Hearts and Kisses and Moshing...

Hello Hello,

I meant to discuss the Battle of the Bands and how that went. We had eight total bands compete from all different genres. This is a recap of what happened a couple of weeks ago:

  • cue dreamy music

This past weekend was wild. I planned originally to have free time on the weekend, but that usually changes on Friday. This past Friday was Battle of the Bands. I believe we are calling it our fourth annual, but I might be wrong. It was wild. I was a dancing fool towards the end.

We met at 2:00 in the afternoon to start preparing for the event. There was a lot to do. Basically I helped figure out the PA system and tested the microphones – a.k.a. singing such tunes as “natural woman” and some dark scary song where I pretty much just yelled into the microphone and you couldn’t understand me. Unfortunately there were no emo kids to mosh (def. - dance to rock music in a violent manner involving jumping up and down and deliberately colliding with other dancers) while I ‘sang.’

The first act went on at four. I was the MC and so I met with the bands and made sure things went to schedule and then announced the bands. The first few bands were a total mess (in a good way). One of the first bands just did covers of Led Zeppelin and Ozzy Osborne and then the next guy (pretty cool guy) sang about meth labs in trailer parks. He was … amusing. Then Ryan Robinson, a current student, played some acoustical serious/humorous music. There were two or three, of those already mentioned/imitated, ‘screamo’ bands. Remember moshing here. There was maybe one mosh-able kid.

The last three bands interestingly placed third, second, and first place. The third-to-last was Sammy Williams who graduated from Centenary two years ago. He rapped while his computer played the beats. Smart lyrics / funny. The second-to-last was a group of middle-aged guys that played two jazz songs. They were really good, and really awesome to hear live. Not much singing involved, but they had a trumpet player, saxophonist, guitar player, drummer, and upright bassist.

However, the last band was amazing! Indie rock at its best – AND IN SHREVEPORT! They had a lot of members and played about three songs. On the second song they asked the audience to come dance on stage with them and their balloons. Yep, they released balloons onto the stage. So, of course, Alysia, Arthur, and I ran up on stage and danced with them and their balloons. It was a delightful experience! They’re playing again in March, so I’m sure to hit them up at that show.

  • cue in back-to-future music

So, there’s my tale of Battle of the Bands. It was AWESOME! Music ROCKS!
Happy Valentine’s Day!

JonnyBoy