Posted by Isaac Baker
The first Battle of the Bands this year went down Friday Sept. 10 at Falstaff's and, like all Skidmore events, it rocked.
The Student Entertainment Committee pulled together four fantastic bands to compete for the grand prize of opening for the band Beach Fossils the following night.
After the audience filed out of the Falstaff's lounge, the host turned things over to the first band, Baliwick. This band's comfortable acoustic presence brought the audience to the floor where they sat peacefully and appreciated the intricate harmonies and diverse instrumentation. They were called back to the stage for an encore and laid down one final tune that was met with raucous applause.
The second band to take the stage was Sticky Friction. They kicked off their set with a Jackson Five cover that brought everyone quickly to their feet.
The funk and rock influences took the audience by storm and the dance floor was packed with students jumping and singing along to the music. They "were a tight band all around and certainly knew how to shake things up," Jesse Shayne '14 said.
The next band, Slim Charles, took things in a different direction. The house lighting went out and the black lights came on which gave the band a heightened psychedelic feeling. Each song featured multiple time changes and hypnotized the crowd with powerful bass playing and intricate riffs.
The final band, DTF, finished out the night with a few covers that grabbed the attention of the dwindling crowd. They covered a variety of bands ranging from MGMT to Old Crow Medicine Show and pulled it off with gusto. A few technical difficulties aside, this group rocked the house.
After a riveting night of music, judges from the SEC and WSPN struggled to choose a winner out of the four talented groups. The panel picked Slim Charles as the winner of the evening, but no one could deny that it was a close contest and certainly the best concert anyone had attended so far this academic year.