Battle of the Bands 2010
High School Rocks Battle of the Bands 2010
Andrew Olson
Reader Weekly
Crescent Moon of Superior took top honors at the High School Rocks Battle of the Bands competition on Sunday at the DECC Arena.
It was a day filled with teen angst, hard rock, and high hopes for local bands as they competed for top honors and bragging rights. While the crowd wasn’t as large as years’ past, the music still entertained and bewildered the young audience.
The first band of the show competing was Badger Quest out of Harbor City. The bass really stood out, and it was great to see a girl in the band playing it. This year there were several chick rockers and assisting security near the stage there were a few intimidating roller derby athletes.
The next band, out of Mora, was formerly known as Resist The Armistice, but now had the name Skies Went Red. Their drummer had a lot of energy and asked the crowd as they began, “are you with me?” The audience responded with a loud roar and the band went into their first tune. For their next song the drummer came out from behind the skins and got the crowd going again. “I wanna see people moving,” he yelled. “Not in a violent way, but just moving!”
Silencing the Desperate came third and was a larger band, consisting of 6 members. Their singer had dark sunglasses on as they played Radiohead’s “Creep” and a Good Charlotte cover. Silencing also had an amazing girl on drums, and when they finished their set the remaining band members kept playing as each person exited the stage.
The music got a bit harder when Underground Til Sundown took the stage, and soon there was a break in the action. After the break the bands were back on the stage and several stood out, especially the eventual winners Crescent Moon.
Crescendo, out of Proctor, played a bit later and had a really cool moment when their drummer came out to the front of the stage after their first song. He took the mic and asked a girl to prom in the front row of the audience. She said yes (thankfully). They then went into Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love A Bad Name” counteracting any “awww” kind of feelings that may have stemmed from the moment before.
The next band was being called to the stage by a chant of “TBT” from the audience before they even entered. While it wasn’t local folkies Trampled By Turtles, it was Truth Before Treason out of Durand. They had a very charismatic singer that complimented their polished harder rock sound. At one point on a softer song the audience raised their cell phones with lit screens to sing along.
Arise The Dawn was late in the contest, but was a total screamo band. The crowd loved the music and the band jumped around the stage with infectious energy. In the middle of their all original set the singer explained that they try to put something positive into their lyrics, things he needed to get him through the day. Then the music got slow to compliment his thoughtful words - before slapping the audience in the face with some more screaming.
The third place band, Excuse Me Princess, played last and even had an electric fiddle player. They had a great sound and were a change from the band that several members had performed in last year, Completely Random. Princess’ music was ahead of where one would expect of a high school band out East to be. The way they incorporated many genres gave their music a lot of depth. Jack Campbell and Sam Wattrus connected on stage, and the band is already booked for Homegrown. (6:30pm on Saturday, May 5th at The Play Ground)
In the end Small Town Story was 5th place, Truth Before Treason was 4th, Excuse Me Princess was 3rd, Aphamy was 2nd and Crescent Moon was 1st place. They all received awards and musical equipment for putting on a great show.
It was very cool to see so many young people involved such a successful event. The future holds great things for bands to rock the area, and it is amazing that Junior Achievement can put on such an important event.
For more pictures go to CLICK HERE.
