Bands a battlin'
Ryan Lindsay

The packed house at Wilf’s on Friday witnessed WLU’s first ever Campus Music Search Battle of the Bands. Eight bands participated in the six hour music marathon, but it was Wax Elvis that came out on top at the end of the evening.

Mike Magreehan, and bandmates Adam Webb and Jeff Wagner, picked up 10 free hours of recording time from local Sherwood studios, and the band gets to go on to the Ontario finals. Sounding like early Pavement minus the hallucinogenics, it must have been the high energy and audience reaction that made judges give Wax Elvis first place.

The judges must have found the competition to be really close since the most talented and enthusiastic group of the evening did not even place.

Eww...you’re a girl and girls suck! managed to stray away from the pop/rock norm and of course this made it hard to get any recognition here at conservative Laurier. Despite this their brand of hard-core punk and playful on-stage antics was a fast and fresh alternative.

At least the accoustic soul of Hoosier Daddy came in second place, mostly due to the fact that they are always an audience favourite. Maureen Spilane delighted the pub as usual with her soaring Joplinesque vocals that overlapped what could pass for Blind Melon’s youth.

Coming in third place was the band composed of some of Lauriers funniest frosh, The Ludes. With their unique style of pirate rock, they sounded like Spanish nursery rhymes being played by Ween, only with beards. A very relaxed group, the Ludes had a lot of breathing room in their songs that the crowd obviously enjoyed, helping them truly earn their placement.

Other cool bands in the battle included: Wilf’s own Accident Will, whose funky blues/rock ballads has the crowd dancing; Horus’ Four Sons, whose clean guitar sounds and extended jams contrasted with the kitschy stories told between songs; Pinwheel, with the beautiful looks and vocals of Melyssa Kerr leading the power of the night’s most mainstream rock; and, of course, Poor Riley, who unfortunately opened the show over five hours before its’ completion, thus playing their edgy and catchy straight-ahead rock to a smaller diner audience.

Despite the results, every band that participated in the competition played comfortably and confidently under the pressure to play for points.

Each band seemed to have its’ own groupies as well as winning new fans by the end of their performance. On this account alone, each group should have felt proud of their performance, especially knowing that only one band got to go on to the Ontario finals.

Overall, the event seemed like a huge success. Wilf’s was unusually packed and Laurier got to see just how deep our pockets are filled with musical talent.

This talent can only increase as Laurier continues to support our amateur music scene and hold events such as Friday’s Battle of the Bands.