Deli Radio Battle Of The Bands @ Ex'pression College 5/12/12

Deli Radio’s Battle of the Bands at Ex’pression College in Emeryville was different from the GenSF battle in that the level of competition was minimal.  This was a chance for people to see new young bands, and the promoters treated it as such, giving each band a solid fifteen minutes and five out of eight bands the chances to be victors.

(Apologies for the lack of pictures.  My old camera, sadly, has passed on.)

THE FIREWALL

The Firewall came on first.  The Martinez collective was by far the most ambitious band at the event, but their technical proficiency did not quite meet their ambitions--the beginnings of the songs were sometimes awkward, and the band did not always sound together.  Yet had these songs been better-executed, they could have been magnificent--the steely synth interludes between the songs were gorgeous, suggesting a potential for sonic exploration that could perhaps be better realized in the studio or with a tighter band.

REID SAW A GHOST

The second band was the manic Fremont trio Reid Saw A Ghost, who played two songs of wild, rockabilly-inspired pop-punk balanced by their modestly gorgeous ballad “Girl From Across The Sea.”  Singer-bassist Alex Lefkort played the straight man to guitarist Cole Berggren’s spastic, stage-hopping goofiness as beanied drummer and band namesake Reid Riegelsberger kept the whole thing grooving along.  Though there were bands with better songs and more technical proficiency than Reid Saw A Ghost, no band was as fun to watch perform, and few others even came close to matching their energy.

EAGER EYES

Alameda band Eager Eyes performed a set of modest, friendly tunes that found a happy medium between early ‘00s garage-rock and ‘80s post-punk while lacking either of those movements’ characteristic grittiness.  Eager Eyes had some good tunes, but their most notable attribute was Chris Maier’s immediately likable voice.

THE INQ

The Inq, victors of the GenSF Battle of the Bands, played the longest of any of the bands, and though I was not sure whether or not there was a time limit, I caught event staff looking expectantly at the band as they neared the end of their set.  The band’s tunes were perhaps a bit too freeform and sprawling for a Battle of the Bands dominated by tight, concise bands like Eager Eyes and Minute 2 Midnight, but the four band members worked together well enough to hold their jams together.  

VONS DE QUA

Someone earlier had described all-girl act Vons De Qua as sounding like “music for an iPod commercial.”  While my experience with iPod commercials has been limited, I can’t quite imagine Vons De Qua soundtracking one.  The members of this band were all in seventh grade and were thus not as “good” as some of the older bands, but some of the group’s various singers and instrumentalists were surprisingly skilled.

IN THE MOURNING

In The Mourning played the sort of garage-power-pop-punk at least one out of three teen Bay Area bands play, but the Danville crew distinguished themselves by sporting a fantastic singer in Michael Warren.  Warren’s flexible, slightly rubbery voice gave the songs a dramatic flair that brought with it extra emotion.  Yet even without Warren, In The Mourning’s songs would still stand tall--poppy, catchy, unpretentious ditties, not terribly original but a whole lot of fun.

AFTERSHOCK

Aftershock were even younger than Vons de Qua and far more technically proficient, blazing through simple hard-rock songs with precision and power.  Surprisingly for a band this young, Aftershock had a strong focus on stage presence, moving about freely and truly seeming at one with their instruments.  The most remarkable moment of their set was Chris Hernandez’s guitar solo, possibly the best solo played the entire night. 

MINUTE 2 MIDNIGHT

Minute 2 Midnight surfaced at the end as the cocky, confident favorites, a band that was in it to win and gave all they could to do so.  Led by the blond-haired, white-smiled Tyler Stimpson, this band played lean pop-punk with surprisingly heavy guitars and instantly catchy sing-a-long choruses.  (“Tell Me” is a Wrath Of Khan-level earworm.)  This was the only one of these bands I could instantly imagine on the radio alongside Maroon 5 and Rihanna, and that seemed to be their goal as well.  It worked in the end, with Minute 2 Midnight winning the grand prize of the night.  Yet there was some grumbling among the audience about the band’s pitch-perfect image and clearly competitive intentions, especially after Stimpson did a full backflip onstage about halfway through the band’s set.

Minute 2 Midnight won a recording session at Opus Studios in Berkeley with a “platinum award-winning” producer who had apparently worked with Adele.  Second place went to Vons De Qua, who received eight hours of recording by students at Ex’pression.  Third place went to Reid Saw A Ghost, who won a music video shoot by Ex’pression students.  In the Mourning and Aftershock came in fourth and fifth, respectively.