Like any quest for the Holy Grail, there must be an opposing force to keep the goal from being achieved. What’s this Holy Grail? An opportunity to open for the major spring concert, your video sent to General Mills to participate in their U-Rock! Battle for the Best contest and a shot at a record deal in Los Angeles, California.
The opposing forces? Three bands all seeking to drink from the goblet of fame and fortune. The first challenge? Getting past fellow students and judges. Pacing as if the ambiance is wrong, Jahguar’s front man, Ryan Fitzgerald walks into the audience to investigate the cause of his unsettled feeling.
The show hasn’t even begun, but already waves of electric blue lights are rolling over the stage. With students filtering in and out of the Vaughn Courtyard, Chris Brandofino and Kaitlin Murray hop on stage to begin Student Production’s Battle of the Bands.
UT’s favorite female rapper, $crilla, was given the difficult task of opening the show. The instant she stepped on the stage the audience began to scream her name, causing her to smile a little bit. Even for an opening act, $crilla had a wonderful stage presence that showcasedher aptitude for performing; only complimenting her Soulja Boy-meets-Missy Elliot style.
As Jahguar took the stage, it became evident the sound system was going to continue to be a problem. Many times Fitzgerald asked for more volume in his monitor, only to receive feedback from the other end. Accompanied by Jamey Foldhazy on drums, Frankie Snyder on guitar and John Gilhart on bass, the quartet filled the air with a sweet reggae sound. With lyrics like “summer sun is all grown up. This isn’t lust, I swear, it’s love.” Jahguar connected with the audience, especially when they invited the crowd to get on stage with them.
The next act, Chris Perry, managed to handle himself well. If his solitary presence didn’t catch people off guard, his yelling did the trick. Although yelling at a crowd with a malfunctioning speaker system can be off-putting, Perry conveys a beautiful story with each song.
One real listen will make strangers realize it’s his kind brutal honesty that modern music is missing. He’s the type to admit that with only twenty dollars to his name, he’ll “blow it all on beer” and drink to what he loves. As if the transition from Jahguar’s reggae to Chris Perry’s acoustic pop-punk wasn’t a big leap already, 20/20 Boulevard, winners of last year’s battle of the band, most known for their progressive style, concluded the show.
Even though the group was one man short, they still had a full sound. The audience came flocking to the stage. By the end of their performance, it was no contest.
Even though Jahguar got the crowd involved and Chris Perry was radio friendly, in the end it was a solid sound of 20/20 Boulevard that won.
Tomy Wilkerson can be reached at tlwilkerson@spartans.ut.edu.
Hey “Someone”,
I’m the bassist for 20/20 Boulevard, and the co-writer of our songs. I will admit, the battle of the bands was a tough night for all the bands. The sound was an obstacle and the monitors were bugging out. We were down a man, the stage was huge, and we couldn’t really hear each other, but I’m sorry you thought our show was boring. We try to make every night we perform as interesting and fun to watch as possible… We also try to take all criticism from fans and people who don’t dig our stuff in stride and learn from it all.
If you don’t agree with the system and the way the Battle was run, then I’d suggest taking your comments straight to Student Productions. They really had control of the whole night, and we were just as in the dark most of the time, as anyone else… The only disagreement I can really muster about any of your comment is the bit about us “knowing half the people running it”… I can honestly say that I know only one person who is even involved with the concert board at all, and they had nothing to do with the voting. I understand that you may disagree with us winning, and you may have thought the first band put on a better show, but it had nothing to do with us tampering or any politics that I know of…
Know that we strive to bring our best to every show, and every time we take a stage. We’ve opened for major bands such as the Crash Kings, The Colour Revolt, Son of a Bad Man, among others… I think we play an entertaining show and we write music that some people can connect to. I’m sorry that you didn’t catch our drift or just plain don’t like our style, but I’d still like to encourage you to check out our recordings/another live show when we have our full band. Either way, feel free to comment on our page to discuss more in depth. We’re curious about what people think of our music.
I’d like to extend the offer to anyone else reading this also!! We love new people!
P.S. Thanks to “Someone Else”. That’s a hell of a compliment, and we all appreciate your support.
Miles Parks
20/20 Boulevard
http://www.facebook.com/pages/2020-Boulevard/248531236817
http://www.purevolume.com/2020boulevard
http://www.myspace.com/2020boulevard
There is no perfect system for a Battle of the Bands….. However, 20/20 Boulevard is one of the most talented group of guys at that school, hands down. Even with a man down, they put on a heck of a show. I think they deserved that win. The sound system was screwy, I agree with you on that front, but 20/20 Boulevard is never a bore. Before you’re so quick to judge, why don’t you try getting up on stage and doing it? Then come back and we’ll talk.
I am certainly a fan of music and one who knows it’s theory well, but this “battle” of the bands was quite awful. If student productions cared to make this event something decent each year they would be more careful with band selection and more importantly sound selection, meaning the sound man. It’s an absolute shame when a group goes up there to express themselves and very little is going in their favor. As for Perry, this should have been ruled out. It was not radio friendly nor anything anyone cared to hear. Also, the winners this year were nothing more than a bore and it’s an absolute shame something so terribly boring will be opening for such a fun event as the spring concert. Jahgwar or whatever the name suffered a good deal of technical difficulty but I will give them the benefit of the doubt. They also had twice or maybe more the amount of fans as the last band and had the crowd moving and enjoying themselves. Every year this event has been a major disappointment and I wish more thought would go into it. There was also some conflict of interest being this 20/20 blvd knew half the people running it and seemed perfectly content in their lame performance. Who am I though right? I’m just someone who doesn’t get involved because of backwards politics in everything. Lastly, I would like to discuss the terrible voting system in which the “judges” were not clear about how it worked. Nobody knew what was going on and we feel terrible for the bands who went first. Obviously by the time the crowd votes the only fans there would be for the last band. No offense but there weren’t many people left and clearly the little group of “band people” had their backs at the end. What a disgust. try better UT surely you can afford to with what we pay to go here.
Sincerely, Student 1248396
The song in the caption should be “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.” Two typos in one song title that you might want to take care of…