Band Clown Hates Tangelos on stage during Battle of the Bands April 5, 2016. Photo by Will Richards
Five bands took the stage, but none took away a prize….
Last Minute Productions (LMP) hosted their second Battle of the Bands competition/showcase Tuesday April 5, 2016 in the University Center Grandroom at Western Carolina University.
What was originally planned to be a Battle of the Bands turned into a showcase for five different bands. Each band had 30 minutes to show off their best songs.
The bands included: 1898; Left Hand Did; Bad Habits; Clowns Hate Tangelos and Ten More Years.
The evening began a little slowly as about 50 audience members trickled in and took their time socializing and taking their seats. Ten More Years opened up the night with their hard rock, ripping solos and grooving drum beats to get the crowd excited and moving around.
Group members of 1898. (From left to right) Gavin Stewart, Colby Lipscomb, Alex Canup and Jeff Denton. April 5, 2016. Photo by Will Richards
1898 was an unusual twist to the night, since they are a folk/bluegrass band. The band took the stage with a mandolin, bass guitar, banjo and an acoustic guitar to play songs of love and soft melodies. The members are all from Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a fraternity that is based heavily in music, which allowed them to promote their art and their love for it.
“I started playing guitar when I was ten because of Johnny Cash. The older I get the more I go back to the singer/songwriter thing and I’ve been listening to a lot of The Avett Brothers, Mumford and Sons and bluegrass in general. So that’s why I picked up the banjo,” Singer and banjo player Alex Canup from 1898 explained where his inspiration comes from.
Free verse over the sounds of smooth beats, Left Hand Did is a “poet” as he put it. He expressed words with tight rhymes with deep meanings. With a mission to make music a serious art again and not “a joke like the top hip hop artist on the radio,” Left Hand Did along with the group Bad Habits are using their poems to speak out against today’s music.
“Making music is really an art form. It’s hard to do, It’s hard to memorize the words, It’s hard to perform. People make it a joke and we want people to take music seriously,” performer Left Hand Did said.
The last band up was Clowns Hate Tangelos. they took the stage with vigor and energy. They called for the audience to come up to the front of the stage and dance. Their setlist consisted of covers, such as Mr.Brightside by The Killers, Bulls On Parade by Rage Against The Machine and more. The high energy had people dancing and screaming lyrics.
“We like to entertain, and strut our stuff, and basically have fun,” Pianist Marc Lewis said of the band’s attitude.
Though this was called a “Battle of the Bands,” no band was named a winner because only five bands turned up for the competition. The stakes were not nearly as high as 2015’s Battle of the Bands, with last year’s grand prize being the opportunity to play on stage with We The Kings. The audience attendance was also much lower than last year.
LMP had no comment on the lack of a prize or decrease in audience numbers. The second Battle of the Bands at WCU was simply a chance for bands to get their names out there and have fun playing music on stage.
Check out this video to see more of WCU’s Battle of the Bands.
