Battle of the Bands Ends in Peace for All
By Chris Meyer
A&F Associate

A tradition at least as old as Michael Jackson's greatest admirers, Pomona's Battle of the Bands returned to the Smith Campus Center basement for its fifth year on Friday, February 28. Sponsored by Mortar Board, the event brought together new sounds and old favorites for the express purposes of donating canned goods to charity and rocking you all night long,or at least for about two hours.

Organized by Aidan Doherty '03 and Zamir Lalji '03, the gathering of homegrown musicians was also special in that it featured the first live performances of several bands.

This was the case for A Forgotten Oath, the five-piece rock band that began the evening's festivities. Made up of lead singer Jesse Gallegos '06, guitarist/backup vocalist Evan Holdsworth '05, bassist Ben Mitchell '06, guitarist Tim Anderegg '05 and drummer Brandon Gardner '06, the band had the unenviable slot of opening act but managed to attract a sizable crowd of excited onlookers.

At times, the girls near the front would scream especially loudly and throw underwear at the band - whose underwear it was is another question entirely - though when Holdsworth closed a song saying "I'd like to thank my sponsor group for coming here tonight, even though they don't like me," it all began to make more sense, and somehow less sense as well.

Though it was their first performance, the band seemed to have as great a time as the crowd, and they look forward to spreading the Oath in the coming months.

"This really kicked things into second gear for us," Holdsworth said later. "We were pretty nervous, especially me, but I thought it was a great crowd… it was a lot of fun. We're looking to play live more soon… We might also try to play at parties here or outside of campus, so if anyone wants us to play anywhere, let me know!"

Minutes after the first band had finished, Maxwell Daemon was ready to go. Featuring Jason Lopez '04, Brent Riffel '03 and returning drummer Brandon Gardner '06, the band quickly enveloped the room in a smooth, laid-back sound that's perhaps purposefully difficult to describe.

"I would describe our band's sound as just… layered," said Lopez. "I try to avoid comparisons; I don't really want to define our band as sounding like one certain band or another."

This was Maxwell Daemon's first live performance as a trio, though they've already put a lot of work into their sound. "Brent and I have played at some Open Mics, though this was our first show with Brandon," Lopez said.

"We also just spent some time in the studio and recorded a demo, which we put a lot of work into. Anyone who's interested in the demo is welcome to contact us… we're also going to start searching for more places to play around here."

As Maxwell Daemon wound down their set, a group began to amass at the other end of the room, where a second stage had been set up.

The five men who took the stage - Andres Lopez '04 on vocals and guitar, Nick Villalon '04 on upright bass, Stephen White '05 on guitar, Gabby Kwofie '04 on the drum and Erik Wolfinger '04 on the Charles Shaw bottle - were officially billed as "The Andres Lopez Quintet," though they would later introduce themselves as "The Gabby Kwofie Experience" and "Stephen and the Redheads." The only electric equipment on stage were the microphones, and the sound produced by these five was of a refreshingly earthy nature; the music was, more than anything, just fun, and something of a work in progress.

"We're always looking for more people to join the group," Lopez said. "I just want our band to have this great big party sound, and hopefully we'll be getting more players and we'll just get louder - by then hopefully we'll have a real band name too - we just want everyone to dance around."

The quintet certainly succeeded in this respect, and the excitement didn't abate as the fourth and final band, The Boys Howdy, took the stage. The only veteran band of the night, the group included lead singer Andy Furgeson '05, upright bassist Jonathan Singer '06, banjo player Dan Villalon '03, fiddler Will Trevor '05 and drummer Adam Strauss '05.

"Our songs are usually based on Bluegrass instrumentation," Furgeson said, "but we try not to limit ourselves to Bluegrass music. We jam out a lot and incorporate some rock, some funk - we don't want to restrict ourselves simply to Bluegrass."

This genre-bending may help account for the wide popularity the group has been able to accumulate over the past few months, demonstrated perfectly by the energetic crowd.

"That was definitely the best crowd we've ever played to," Furgeson said. "There was so much energy coming from us, and back from them, that it created this great communal effect." It was also the first The Boys Howdy performance in which the crowd successfully convinced several members of the band to play topless.

But even semi-naked shows can't go on forever and, after an extended jam, The Boys Howdy left the stage and Battle of the Bands 2003 was officially over. Emphasis was placed on voting for a favorite band via donations of canned goods, but the idea of a "winning" band never really came up even though "The Andres Lopez Quintet" was announced as the winner in a digester message the next day.

When people look back on this event, they most likely won't think of the cans, but of the talent and the variety of musicians who came together to make the evening special.

"I really liked the diversity of the bands out there," said Jason Lopez. "There was rock, whatever you want to call our music, Latin and Bluegrass… it wasn't just your typical college rock scene".

"The whole thing was just great," Furgeson said. "I really enjoyed hearing the other three bands, and I was extremely appreciative of the organizers for putting it together. I had a blast."