The walls of the Rathskeller shook Thursday night as the WUD-sponsored Battle of the Bands began. They continued to rattle into the night as five examples of Madison’s diverse local talent took the stage to fight for the win, giving their all to the “One-Hit Wonder”-themed night.
The handful of groups, considered to be the best of all entries, featured the local musicians composing the groups Catch of the Day, Stone Float, Fateful Promise, Centric and 8889. These bands rocked the stage for the nearly three-hour show, presenting a variety of music styles and levels of talent.
Replacing Open Mic Night, the usual Thursday night happening, Battle of the Bands exuded a casually laid back atmosphere. This set the tone for the event, which included several long pauses and impromptu shenanigans.
With each band allowed three of their own songs along with their spin on a cover of their choice, the five entries showcased their unique qualities and individual style.
The panel of judges, strategically placed directly in front of a speaker, included a variety of people, with students, Core Weekly members and Onion employees all holding judging power.
Up first was Catch of the Day, a seven-member ska band with brass instrument flair. Warming up the audience and playing with the support of a small but devoted following pressed against the front of the stage, Catch of the Day played with infectious energy and undeniable passion.
Despite initial difficulty hearing vocals, the music showcased by the band was great, showing off jazz, reggae and rock influence.
Delivering a rendition of the well known and much loved “Ghostbusters” theme, the band added an element of lightheartedness to their set. Catch of the Day served as a fitting opener to the night.
The grittier, harder rock style of Stone Float took the stage second, delivering a harder rock with a hint of blues. The band featured one lone percussionist whose seemingly sole purpose was to interject poetic spoken lines and keep something of a beat.
With guitars that reflected Eric Clapton in Cream, Stone Float played with no real breaks between songs and was a continuum of loudness and hard to understand spoken lines. The band’s cover of Springfield’s “Inna Gadda Davida” was not as well received as the previous band’s cover was, but Stone Float delivered it with an admirable cohesive grittiness and musicality.
Third up was Fateful Promise, the youngest band to take the stage and the group with the largest following. The group gelled well as a band, playing off each other and coming together both musically and vocally. With a somewhat expected punk-rock sound, Fateful Promise was the only band of the night to really show a range of both fast and slow songs
They covered The Proclaimers’ song “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” with amazing reception. Changing the melody and taking liberties with the rhythmic style of the song, the group made you almost like their version more than the original — almost. The energetic high felt by the audience after Fateful Promise performed was changed to confusion as Centric took the stage.
With a female vocalist and dark, hard rock style, Centric reminded listeners of Evanescence, but at a much louder volume and with a lot more screaming. Showing little semblance of melodies, garbled sounds, and vocals that left something to be desired, Centric’s songs included a lot of wailing, but no gelling of the music in general.
To the band’s credit, though, “Danger Harvey” by Flagpole Sitta was the group’s chosen one-hit wonder and was delivered with more order and at a higher level of performance than Centric’s other songs.
Last but not least was 8889, a band that right off the bat thanked the audience for “sticking around so long.” Dressed uniformly in blazers, the group delivered one of the night’s only attempts at actual harmonies and presented a rock sound that was solid and unified. Featuring unique and interesting vocals, 8889 channeled the quirkiness of the Barenaked Ladies lead vocalist.
According to UW freshman Alyssa Krueger, “If a bunch of fraggles got together, this is what they would sound like.” The band started off slowly, delivering a softer set than the previous acts, but showed an overall sophisticated sense of musicality.
The night as a whole was plagued with technical difficulties, an almost constant loudness and a program length that dragged as the night went on.
After the sets were completed, audience members who actually stayed on for the duration of the event were made to wait even longer as issues with tallying arose. With the results finally in, all band members were brought up for a final round of applause and for awards. Centric (5th place), Fateful Promise (4th place), Stone Float (3rd place) and 8889 (2nd place) all received CDs of famous one-hit wonders from B-Side Records.
First place, awarded to Catch of the Day, included a summer performance date on the Union Terrace, as well as 10 hours of studio time at Smart Studio. The Battle of the Bands could have been more organized and a lot shorter, but it did what it set out to do, pitting various local bands against each other in good-natured competition and letting the audience experience a variety of different styles all in one place.
