By Jeremy Thacker
The Boardwalk’s introduced a unique wrinkle during this year’s Battle of the Bands by having an Ultimate Runners-Up Night, where the runners-up from all of the previous nights would have the chance to compete against one another for their own prize. This was made even more exciting at the end of night 4 when venue owner Brian Cabello announced that the winners of Ultimate Runners-Up Night would also have a chance to join the winners from our previous nights in Saturday’s finals. With these raised stakes in mind, our four runners-up took the stage to deliver some of the most solid sets I’ve seen at The Boardwalk so far.
Viridian
I was a big fan of Viridian’s set from night 4. I thought they were the most polished band of the night, and you could tell they were having a lot of fun performing. Going into their performance tonight, I was worried the energy wouldn’t be as high with it being their second show in a row. I’m happy to report that I was wrong, and tonight’s set was just as energetic as their previous set and even tighter than before.
Viridian had a lot of good things going for them. It felt like they were doing more to show their cohesion as a group and that really paid off for them both musically and in their stage presence. Their transitions and time changes were handled beautifully; at one point they began to head bang in unison, and it all worked together to make the set even more than the sum of its parts. The cohesion really shone the best during their last song of the set. It was one of those special moments where everything fell perfectly into place, and it left a lasting impression.
Samuel Charles Band
I knew coming into this that Samuel Charles Band was going to be a pivot, but I didn’t anticipate how hard of a pivot it ended up being. While the other three bands of the night fell somewhere on the pop rock spectrum, Samuel Charles Band is very folksy with hints of country and blues. Fans of Book on Tape Worm, Joshua James, or other members of Utah’s folk scene should keep this group on their radar. I loved the vibe that they brought to the stage – it was clear that win or lose, the group was here to jam and have fun. It was a stark contrast from the high energy of the other bands, but not an unwelcome one.
I’m in digital marketing for my day job and a lot of my time is spent doing competitive analyses, helping my company find ways to improve our product positioning and differentiate ourselves from competitors. This is something I think the Samuel Charles Band needs to work on. They played some really good folk music – in fact their vocals were my favorite of the night – but they’re playing in a market that’s really saturated with good folk music. There needs to be some way to differentiate themselves and stand out from the rest. I’m not sure what that looks like, but I am sure that they have the skill and talent to do so.
Awakening Autumn
Awakening Autumn is awesome. Their music was tight, their drums were probably the best of the night, and they are charismatic as h*ck. This is a group that knows how to work a crowd and get the energy going. I was especially impressed with the number of people singing along during their song “Break My Teeth”. In our recap of their night 1 performance, we described this song as “at once elevating and heart wrenching — one of those songs that perfectly captures the feeling of young love.” It was my favorite song of their set, and worthy of a listen.
The main criticism that Awakening Autumn received on the first night was that they were taking too much time for crowd interactions and needed to give more time for the music to take center stage. This advice was definitely taken into consideration during their set, but I still found myself wanting the music to shine even more. I love when bands thank the audience, venue, and even the other bands, but sometimes these interactions felt like interruptions to the set. The music was good and pulled me back quickly, but there’s still some balance to find here.
Internet Lover Boys
I’ve seen a lot of discourse lately about “Provocore”. I think it’s impossible to have a discussion about the Provocore sound without bringing up Internet Lover Boys. This is an emerging genre that they really excel at. There were still a couple of moments with pitchy vocals or timing issues, but overall Internet Lover Boys proved that they deserve to be at the forefront of any conversations regarding the future of Provo’s soundscape.
My biggest criticism with Internet Lover Boys comes with their setflow. They’d build up a lot of momentum and energy in one song, slow things down on the next one, then go back to a high energy song again. Ultimately, I think it stalled a lot of their momentum. The music is strong enough to build that momentum back up again, but had they been able to keep building the entire set, it could have done a lot for them.
Results
This week has been full of close calls and after seeing the runners up tonight it’s easy to see why. I could see any of the four bands that competed tonight going onto the finals and winning it all. Unfortunately, only one band could move on and continue to finals night. After a brief discussion the judges awarded Viridian the victory!
Don’t miss the finals of The Boardwalk’s Battle of the Bands! Viridian will play for the third night in a row, joining previous winners Lipsill, The Friendly Monties, Twin Systems, and New Sequel. While you wait, check out “Lovestruck” from Internet Lover Boys below!
Provo Music Magazine 