stage was phenomenal and they looked super comfortable and confident up on stage.”
The Battle of the Bands was a very successful event that was enjoyed by the bands, audience, and judges. It allowed people with the same passion to connect over a good cause.
