Battle of the Bands: Finals!

I'm not going to go into all the bands tonight, as they performed the same as they did earlier in the week. Suffice it to say that nobody could touch the greatness of Mid-Wives Crisis. The rocked the house again and took the audience vote to boot. When all was said and done, they were announced as the winners. Hooray!

I like to think I played a major part in bringing them to victory. Can't wait to see this band perform again so I can get in front of the stage and dance.

Battle of the Bands: Friday Night

Back to just 5 judges tonight. Lucy and the Diamonds started things off. Musically they resembled Melissa Etheridge. Vocally, the female lead took after Sheryl Crow. It started out boring and quickly became painfully annoying.

Scorecard:

M: 4
S: 4
C: 7
S: 6
V: 6
T: 27

SweetHaven had a Weezer thing going, except they had a Chris Farley type singer who couldn't carry a tune. He was really funny, but not a very talented singer.

Scorecard:

M: 7
S: 7
C: 6
S: 6
V: 2
T: 28

Galaxy of Heartbreak was an odd three-piece indie-twang ensemble after the likes of Cracker or Wilco. The kazoo was a nice touch.

Scorecard:

M: 6
S: 6
C: 4
S: 6
V: 7
T: 29

The last band, Tracy Hall, did a decent rendering of Radiohead styled music. They even brought their own lights and fog machine. Bonus points.

Scorecard:

M: 8
S: 6
C: 7
S: 9
V: 7
T: 37

As on most other nights, I picked the winner: Tracy Hall. The audience actually went with Lucy and the Diamonds who brought a lot of friends and family.

Still, after watching 20 bands this week, I consider only one of them worth seeing again. That would be Mid-Wives Crisis. Glad they are playing last tomorrow night so I can leave on a good note. I really doubt they will pull off a win, as I don't think the other judges like them as much as I do.

Battle of the Bands: Thursday Night

This is starting to feel like a job. Go to Muse, listen to bands, give score, come home. I have to admit it's nice to be back in the local music scene and run into old faces. Joel Pack came in tonight. I haven't seen him in years. He and his wife used to come into my store all the time. Joel played for Illborn, one of my favorite local bands. he also recorded some cool solo stuff.

The first band up was The Powerless. They hold the distinction of being the band with the fewest members: 3. Straight up rock band with no frills. ZZZZZzzzzzzzz.

Scorecard:

M: 5
S: 5
C: 5
S: 6
V: 4
Total: 25

There were 7 of us judging tonight. I had a Vanilla Cream Weinhard's this time around. The Black Cherry didn't taste good the other night.

Chance Lewis Project was next. They had a Goldfinger sound but not as polished, which isn't saying much.

Scorecard:

M: 2
S: 3
C: 5
S: 6
V: 2
Total: 18

The third band of the evening was Palomino. Reminded me of The Wallflowers, only the singer's voice sounded like the guy from Maroon 5. Pretty good, but not my thing.

Scorecard:

M: 6
S: 6
C: 6
S: 6
V: 6
Total: 30

The most original band of the night was Winston McCoy. There were hints of The Reverend Horton Heat and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at the start, but then they moved away from that and I liked them less for it. Bonus points for wearing cool vintage suits.

Scorecard:

M: 6
S: 7
C: 6
S: 7
V: 5
Total: 31

Since I didn't care for any of the bands tonight, I wasn't too concerned with the final outcome. The audience vote was very close too. Winston McCoy got 1 more vote than Palomino, but that wasn't enough to counter the judges votes, so Palomino won the night.

Tomorrow night's the last round of bands before the finals. Hoping to have 1 more really good band to look forward to on Saturday.

Battle of the Bands: Wednesday Night

Tonight was more fun because Caz and I swapped music files during the sets. I love getting new music. Seven judges again tonight.

The first band up was Black River Brethren, an "O Brother Where Art Thou" looking band doing a bluesy/rockabilly sort of thing. Out of the ordinary instruments included a stand-up bass, cello, fiddle, and a banjo. While I appreciated the uniqueness of their music in an otherwise bland series of bands, the music was sub par.

Scorecard:

Musicianship: 7
Song Writing: 4
Crowd Response: 1
Stage Presence: 7
Vocal Performance: 7
Total Score: 26

Yet another lame wannabe punk band: Foolish Pete. They take after the Green Day / Good Charlotte variety. Agonizing to sit through their set.

Scorecard:

M: 4
S: 2
C: 5
S: 6
V: 2
Total: 19

Three out of the four members of the next band, The Debi Graham Band, were girls, which was a pleasant change. The singer had a funky Ani DiFranco voice while the band played bluesy rock. It was a pretty good set.

Scorecard:

M: 7
S: 7
C: 6
S: 10
V: 9
Total: 39

The final band, Details of Speech, did the happy indie-pop thing. It was hard to get into them because their sound mix was jacked up way too high and was almost reaching distortion. I suspect the sound guy, who was hooting and hollering during The Debi Graham Band, was attempting to sabotage this last act to ensure a win for them. But, despite a cool vocalist after the likes of Ric Ocasek of The Cars, the band still needs some fine tuning.

Scorecard:

M: 4
S: 6
C: 5
S: 5
V: 6
Total: 28

The crowd tonight was very small. Every one of these bands could have benefited from bringing out more fans. The audience vote agreed with the judges by just one vote. It was close overall, but Debi Graham pulled out the win. I'm 3 for 3 on picking winners so far.

Battle of the Bands: Tuesday Night

After last night's lackluster line-up, I had high hopes for tonight. With only five judges this time, my vote would carry even more weight. Only one other judge besides me is coming every night. She's a pretty cool girl and we plan to swap local music mp3s tomorrow night.

The Eden Experience opened the night with a movie screen in front of the stage showing various commercial clips. Meanwhile, they played a song in the background that had nothing to do with the video being shown. Still not sure why they did that. Anyway, the screen went up after the first song, revealing a fairly decent experimental indie band. The singer had a real sincere, warbley voice that I kind of liked. He looked like Moby.

Scorecard:

Musicianship: 6
Song Writing: 6
Crowd Response: 4
Stage Presence: 7
Vocal Performance: 6
Total Score: 29

Deadlocked sounded like a bad Chump cover band. Local bands should never have cover bands. Everything bad about the 90's rap/rock fad came to a screeching climax. Amazingly, it was this band that took the audience vote tonight. They were just terrible.

Scorecard:

Musicianship: 3
Song Writing: 2
Crowd Response: 4
Stage Presence: 5
Vocal Performance: 1
Total Score: 15

Yet another pop-punk band in Rated Hero. Solid playing and singing, just a thousand other pop-punk bands out there doing the exact same thing.

Musicianship: 7
Song Writing: 5
Crowd Response: 5
Stage Presence: 7
Vocal Performance: 5
Total Score: 29

With a tie on my hands and no band I liked, it was once again up to the final band to win it or lose it. Mid-Wives Crisis took the stage in darkness, opening with a crazy glam metal number belting from a singer wearing glitter make-up and a dandy white outfit. Hooray!!! Something different!

The first song wasn't very good, but everything improved by leaps and bounds after that. The singer seriously looked like a rock star playing in a giant arena. How these guys ended up in Provo I'll never know. The style wavered across several genres, none of which I can think up names for. I was shocked to see a band this good after wading through so much crap. Made my whole night.

Musicianship: 9
Song Writing: 10
Crowd Response: 7
Stage Presence: 10
Vocal Performance: 9
Total Score: 45

The scary thing is, I now had something invested in the outcome. I was prepared to be truly disappointed if these guys didn't advance to Saturday night. After hearing that the audience vote went for Deadlocked, I was glad I had rated them so low to counteract it. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when Mid-Wife Crisis was announced as the winner. Excited to see them again. Home at midnight.

Typing up my blog and listening to a CD some guy game me from his band: De La Vega. Being a judge, people think I still have contacts in the scene, which I don't--well, not really.

Battle of the Bands: Monday Night

I'll be judging the battle of the bands all week here in Provo, Utah. Four bands will be performing each night at Muse Music, with the five best playing at the finals this Saturday. What makes me qualified to be a judge of local music talent you might ask? Well, I'll tell you.

Venues: I managed two different venues where bands performed on a regular basis: Sonic Garden, and my own place, Supercords. (both now closed down)

Promotion: Besides booking shows for the above mentioned venues, I also put together several special shows, such as The Don't Go Back To Skool Show and Superskunk 2000.

Management: I managed three Utah bands back in the day: Honeysuck, Super Corduroy Leroys, and Chump. And in case you're wondering, the name Supercords did come from Super Corduroy Leroys.

On to the show. I was one of seven judges tonight scoring the bands--five guys and two gals. I'd only met one of them before, one of the girls who had come to my store. In fact, she was wearing the shirt she bought there this evening, which pleased me very much. We were supplied with score cards and grading criteria... plus, complimentary pretzels and a bottle of Weinhard's premium soda. I had black cherry.

Maxfield came on at 8:30. I immediately liked the singers voice, but the lyrics left me wanting. I'd classify these guys as indie-pop with some potential. I heard this was their first club show and it showed. One guy played a trumpet, which was a nice touch, but not used nearly as effectively as Cake.

I filled out my scorecard as follows:

Musicianship: 6
Song Writing: 5
Crowd Response: 5
Stage Presence: 3
Vocal Performance: 6
Total Score: 25

Next up was The Weakmen. They are of the moody, dark, slow, and depressing variety that I'm not too keen on. Use of a bow by the singer on his electric bass was cool, but nothing much else excited me.

Scorecard:

Musicianship: 6
Song Writing: 3
Crowd Response: 4
Stage Presence: 5
Vocal Performance: 4
Total Score: 22

The band Hender had a loud and animated crowd. I was expecting something above average from them, but instead they came off like a poor mans Third-Eye Blind. The best part of their show was laughing at two doofuses in the front air guitaring to the chorus. Sad.

Scorecard:

Musicianship: 4
Song Writing: 3
Crowd Response: 8
Stage Presence: 5
Vocal Performance: 1
Total Score: 21

It was now the final bands show to lose. Anything half decent was going to take it tonight. Allred, the final band, was exactly that. Half decent. I didn't have any real complaints with this band except for an off-key back-up singer who should have had his mic turned off. Solid emo sound, if you're into that kind of thing. My sister, who's a big Dashboard Confessional fan would have liked them.

Scorecard:

Musicianship: 8
Song Writing: 5
Crowd Response: 6
Stage Presence: 8
Vocal Performance: 6
Total Score: 33

Most of my fellow judges agreed with me. After we counted the audience vote, we felt a bit relieved that they agreed with us as well. It's always nice not to have to walk to your car amid pissed off stares and insults. Allred was announced the winner and I got to go home at 11:30. The remaining 15 bands have got to be better than tonight's lineup. I'm praying they will be.

Worked on my paper until 1:00 am and saved it to two different discs, just in case. Will print it out before class tomorrow, leaving me with only one more paper to turn in.