In Wilmington its a weekend, you will find most people flocking to kegs to watch football; not me. I went to Battle of the Bands at UNCW campus, sponsored by the local radio stations, to see what new bands I might discover and to make my editor happy since I have been slacking on my writing.
$15 bucks to get in? Yeah riight. To the backdoor I skipped, and started talking to some guys with VIP necklaces on, def the guys you want to be friends with.
They happened to be, Brent and Drew, members from SOLACE, a local 5-piece heavy metal band that had been playing together for about 2 years. They have a female lead singer which is pretty neat as far as metal goes. They played mostly originals with a 2 covers, and apparently get very pissed when anyone requests ‘FreeBird.” NOTE: Brent really likes Star Wars, and has a Vader and Princess Leah pendant on his guitar case.
I left my convo with them to enter backstage and join the crowd in TRASK for the show. Let me rephrase, by crowd I really mean the 50-70 friends and family members of the bands, I honestly think I was the only non-kin member in the whole area; and word on the street was there were already 1000 pre sold tickets. BULL SHIT.
There were two guys on stage, sitting in chairs, one singing, one playing acoustic guitar. Was this a BATTLE OF THE BANDS, or a middle school talent show? I was a bit confused at first. But after a listen, wow this guy singing had a magical voice, like mesmerizing status; he’s really really good. However, they didn’t bring much of an army to this so called “battle”.
I later found out, (after I creepily followed them into the artist room after their set), that Enemy Of Mine were actually only 2/5 present, as their drummer was injured and couldn’t play with them, so they had decided on the acoustic set to perform. ( After a bit of research i found out from friend that their live sets are awesome, chalk full of mucho energy. Wish I had seen that.)
Comedian Timmy, hit the stage next, he was funny as shit, brining a much needed boost of life to the empty, pretty dead room.
I took a quick break, and introduced myself to the radio DJs who were judging this battle, hoping to score some points, and help my 4TheLove music fest, BINGO. I met Tabitha, the head of Sunrise Broadcasting, music promo dept, happy to say all my event info is now avail and will be announced on all 4 of their partner radio stations.
A progressive rock band hit the stage next. Damona Waits, is what they go by, pretty solid, rocking sound. Nothing too too special, but again not too too many people there either. Unfortunately, I only stayed for two songs, so cant really dive more into it.
Bad Influence joined the battle next, a 3-piece pop rock group w/ electro produced jams in the background, very poppy, and very purple.
They were all matching with purple something or other, jeans, t-shrts and such, obviously something they had planned on.
They were a bit reminiscent of Blink 182, with not as good drummer, but more disco/dance, and a loads more pop. I personally don’t really like pop, but its not what I like, its what people like. And so far, I feel like more people would like them over the other bands.
Dave Van, the mastermind behind this band, had brought all members together about one month ago to fulfill his musical dream. Written and produced by dave, he played ‘Summer Girl’ a song describing a summer fling, well actually 3-4 summer flings combined but dont tell the 3-4 girls he told that he wrote it only for them.
They did give off a bit of a rock boy band vibe, but did for the first time have people in front of the stage instead of in the bleachers and by far the most fans present and gave the best overall show. I could def see these guys selling some records and having some success touring.
According to Dave, bassist Wes, and Drummer Geoff, 4Loco’s at band practice help keep things at a peaceful level of crazy.
Winner? I dont know, I had to leave early to do something more important. If you actually care who won or why I had to leave earl, post me a comment and ill be sure to let you know