_{By Michael Luce}

I love my job. I get to meet so many cool people, listen to so much great music, and experience the immense amount of talent in the area firsthand. I promise I’m not bragging; I just really needed to say that.

Last night’s Battle of the Bands was a real reminder of just how awesome the Utah scene is because it was one of the best nights of music I have seen in a while. Every band came out swinging, and there wasn’t a clear winner at the end of the night. Each of these bands could learn a lot from their fellow competitors, and I hope to see each of them doing awesome stuff going forward. But I’m getting ahead of myself, as I often do, so let’s look at what happened.

I’d Rather Be

I’d Rather Be was singlehandedly the best opening act at a Battle of the Bands I think I’ve ever seen. These guys know how to put on a show. Their songs are admittedly pretty basic musically, but as another judge and I agreed, that’s kind of the point in pop punk. Simple is doing the genre correctly.

Oh, also these guys are pretty young. And by that I don’t mean any sort of quality statement on their music, I mean that their drummer is twelve years old (and really good too). #VelourIsAnAllAgesVenue

Their music is genuinely fun, and the moments where they were just jamming out together were incredible. So many songs had these delectable guitar runs behind the vocals that gave a great texture to the sound without distracting from it. Their finale was also a highlight of the night, as they went for a slow-down fakeout before bursting into wailing guitar solos and drum chops. Their crowd work generally felt authentic, and in no time, the audience was jumping, waving, crouching and cheering along with the band.

The set was far from perfect though, as there’s only so many times you can tell the audience to “jump!” before it stops being effective. There were also several songs where the vocals felt too low for the lead singer’s voice. I don’t know if this was an arrangement issue or just tiredness, but it just felt really off here and there. Most of the other shaky spots are things that will just come with more experience and performance time, but these guys have the right intuition and are already impressive showmen.

Kid Presentable

Apparently as the pop punk train left the afterlife headed back to the mainstream consciousness, ska hitched a ride and showed up at Velour dressed as various military personnel. (Wait, was this a ska coup? I think I just witnessed a ska coup. A coup d’ska, if you will.)

Kid Presentable was, and I mean this as a compliment, the most confusing group of the night. The transition from a military bugle call into ska was the perfect way to start off this one-of-a-kind set. Later, the line “These boys wear bikinis” left the crowd in a very confused daze before they got back to violently skanking about. I also saw people in the audience swing dancing. At Velour. To ska.

The paradoxes were felt in their music too, as the group seemed especially tight in sections of songs with offbeat stabs or extreme tempo changes, yet the ‘easier’ spots without such elements were interestingly where they felt sloppier.

My favorite part of their set was the catharsis of finally getting a squealing sax solo ripping through toward the end after seeing and hearing a saxophone in the background all night. The bass and sax players gave a great energy, and I think the singers finding a way to match that would go a long way to boosting their shows. They don’t need to be snaking around the stage like one of the sax guys was, but finding a way to include some of that goofy un-corporate unserious energy would really take their sets to the next level.

Swerved by Blondes

After a palpable excitement from the crowd during their sound check, Swerved By Blondes took the stage with an electric opening song and a delicious bass tone. The last time I saw these guys live was about two years ago, and holy cow have they stepped up their game. They were INTENSE. Lead singer Sam was jumping so high, I expected him to hit his head on a light or something. (Also, If I had a nickel for every time a band said “pickitup, pickitup, pickitup,” last night, I would have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.)

While I’d Rather Be had authentic audience participation, Swerved By Blondes had real control over the crowd’s emotions. Clap-alongs, sing-alongs, and other actions felt well-incorporated and less ham-fisted than some of the other groups’ attempts. They knew what their audience wanted, and they gave it. At one point, they made it a point to have a girls-only mosh pit, noting the safety concerns women might have when guys are duking it out. It was a neat gesture (even if it never really went anywhere).

As an aside, a PSA for concert attendees: Don’t mosh/push/etc into people who are not expecting you. Sure, people should expect some jostling and movement if they’re in the first few rows, but you’ve got to be respectful and safe. I saw some really irresponsible fans tonight smash into another group of patrons who weren’t expecting it, and let me tell you, the sight of their heads snapping back wasn’t pretty.

PSA aside and back to the ‘Blondes, if there is one caution I would give to SBB, it’s that intensity doesn’t always equal showmanship. The vocals and the guitar tones really suffered from everything getting pushed to the max, and the fatigue was definitely getting to the group. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some intense college party rock blasting, but if it comes at the detriment of your other strengths, it might be time to look at things like stage presence, setlist order, and so on to step up your game. Swerved By Blondes are on the cusp of being really good, but they still have some room to grow, and I’d hate for them to learn the wrong lessons from last night’s show.

Lindenfield

You know how some people say “such and such group wasted no time getting started” when a set starts with a bang? Yeah, Lindenfield definitely absolutely wasted time getting started, but in the best way possible. Their intro was a sweeping swirl of synths parried by a funk beat, guitar stabs, and a moody stank face. In the space of time another group would have used for an entire song, this group made it clear the frenetic explosion we had just witnessed at Velour was gone; we had all packed up and moved to Lindenfield.

Their set was absolutely the closer Night 2 needed, though it felt at times less like a BotB set and more just like a really great show. I’d love to see all four groups again sometime, but Lindenfield is probably the one that would convince me to buy a ticket. They were doing stuff that no one else was even thinking of trying at Battle of the Bands — live voice modulation, actual synths on stage, a squeaky clarinet solo. These were the most interesting songs of the night by far, but for an audience that had just weathered the sonic blast that was the first three bands, interesting unfortunately meant a steeper attention curve, and it was clear many attendees just weren’t interested in making that climb.

The biggest thing that held Lindenfield back were the transitions between songs. They weren’t bad by any means, but there was a lot of down time. At BotB, every second counts, and once again, this didn’t quite feel like a BotB set. The energy just deflated a bit after each of these slow switches, and I would have loved to see a snappier turnaround time. Their last song (which I wanted to link to, but it isn’t out yet) gave me that first real glimpse of battle-ready sheen I expected – it was engaging, tight, had fun audience moments – but the rest of the set was looser, less focused, and seemed to willfully ignore the fact this was a competition. Maybe that was the point though.

Results

In the end, there could unfortunately only be one winner. I know I said it already, but it should be stressed just how good every single one of these bands were. Host John Schultz announced at the end of the night that all four bands had received first-place votes from the judges, and the other judges I talked with agreed that each of the bands had something they did better than the others. It truly was a difference of degrees, and every one of these bands ought to be happy with their performances.

After an extended time to count the votes, Swerved By Blondes was announced as the Night 2 winner! They will join Lonely Heights and the next three prelim winners at finals this Saturday.

Velour’s Summer 2024 Battle of the Bands Night 3 keeps on chugging tonight at 7:30 PM. You can catch Beta Mail, Hasha, Staycation, and Kenya! Tickets are $12 at the door. Until then, you can check out “Not Yet” from Lindenfield below!