Photo via Amanda Brooks
This past Saturday, the Performing Arts Collective and the Arts Annex theme house hosted their first annual Battle of the Bands competition. Three bands, Flamenco Sketch, Wing It, and The Trys, performed in front of a panel of three faculty judges, which included Terry (White-fang) Dubray, Chris Buck, and Michael Farley. Each band per-formed two songs, one they chose from a list of pre-assigned songs, and one assigned to them by the Performing Arts Collective.
The Trys were up first, performing “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals and “Gives You Hell” by The All-American Rejects. Wing It, a group of sophomores, performed “Hey Ya!” by OutKast and “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes. Flamenco Sketch closed out the evening with two unique adaptations of “Skinny Love” by Bon Iver and “Teenagers” by My Chemical Romance.
In regards to changing up the sound of “Teenagers,” “We switched it to a genre that played to our strengths,” said Kramer Whitney, keyboard player for Flamenco Sketch. “It was definitely the more fun song to play, but we had a great time with b o t h .”
The bands were judged based on musicality, originality, performance, and audience approval. Judges wrote down notes as they listened to the bands play, including advice for how they could improve their performances. After all three bands performed, the judges got together and decided on final scores. Flamenco Sketch ended up taking the win, but only by one point.
“I had an amazing time. Even though it wasn’t everything we originally thought it would be, it was still incredible to see all of the hard work we put into it pay off,” commented Nicole Hamilton, a member of the Perform-ing Arts Collective. “Every band put their all into making this the best show possible. Afterwards, the first thing I wanted to do was improve and make it even better next year!”
The Performing Arts Collective is a student group that works to get more students, faculty, and staff performing music, theater, dance, poetry, and stand-up comedy by hosting events on the smaller stages around SLU. Look for The Battle of the Bands next year, and sign up with your friends. Any group of two or more people can compete, and no experience performing is necessary