The Battle Is Over: Judgement Awaits

The battle of the bands is now history. Those of us with a vested interest now await the decision of the judges.

As we entered The Stanhope House last night for the regional finals of The Break Contest, that familiar feeling of being in a venue where rock and roll dreams are realized or crushed, was front and center. The winner of the regional finals is awarded a spot in the Bamboozle line-up, right along side the likes of Bon Jovi and the Foo Fighters. A dream come true for any up and coming band.

For this event, the crowd at the roadhouse had a dividing line. Under 21 near the stage only...the rest of us could hang out at the bar. No place I'd rather be.

There were to be 19 bands playing. I love music but I'm not a masochist, there are only so many hours left in this old rocker's hearing and I need to be a bit selective over where I blow out my eardrums. We arrived early enough to catch a couple of the bands before the group we were there to see. The first band wasn't bad, the music was generic at best, but it did sound like music. Not so with the next band.

With not one, but two lead singers, they did their best to destroy any hope I had for not waking up to a splitting headache. What I think would be considered a form of extreme metal, this band was above the decibel limit for anything breathing on this planet. The intensity of the screaming of one of the lead singers gave me concern for his needing vocal surgery in less than five years. But the truly scary thing about them was, apparently some of them are Med students. Hopefully one of them will be a eyes, ears, nose and throat man.

One more tolerable band who sang to the crowd "Keep Your Hands Up"...at least 20 times. And they say you can't hear great lyrics anymore.  Finally, a rap group segue I didn't quite understand, led up to the set for "Something About January."

As they set up, they looked a bit nervous. As they began to play...nervousness turned into a flow of adrenaline. Even with a slightly biased view of the band, one could tell they were as tight as you can get and on fire. Three original songs and one cover later, the reach for the brass ring is out of their hands.

Awaiting judgement is a hard thing to do. But taking pride in a job well done is at least a small gift for all the hard work it took to get to this point. Kicking ass when it needs to be done..well that's what we do here in Jersey.

Congrats guys. No matter what happens next, you showed your talent, attitude and conviction.
Keep on rockin'.

Listen to "Something About January"

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