STRINGSLINGER said:
Ah yes, I remember this! It was awesome! What ever happened to Denomalos (sp)?
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Battle of the Bands
- Thread starter TopBillinBass
- Start date
Ah yes, I remember this! It was awesome! What ever happened to Denomalos (sp)?
Some things never change.
Last one I played was '79. Venue was a local high school (just out of H.S. ourselves and yes, we were the "home team" so to speak).
Vocalist's mic cut out repeatedly. Horiffic feedback. Muddiest mix I'd ever heard up to that point. Movie screen lowered in front of us half way through set. Got our asses thoroughly kicked musically by a southern rock cover band. We won anyway.
Was totally disgusted and certainly wasn't proud of the "win."
Best thing to come out of that experience was ending up with that southern rock band a few months later (stayed for 3 years). Stone-age networking?
I got a good one. My band has been around for about a year and practice routinely. We were asked to play at my highschool's battle of the bands by a teacher. We show up after a huge and horribly planned ordeal. Not just was there a small crowd, but the "professional sound system" was a briefcase pa. The sound guy was just terrible to work with, and literally would not let anything be how it should have been. I had to crank my bass from my amp many times because he wouldn't pump it through the PA enough to be audible. Despite the ordeal we managed to pull off what we think was one of our better shows. At a point we even sprayed a couple cans of silly string (which everyone seemed to enjoy) into the crowd (because its a highschool, why not?). At the end I had many people (10 to 20) come up and tell me we pretty muchone had won. Come the judging we got...3rd. The first place band was not anywhere near as tight or clear as us. The second place band was just not real great, and sounded like another Metallica rip off. I was confused so I asked around. Apparently we were knocked off in points because we "damaged the stage" by spraying silly string. There were never any rules put in place against it. And also I happened to notice something. The first place band was all from my highschool. The second place band was 3/4 my highschool, and we were 1/4th. Maybe a bit of politics going on I'd tend to say? (By bit I mean the entire shows outcome.) The last place band played all covers, and the 4th place was freshmen (we were juniors at that point).
The main thing is that you know what you are getting in to. Everyone who has been in one of the circle jerks knows the score. I feel bad for the new bands that don't know that the system is rigged 99.999% of the time or think they might actually get what they are promised if they win.
For a new band, with no place to play in front of an audience, there are worst ways to spend your time.
It sounds like you guys did OK on this. Congratulations!
Ever been in an AMP VS. AMP competition? It was a punk band I was in against an acoustic christian rock band. Guess who won?
Entered 2 in the past few years.
One we entered last minute as a band dropped out, managed to win the heat. Got the final, was told by one of the organisers that it was rigged.
The 2nd, entered, one band was disqualified so we got through to the final 'showdown', absolutely decimated the other band in said 'showdown' (Who are an awesome band tbh). The prize was a days recording plus CD production at DOA Studios, which is a rehearsal studio, not recording.....
Liam
One we entered last minute as a band dropped out, managed to win the heat. Got the final, was told by one of the organisers that it was rigged.
The 2nd, entered, one band was disqualified so we got through to the final 'showdown', absolutely decimated the other band in said 'showdown' (Who are an awesome band tbh). The prize was a days recording plus CD production at DOA Studios, which is a rehearsal studio, not recording.....
Liam
We're headlining one in a couple weeks. No money (of course) but a good chance to expand our following & move some product.
Here's a quick story...
About 3 or 4 years ago I met this guy who owned an art gallery, looking to have bands perform there.
I set up a show there, the guy liked us, and so we set up more shows there.
Over time the guy started charging admission to help with his rent. It was $3 so no one cared, really.
Through his connection with me I brought him a bunch more bands, who also would book shows there. The guys son took over as the "booker"
Then, one day, the "booker" decided he wanted to throw a Battle of the Bands at another venue. Basically he got all the bands that played his gallery on board.
UNTIL, it was announced that ticket sales were involved. At that point I pulled my band (the one I was in at the time) out of it.
The band I am in now was had also formed a relationship with these guys.
From what I heard, despite the reaction to another band being better, the band I am in now won the Battle, and it pissed some other people off pretty bad. It was between them and another band I had introduced to the guy.
I have no doubt that had my band participated we would have won.
This is a fact......most battle of the band winners never get their prize. One of my bands back in the day won 8 minutes of free airtime from a radio station that promoted the battle of the bands. The means that they would play your 4 minute demo tape twice at a time of their choosing. However despite the lame prize ......I would recommend doing battle of the bands especially for younger musicians. Can be good promotion in the local music scene and good stage time in venues that you might not normally get to play.
Unfortunately, my band has been signed up to play one at the end of the month. We're a hard rock band billed with a bunch of metal bands (cookie monster vocals, etc).
As long as people come out and hear us it'll be worth it, I guess.
As long as people come out and hear us it'll be worth it, I guess.
The Reaper was "Melvined"
"Whether your a street sweeper or a gate keeper...Sooner or later you'll dance with the Reaper!"
Battle of the Bands: A great way for venue and/or promoter to get bands to play for free while they rake in all the money. As the song says "Everybody plays the fool..."
There was a place in Lincoln NE in which we did a battle. It was the second date with my Wife. A guy she worked for at the time told her I was taking her to a strip club. Unaware that this truly was a strip club until 8:00pm I took her there to get a burger before the show. She decided that we could not eat burger while watching college girls spinning on poles. I still laugh about it to this day.
However, 6 bands, everyone through the door at $5 cover would receive a wooden token do be deposited in a bowl with their favorite bands name on it. The number of tokens you received determined how much you were payed. It wasn't a lot but was nice. We won and were selected to come back a few months later to open for a touring act -- Zug Izland. We went in there and rocked the place. As we were loading out, the band members of Zug Izland helped us load out, praised us on our sound and stage presence, and were concearned about playing after us. We had the place on there feet. That felt pretty damn good.
However, 6 bands, everyone through the door at $5 cover would receive a wooden token do be deposited in a bowl with their favorite bands name on it. The number of tokens you received determined how much you were payed. It wasn't a lot but was nice. We won and were selected to come back a few months later to open for a touring act -- Zug Izland. We went in there and rocked the place. As we were loading out, the band members of Zug Izland helped us load out, praised us on our sound and stage presence, and were concearned about playing after us. We had the place on there feet. That felt pretty damn good.
I played in a Battle of the Bands once...we made it to the next heat which was at another venue 4 hours away from where we lived on a Wednesday night. So naturally, we decided to bail on the whole event (it wasn't all that great to begin with to be honest). A week later, my guitarist receives an email from the promoter congratulating us on making it through to the third round! We had such a great laugh that we printed it, framed it and hung it up on our rehearsal space wall as a gag.
Yeah, these Battle of the Bands aren't only rigged but they get you nowhere if you intend on seriously getting your name out there. The crowds are predominantly friends and family of the bands competing so they'll only attend/vote for their friends performing. If you just happen to be ridiculously popular and convince all your Facebook friends to come to the show, you'll basically guarantee victory.
Us, on the other hand, failed to invite anyone and just did our thing. No one on the dancefloor...barely an applause. Hell, we didn't even rock up to one of the shows and we still made it through haha.
Basically, there's nothing wrong with these events if you just want to have some fun and get some experience playing live under your belt. Just don't expect them to launch your career in music.
Yeah, these Battle of the Bands aren't only rigged but they get you nowhere if you intend on seriously getting your name out there. The crowds are predominantly friends and family of the bands competing so they'll only attend/vote for their friends performing. If you just happen to be ridiculously popular and convince all your Facebook friends to come to the show, you'll basically guarantee victory.
Us, on the other hand, failed to invite anyone and just did our thing. No one on the dancefloor...barely an applause. Hell, we didn't even rock up to one of the shows and we still made it through haha.
Basically, there's nothing wrong with these events if you just want to have some fun and get some experience playing live under your belt. Just don't expect them to launch your career in music.
My personal fav was when my band won both the "Peoples Choice"(4pk Shure SM58's) and the "Judge's Top Pick"($500) awards and in this battle,the bands holding those slots were to battle for the ultimate prize of 15hrs studio time. Well,we couldn't play against ourselves,so one of the judges/promoters had his band come out. Their set ended in polite golf-claps,ours in a roar,and yep..we lost.
Everyone BUT us was a bit put off by the decision,as this wasn't our first rodeo. We were happy to get new mics and some cash,and we had a lot of fun to boot. As we were stowing our gear both the club owner and the studio owner approached us in the parking lot to tell us we got screwed. As a result,the owner booked us for 6 gigs,and the studio guy gave us the time anyway!
Everyone BUT us was a bit put off by the decision,as this wasn't our first rodeo. We were happy to get new mics and some cash,and we had a lot of fun to boot. As we were stowing our gear both the club owner and the studio owner approached us in the parking lot to tell us we got screwed. As a result,the owner booked us for 6 gigs,and the studio guy gave us the time anyway!
